To bring education equality to Tzu'tujil Mayans

Over the last 16 years, Aldea Maya has been able to greatly expand it's programs and to have the expertise to make these programs successful. This success is only posible due to our sponsorship program.In 2008 we started student sponsorship. However in 2011 we found that the students were not continuing into middle school as there was not a middle school in the village and they could not afford the costs to travel to the next town. Therefore we started a community middle school in 2012 in the village of Chuk Muk. We also supplied all the non sponsored students with their school supplies and school fees.

Throught starting the middle school and then helping students to continue on to high school, university and trade schools we have ended up with many educated young adults in the village. These young adults are showing the students in elementary and middle school the opportunities available if you work hard at school. These students are now administrators and qualified teachers in the middle school. 

For example, one of our students is in his second year of his Master's in Math and Physics and he is the middle school math and physics teacher. Another of our students is in his first year of his MBA and he is not only an admistrator at the middle school but also teaches accounting. We have a student who is in his 5th year of agricultural engineering and he runs our garden program and coordinates with one of our education students to develop the elementary school organic garden programs. Our student in the chef program runs our nutrition and cooking classes. Our nursing students work with the community health nurses visiting homes.

Historically the indigenous students in Guatemala rarely graduate elementary school. Our programs are showing the possibilities available and using local village students as examples. 

As an organization whose main goal is to bring education equality, we are always committed to our objectives and aware of the needs of each sponsored and non-sponsored student. Since our main objective is to ensure that each student has the availability of the necessary technology for their academic development.
Over the past few months our learning centre has undergone some changes for the better. We have been able to renew and increase the number of equipment in order to provide a better service to our students. We currently have an average of 35 students per day who come to receive their virtual classes, to carry out their research, projects, homework, printings, and more. Having a computer and access to internet service is a luxury that only a few families can afford in the Chuk Muk community. It has been and will still be a constant need for families with limited economic resources, adding to it the terrible inflation that we are currently experiencing. Without this help the students would drop out school. 

We know very well that technology is something essential nowadays, for this reason, every week we are be able to give workshops and tutorials on Computers, English, Mathematics and Bookkeeping course and other courses that make use of technology. We have an average of 12 students per tutoring and workshops. Students are enjoying the school because they have the necessary resources.

As long as we have the support of our sponsors, the different services we provide in our learning centre are and always will be free for those who are vulnerable.

The Aldea Maya Learning Centre offers many educational and fun learning opportunities.

We have  free computers, internet and photocopying offered in our Learning Centre. This enables anyone in the village to do their homework or reasearch without cost. This is a very important service as there is no internet in the village unless you have a big disc ( which we have). It is very time consuming and expensive to pay for travel to the nearest town, wait for a computer to be free and then pay to use the computer and get photocopies. This keeps the poorest children from continuing their education. Our centre alleviates this problem.

Our Learning Centre has a bilingual library with books in both Spanish and English at all reading levels. We strive to inspire children to read not only to imporove their literacy but to instill a joy of reading.

We started guitar lessons for the younger children. We have child sized guitars so that we can teach music to small children at a earlier age. The joy of learning music is possible at our centre. We are hoping to get more guitars of all sizes so that students can take them home to practice. 

We are also giving English classes and have many flash cards and games to make learning English not only educational but fun as well. Cooperative and competetive games like chess are also available.

Another program at our learning centre is our nutrition and cooking classes. We offer these classes to moms ( and dads) in the community. We also offer them to our middle school, high school and university students.

Finally our Learning Centre is a great meeting area for groups like our Environment Group.

Our learning centre is a small space but is a hive of educational fun.

Aldea Maya has been offering educational opportunities to the students of Chuk Muk, Guatemala for the last 15 years. In 2012, we started the middle school ( BASICO) in the village and made post elementary education available to even the poorest student. Not only did we start the school but we paid for school fees and school supplies of every student. We have continued with this project since then. 

Since 2014 we have been helping the middle school graduates to continue to high school. And in 2016 we started students going to university and trade school. This is the first generation to have this opportunity. 

We presently have 22 students in university and one in trade school. We cover ALL costs: from purchaing feed for pigs, to buying equipment for pastry chef, to supplying car enginines and parts. This can be very expensive when students need to do practicums for several months or even live in another area for 3 years. We do believe it is imperative that our students study a wide variety of programs. Otherwise you end up with all your students studying the same program and no one gets employment.

In 2022, we have students studying law, nursing, business administration, math and physics teacher, educational psychology, elementary education, education administration, lab tech, Xray tech, computer sciences, agricultural engineering and car mechanics.

One student at a time we are improving the lives of families in Chuk Muk.

Aldea Maya has been working with Tzu'tujil Mayans in the Lake Atitlan area of Guatemala since 2007. We started by sponsoring students to attend elementary school. We  have continued to help  students as they finished middle and high school.

We presently have 21 students in university. They are studying: agricultural engineering, social work, business administration, law, systems engineering, mathematics, physics, lab technician, Xray technician, education administration, accounting, and education.

When we started this education program 14 years ago we did not have anyone to tutor our students. Most of our students parents had not gone to school and many did not even speak Spanish. This has now changed drasticaly, as we have our 21 university students playing it forward and helping our elementary, middle and high school students. We are even tutoring some of our university students. For example we have Antonio in first year systems engineering. He is being tutored on basic computer programing by Pedro who is in fifth year systems engineering. And he is being tutored in calculus by Marvin who is working on completing his Masters in Mathematics and Physics.

These university students have worked together to develop and coordinate a quite amazing tutoring program. They work several hours a week with the students for free as they want to help others to become successful. Talk about paying it forward and a full circle experience.