The Guatemala Literacy Project (GLP) is an initiative to provide badly needed textbooks, library materials, and computer centers to underprivileged children in Guatemala.

The Project has been supported by over 350 Rotary Clubs. To see a list of these clubs, click here. To see a list of individual Rotarians leading the project, click here.

Since 1998, the textbook program has been brought to many impoverished rural communities. There are over 29,000 students using textbooks at 191 schools. The GLP has also founded 48 self-funding computer centers, 20 literacy programs, and 49 school libraries. The project already serves 10% of the country's neediest secondary schools and is working with the goal of ensuring that no child in Guatemala grows up without the gift of both traditional and technological literacy.

Why Guatemala?

Torn by years of Civil War and a neglected system of education, Guatemala has one of the lowest literacy rates in the Western Hemisphere. In some regions, nearly three out of every four adults cannot read or write. These staggering statistics are largely the result of an absence of fundamental learning tools.

• Over 90% of schools lack textbooks and basic library books.
• Fewer than 5% of children have ever used a computer.

Most Guatemalan schoolchildren graduate without the skills needed to get mid-level jobs and are therefore condemned to a life of ignorance, poverty, and discrimination.