Growing the Future.

The community education association Niñ@s del Lago is a secular, apolitical, social non-profit institution created by the San Pedro Spanish School in San Pedro La Laguna, Sololá, Guatemala in 2003 to support the education for children of scarce resources in this municipality. Nevertheless, in May of 2006 a total restructuring of this program was necessary to establish a teaching platform specifically for the children. With this restructuring we established our mission, vision, objective, values and goals.

We are an educational humanitarian organization that supports the dreams and hopes for less fortunate children of our community through a formation of values and an education contextualized toward a global perspective.

Is to sow the seeds today the values in the children of our community for a better quality of life.

General

• To improve the quality of life of the children with regard to comprehensive education, health care, and nutrition.

Specific

• To teach principles and values.
• To provide help in with tasks and school lessons.
• To supply the necessary materials for their studies and activities.
• To provide health care to the children and food to the families of each child.

Honesty

Our work carries assurance that our children will benefit directly.

Perseverance

Our work, despite difficulties, will move forward and will always be to help the less fortunate children.

Kindness

To take on the needs and interests of the children as if they were our own.

Dignity

To treat the children as true human beings and not like objects; to accept them for which they are and not for which they have or they do not have.

Respect

To respect the physical and emotional integrity of the children.

Solidarity

To help with the needs of each one of our children.

Education

The financing destined to the public education in Guatemala is barely 1.8 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) which significantly impacts the quality and availability of the educational system. In the remainder of Latin America and The Caribbean it is 4.4 percent.

Association Niñ@s del Lago was created to support the needs of the people in San Pedro La Laguna which is one of the 332 municipalities of Guatemala with 58% of poverty and 29% of extreme poverty. Contradictorily of the 11 establishments (that harbor 20 educational centers of different levels) that operate in this municipality: 65% is in the hands of the private initiative and 35% in the hands of the public sector. Nevertheless this last sector would not be able to function without the economic expenses provided to the parents of the family in inscription, school equipment, etc. These two problems, poverty and near total privatization of the education system, reduce the opportunities for a quality education. The majority of the parents of the children of our project work as laborers and housewives earning between Q25.00 to Q40.00 per day. Association Niñ@s del Lago does not only support students with desires to graduate with a scholarship of studies, but also works directly with them through the following educational activities each day:

The association offers the students health care as a measure of prevention.

• Dental
• Vision
• General medical check

We also contribute food for the families of the children as a form of economical aid.

Involve more children with the desire to achieve success.

Form a children's library.

To purchase land for the project.

Contact new sponsors for the general financing of the Association and directly sponsoring one of our children by donating $20 monthly for primary level and $40 monthly for the secondary level.

Volunteers for periods from 6 to 12 months.