October 2017Facility Sponsor
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Lan Vwa<br />
<strong>Sponsor</strong>ship Network<br />
<strong>October</strong> 2017<br />
Another school year has come to an end in Joconal. We aren’t<br />
sure where the time went, but we have our third year of secondary<br />
classes under our belt. All of the students did very<br />
well this year, excelling in their classes. With their grades in<br />
hand, they are getting ready for their three month break before<br />
we see them again in January. As usual, our students have different<br />
plans for their break than you would expect. Here’s a quick note from Karina<br />
to tell you more:<br />
“The end of the year went well. The kids were ready for finals and<br />
‘vacation’. As you may know, most of our kids work during their vacation, because<br />
it is harvest season for the coffee farmers. They try to work as much as<br />
they can during this time. Before they go back to work, we will have our end<br />
of the year party on November 10th. We will be giving prizes to the kids that<br />
have the best grades, are good in sports, or are good artists. We will try to be<br />
online if anyone would like to be a part of the celebration. Thank you so much<br />
for making this possible. God bless.”<br />
3rd year<br />
complete!
Adam Wroe<br />
Follow up note from his trip:<br />
“During my time with the students, I asked them if they<br />
had ideas for any inventions they could make, and I<br />
would try and help the kids think of ways they could<br />
craft their inventions from the surroundings. They have<br />
a great amount of ingenuity. Nearly all of the ideas<br />
were meant to help people in need or to make their<br />
lives more efficient and beneficial. Also, I was able to<br />
talk to some of the elders of the village about what<br />
they think of the school; how it has been improving<br />
the lives of the students; and how it has been improving<br />
the village. They told me that they have high hopes<br />
for the future of their children and are very proud to<br />
see the progress they have been making.”<br />
Brand New Classrooms<br />
Our newest students in Joconal can’t wait to start school.<br />
When we first started working in Joconal, we saw a huge need for education<br />
at various levels. Children did not start school until age 7, and as we’ve<br />
mentioned before, the school ended at 6th grade. Knowing that they would walk<br />
three hours each day to attend school, we got started with secondary classes<br />
in order to prepare the youth of Joconal to pursue a better future.<br />
When classes began in January 2015, the need for educational support<br />
at the primary level was magnified. Most of our students were not testing at<br />
their grade level. It was extremely obvious that the teachers in the primary<br />
school had an impossible job.<br />
Children would start 1st grade without any education. They did not<br />
have books in their home, so they were not read to before bed. They did not<br />
1 out of 2<br />
children<br />
in Guatemala<br />
suffer from<br />
stunting caused<br />
by malnutrition<br />
according to the<br />
World Bank. Child<br />
malnutrition is<br />
linked to poverty,<br />
low levels of<br />
education, and poor<br />
access to health<br />
services.<br />
About us<br />
Where is located<br />
Joconal?<br />
Joconal is in the district<br />
of Zacapa. It is a five hour<br />
drive from Guatemala City to Joconal.<br />
The nearest city to Joconal<br />
is Gualan. It is a 45 minute hike<br />
from our school to the Honduras<br />
border.<br />
Where do we have<br />
classes?<br />
Our school is currently<br />
hosted at the<br />
Leiva’s Coffee farm. The<br />
Leivas turned two of their<br />
rooms at the farm house<br />
into school rooms.
know the alphabet or numbers. We learned that<br />
the first grade teacher in Joconal is responsible<br />
for teaching a room of 25 children everything they<br />
should have learned in Pre-school and Kindergarten<br />
in addition to the 1st grade curriculum without<br />
any assistance. This often led to children failing 1st<br />
grade and would create frustration in relationship<br />
to learning. It is common for children to drop out of<br />
school before completing 6th grade.<br />
With this in mind, we hoped there would be<br />
an opportunity to help meet the need for a Preschool<br />
and Kindergarten at some point. We began<br />
the reading program to begin addressing this need<br />
in what small ways we could, with hopes to help the<br />
community start a program for these 4 to 6 year old<br />
children.<br />
We began exploring the number of kids at<br />
the age for Pre-school and Kindergarten. We knew<br />
we didn’t have space for the children, but we wanted<br />
to be able to create a plan. In September, Karina<br />
spoke with a leader in Joconal. He shared the incredible<br />
news that he along with other leaders in<br />
the village would build their children a school, so<br />
they could have a Pre-school in Joconal. Karina and<br />
I were blown away when we heard this.<br />
Karina made sure I knew that it wasn’t going<br />
to be the best classroom, but honestly, I disagree.<br />
Nothing could be better than fathers coming<br />
together to build their children a school. Sure,<br />
a state of the art classroom would be great, but it<br />
would rob these men of the opportunity to provide<br />
for their children. I could not be happier. This shows<br />
that the people of Joconal have been empowered<br />
to invest in their village.<br />
With classrooms in the process of being<br />
built, we are getting ready to start the new Preschool<br />
and Kindergarten in January 2018. We have<br />
hired our new teachers and are preparing lesson<br />
plans. We could not be more excited for our next<br />
step in Joconal and look forward to introducing you<br />
to our new students in the weeks to come.
Say<br />
hello<br />
They want to<br />
hear from you!<br />
The students would love to hear from you. You have pictures of them. Why not<br />
send them a picture of you! Let them know who you are and things that you like<br />
to do. This is a great opportunity for them to learn about your culture and for<br />
you to encourage them to keep up the good work.<br />
In order to make things simple for you, we’ve created an email for your sponsorship<br />
communications. No need to worry about your Spanish skills, your<br />
email will go to our staff for translation before being sent to your student.<br />
Email: students@lanvwa.org<br />
Subject: From “your name”<br />
We love to share our mission!<br />
Would you like to get your church or community group involved in our mission, but you’re not<br />
sure how? Right now, we are looking for church and community groups to partner with in order<br />
to expand our mission. If you think your group would be interested, just send us a note. We’d be<br />
happy to give you materials to share or come share with you. Email kellymarie@lanvwa.org to get<br />
started.<br />
Our school would not be running without people<br />
like you. It has taken voices from all over the USA<br />
and Guatemala joining together to get us where<br />
we are. Thanks to your willingness to share, we<br />
have made a difference in the lives of an entire<br />
village, but we want to do more!<br />
That is why we created the Ambassador Program.<br />
We want to equip passionate people with the<br />
tools they need to make a bigger impact. That<br />
means taking our model to more students and<br />
impacting more communities through sustainable<br />
education.<br />
Sign-up to share your voice!<br />
Visit us online at LanVwa.org<br />
Get Involved<br />
We are so excited about what’s happening<br />
in Joconal, and we know that many of you<br />
are as well! We’ve been asked quite a bit<br />
lately how people can get plugged in. If you<br />
are one of those people that want to get<br />
involved, here are a few financial and volunteer<br />
needs we have moving into 2018:<br />
1. <strong>Sponsor</strong> one of our 22 new students<br />
at $38 a month.<br />
2. Support the cost of a desk for our<br />
Pre-school at $32 a piece.<br />
3. Buy a bag of supplies for our students<br />
at $85 a piece.<br />
4. Join our passionate team of professionals<br />
on the board of directors.<br />
5. Volunteer to translate documents<br />
to Spanish for 5 hours a month.<br />
6. Become an ambassador and make<br />
a difference in the lives of students<br />
throughout Guatemala.