Looking back at summer school — Matt, English Program Coordinator

Tags

education, El Porvenir, Nuestro Futuro, Summer School

I used to think summer school was something that kids were forced to do by their parents, something they dreaded and got over with as quickly as possible. It turns out I was utterly wrong. Although the first hours of the day at Niños de Guatemala’s two primary schools consist of “refuerzo”–revision classes of the previous school year—I have honestly never seen a group of children with such enthusiasm for their work. Be it maths or simple drawings of letters, they approach it with a gusto that I in my own childhood reserved only for playing football and eating pizza.

The school itself is beautiful in all senses of the word. The decoration is mostly done by the students themselves which give the buildings a homely vibrancy, which is hard to describe but easy to appreciate.

When I first arrived I was greeted effusively by every member of the staff, an occurrence that, to my surprise, continued every day throughout summer school.  For me, every person in the school, be it pupil, teacher, cook or cleaner; defined what is normally an overused term: “pleased to see you”. There was never a sense of being an outsider intruding on their workplace, the philosophy seemed a simple one, if you help, then you belong.

To have had the opportunity to see children introduced to activities as diverse as Astronomy and Dodgeball, kite-making and break-dancing, is one that I will always cherish. For my part, the clear joy on the face of a previously rather surly twelve-year old when she has correctly identified “an apple” in English class is not something easily forgotten.

At our second school El Porvenir, the sound of immediate change is rung out by the hammers and drills of the workmen building the second level. But the changes that you see in students who have only been in school for a matter of months are without doubt the most profound. I was truly privileged to see the children introduced to Drama and Science for the first time, and to see a basketball game of true beginners- tiny parts of a traditional education for so many of us, but for these students, a memorable day at the beginning of a massive adventure.

Profit for Non-Profit — Sam, Communications Officer

Tags

Cambio, profit for non-profit, Spanish School

These are exciting times for Niños de Guatemala.  Just this month, we opened a new social business: Cambio Spanish School.  Cambio is the only social Spanish school in Antigua, and a new way for Niños de Guatemala to raise money for its projects.  Here’s how it works:

Cambio, like any business, is driven by the “bottom-line”.  However, when the bottom line is black, those profits don’t go into the pockets of the owners, but rather they are donated directly to NDG.  It’s important to note that this is a one-way street.  Although its purpose is to support NDG, Cambio is 100% financially independent from NDG.  All of the startup capital came from outside investors, and the business’s bank accounts are unconnected to the non-profit’s.

The most important impact of this separation is that, in many ways, Cambio is on its own.  If it goes bust, it goes bust.  Because of this, Cambio has every incentive to provide high-quality, reliable services to its clients, in order to make sure they keep coming back and they recommend Cambio to others.  We think that Cambio is providing exactly that: high-quality and flexible Spanish classes, a variety of other services (booking shuttles, trips, and hostels for students, offering volunteer placements for students at Niños de Guatemala, organizing school-wide activities, etc.), and attentive customer service.

Antigua is home to a substantial tourism market that represents a great opportunity for Niños de Guatemala.  We’re excited about this new venture into a new kind of education, and think it could mean great things for the NGO.

If you’d like to help, liking Cambio on Facebook is a great way to start, since having support on Facebook lends credibility to the organization.  You can also recommend us to friends and family who will be travelling in Guatemala and are hoping to learn Spanish.

We’re looking forward to updating you on Cambio’s future successes!

Why I love my job — Sarah, Padrino Program Coordinator

Tags

education, fundraising, sponsorship

Maritza writing to her madrina

I was drawn to Niños de Guatemala and international education for a number of reasons.  I believe that every child should have the opportunity not just to attend school, but rather to have an education experience that engages, motivates and inspires her or him.  I believe that teachers in every town and every region of all countries should be respected as professionals and supported in their work.  I believe in Niños de Guatemala’s model of supporting the educational experience in a holistic way – that is, in a way that addresses all aspects of education from academics, learning styles, social-emotional needs, teacher support, nutrition and hygiene to parent education and community engagement as well.  I was drawn to Niños for all of these reasons.  Although I must admit, I enjoy my job at Niños for rather selfish reasons.

I enjoy my job at Niños de Guatemala because it affords me the opportunity to witness the incredible connections our Padrinos and their Ahijados make with each other.  I get to see the smile that spreads across a girl’s face when I give her a letter from her Madrina, a former volunteer at our school.  I get to see how special she clearly feels to learn that her Madrina thinks of her, and read the e-mail from the Madrina, who is touched that the girl remembers her so fondly.  I get to listen to the seemingly shy boy in Parvulos—our pre-kindergarten program—light up, and list (almost without taking a breath!) all the things he’d like to tell his Padrino in the message I am helping him write.  I get to watch a group of girls from Preparatoria, our Kindergarten class, whom I brought Padrino letters for grab each others’ hands, excitedly jumping and dancing over to the tables where we read them together.  I share these stories and photos with our Padrinos, knowing that if they cannot be in Guatemala, they can only see the children through me.  And when a Padrino tells me they read a recent update with tears in their eyes, I know they get it too.

For the children it is not about the money, and it’s not about any gifts.  I know this because their reactions are just as profound whether they receive a present or simply a thoughtful note to say hello.  For them, it is about that connection that is forged.  I can see that the children are inspired and motivated knowing that someone new has taken an interest in their school experience.

We need and value our Padrinos tremendously.  As the Padrino Program Coordinator and a part of NDG’s Fundraising and Development Department, I can tell you that our Padrinos’ monthly donations provide vital financial support for each child’s school expenses, teacher materials, salaries and school maintenance.  As a former elementary teacher of five years, I can tell you that the children’s relationships with their Padrinos instill in them a broader perspective and sense of the interconnectedness within the world, and that these are vital elements to inspire curiosity and engagement.

It is my privilege to be the liaison between Padrinos and the children they sponsor.  It is an honor to witness the bonds our Padrinos and children create with one another across countries, cultures, languages and ages, and how they inspire one another. And I am very aware, every day I visit our schools, that I am lucky for that.

Salsa Night at Las Palmas — James, Volunteer Coordinator

Tags

Antigua, El Porvenir, Las Palmas, salsa

On the 29^th of September, Niños de Guatemala organized a fundraising night. Our theme was salsa dancing, and our goal was to raise money to go towards the second level of our new school El Porvenir.

We wanted to beat our last fundraising result of Q6000, which would be no easy feat. We secured a bar with a dance floor that offered to give us 50 percent of all proceeds, a salsa band, a salsa teacher, tickets and prizes for a raffle, and a beer pong table for those with two left feet; all we needed was for people to come and enjoy the night! We arrived to set up the bar at 7pm, with the night to start at 9pm – but come 9pm, the turnout was worryingly unimpressive. The salsa lesson was to begin at 9:30pm, but we needed people to give it to! By 9:15, guests started trickling in, and by 9:30 the bar was quite full; all of the hard work our volunteers put into flyering had paid off! Many a raffle ticket was sold, and once the salsa band had begun, it became pretty difficult to move for the amount of people that had arrived.

At midnight, after everyone had spent all their money on drinks and raffle tickets, we announced the winners of the raffle. We had some great prizes; a trip for two on a volcano mountain bike experience, a trip up Pacaya (a nearby volcano), free pedicures for those who have climbed too many volcanoes, romantic meals for two in various restaurants around Antigua, free drink vouchers from numerous bars, and a pound of Antiguan coffee, to name a few. Once the raffle prizes were announced, the partying resumed, and slowly the crowd dispersed to leave an empty bar laden with ripped up raffle tickets from the unlucky ones, a messy beer pong table from the salsa-shy, and other remnants of a successful night had by all. In the end, we raised Q5931.  Although it was less than our previous salsa night, we were very happy with the result. The second level of the school is coming along nicely, and for the next event, we’ll make double that!

If you want to be involved with fundraising or volunteering at our schools, then please email me at volunteer@ninosdeguatemala.org. Everyone can do something!

15k Charity Run in Antigua (aka. Fund-running) — Megan, Development Operations Manager

Tags

Antigua, Dam tot Damloop, fundraising, run

“Do your goofy pose!”, pre-race

I counted down to Sunday, Sept. 23, like I was counting the days until Armageddon. I woke up before my alarm that morning, laying in the dark and searching for a really great excuse to not get up and do what I had already committed to doing.

The week before, my coworkers told me about this run they were going to do in solidarity with our friends and volunteers in the Netherlands. It just so happened that, on the same day as a large 15K race in Amsterdam called Dam tot Damloop, there was a much smaller 15K race right here in Antigua, Guatemala. Everyone was enthusiastic about signing up, and as the newest NDG employee, I thought I should probably join in with my new coworkers.

What I failed to remember in that moment was that I hadn’t run more than probably 2 miles since 8th grade cross country season. To my relief, there was the option to split the 15K with another person, and I got to team up with one of our awesome school volunteers to complete the relay. Still, I had serious doubts that I could run even 7.5K without keeling over.

I gave a half-hearted commitment to training in the 10 days leading up to the Big Day. I was more successful at fundraising, reaching out to friends and family in Minnesota for “encouragement gifts.” Overall, our NDG Antigua team raised Euro 2,650 (130% of our goal). That’s nothing in comparison with our Dutch counterparts, who raised nearly Euro 30,000!

In the end, we all finished the race without incident…including me. More importantly, we raised a ton of money that will directly impact the lives of hundreds of extremely poor children in Guatemala. Knowing the good we were doing for the kids convinced me to get up that morning, and carried me through to the finish line.

A morning on the Experience Guatemala Tour — Marije, NDG NL Fundraiser

Tags

cycle of poverty, Experience Guatemala Tour, NDG NL, Nuestro Futuro

At half past eight in the morning a group of around 13 people gathers around the church Santa Lucia in Antigua. We are waiting for a chicken bus destined for Ciudad Vieja.  All of us are here to visit a school called Nuestro Futuro. The tour is organized and guided by volunteers for Niños de Guatemala and all of us joined the tour for different reasons. The vast majority of the participants are a group of resident doctors from the USA.  They have volunteered to give checkups to all the children in the other school, El Povenir.  Some other participants are going to volunteer for a number of weeks in one of the schools.  I am visiting the school because I have been volunteering for the organization for quite some time already, but as a fundraiser in the Netherlands. I joined the organization because I believe in the cause: improving the lives of children through education.  However, I hadn’t actually seen the schools in Guatemla yet. So this year’s holiday destination was Guatemala, to learn about the country, to visit the schools, and to get a better understanding of Guatemalan society.

The tour turned out to be much more than just a visit to the school. Sam, our tour guide who works in the NDG office, could tell us a lot about the living conditions and the major industries in the town, something that the normal tourist in Antigua is not exposed to. The story that made a deep impression on me was about the life of your average bus driver in the Guatemala. For those who have never been to Guatemala, take the chicken bus, it is a cool and exciting experience.

The first stop of the tour was a chicken bus factory, where they strip and rebuild old American school buses, turning them into the creative and often strange buses you see in Guatemala all the time. Although the factory itself was not that spectacular, the story that accompanied this stop was. Apparently all these buses are owned by a few companies, not by the drivers themselves.  The bus drivers actually need to pay a fixed amount to the company, this is quite a high target, and hence they are always in a rush and squeeze as much people into each trip as they possibly can. When they breakeven or less, they do not earn anything. When they exceed the target, they can keep the profit. Pretty risky already, to have to work an entire day while not knowing if you earn enough money to provide for your family. Also the profession of a bus driver is also the second most dangerous job in Guatemala. Not because the drivers drive so crazily (although this might not be helping to bring down the number of deceased drivers either), but because they are targets for robbery and of organized gangs. Since they carry their earnings for the entire day around, they are an easy prey. Guatemala is also dominated by gangs that “protect” the driver in certain areas  and of course demand to get paid for this protection. At the end of the day, the already struggling bus drivers are also extorted for the little money they could make in the first place and possibly they are extorted by more than one gang. You can imagine that some refuse to pay because of their desperate situation. The gangs often kill them to set an example. If this is not enough, the organized gangs have found even more creative ways to earn money.  They frequently seek out the family of the the bus driver they have just killed to collect the insurance money.

In the following days, I learned more and more about Guatemala; I learned lots about the good, but more about what goes wrong. The story of the bus driver is just one example of the lawlessness in this country. There is little trust in the government, corruption is widespread, the police are distrusted, and crime frequently goes unpunished. The gap between rich and poor is enormous and it seems that if you belong to the rich part all you do is try to stay there and get richer. The poor are trapped in their own circles as well, often they cannot read or write, there is no water or electricity and not enough schools to send there kids too (if they can already afford the money for books and uniforms). If you hear all these stories it is hard to see a bright future for Guatemala.

However, there are definitely some positive signs. As we speak the mayor of Antigua has just been arrested and jailed for embezzlement of an astonishing 28 million Quetzal (around 2.8 million euro, you can operate around 20 schools for this around Antigua) This arrest is actually quite spectacular, since it is the first time that officials are been brought to court. Hopefully a sign of future change? I hope that the ruling elite here will one day realize that it is also in their own long term benefit to invest more in education and that eventually NGOs such as Niños de Guatemala will not be needed anymore. For now however, this is still wishful thinking.

The tour has arrived at Nuestro Futuro and we step into the school, welcomed by a lot of enthusiastic little children that like to hug a lot, chat a little and than continue playing. It seems to be a safe haven compared to the in the poor village and their home situations.The kids learn not only how to read and write, they also get taught a sense of responsibility for their own and fellow Guatemalans. This, together with an amazing amount of other private or NGO initiatives will hopefully change the future for at least some in Guatemala.

Medical Day at El Porvenir — Sam, Communications Officer

Tags

Connecticut Children's Medical Center, El Porvenir, Public Health, Service Trip

Last week we had quite the special day at El Porvenir.  A medical team from Connecticut Children’s Medical Center travelled down to Guatemala to give medical check-ups to our children for the second year in a row.  The experience was at the same time uplifting and jarring.

The appointments for each child consisted of triage (basic questions about the child’s medical history and living situation) and an examination.  As a translator for the doctors, I was able to witness both phases.

Each child entered our makeshift doctors office (just a classroom repurposed for the day) with a relative—usually a parent, grandparent, or older sibling.  One little girl was even accompanied by her great grandmother!  For the younger children, their guardians spoke almost exclusively on their behalf.

During triage, the doctors asked a variety of questions, including the child’s name, age, birthday, and personal hygiene habits, who lived at home with them, any recent illnesses, which local doctor they saw in the case of illness, any allergies the children suffers, etc.  All in all, it took about 10 minutes.  Then, the doctor took the child’s pulse, and measured his or her height and weight.

After completing the initial screening, the doctors sent the children and their guardians to a more private examination area, where a second doctor more closely examined any symptoms the children complained of, checked their heart and lungs, and did several other tests.

In many senses, the day was truly inspiring.  Seven doctors took multiple days out of their busy schedules to travel to a faraway country where they didn’t speak the language and would not be paid, in order to help children in need.  They gave checkups that could not have happened otherwise, prescribed needed medicines, and gave valuable advice related to hygiene, nutrition, and medical care.  Moreover, the children and their families who came to the clinic recognized and appreciated the sacrifice the doctors were making, paying close attention to the doctors’ advice and following instructions carefully.  Through the combined efforts of the doctors, the families, and the Niños de Guatemala staff, the day went smoothly and efficiently, allowing every child at the school to receive attention from the doctors.

At the same time, there were parts of the experience that were quite disturbing.  Being there for the checkups allowed me to see the results of eating a sugary diet and not brushing your teeth nearly enough—a mouth full of black teeth that all need to be pulled.  Some children came in with chronic coughing and wheezing, who had not received medical attention in weeks.  For two others, heart murmurs, a symptom of potentially serious heart problems, were diagnosed.  What’s more, seeing the proper specialists, be they cardiologists or dentists, is generally prohibitively expensive.

However, despite some frustrating or disheartening aspects of the day, a lot of good was done, and more than 75 children will have their health improved in some way, big or small.

What education means to me — Sam, Communications Officer

Tags

cycle of poverty, development, education, family planning

My name is Sam Datlof and I am the Communications Officer for Niños de Guatemala (NDG).  I want to take this first post to tell you all a bit about what NDG does and what being a part of NDG–promoting education–means to me.

So what is NDG, anyway?  We’re an education/community development nonprofit that works with Guatemalans to implement small-scale projects to help children and their families break the cycle of poverty.  As an organization, we believe that education is the most reliable way to do this.  Education pays dividends over and over.  An educated child can go on to help not only him or herself, but also his or her family and community.

Even if we look at just the impact on an individual child who receives an education, the effect is enormous.  Depending on the country and the ethnic group to which a child belongs, an additional year of schooling can increase an individual’s income by more than 15% on average.  That can be the difference between hunger and having enough to eat.  For an adult, it can be the difference between needing your children to stay at home to work the fields during the day, and being able to send your children to school to become educated themselves.

Looking beyond easily quantifiable measures like income, education also has powerful impacts on societies as a whole.  An educated society can be a more stable society.  When people understand their rights, they will be more able to advocate for those rights.  When everyone knows how to read and how to think critically, the aristocracy and the government will have a harder time taking advantage of the masses.

To me though, the most tangible impact of education is how it affects health.  Consider this: every minute, a woman somewhere in the world dies from childbirth. Probably several during the time it has taken you to read this post.  Moreover, in Guatemala, only about 32% of indigenous women claim to have knowledge of any contraceptive method. Not only are women in the developing world put at an unacceptable degree of risk every time they have a child, but many of them don’t even have the knowledge necessary to practice family planning!

How can we change that?  Through education.  It’s well documented that education, especially of women, leads to lower fertility rates. Education gives people more control over every aspect their lives, including family planning.  We think this makes perfect sense. 

At the end of the day, from my point of view, development and education are about helping people have more agency over their own lives—helping them live their lives in a way that they choose.

Welcome to our blog!

Hello world!

Hi everyone!

Thanks for checking out the Niños de Guatemala (NDG) blog.  We will be posting weekly updates out of Antigua, with contributions from people throughout the organization, including teachers, office staff, volunteers, and friends of NDG.

Let us know what you think, we’d love to hear from you!