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Gabriel teaching one of the groups

Gabriel supervising one of the compost pil

Liliana Moscoso

Victor (standing) with one of the groups during his Math classes in Patzicía

Estefany (right) during one of her clases with 3 students learning how to play flutes and reading of the musical notes

One of the students showing some of the usable objects made of recycled materials. Inserted Benjamin García Barreno.

One of the students showing some of the usable objects made of recycled materials. Inserted Benjamin García Barreno.

 

Composting...The Making Of Organic Fertilizer

Gabriel Vidal Lopez Diaz, 23, graduated as a specialist in Agronomy and carried out this interesting project in his community El Limonar, Jacaltenango, in the department of Huehuetenango. El Limonar is an agricultural community and according to Gabriel due, to the poor state of the local soil, the majority of residents have had to increase their use of chemical fertilizers which in the end further depletes the soil. This problem led Gabriel to propose to the local authorities that he teach them how to make organic fertilizer using natural materials which the farmers already have, including corn stalks, leaves and manure. His proposal was accepted by a group of neighbors and in the end about 20 people participated in the workshops on making organic fertilizer.

Gabriel began with a discussion of the importance of using organic fertilizers and the long term disadvantages of using chemical fertilizers. In the second part of the workshop he demonstrated how to compost materials in order to make natural fertilizer and how to care for the compost by providing the correct temperature and humidity in order to have a more successful outcome. In the third part of the training each of the participants put together their own compost on their own lands and Gabriel supervised the elaboration of each effort. The final part of the training involved supervising the care of each compost pile for three months while the putrefying process took place. In the end each participant obtained several sacks of organic fertilizer which not only improved their crop but also returned nutrients to the soil.

As Gabriel reported, his project helped the farmers: 1.) to use less chemical fertilizer and thus save money, 2.) to use their own resources to create natural fertilizer, 3.) to begin a process of restoring the natural nutrition to their soil, and, 4.) to improve the quality of their products, since they no longer were using so many chemicals.

Tutoring and Teaching Mathmatics to Secondary School Students

One of the common deficiencies in Guatemalan education is adequate development of mathematic skills. In most cases this is because the system lacks teachers who have received specialized training in this field. For this reason Victor Manuel Choy, 26, a student in the 4 th year of civil engineering decided that a good project for him would be to donate his time teaching mathematics to two groups of students who were attending the only secondary school in his native town of Patzicia , Chimaltenango. In this school the students graduate as food processing technicians. The school is sponsored by a Mayan organization whose aim is to save the forests and teach techniques of sustainable agriculture. It is their hope that by teaching students to process their harvests into things such as jams and jellys, sauces and soups they will be able to raise the family income.

Victor did some investigation and found out that the mathematics teacher in the school had had no special training for teaching mathematics. Since Victor had studied a lot of mathin his courses as an engineer it was not difficult for him to explain the basic principles and operations.. Because Patzicia is relatively close to our office we were able to visit Victor during one of his classes and we heard from students that they had learned much more from Victor than they had from the regular course teacher. One of the groups even asked him to continue with the classes and become the regular teacher.

In summarizing his experience, Victor indicated that it was very satisfying for him to help 25 students from his own town get a better grounding in mathematics. He observed that they also became much more interested in math, a subject that many students dislike.

Students Community Service

In 2009 our Program began asking all our students to do small projects of community service in their own villages and towns as a way of sharing with their communities the benefits of their education. After this first year, our Administrative Committtee was very pleased with the results of this new project and we decided to continue this requirement. It has not been easy since the projects have meant a whole new and time consuming task for our office staff but as you will see, it is worth the effort. This has been  one of the biggest successes of our program in recent years!! Keep reading and get inspired with the work done by our students.

Community Service Projects

Rubidia Matías Ramírez entered the program in 2009 and has proven to be an excellent student. She hopes to graduate as a professional nurse in the middle of 2013. This is the third community service project she has completed. Last year she worked with children on a “Healthy Mouth” project. She worked with a local organization which donated tooth brushes and tooth paste to the children who completed the workshop.

Rubidia began this year’s project, "Promoting Adolescent Health", in July and finished at the end of September. She worked in conjunction with the government health center with a group of 40 students meeting with them on weekends and discussing themes such as: physical development, mental health, nutrition, sexually transmitted diseases, accidents and first aid. In order to make the sessions more impactful she divided the larger student group into smaller groups of 10 and met with them in their home communities of Pueblo Nuevo and San Pablo, Ixcán. Both of these rural communities were gravely affected by the 36 years of civil war in this country.

Jesús Aniceto Veláquez comes from the municipality of Tacana, San Marcos located in the far western part of the country 323 kilometers from the capital. He recently finished his community service project which he titled “My Community is Green”. He gave workshops in his community for both young people and adults which focused on protecting and improving the environment. Along with members of the community he created a nursery of 4,000 trees which will now be replanted on a piece of land owned by the community. The major purpose of the workshop was to increase awareness of the appropriate use of water and the need to moderate the cutting of trees. He also discussed the preservation of soil and other natural sources while at the same time using these resources to generate income.

Workshops for Women in Making Decisions

Rosa Amalia Soloman is a fourth year social work student and did her project in two villages in her community. The objective of the project was to strengthen the participation of indigenous women in decision-making in their communities. This was done in an area where the majority of women are illiterate and have very little participation in community organizations. In her project, Rosa dealt with themes like self-esteem, sex equality, the importance of women in the community, how to participate, and how to involve the whole community. At the end of the project, some of the women committed to run for office in the next local elections.

Training for Midwives

This project was executed in the small village of Santa Cruz Verapaz in the Department of Alta Verapaz by Liliana Moscoso Aldana, 35, a student in the second year of the professional nursing program. Liliana worked as an auxiliary nurse and noticed that in the rural area the majority of pregnant women give birth with the aid of a midwife rather than a doctor. She explains that while the majority of midwives have received various trainings relating to the delivery of babies, very few have received any training in related areas such as sexually transmitted diseases, psychological support for the patient and the importance of follow up medical treatment for mother and baby including vaccinations.

In response to this need Liliana offered seven educational workshops for the midwives providing information in these areas and help in identifying other areas of risk for the mothers and babies. In addition Liliana included motivational themes aimed at validating the work that these largely uneducated women perform. Liliana explained that she felt very satisfied with this aspect of the workshops in that she managed to gain the confidence of these women and to raise their self esteem...so much so that the women decided to continue their studies in spite of their somewhat advanced age and the fact that they hadn't studied for many years.

In addition to the other topics, Liliana taught the women how to give injections so that they will now be able to help the only nurse in their area give vaccinations and other injections. Finally Liliana said that she also learned a lot, especially about the plants which are used in traditional Mayan medicine, something that the midwives knew a lot about. We think that this project was a good example of how community service can help our students as well as their communities.

Basic Music Classes for Poor Students

This project was realized by Estefany Munoz Ajqui, 22, who is in her fourth and last year of music education. She lives in El Tejar, Chimaltenango, a small town about 50 kilometers from Guatemala City . Estefany decided to do her project with Fundit, the organization which helped her during her primary and middle school years. Fundit provides scholarships to students from poor families and also runs a pre-school for the children of working mothers.

As Estefany explained it, some of the children exhibited musical talent but neither Fundit nor their parents had money to pay for a music teacher so she offered her services. She began by gathering a group of 10 children between the ages of 10 and 13 and then arranged to borrow guitars, flutes and a marimba which were owned by the municipality. They began by studying the basics of playing an instrument including recognizing and reading the musical notes, rhythm, and the execution of simple melodies for children.

Estefany concluded her report by saying that it was very satisfying for her to see how children who never thought they would ever have a chance to receive music lessons were so happy to have a chance to demonstrate their talent. Besides that, Estefany was pleased to be able to help the organization which had helped her to begin her studies.