Program of grants in rural Guatemala
The Sisters of the orden „Dominicas de la Anunciata“ are also running other schools and boarding schools , beside that one near the main landfill in Guatemala City. There is for example a boarding school in Lancetillo , in the Department del Quiché , a rural area , without much development and only very poor medical services . Eines davon befindet sich in Lancetillo , einer ländlichen , sehr wenig entwickelten Gegend, wo insbesondere die medizinische Versorgung unzureichend ist.
The director of the school – at that time it was Sister Maria Teresa- told us, that many of the young women dreamt of becoming auxiliary nurses . Many of them come from large families, are very poor or are orphans as a result of the former civil war. They cannot pay for the training , which lasts 12 months and costs about 2.400.- USD. After their graduation they can earn about 400.- USD per month.
For these women this training is very important . It strengthens their selfesteem and they get a lot of recognition. Besides , they can work for the community and for other women. Traditionally the women are responsible for the families` health ,especially in the indigenous communities .
Since 2009 we are each year supporting the training of 2 or 3 young women. Their parents often still are analfabets . And then these young women have to advance by absorbing a great quantity of medical stuff in compact form and they also have to learn how to stitch up wounds or to lay infusions etc. For them it is a huge step and therefore , once in a while one of the women fails : she cancels the training and prefers to marry or to emigrate to the USA . Others , on the contrary, are very ambitious and become the best of their classes.
Some of them want to continue studying and to become a professional nurse. This training lasts 3,5 years and we are also offering to pay for this education .
Besides, there are schools for kindergarden teachers as in Lancetillo as in Chichicastenango , where a lot of young women are interested to study. They become preschool bilingual teachers for the inidgenous population . This training lasts 3 years and is not very expensive, because the young women who are elected could live together with the sisters in the boarding schools and could help them a bit.
Popular is also the grant for absolving the „bachillerato“ (university entrance qualification), this lasts 2 years and costs 607.- USD each year. Since 2023 we have a new grant to give for becoming a lawyer , it lasts 3 years, costs 1.406.- USD per year and finally there is the possibility to absolve the training for becoming an accountant.
We only support w o m e n , without exception.
In the year 2023 he have given 17 grants for 6 different professions in 3 different places, i.e. in Lancetillo, in Chichicastenango and in Nebaj, the total sum for this is up to 13.500.- USD.
Es werden ausschließlich Frauen gefördert.
Finally we have to admit that we lack a bit of evaluation of the project : we would like very much to get to know how are the changes of these young women`s lives whom we had supported so much after the end of their training ? How many have got jobs ? What exactly are they doing ?How much money are they earning ?
We had already started with the evaluation , but we have to get to know a lot of more items .
