Pencils of Promise

Parcelamiento Preschool (Guatemala)

Open: February 2011

In the village of Parcelamiento El Molino San Pedro, Guatemala there was an early education center filled with 35 curious children and 2 engaging teachers.

These enthusiastic 2 to 5 year olds continued to smile even though their school was made of rotting plywood and rusty corrugated metal. The little schoolhouse, which housed two sections of pre-school aged children, was actually one big room divided into 2 by a shoddily constructed partition.  There was no insulation and sound traveled easily between the two rooms, distracting the children and making teaching difficult.

But this was nothing compared to the health risks the school presented.  In the summer, Guatemala’s blistering sun heats up the tin walls, causing heat, hydration and, on occasion, injury if a child presses his skin to the burning walls. In the winter, the situation would become just as serious when water would rush into the classroom through cracks in the metal sheets and wooden planks. In fact, one of the teachers called the school nuestro pozo or “our well” because of the quantity of water that would fill the classrooms. The conditions were so bad that students fell ill and parents pulled their children out of school. Last year, there were ten children regularly missing from school during wintertime. Year round, there was an even higher number of pre-school aged children who did not attend school altogether, out of fear of what harm the dilapidated structure may cause.

Though the center was undervalued and underfunded by the municipal government and education ministry, the parents of the students who attend this early education center knew how important it was as a place of learning and socialization for their littlest ones. They enthusiastically worked with Pencils of Promise to build a safer structure in which their children can begin their educational careers.

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