The Antigua library held a number of special activities during the week of World Book Day in late April. It all started on April 21 with a festival for the youth group, where the kids participated in a variety of games. These included reading a giant picture book while jumping rope, playing a life-size game of “hangman” with words that were famous characters from books, a tongue twister challenge, and many more puzzles and games in the library.

One special challenge at the festival was to investigate why World Book Day is held on April 23. Two kids discovered that the date was chosen by UNESCO because it is the anniversary of the birth or death of a number of literary figures, including William Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes, and Manuel Mejía Vallejo. The two winners of this investigation won their own copy of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis.

Another special activity later that week was a presentation of Cinderella, put on by a group of high school seniors majoring in education. The girls created an impressive life-size illustration of the characters from Cinderella and took turns reading the story to a group of children.

Perhaps the most enthusiastic celebrator of World Book Day was a member of the youth group who is big fan of the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer. When the library opened on the Saturday of the festival, she immediately grabbed the book off the shelf and sat down to read. She didn’t participate in any of the activities that morning because she was too busy reading. Seems like a fitting way to celebrate World Book Day!

View many more photos from the celebrations below.

Guicela working with students.

Guicela has always been a natural student. On her first day of school some 20 years ago, her parents were afraid she would get nervous and not want to go in alone. To their surprise, she walked right in and didn’t even say goodbye. “I always liked to study and felt happy at school,” she says.

And yet, affording school was tenuous for Guicela’s family. The family of seven struggled to make ends meet when she was growing up. Her father was a farmer and her mother sold flowers and produce in the local market, but they made very little income between them.

News of help for education and health care

When Guicela was in second grade, her mother learned about Common Hope while washing clothes at the community pila in San Pedro. Several Common Hope volunteers came up and told her about the organization offering help in education and health care. She went to the Common Hope offices to enroll Guicela. This was in 1992, and she remembers the offices were in a small house in Antigua at the time.

Little did she know that 20 years later, the organization would have grown to serve more than 3,000 children each year, and her daughter would be working for the NGO, providing resources and training for local public schools.

Inspired to teach

Guicela says she decided to become a teacher because of her experience with Common Hope. During school vacations, Common Hope used to offer a vacation school where teachers worked with elementary students to reinforce their studies. When she was in junior high, Guicela was invited to become a teaching assistant for the vacation school. She made teaching materials, took attendance, worked one-on-one with students, and gave out snack. She did this from her second year of junior high through high school.

Guicela graduated as an elementary school teacher in 2002 at the age of 18, at which time she took a training with Common Hope’s PODER employment program to learn how to write a resume and conduct an interview. Soon after, she got a short-term job as a teacher in an Antigua private school, then worked at a store that sold artisan crafts and souvenirs.

Guicela Garcia, Common Hope education promoter and former sponsored student.

A year later, Guicela got a job at a school in San Pedro las Huertas, where she worked for three years. Her days were long during this period— she worked at the school from 7:15 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and then at the souvenir store from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Back to school

In 2006 Guicela decided she was ready to go back to school and enrolled at the University Rafael Landivar. She continued working during the week and attended classes on Fridays and Saturdays. After six years of juggling classes and work, she looks forward to graduating this year with a degree in preschool education.

Guicela started working with Common Hope in 2012 as an education promoter for Santa Catarina. Coincidentally, she completed her student teaching at the same school ten years earlier. Guicela says being a Common Hope education promoter is a great job that requires responsibility, dedication, and professionalism. She is always looking for new strategies and ideas that will help the teachers make positive changes in their classrooms.

Ligia Pol, education promoter, prepares students to go out into the courtyard for a reading activity.

On a Monday morning in San Cristobal, a cluster of students sits in the town square. All eyes are fixed on a young woman who reads an oversized picture book in a loud, sing-song voice. Around the group, birds caw, dogs bark, diesel trucks jug by, but the children’s eyes remain on the book. When a child calls out, spurring a ripple of conversation, the woman stops, touches one finger to her lips, raises the other hand, and the kids quiet down again.

Tiny classrooms

The kids were brought out to the square for this special reading activity by Ligia, one of our education promoters. They are outside because their classroom has no room for a group activity. It’s a bit hard to tell a hallway from a classroom in the San Cristobal school. The school is so small and overcrowded, corridors have been turned into classrooms so long and narrow they fit just two columns of desks with a slim walkway down the middle.

Many distractions

Outside, students encounter even more distractions than in the classroom, requiring a command of the class that is challenging for even the best of teachers, but here  there is much more room for interactive learning activities.

Education promoters like Ligia will help San Cristobal teachers to lead new, engaging lessons and to learn new techniques for keeping students’ attention. Expanding our reach San Cristobal is one of two new schools benefitting from our education promoters in 2012, bringing our total partner schools to six. The other new school is the afternoon school in San
Miguel Escobar, several blocks from the morning school, which we already partner with.

San Miguel Escobar Vespertina

Like the morning school in San Miguel Escobar, the afternoon school has a very large student body—600 students—that will benefit greatly from the extra
classroom support. By partnering with a second school in this community, we will be able to share staff, resources, and facilities, including the homework center space that we have already rented for the morning school.

San Cristobal el Bajo

San Cristobal is a small village where we have many sponsored students, yet there is still great need—many more children and families are eligible to join our programs. The community is comprised of ravine dwellers who live in homes perched on the hillside behind the school. While the school building is small and cramped, the staff is very
eager to partner with us. They have a long-standing principal who is a strong leader and will be a great facilitator of the education promoters’ efforts in the school.

More schools, more impact

We are excited to expand into two new schools, to strengthen the reach of our School Partner Initiative’s quality education programming in 2012. Work in the new schools will help us continue to increase the efficiency of the program, as we further develop this pilot that could be replicated more broadly down the road.

In our spring newsletter, we feature Doña Alejandra, who makes hundreds of handmade tortillas every day for the employees of the ranch where she works. Below, you can learn her process, in case you’d like to try and make your own Guatemala-style tortillas.

To make approximately 600 tortillas, Alejandra soaks 15 pounds of corn overnight in water with quicklime.

Photo credit: heart4children.blogspot.com

In the morning, she brings the corn to the miller in the morning to grind it.

Photo credit: guatemalamissionstmarys.blogspot.com/

Back home, she kneads the mass, then wets her hands and makes little balls.

Photo credit: Irene Valdés-Wochinger.

Next, she flattens the balls in a kind of fast clapping movement until they acquire the typical round tortilla shape.

Photo credit: Irene Valdés-Wochinger.

Then, she cooks the tortillas on the stove for a few minutes.

Photo credit: Irene Valdés-Wochinger.

Finally, she stores the tortillas in a sealed bucket to keep them warm.

Spencer Paakkonen, young philanthropist.

For his 8th birthday, Spencer decided to continue a tradition he started last year: to ask his friends to give to Common Hope instead of giving him birthday gifts. Spencer says “It would make me proud and make my heart happy” to know that children from his birth country are living improved lives as a result. He believes the most important thing he can do is help Guatemalan children be healthy.

Spencer was born in Mixco, Guatemala and adopted when he was five months old. His family learned about Common Hope a few years ago when they went to a Latin American Heritage Camp, and Spencer has remained very interested in the activities of Common Hope ever since. Says his mother, Heidi Paakkonen, “Whenever we receive information from Common Hope, Spencer always wants to read about how Common Hope is helping children in Guatemala to attend school, move into new homes, and see a doctor or a dentist.” Spencer made a brief announcement at his recent birthday party, explaining how his friends are helping children in Guatemala. “His friends are such an empathetic and rapt audience when he tells them that other kids need their help,” says Heidi, “We were so impressed that eight year olds are so thoughtful!”

Spencer’s mother Heidi says the family hopes to visit Guatemala when he is a little older, hopefully to help Common Hope in its efforts. This would be right up Spencer’s alley — he loves to travel and has accumulated quite a few frequent flyer miles already. “A career in flight might be in his future,” says Heidi. On the other hand, Heidi says Spencer’s compassion and interest in health and wellness might steer him to a health care career. Many thanks to Spencer for your commitment to the children of Guatemala!

Social worker Lesbia Marroquin reads a story at a home visit in San Rafael.

We’ve shared a number of stories with you about the work our education promoters are doing in our partner schools. We’ve also shared about students who have made big improvements in conduct, attendance, and grades.

Well, there’s another group of supporting actors in that success: our social workers. In San Rafael, social workers have begun to bring reading activities and learning games on their home visits, to reinforce the lessons children learn during the school day.

Common Hope staff member Tom Stukel was in Guatemala earlier this month and had the chance to capture a social worker in action. Come on a home visit with Lesbia, through his photos.

The new academic year begins in January in Guatemala, so our staff has been busy distributing supplies in advance of the first day of school. Common Hope makes a celebration of it, with activities, raffles, and skits. Our first school supply fair was held in Antigua on January 8. Another was held in New Hope on January 15, and a third will be held in San Rafael on January 22.

Handing out supplies and some fun, too
On January 8, families arrived at the Antigua site as early as 6:30 a.m., eagerly waiting outside for our doors to open. More than 1,603 bags full of school supplies were handed out to students that day. In addition, the library hosted reading promotion activities, donated goods were raffled off to families, and the education promoters put on a skit, dressed up as school supplies like crayons and scissors. The performance was meant to entertain families but also to increase awareness on the importance of attending school regularly and taking care of school supplies.

From modeling clay to scientific calculators
The school supply bags were personalized with the specific materials that each student needed according to his/her grade. Kindergarten bags included colorful modeling clay, while high school bags included scientific calculators. In addition, school uniforms, black shoes and tennis shoes were distributed, because many schools mandate uniforms but do not provide them.

Common Hope staff and volunteers worked hard to create a special day for families and to ensure that each student had all the supplies they needed for this new academic year.

We look forward to some exciting plans for 2012. Our biggest resolution: expand our school partner initiative into two new schools, bringing our total partner schools to six. One school is the afternoon program in San Miguel Escobar, where we already partner with the morning school. The second school is in San Cristobal el Bajo, a community where we have many sponsored students but where we will be introducing our education promoters for the first time.

San Miguel Escobar Vespertina
Like the morning school in San Miguel Escobar, the afternoon school has a very large student body — 600 students — that will benefit greatly from the extra classroom support. By partnering with a second school in this community, we will be able to share and leverage staff, resources, and facilities, including the homework center space that we have already rented for the morning school.

San Cristobal el Bajo
San Cristobal is a small village that is close to our Antigua family development center. The community still has great need — many more children and families could use the support of Common Hope. The school is very eager to partner with us, and they have a long-standing principal who is a strong leader and will be a great facilitator of the education promoters’ efforts in the school.

Hitting the ground running
This month, our education promoters have a full to-do list to lay the groundwork for the new school year. All schools will be in session by the end of January. One item on the to-do list is to review the school’s strategic plans with the faculty and staff to re-energize them around their goals for the year. Another task for the promoters is to share the results of last year’s standardized tests, so schools have a clear sense of how students did in 2011 and to provide a gauge for their work in 2012.

Common Hope was very fortunate to be chosen as a beneficiary of the Best Buy employee art fair this holiday season. This is only the second time in 15 years that a charity besides the Best Buy Children’s Foundation was chosen.

Education that paid off in overwhelming support
The Best Buy volunteers did a great job of raising awareness about Common Hope during the silent auction period, creating informational materials to display at the sale, playing a video about Common Hope, and staffing a table to speak personally about Common Hope’s work.

Their education paid off — an overwhelming percentage of winning bids went to Common Hope. Not only that, the fair had a record number of pieces this year and an all-time high
return. Says Best Buy team member Jodi Hoffman, “I really attribute the success to the level of engagement of the Vision Teams, from planning to execution.”

Thanks to the Best Buy leadership
The team’s work would not be possible without the support of Best Buy’s leadership. Says Jodi, “The team is grateful that Best Buy has given us the opportunity to participate and to travel. My leadership has graciously supported our efforts and will continue to as we travel.”

A chance to stretch themselves, share their passion
When asked what Best Buy’s involvement with Common Hope brings, Jodi says, “We have all stretched ourselves beyond our normal capabilities and achieved things that we weren’t sure we could. Each of my team members created a piece of art for the auction and many of us never considered ourselves artists or even creative. We have a passion for Common Hope’s work and are not shy about sharing that in our individual ways.”

Follow the Best Buy teams
Two Vision Teams from Best Buy will travel to Guatemala this year. The first will be in Guatemala from February 4-11, the second from March 24-31. To follow their trips, visit the Vision Team photo diary throughout those weeks.