Guatemalan Literacy Project

Our Service Learning Project in 2009 involved raising over $900.00 for The Guatemala Literacy Project through the sale of Guatemalan friendship bracelets. Carolyn Johnson, a member of the Yarmouth Rotary Club, met with the 7th and 8th grade students to talk with them about the people in Guatemala and the challenges Guatemalan children face in order to get an education. She explained how the Guatemala Literacy Program (GLP), a partnership between Rotary Clubs and the non-profit organization, Cooperative for Education (CoEd), provides textbooks for middle-school students in the rural and poor areas of Guatemala. Mrs. Johnson has been a volunteer with the program for the past three years, and just returned from her 10th trip to Guatemala to work on this project.

The Yarmouth Rotary Board of Directors matched the money raised by our students for this project. The combined funds ($2000.00) meant that the HMS kids were able to sponsor a school in Guatemala this year. The school assigned to HMS is in a town called Pachute, way up in the Cuchumatanes mountain range, a very rural, beautiful, and quite primitive area. This area is in the northern part of Guatemala, near the border with Mexico.