Guatemala has the lowest literacy rate in Latin America and for indigenous women, the situation is even worse: As many as 75% of the women in the communities where we work cannot read or write. Child Aid is working to change this by developing partnerships with schools like Socorro de Belén.

Socorro, where Child Aid has been working for many years, trains young indigenous women from rural villages to be primary school teachers so they can bring literacy to their communities. (See blog posting for previous story on Socorro). The high school aged students come from nearly all of Guatemala’s 21 states and together speak at least 10 indigenous languages. For many of these young women, they are the first in their communities to finish high school and they will return to their towns with a teaching certificate.

Since we began working with Socorro, we replaced the library’s outdated, musty books with new storybooks, reference and text books. We helped the librarian catalogue the entire inventory and students are now able to borrow books through the lending program we helped them establish.

“Many of these young women had never read a book in its entirety before,” says Norman Guzman, Child Aid’s regional coordinator. “Now they read just for fun. One student says she can’t go to sleep without reading and is currently finishing the fifth book of the Harry Potter series.” (The books, in Spanish, were donated by Child Aid.)

These young women are beating the odds in Guatemala. They are multilingual and becoming the first in their families to graduate high school. They are developing a love of reading which they can pass on to children in their communities when they return as teachers. With continued support from Child Aid’s donors, even more young women will return to their home towns as motivated educators of literacy.