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Volunteering with the Mayan Children of Santa Maria, Guatemala
- Miss Sharon Hodgkins, Teacher of Art, Bradfield School
In July and August 2006 I was given the opportunity to spend 6 weeks working as a volunteer with the Mayan children of Santa Maria de Jesus in Guatemala. The children in the village do not have access to education in school because their parents are very poor and are unable to afford the fee of £25 for a year of education.
I worked for a volunteer agency called GVI who have a project for approximately 70 of the village children. Our job was to teach basic literacy and numeracy skills to the children in a morning and afternoon class. The lessons were taught in Spanish although the children's first language was Kaqchikal - a Mayan language. I loved my work there and enjoyed being a member of a very different community and culture. I lived with a local Guatemalan family in the nearby town of Antigua and this enabled me to practise my less than fluent Spanish!
The days I spent with the children were wonderful. They were so enthusiastic and desperate to learn. They and their family see education as a way out of poverty and if they are able to learn to read and write in Spanish and use basic Maths, then they have the possibility of improving their future prospects. A half day in the project also allows them to mix with other children and have a break away form their hard daily work in the fields or home. A smile or laughter from the children is a great reward!
On my return to school, I decide to try and raise awareness of the lives of the Mayan children and also to raise money to sponsor some of the children so that they could attend school. My target for the coming year was £5000 but I was amazed and thrilled that the children, staff and parents at Bradfield School cared so much about the Mayan children that we actually raised over £6500. We achieved this by producing calendars and cards from my photographs, sponsored activities, a salsa evening and Gift Aid donations.
This year, I returned to work in the project for 3 weeks in August and was able to hand over a cheque which would send 280 children to school. I consider myself very lucky and fortunate to have been given the chance to use my teaching skills to help children who do not have access to the things which we take for granted and hopefully they will now have hope for the future.
- October 2007
