Education Scholarships

In rural areas of Guatemala the ability to receive an education is difficult. Parents must pay for their child to stay in school after they have completed primary school. Most of the families in this region live on less that $2 a day. Many times the family consists of a single mother who has around 10 children from multiple fathers. Most of the adult men are migrant workers and have to move around to find work and when they leave to find work many never return. The mother is left to raise the children and cannot afford to pay for her sons and daughters to continue school. Children who come from families who cannot afford the cost of tuition must then go to work around age 11. The work for the men usually involves picking produce in the fields for 12+ a day and the women end up becoming mothers themselves as young teenagers. Offering children the ability to receive an education will provide them with the resources needed for breaking out of the cycle of poverty in which they are trapped.

Every January we travel to the village of San Juan Moca in southwest Guatemala and work with Pastor Rafael Trejo Pauc of the Mt. Sinai Baptist Church. Pastor Rafael planted the church in this community fourteen years ago because he felt God calling him to serve the poorest people of his country. All of our scholarship funds go through the church to the children of the community. We do this for a few reasons. First, it empowers the church to be an agent of change in the community. Second, it brings credibility to the Gospel by meeting the physical needs of the people in the same manner Jesus helped and healed those in need. And finally, it does not create a spirit of dependence on foreigners and maintains dignity to the people in the village.

It only costs $250 to send one child to school for an entire year. This can be given as a one-time gift of $250 or through a monthly reoccurring donation of $25. These funds go not only to pay for the tuition but to help provide school supplies that the families cannot afford.