It’s ‘all hands on deck’ to deliver school supplies (And we miss our volunteers!)
In Guatemala, the school year typically starts in January and ends in late October. As the 2020 school year ended, education authorities in Guatemala worked to gauge the impact of the pandemic on students’ educational health looking at test scores, grades, and other indicators related to at-home learning. Guatemala’s Ministry of Education made slight adjustments to the 2021 school year to react to ongoing challenges presented by the pandemic. This resulted in a delay to the start of classes for many students. Common Hope students are continuing with remote learning and will migrate to hybrid learning later this year, and possibly in-person learning if deemed safe. Since the school year start was delayed, Common Hope’s delivery of supplies was rescheduled from January to mid-March.
Setting up for Back-to-School in Antigua
Core to ensuring students can pursue their education, Common Hope provides school supplies to all 3,118 Common Hope students. All delivered in just three weeks!
From an operational standpoint, delivery of these school supplies takes tireless hours of planning and coordination…and a lot of people power. Because of the pandemic, planning pivoted to ensure every step was executed safely.
A family from New Hope with their school supplies!
Common Hope students attend 120+ schools and each school and grade level has unique requirements for supplies, books, uniforms, and shoes. All of this is coordinated, tracked, purchased, packaged, and delivered.
Sponsors and volunteers are at the heart of making school supplies a part of every student’s educational resource package. Thanks to more than 3,000 sponsors, Common Hope secures necessary financial support to offset the cost of school supplies. Students who do not have a sponsor still receive supplies funded through unrestricted donations.
School supplies have never been more important. In a time of rising Covid-19 cases, ensuring students have the resources they need to learn from home is critical to ongoing educational growth. Making sure that every child has what they need to learn from home is directly connected to motivating a student to continue studying. Thousands and thousands of sheets of paper, crayons, pens, notebooks and more become even more important in the face of making your two room house also your school.
This year, 600+ students without sponsors were given books, pens, paper, in some cases data plan cards and others new shoes. ALL are now fully prepared for at home learning.
In the face of poverty, making your home your school can be daunting. Common Hope can use your help funding school supply supports. Please consider making a gift of $45 to help. Click Here!
Click below to see more photos from Common Hope’s Back-to-School events!