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Guatemalan Voices

Guatemalan students and their parents take full advantage of the opportunities CoEd provides.

Behind the Statistics

In the communities that CoEd serves, families subsist on $3–$6 a day. They live hand-to-mouth, with little access to education and no hope for a better future. Parents in these remote towns and villages want more for their children. That’s where CoEd comes in. We provide educational opportunities to impoverished Guatemalan schoolchildren that help them:

Read on to learn the stories of our program beneficiaries.

Moises and Deili

Although Moises is illiterate, he knows the value of an education. “One day I went to the bank to cash a check,” he recalls. “The teller told me he couldn’t give me my money because I hadn’t signed (the check), but I didn’t know how. I was alone and no one would help me. At that moment I promised myself that I would never let any of my children suffer the same humiliation.”

Moises has nine children, and he intends to keep them all in school. His daughter, Deili, is learning about computers for the first time thanks to the CoEd computer center that came to her village of San Vicente Buenabaj in 2009. “What excites me most is learning about the world,” she says. She knows the computers will help her learn more about the medical field and one day reach her goal of becoming a physician.

Timoteo, Julio, and Marena

Julio is likely to become the first member of his family to go to high school.

His father, Timoteo, dropped out in the third grade. Julio’s mother, Marena, never went to school at all—an unfortunate reality for many indigenous women. The family could not afford to educate Julio’s two older siblings.

Julio dreams of becoming an accountant or a teacher. That dream just may become reality, thanks to CoEd. Timoteo knows that, although they “have a long way to go to get out of this darkness,” education provides a beacon of light to young Guatemalans struggling to rise out of poverty.

More Voices of CoEd