As we begin replication of our Pathways to Literacy Project into the community of San Antonio de Chacayá, our local staff is working hard to ensure a smooth transition out of the Chukumuk Elementary School, where over the past three years we have built a fully functional, sustainable school library.

In addition to building literacy skills and training, the focus of our efforts has been to empower teachers and administrators to take complete ownership of library and its resources, thus embedding literacy activities in the fabric of the school and its classrooms.

This ownership goes hand-in-hand with a government-led initiative in Guatemala called Leamos Juntos (Let’s Read Together), which requires every teacher at public primary schools to design a year-long literacy plan for their students. 

However, whereas teachers in urban communities often receive more government attention, teachers in vulnerable schools such as Chukmuk have received little training on how to develop a plan for literacy activities. To fill this gap, Pueblo a Pueblo project staff recently led a workshop for ChukMuk teachers on how to develop an effective, age appropriate literacy plan. 

“It was inspiring,” said Montse, our Project Manager. “Every teacher in the school was inside the library searching for appropriate books for their students, using the school library database, and comparing ideas for activities.”

The next step is to schedule a second training later in the year, after which, according to the school principal, the teachers will travel to the town of Santiago to present their literacy plans with other schools.

With three out of four trainings successfully completed since the start of the new year, Pueblo a Pueblo’s Family Planning Champions (FPC) Project has already brought ten new women and their families into the fold of responsible family planning. Over the rest of the year, these women will become channels through which young women in their communities can access information and services that otherwise they might never have known existed.

An extension of our Maternal Child Health Project, the FPC Project enlists and trains local mothers to spread information on family planning and sexual and reproductive health to young women in their communities.

Behind the scenes few people put as much effort into the project as Wilma Mendoza Sosof, Pueblo a Pueblo’s standout social worker. Starting with a series of home interviews with potential participants, she recruits the most willing and able women around Santiago to be the project’s new champions for family planning. She then guides women on a four-day intensive course on the benefits of family planning and female reproductive health. Women then transmit this information to their peers by way of informal monthly meetings in their communities.

These monthly meetings serve to open dialogue on issues like spousal communication, reproductive health, family planning, and sexually transmitted diseases and strategies on how to avoid them. In addition, each champion is tasked with identifying five new women for the FPC project each year. As a result, the scope of the project grows organically.

According to Wilma, “although we have faced some challenges, for example initial lack of female participation, machismo culture, and a widespread belief that bigger families are better, we are now seeing real success. Both women and men are participating, and through their engagement they are building a strong understanding of these issues.”

“And in 2014,” she finishes, “it doesn’t seem to be slowing down.  When we started last year nobody wanted to participate, and now our levels of interest and participation are increasing rapidly. It’s exciting to think where we might be at this point next year.