In the eastern rainforests of Guatemala, the Q’eqchi Mayan people live on less than $1 per day in isolated hamlets without electricity, running water, or even dirt roads. Schools and health clinics are few and far between. For most children, the future looks like a bleak continuation of the past.
But for a lucky few, there is a chance to break this cycle of isolation and poverty: the Father Tom Moran Education Center, an innovative boarding school for 500 students.
The center offers a unique education program that combines traditional academics with vocational training and internships in sustainable agriculture, tourism, restaurant services, and community development – all designed to equip its graduates with the practical skills needed to build a better life for themselves and their communities.
All of the students come from poor families and are on full scholarship. Thanks to the Center’s intense outreach efforts, almost half of hte students are girls, an unusually high ratio in a culture where female children leave school after only a few years to assist with family chores.
The Center’s leadership, and much of its volunteer labor, is drawn from the lical population of parents and students. This ensures that the Center’s programs are appropriate to and supported by its clients and that donations are leveraged to provide maximum benefit.
Friends of Children has supported the Center in a number of ways over the years. In 2009 Friends of Children purchased computers for a technology program for girls, and in 2010 it purshased a small boat, the only means of transportation for some students to get to and from school.
The Father Tom Moran Education Center is part of Ak Tenamit, which means “New Village” in Mayan. Ak Tenamit is dedicated to transforming life in over 30 Q’eqchi villages in eastern Guatemala, with a particular emphasis on education and particularly on improving the lot of women and girls.
