I have seen how one year of school changes a child and how years of school transform that child’s future. I have watched as the power of education saved families from being poor, babies from dying and young girls from lives of servitude. And I have lived long enough to see a generation of children, armed with education, lift up a nation.
—Nelson Mandela
By Josefa Ratzán of Santiago Atitlan who Won Honorary Mention in the Photo Imaging Educators Association Annual Competition in the 9th Grade and Under Category © FOTOKIDS 2008
Child Aid, a thriving Portland-based non profit, serving thousands of needy children and their families in Guatemala and Oaxaca, Mexico, is honored to host the FOTOKIDS exhibit April 19-20. FOTOKIDS is a project that provides young people living in the dumps as well as the poorest barrios of urban and rural Guatemala with educational and artistic opportunities. Four of the students involved in the project will be in the Pacific Northwest participating in the Seeds of Compassion event in Seattle featuring talks by the Dalai Lama and Rev. Desmond Tutu. On Tuesday, April 15th, the students presented the Dalai Lama with a copy of a book written and photographed by the children from Guatemala for the children of Tibet as well as a beautiful scarf embroidered by the mothers in Santiago Atitlan.
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Child Aid Spring 2008 Newsletter
When you first see Elba, nothing would strike you about this shy unassuming woman. But when you see her reading with the children you see a brightly burning light and a passion come to life.
As one of our volunteers observed in a note “this woman is awesome!” and the hundreds of children who she reaches would certainly second that opinion. As the children’s librarian at Pedro Molina, a former military base turned school, Elba carefully selects age appropriate books for each group of children she reads with. She plans carefully how she will involve the children’s thinking, compassion, excitement and lives with each book she chooses. It is a powerful thing to see the joy and excitement that she brings to each group. Elba notes simply “I love to read.” But it is much more than this. Elba has a passion for sharing this love.
“The library is so important! These books and the work we do here help our children immensely for the future. It stimulates their imaginations. They learn new vocabulary. It makes them think. I ask questions as we go along and get them involved in the story. For example, can they help a character to find something in a picture, or solve a problem. Or if someone in the story feels sad, what can the other do to help them. They enjoy it, and they love the fact that I enjoy it too – the pleasure of reading together.”
Click Here To Read More and Download the Spring 2008 Newsletter
Reading and Writing in Guatemala
In this article, Mayra C. Daniel, Assistant Professor, Department of Literacy at Northern Illinois University, presents the many obstacles that teachers and students confront daily in Guatemalan schools. Research presented in this article was financed by a grant from The Latino Center at Northern Illinois University.
Click here for English version of complete article
Muchos factores como la hygiene dentro de las escuelas, la preparación académica de los docentes, los bajos salarios, los materiales proveidos para las tareas diarias de los estudiantes por el gobierno, y la ausencia de bibliotecas en muchas escuelas impactan el nivel de lecto-escritura al cual pueden aspirar los niños de Guatemala. La investigation presentada en este articulo fue financiada por una beca del Centro Latino de la Universidad Northern Illinois.
