The Chiquilaja School Project

• Recommended level of Spanish to participate: Intermediate - Advanced
• Volunteering schedule: 8:00 - 13:00 during weekdays
• The school is located outside at the village of San José Chiquilajá. It is 45 minutes away from the center of Quetzaltenango by bus ride and walking.
• Minimum time commitment: 1 week

ORIGIN OF THE SCHOOL

The elementary school is managed by Santa Teresa Macario Chaj (Teacher / Director) and José Vicente Marroquín Chávez (President of the PTA). They are the community leaders who organized the village of San José Chiquilajá to establish the school in 2004.

 

YOU CAN HELP! KEEP THE TEACHER IN THE SCHOOL!

Señora Santa Teresa Macario Chaj (Teacher / Director / Founder) of the school will be fired by the end of March, 2007 due to the school not meeting the government's minimum student enrollment number. 56 is the minimum number to keep 2 teachers at the school and there are only 52 students attending the school as of March, 2007. Help us raise the fund to pay her salary of Q2665/month (US$350/month). If she leaves, the other less experienced teacher has to teach all grades 1-6, just by herself. Seño Santa Teresa is the spirit of the school. As a native of the Chiquilajá village, she is the one who founded the school and she has already worked without getting paid for one year and three months. Even when the government recognized her work, they only paid her every three months and the payments were often dalayed. We need your help to pay her salary until the end of this school year in December, 2007. Seño Santa Teresa will look for more students until the next school year so that she can keep on teaching there. Help us keep Seño Santa Teresa in the school for 9 more months!

 

CHALLENGES

• Need for a secure locker: The parents take away the students' school supplies donated by volunteers and sell them for food. If the school supplies are left at the school, they somehow "disappear" as there is no safe place to keep the school materials.
• Land that the school is using is a borrowed one (approximately 46 square meters). It is not their property. They are not even renting it. Since there is no contract, if the current landlord wants them to vacate the land, they have no choice but to leave.
• Walls of the school is "lamina" (corrugated metal/plastic sheets normally used for roofing).
• Windows are transparent plastic sheets.
• There is no floor. Just bare ground.
• There are 3 classes in the school (one of them is out of order).
• One of the working class is for kindergarten and first grade.
• Another class is used by the teacher/director to teach second to sixth graders.
• During the last school year, there were approximately 70 students attending the school. However, due to economic hardships, many kids have dropped out and there are currently about 50 students attending the school.

 

VOLUNTEER WORK DESCRIPTION

• Since the school is understaffed, any help to be with the students and spend time with them will be appreciated.
• Teaching core subjects (Spanish, math, science, social studies) will be of great great help!

 

MEET THE STUDENTS!

HERMAN GIOVANNI 8 years old. He is in first grade. His parents are making traditional dresses. He has three siblings and he is the oldest. He eats beans and tortillas in his home. He wants to be a soccer player.

ARACELY 5 years old. She is in first grade. She wants to become a veterinarian to help animals. She has five siblings and she is the only one in school among them. Her father works at a construction site.

MARIA MAGDALENA 6 years old. She has four siblings. She wants to become a teacher. Her mother sells chickens. Her father is not at home. She has 4 cats and 2 dogs.

BRENDA ESMERALDA 9 years old. She has 12 siblings. Her mother sells traditional dresses. Her father migrated to the US. Her mother hasn’t heard anything about him yet. When she grows up, she wants to make the traditional dresses.

GUILLERMO ANDRES 10 years old. He has two siblings. Almost always eating tortillas with salt. He wants to become a lawyer. His father dyes threads used in making the traditional dresses. He has 2 dogs, a cat and lots of chickens.

 

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