Found a Library for 250 Mayan Kids in Guatemala

At Instituto Privado Mixto Kajib’ No’j everybody helps.  When our small team arrived in July, third graders were sweeping the garden area with adult-sized brooms.  “They’re here,” they shouted in Spanish and K’iche’, and quickly returned those oversized brooms to their proper container, one made of recycled water bottles.  The kids’ enthusiasm is contagious.  Students, ages five to sixteen, know the opportunity that lies before them.  Most of their parents went to school for two years.  Kajib’ No’j provides eleven years of education, preschool through ninth grade.

Thanks to you, GlobalGiving supporters, and to our partners at the Austrian Guatemalan Institute, Kajib’ No’j now offers a school library as well.  Here elementary teachers plan lessons while referencing Guatemalan-published textbooks, and middle school students read some of the world’s great literature.  In fact, the school recently celebrated their own Día del Libro, or Day of the Book.  In the gymnasium parents browsed the literature that From Books to Brilliance provided.  Students then acted out scenes from their favorite books.

Just a few weeks ago, our team added one hundred children’s books, as well as dozens of games and puzzles to this new library.  Class by class, the youngest students at Kajib’ No’j filed in to see these exciting new resources.  Preschoolers couldn’t wait to put together the puzzle with the giraffes, monkeys and elephants.  First-graders loved the Mayan alphabet book…G for Güipil and Q for Quetzal.  In planning for the future, teachers requested class sets of textbooks for grades one through six.

Students are proud of their school that the Austrian Guatemalan Institute founded over twenty years ago. “The kids bring their own supplies,” says Principal Pedro Euligio. They carry backpacks with pencils, erasers, scissors and rulers.  They know that learning is a privilege that will lead to better opportunities for themselves, their families and their communities.  The faculty and students at Kajib’ No’j asked us to thank you all!