“The education children receive can help them fully develop their personalities, talents, and abilities; enable them to understand their  rights, respect the rights and culture of others, and the differences between others and themselves; at the same time, help them learn to live in harmony with others and help them learn to love and integrate into  nature and protect the environment”.

Convention on the Rights of the Child. Article 29

School dropout is a problem that the Guatemalan educational system has not been able to overcome. Encouraging the child to continue in school is imperative to achieve their integral development since a child without motivation will hardly leave the circle of poverty.

Therefore, it is important to recognize that each child is unique and special, and deserves the opportunity to be guided, since derived from recent events, they will have many obstacles

and we must not forget that, regardless of age, returning to the classroom would not be easy for students, because according to UNESCO this can generate in them “fears related to their ability to summarize the learning process” especially for those who have not had access to distance education programs during the period of confinement and have disconnected of their studies and school (ANA OLA, 2020).

Niños del Lago work with local municipalities, public schools, parents, and teachers in order to find those children most in need. We will also reach out to both teachers who are interested in improving their teaching skills and parents by providing a variety of workshops.

“Access to technology and materials necessary to continue studying while schools remain closed is notably unequal. Similarly, children who do not have enough help to study at home have little means to facilitate their education. It is essential to provide a diversity of
educational tools and expand internet access for each school and for each child.”

UNICEF (June 2020)

Unfortunately, due to COVID protocols, the Stay in School program will not be able to begin until government regulations allow it to work closely with tutoring classes for elementary-level public school children. As Covid response: we create the Keep Studying sub-program to continue supporting the education of Guatemalan children in need.

We have been in contact with schools and community authorities in Panajachel and San Andrés Semetabaj to learn first-hand about the needs that have arisen as a direct consequences of the pandemic.

These are the main challenges:

• The high cost of internet service making it unavailable to low-income families.
• Only 27.36% of homes in urban areas and 3.52% of homes in rural areas have internet. (Population and Housing Census, 2018)
• Education during 2021 will be a big challenge for the poorest communities and villages where there is little or no electricity and internet access.

Niños del Lago will focus on creating FREE Community Internet Centers in different locations of Panajachel and in some villages in the rural area of San Andrés Semetabaj.

To operate and organize the Community Internet Centers, Niños del Lago is working in partnership with civil associations, community leaders, public school principals and local authorities.

These community centers, depending on the particular needs of each area, will support primary, secondary, high school, university students, and teachers who are in the public education system.

We expect to reach 800 students and teachers in urban areas and up to 500 students and teachers in rural areas.  

Now, more than ever, Guatemalan children need support in education. Ninos del Lago is grateful to all their supporters, so they are able to deliver the important benefits offered by the Stay in School Program.