Seeking Support for Healthy Schools in Guatemala
-- Benjamin McDonald, PCV
| After leaving Peace Corps in Gabon with the
emergence of the “Ebola fever outbreak” in March 2002,
I signed up with PC to do another tour in Guatemala, arriving in
January 2003. I had intended on going to Latin America to work
and learn after Gabon anyway. It was only because of Ebola that
PC got me there, and under such auspices I figured why not profiter
(French) aprovechar (Spanish) and become trilingual! Well, as folks
know who have studied a second foreign language, the first foreign
language is quickly supplanted by the second. My quelles quickly
became cuales and as much as I wanted to say merci-O, mama and
frere, I relented and accepted the timid gracias, seño and…well,
I still say hermano, even though I invariably have to explain my
unconventional familial connection afterwards. |
|
You can contribute
to this project via the Peace Corps web site at http://www.peacecorps.gov.
Click on the DONATE >
Latin America > Guatemala.
You can make contributions either
online or by check. Donations are tax deductible. Contribute Now! |
Much has transpired in PC Guatemala. Four months of
training passed joyfully and quickly (many excursions, which broke it
up). After I moved to Patzún
(land of sunflowers), where I began work on the “Healthy Schools” project.
This entails a strict weekly schedule to get up at 5:30 am four days
a week (yes, I’m bragging because hopefully it’s a chore
I’ll never have to do again) to go make schools and kids healthier,
and surprisingly, it actually works. Kids that have never brushed their
teeth before began doing so. Schools that never had running water, now
do. It gives you those fuzzy feelings that people envision in PC. The
program is really quite impressive.
This school year ended with a Peace
Corps project success: one of the three schools that I work with is going
to be certified as a “Healthy
School.” This means three things:
- the school has an infrastructure conducive to practicing healthy
habits, including such things as running and drinking water, latrines,
trash cans and a kitchen;
- all teachers are giving weekly health lessons to the kids;
and
- students are actually engaging in healthy practices
such as washing their hands before eating and after using the restrooms,
brushing their teeth every day after their school snack, and coming
to school clean.
As basic as these goals are, the vast majority of schools
in Guatemala do not meet them.
The project that I want to share with you and solicit your contribution
for is for one of the schools I work with called El Cojobal (Co-Ho-bal).
It is a school of three hundred students in a village outside of
Patzun. The community is very motivated and is working hard to meet
the goals of the Healthy Schools project. They have already successfully
solicited grant moneys from USAID to build a rainwater collection system
for running water as well as faucets. In order to meet the infrastructure
goal of the project though, the school still needs latrines and a kitchen.
To meet this need, I have worked with the community on developing a
grant through Peace Corps in which I can solicit funds from friends,
family and otherwise. Any donation amount that members of LGB RPCV
can make will go a very long way toward helping this community.
Ben can be reached
at lgbrpcv@lgbrpcv.org.
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