The Mayan people in Guatemala have been subjected to centuries of oppression and genocide resulting in greater social and economic inequality in their country than in any other in Latin America.
Mayan Schoolgirls
All of CBB's scholarships in Guatemala are awarded to Mayan schoolgirls living in the Mayan highlands of this country. The scholarships are administered by two organizations, one of which is coordinated by a university educated social worker and the other by a poor Mayan mother who herself receives scholarships for her daughters.
Girls in both projects may come from homes without running water or perhaps even without toilet facilities. CBB's scholarships pay their school fees and purchase the girl's school uniform, shoes and other clothing and school supplies. Even primary school is not free in Guatemala, and costs double as a girl goes from primary school to middle school to the Guatemalan equivalent of high school.
Scholarships are given to forty Mayan girls in Quetzaltenango and nearby villages. Most girls are in public school while a few others, because of their exceptional ability, are placed in a private school, which is only slightly more costly. A girl may also be put into a private school if she needs to be in smaller classes to succeed in her studies.
Marian, show here in her pre-school uniform, is now entering the first grade.
A dozen girls from remote Mayan villages in the mountains with only a primary school receive scholarships to attend middle school in the nearest town, Aguacatan, traveling as much as an hour and a half each way by foot and bus.
CBB funded the materials for the construction of bathroom facilities for the primary school in the village of Rio Blanco la Vega, with the labor being provided by volunteers from the village. Materials to build a new classroom for the school have been funded by CBB, with the villagers again providing the labor.
The average cost of educating a girl in Guatemala, $400 annually, is the highest of all the counties where CBB gives scholarships, nearly ten times higher than CBB's average cost of educating a girl.
A project director's story
CBB's newest project in Guatemala, Estudia con Amor (Study with Love), was named by its director, Sandra Alonzo. Sandra herself is a mother of girls receiving CBB scholarships and she brings this understanding to her work in administering scholarships to other mothers like herself.
Sandra's family home has no running water and no bathroom facilities, not in the house, not even an outhouse. Yet, she knows families poorer than hers. Her family has enough food to eat, she says, but others do not, and it is the daughters of these even poorer families for whom she arranges CBB scholarships.
Nonetheless, Sandra and her family have purchased a plot of land and are building a new house with the help of Habitat for Humanity. All the family are involved in the construction, including Sandra's husband, Carlos, who provides for his family with three part-time jobs. Through her work with CBB Sandra says she has learned that "the impossible doesn't exist".
