HELPING OTHERS

Purpose of the Guatemala Literacy Program is simple, says Rich Strayer of the Rotary Club of Downey. “It is is to reduce poverty through education.”

Rich and wife Gloria visit with schoolchildren  in Guatemala

GLP strives to address the root causes of poverty in Guatemala, rather than merely treating its symptoms, and right now, there is a time-sensitive opportunity for your club to help.

“We're a month into the new Rotary year,” says Rich, GLP Campaign Chair for 2016-2017, “and so far 20 clubs and districts have joined Global Grant #1642745 and pledged almost $55,000 to educate children in Guatemala. It's an excellent start but we still need your help to reach our goal of $450,000 for these deserving young students.”

Double Bonus offer: GLP will assist with all grant paperwork, and that ensures up to a 3.5-to-1 match for your club's contribution,

Why Guatemala, and why are District 5280’s Downey Club and the Guatemala Vista Hermosa club partnering with Cooperative for Education (CoEd) for this half million dollar Global Grant from Rotary International?

Because Guatemala has one of the lowest literacy rates in the Western Hemisphere.  This is a made-to-order challenge for RI’s Global Grants Program, which supports large international activities with sustainable, measurable outcomes in Rotary’s areas of focus, and responds to real community needs.

Guatemala is as rich in scenery as it is poor in literacy, with clear lakes, and imposing volcanoes with cloud-like plumes of smoke rising from the green jungles.  Lovely old colonial churches and buildings date from the early 1500’s, which is when the Spanish gradually subdued the local Mayans and put them under the authority of the colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain.

To research Guatemala's turbulent political history, is to see how its indigenous people have suffered discrimination and severe poverty, which extends to schooling.  These indigenous Guatemalans are particularly vulnerable to labor exploitation.   

The greatest change Colonialization brought to the Western Hemisphere was the sweeping aside of the pre-Columbian economic order and its replacement by European technology and livestock.  Cattle, pigs chickens largely replaced the consumption of game.  New crops were also introduced beside corn (maize), beans, squashes, chili peppers, and cotton, which had kept the villages economically self-sustaining.  In the highlands, for example, hoe cultivation of more or less permanent fields was the rule, with such intensive forms of agriculture as irrigation and chinampas (the so-called floating gardens reclaimed from lakes or ponds)

The demands for production for export on sugar cane and especially coffee plantations economically exploited native labor, a semi-feudal oppression of the Mayan Indians that has continued up till today.  With more than half the population living below the poverty line, many children, especially rural and indigenous children, are forced to drop out of school to help support their families.

Over half of the Guatemalan population is indigenous and less than 30% of poor, rural indigenous girls are enrolled in secondary school. Most indigenous girls in Guatemala are Mayan and they are among the country’s most disadvantaged group with limited schooling, early marriage, frequent childbearing, and chronic poverty. The need to invest in education, particularly for underserved girls, is acute.

90% of schools lack textbooks: “How can I teach without textbooks,” one teacher said.  Many schools have no functioning computers. There is near-absence of reading materials.

Enter the Guatemala Literacy Program, (GLP) a partnership to promote literacy in Guatemala.  Contributions from Rotary Clubs fuel CoEd, Cooperative for Education, which actual purchases books in Spanish and brings the books to the classrooms. 

Rotary Club of Downey’s Rich Strayer and wife Gloria at a school sponsored by the Downey club.  

CoEd accomplishes this mission by implementing sustainable textbook, computer, reading and scholarship programs in impoverished schools. Through these programs, CoEd strives to address the root causes of poverty in Guatemala, rather than merely treating its symptoms.

Cooperative for Education was started by two brothers in Cincinnati, Ohio whose mission is to help Guatemalan schoolchildren break the cycle of poverty through education.  The project is self-sustaining.  Once the books have been purchased, the students in the villages rent them and within their five-year reusable book life, enough money can be raised to purchase more. 

CoEd also addresses the international humanitarian problems of human trafficking in Guatemala, and the practice of sending of children unaccompanied to the United States, which puts their lives at risk during the journey north. Long-term, sustainable development and improved equity in Guatemala will only be possible if education of children and youth continues to improve.

Last year the Guatemala Literacy Project's largest Global Grant ever was made possible by 131 Rotary clubs and districts like yours.  This year’s Global Grant #1642745, is co-hosted by the Rotary clubs of Guatemala Vista Hermosa (D-4250) and Downey, California (D-5280).  Result will be a 3.5-to-1 matching of funds by your district and The Rotary Foundation (pending approval).

Email info@guatemalaliteracy.org to pledge now or for help making the request to your club. You can also explore this site for more information.

This past year the Downey Club donated $2,500 from Club funds toward this project, and this next upcoming year, Rich has challenged the Downey Club to double that amount, and donate $5,000 to continue and increase the project.  “I believe that giving is committing,” says Rich.  “80% of students who complete school get full-time jobs.”

 
Contributing Rotary clubs are assigned village schools, and Rich and his wife Gloria visited “their” club’s school district.   “Everywhere we went, they spread pine needles on the grass,” Rich said.  “We were like royalty.  Our feet were never supposed to touch the ground.”  The whole village came out to reception parties for the visiting Rotarians: parents and students, grandparents, aunts and uncles, the mayor, the teachers. 

Rich exchanged club flags with clubs in Guatemala, and in his pictures yellow balloons and Guatemalan and United States flags fly together, along with a big Rotary flag with our rotary wheel logo, so that the Guatemalans can identify Rotary as the force behind the program.

One of Rich’s contributions to village prosperity appears to be autographing baseball cards, which kids then sell for more than the usual amount, because of his local rock-star- like signature on them.

“Join us,” says Rich.  “You’ll enjoy yourselves.”  Next GLP trip to Guatemala will be February 17 next year, “so get your warm pajamas ready.  It can be cold at a 5,000 foot elevation,” added Gloria Strayer. 

Rich exchanging club flags with Howard, president of the co-sponsoring Guatemala Rotary Club of Vista Hermosa. 

 Going on a humanitarian trip is one of the most deeply rewarding opportunities Rotary offers.  “Our absolute last date for club pledges is January 1, 2017,” says Jessica Stieritz, CoEd’s Liaison for Rotary International’s Guatemala Literacy Project.  Jessica also plans the Guatemala Project Tour itineraries, like the one coming up in February of 2017.   See that your Club makes a pledge, and get ready for a trip you will never forget.