KEEP GUATEMALAN GIRLS IN SCHOOL

From the outset, teachers and school administrators across San Pedro have been important local partners, helping to open the doors of schools and classrooms to our programs for middle school girls.

With the conclusion of the 2013 school year coming up (Guatemalan schools are in session January-October), we're about to celebrate the girls who've participated in our three core programs--My Mother's Life Story, Family Reading Time, and Big & Little Sisters. Each of these programs was offered this year in five different rural middle schools across San Pedro.

Concluding programs held in each local school community will highlight the girls' accomplishments for their families and communities. And, nearly 200 girls who are about to graduate from San Pedro's 13 rural middle schools will gather in central San Pedro where they will be publically honored for their academic achievement. On this same day we'll be hosting a school fair for them that features secondary school options, financial aid information and motivational workshops with local professional women.

 Do these programs (funded by supporters like you!) make a difference in the girls' view of themselves, their lives, their place in the community, their commitment to staying in school?

Just listen to what these girls say about what they've learned:

1. About gender and education.

In the middle school where I study, there aren’t many girls because parents say that girls get married and have a family and leave their studies behind. Only the boys are sent to study because some people think they are more capable. I learned that I must fight (for myself) to move forward in life, to be someone, a young woman graduate. - Carmela Miranda Velásquez, 14 years old.

2. From hearing and writing her mother's life story.

"When my mother saw other girls her age going to school, she wanted to study, too, and dreamed of bettering herself. But she couldn’t because her parents didn’t have enough money for her to study. Now I go to school, even though it is hard for my parents to afford to send me. I'm lucky that my parents want the best for me and they want me to become someone in life." –Yessenia Magaly Clemente Orozco, 12 years old

2. From reading, both on her own and with her family.

"I learned that through reading I can acquire new knowledge. Reading more helps me understand things. I can analyze and understand the concepts behind the information I get in school. And I learned that I can be a leader in my home because I can teach my siblings that reading and learning come from valuing books. In school I have learned to better my character and to go to the front of the room to speak or to read aloud. I also encourage everyone else and tell him or her that reading is important for everyone. It is healthy and it can help us to know how to live on this planet. – Melisenda Dubelis Ruiz Miranda, 13 years old

3. From one big sister.

"I learned that by teaching my little sister, I could also learn from her about how to develop my own character as a person. If one day I am in front of a group in public, my character will be more developed and I could speak with everyone there." – Sandy Fuentes, 14 years old

With your financial support Women Work Together is poised to expand our reach and bring these 3 programs to all 13 rural middle schools across San Pedro, plus support them with local staff development, teacher training, and outreach to mothers, fathers and others.

Help nearly 1,000 girls, their teachers and families work together to Keep Guatemalan Girls in School.

IT TAKES MORE TO DO MORE. DONATE NOW. DONATE OFTEN. 

Links:

• Visit our blog for news from the field, starting 9/16
• Learn more about our work & how you can help.

The focus for the first two weeks of our March trip to Guatemala was to support our sister organization, Mujeres Trabajan Unidas on an in-depth evaluation of our current programs.  Board member and anthropologist Dr. Theresa Preston-Werner along with Program Director Wendy Baring-Gould led the effort.

The goal for these two weeks of program evaluation was the establishment of a baseline against which we can measure the impact of each of our three projects (Family Reading Hour, The Life of My Mother, and Little Sisters) on girls’ choices to stay in school. To do this, we needed to know about the specific family situation of each girl and her experience with our projects. We are confidant that through the use of a series of quantitative and qualitative tools to learn both the outputs and outcomes of WWT’s campaign to send and keep girls in school, we will determine the best route toward ending the cycle of poverty in Guatemala.   

Each day, our team climbed into the back of a pickup and traveled into the mountains to meet with the girls and their parents. In each school, MTU personnel met with the parents of girls who are just entering básico (junior high) in order to explain the benefits of the projects and to get their permission. They also administered a survey to all of the girls, which creates a program registry and solicits household socioeconomic status information, such as the jobs of their parents and what types of homes they live in. We can compare this information to larger community-wide statistics gathered previously in order to understand the living conditions experienced by the girls in our programs. 

The results were astounding and unexpected in some cases. In one village, the girls flat out said a project was boring. Together we worked to determine the underlying reason and potential ways to make the project more appealing. In another village we learned that the girls spoke eagerly and regularly with their parents about one project but not at all about a different project. Finally, in a third village the girls suggested an entirely new way to structure a project, which has sparked excited discussion all of us.

We witnessed the projects that we developed fifteen months ago in action and changing girls’ lives. For instance, there are eighty-five girls involved in the Little Sisters project, and of those eighty-five, only two dropped out of school last year. This is an incredible success! We have also had the good fortune to observe our MTU staff in action, and each member is as passionate, hard-working, and thoughtful as we could hope for. Our days were filled with bumpy roads, delicious chicken soup lunches, and girls who use their own free time to walk for miles just to speak with us. It doesn’t get any better than that.