SAN JORGE DE LA LAGUNA

AUGUST 2007  We will update this page soon. Photo's can be found on the Blog! Progress on this project is being made!

MAYAN FAMILIES. 

PROPOSAL FOR FUNDING FOR SAN JORGE DE LA LAGUNA SCHOOL.

San Jorge la Laguna is a small village between Sololá and Panajachel. The population is entirely Indigenous. The language spoken is Kaqchikel.   

We have been involved with this school for the last year.  We were fortunate to get funding to put in a water tank so that the toilets could flush and the children would be able to wash their hands. 

We have also supplied this school with a typewriter, desks, paint and school supplies. The teachers are doing a great job with very limited supplies. 

The school has 552 students. Many of them do not learn to speak Spanish until they come to school. 

The school has an assembly area between two rows of classrooms. It is dirt and very rocky. This is the place that the children play. It is also where they hold any kind of activity or performance.  They also hold general meetings there with the parents.   

During the wet season this area becomes a flooded muddy river.  It makes the area unusable and because the children have to be crossing it, they track mud into the classrooms making the classrooms very dirty.  

The school director has asked us if we could put cement there and make it level so that children will not be falling over, so that it will not be muddy in the wet season so that it can be used year round. 

Ideally, they would like it also to have a corrugated tin roof connecting the two rows of classrooms. This would provide protection from the sun during the summer and protection from the rain during the winter. This would then make it a wonderful space for the children to utilize. 

They would be able to have performances there, general assemblies, a space to be able to eat, to make craft projects, play basketball, have meetings, it would give them another space to use when the classrooms are unavailable.  It would also provide a space for the parents for their meetings. At present, they have to line up along each classroom for protection from the sun and rain. 

We would monitor this project with an employee of ours. He would buy all the materials and be responsible for all receipts.  He would monitor the work on a regular basis.  He would be the contact between Mayan Families and the school.

Patti and Sharon would be visiting the school regularly as well. 

The parents have always been very involved and helpful in this school. They helped paint the school with the paint that we donated. They have helped with monitoring the water tank.  

At the end of the project we would provide photos and letters from the school. I know that this project would be a huge benefit to this school and the community. 

We thank you for giving us this opportunity.    Mayan Families.

If you, your friends, group, school, scout troop, place of Worship or your Organization would like to donate to this project, please contact us at

e-mail:  mayanfamilies@yahoo.com

More News to come!