The Mayan people in Guatemala have been subjected to centuries of oppression and genocide, resulting in greater social and economic inequality today than in any other country in Latin American–which in turn has greater inequality than any other region in the world. Because of the government’s tepid support for its public schools, scholarship costs are much greater in Guatemala than in any other country where CBB has sponsored projects.

CBB’s scholarships in Guatemala are awarded to former street children, girls from mining families, and daughters of single mothers living in the outskirts of the city of Quetzaltenango. Scholarships pay a girl’s school fees and buys her school uniform, shoes, textbooks and school supplies. Even public primary school is expensive in Guatemala, more so than in any other country where CBB has given scholarships, and costs increase sharply as a girl goes from primary school to middle school.

Gleni and Sandy, two sisters shown here, were both out of school, as their single mother struggled to earn enough money to provide adequate food for them and their brothers. Both girls were put back in school with CBB scholarships.

The family of five had to lived in a house with no electricity or running water that became flooded whenever it rained. The girls’ mother had become despondent when their father abandoned the family as she struggled and yet was unable to make ends meet. Nonetheless, she was so encouraged by her daughters receiving scholarships from CBB that she found a better paying job, even saving enough money to move the family into a house with electricity and running water.

A project director’s story

The project Estudia con Amor (Study with Love), was named by its director, Sandra Alonzo, a skilled but low income Mayan mother who herself received scholarships for her daughters.

Sandra’s family home had no running water or sanitation facilities. Yet, she knew of families poorer than hers. Her family has enough food to eat, she said, but others do not, and it is the daughters of these even poorer families for whom she arranges CBB scholarships. Through her work with CBB Sandra says she has learned that “the impossible doesn’t exist”.