Amigos first effort was to help provide classroom books and school supplies to Santa Cruz students. The public school system in Guatemala provides very little support to primary schools. A community gets a building, if they are lucky, and the teachers meager salaries are paid be the government. Very few if any supplies are provided and it is the responsibility of families to provide each  of their children with a long list of school supplies and books at the beginning of each school year. Because most families in Santa Cruz cannot not afford to purchase school supplies for each of their children, historically, fewer than half the children were able to attend school and were sent to work in the fields instead. Amigos has been committed to removing  financial barriers to families and to making primary and basico education accessible to all children in our communities. We partner with the government and other organization, as well as families, to provide needed school supplies to each child at the beginning of each school year, thereby making attendance possible for all children.  Our attendance rate has doubled in the past 10 years with a 98% currently enrollment

NUTRITIONAL SNACK PROGRAM

Children who come to school hungry struggle harder to learn. Amigos provides a hot nutritional snack to all 400 school children every day of the school year. The snack is prepared by the mothers who work on a rotating volunteer basis in the school kitchen every morning. A hot nutritional soy based protein rich drink, Encaparina, is prepared daily. Fresh fruit, hard boiled egg, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are served on alternating days. The whole wheat bread is baked locally and the peanut butter is produced by the women. The children all help to gather and serve the snack to their classmates for many of whom this is their best most nutritious meal of the day.

COMPUTER EDUCATION

We believe that computers and related technology are powerful educational tools thar can help transform the world, one community at a time, when used consciously to effect positive change. The information and resources available via the Internet can empower and equalize people across the all borders of the globe.

When we started our computer education project in 2005, we envisioned students studying subject matter otherwise unavailable to them, town leaders accessing resources needed to help find solutions to problems that plague this community such as water shortages, poor sanitation, lack of health care and health education, illiteracy and infant mortality. We hoped to bring this technology and skills to the people of Santa Cruz so that they may begin to use these tools to transform their world into a safer, healthier and more flourishing community.

Now, in 2007, we are well on our way. Thanks to a generous private donation  of equipment, our computer lab is up and running with classes being held everyday for both primary and secondary students as well as interested adults. The students are starting to learn how to communicate with the rest of the world via the internet and global tools such as Google.  There is a sense of great pride for this unique community resource and already many doors have opened for young people interested in expanding their awareness of the world around them.

TEACHER TRAINING

While Amigos believes strongly in public education and access to education for all, there is little that we can do directly to change the way the national education system works in Guatemala. We can, however, strive to provide as much assistance as possible to help our teachers become better and more effective at what they do in the classrooms.

Through alliances with our sister school in Pinckney Michigan, Amigos sponsors on-going teacher improvement  efforts and training opportunities for the teachers of Santa Cruz. Every summer for the past 4 years, teachers from the US  have come to Santa Cruz to offer inservice trainings, model classroom teaching techniques and generally act as resources for teacher improvement. A rich cultural exchange between Pinckney and Santa Cruz schools has been established over the past few years whereby the best of the Santa Cruz teachers have been invited to visit the schools and community of Pinckney, an experience that provides a rich expereince for these teachers that can have a lasting impact on how they work with children.