Child Aid
Literacy, Education, Opportunity
Location: Guatemala
Sponsor: Charles Baum
Child Aid: Grantee in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021
Child Aid works to improve the literacy rate among the indigenous people living in the rural villages of Guatemala. Guatemala has the highest levels of illiteracy in the entire Western Hemisphere, a situation that severely hampers the prospects and overall life choices of the population of this country.
Child Aid’s mission is to focus on young children; it targets educational support to students in the early grades where progress can have the most lasting, and meaningful, impact. Their efforts focus on providing both teacher training and classroom materials that enhance the learning experience for the students. Of note, they make it a priority to build a relationship with the National Bureau of Education.
Their initial efforts were concentrated in the Lake Atitlan region; success there is prompting them to validate a scalable model for educational improvements that can reach a broader population.
More recently, success in expansion to new locations resulted in the realization that the continued growth Child Aid has planned requires consistent, interconnected and rationalized processes that can result in “turn-key” offices with equal quality in new locations to educate additional indigenous populations.
For more information, see: www.child-aid.org/
GRANT SUMMARY AND PURPOSE
2016: $25,000 to fund four additional teacher trainers (referred to as CTLs) and upgrade some current CTLs to leadership positions. This will result in a transition to more locally-managed operations while also reaching an additional 7-8,000 students each year. If successful, CA will have a template for rolling out programs both across Guatemala and other Central American regions.
2017: $25,000 to hire three new literacy trainers to reach 210 teachers in 20 schools. These schools serve 5,000 students where illiteracy is disproportionately high.
2018: $25,000 will support a major portion (55%) of a new Facebook-based training and networking program for CA teachers. The virtual training program will cover useful tips for curriculum and content production while also serving to keep teachers connected and feeling supported. It will also provide analytics and tools for pilot evaluation.
2019: $25,000 to help establish a new district hub in a remote location to reach more indigenous children, by funding office equipment, rent, travel expenses and a portion of salary for the three Guatemalan nationals implementing the new hub.
2021: A $30,000 grant will be used to create processes, systems, and tools necessary to expand internal collaboration, curriculum development, training/mentoring scheduling and tracking, government relationship management, social media and content management, financials, and donor management.
IMPACT
Improve reading comprehension by 65% among indigenous people living in rural villages of Guatemala. Scaling and increasing sustainability through expansion to a new region staffed and led by Guatemalans.
