GUATEMALAN ILLITERACY
On April 24th 2014,
La Choza Chula opened a library in the grounds of the Primary School of El Paredon. Since then we have run a wide variety of projects with catch up classes, story hours, reading lessons, English classes, recycled arts workshops, games sessions puzzles and
much more. Previously there was no library in El Paredon yet this has completely transformed the education of El Paredon.
The literacy rate of Guatemalans over the age of 15 is just 74% – apart from Haiti, this is the lowest literacy rate in the Western Hemisphere. In El Paredon it is even lower than
that. This is directly linked to the poverty of Guatemala, with the average wage in El Paredon just $5 a day. We are directly trying to tackle that and see literacy as a key part to that battle!
Over the last year the library was run by a local librarian and a La Choza Chula education manager. The local librarian
Paola Rivera was trained by La Choza Chula and has been instrumental in pushing the library forward, however now can only work at the weekend due to going to college during the week. Therefore we are looking for a new librarian
to help our new education manager, Adriana Guerrero in keeping these projects going. However to fund their salaries and living costs, bringing work to another local of El Paredon, WE NEED YOUR HELP!
FUND FUTURE FRANCISCOS
Catch up classes: In El Paredon all students have an end of year test to determine whether they can pass through to the next year of school. If they fail this one off test they are kept back a year and have to repeat
the entire year, meaning a lot of students are one or more years behind the school year they should be in. For example, with the first year of primary school students, 8 out of the 20 students are retaking the year. The catch up classes being run out of the
library aim to help push the children onwards to the level they need to be to progress on to the next year of education.
Reading Lessons: The literacy rates are so low in El Paredon that we work really hard with trying to teach students how to read and write. Francisco is one such student who worked one on one with our last Education
manager, Kate Pavelich:
“Francisco’s grandfather came and spoke to me because his whole family is illiterate and he gets no help at home. We met every afternoon at 1pm, working on his letters and using games to teach him to read. He started passing his little tests and last
week I saw him reading a book to another bunch of kids. So basically he’s gone from not being able to write his name to reading books to others students which has been really amazing to see.”
He then went on to pass his end of year exam and progress to the next year of education. Francisco is not a one off example, but illustrates the kind of issues we are dealing with in El Paredon but also some of the great strides we have made. We want to
have more Franciscos, yet we need funding to make that possible!
Story Hours: We run weekly story hours in the library which involve reading, writing, art and games. Normally a story will be read followed by questions and writing about the book, an art activity directly related and educational games.
Check out some of the pictures from our Doctor Zeuss story hours, making giant Hortons and eating Green Eggs and Ham!
English Lessons:
English Lessons: The tourism in El Paredon is constantly growing yet barely anyone in El Paredon speaks English to help counter that. We have been running evening English classes with local teenagers and adults to help them cope with the growing influx
of tourists. These includes teaching workers at the local surf camps and some of the local surf instructors too as well as running English lessons for students in the Primary school.
To find out more about all our projects head over to our
Facebook page too and give it a LIKE.
Also check out our
Etsy shop to see some of the amazing products, hand made by local women, that you can recieve as your REWARDS.
