By Jennifer McCallum | Assistant to the Director
Here at EFTC all of our students have finished their 3rd unit of the 2021 school year and are entering their final unit. This is a crucial time, this is true every academic year however, more so now than ever before. All of our students have been virtual (or occasionally partly hybrid/in-person) due to continued government restrictions on Education in Guatemala.
Learning from home disproportionately affects young women as they often take on work in the house, caring for younger siblings and other household responsibilities. They have to juggle these aspects with continuing their education from a distance. Here at EFTC we are working with all of our students so that they can have the individualised support they need to succeed.
Although formal classes are currently highly restricted we have the ability as a Foundation to provide in-person support in other departments in covid-safe ways. We therefore have continued with i-person therapy when necessary, many workshops on education guidance, sexual health and general / mental health. As well as periodical meetings with students and their parents when a review of their progress or motivation is required.
We were also able to organise a "Saturday School" for older students, where teachers were recruited from local high schools and taught math, physics, accounting and computer science as those were the largest areas of need for our students. These specialised tutoring sessions and classes ran over the 12 weeks, with students attending 4 hours every weekend, so each topic was covered every week..
A huge community grew out of this Saturday School initiative. Not only was the education of these students directly supported but many more students found an extra connection to EFTC, their friends and their peers after almost a year of learning in isolation. Many of our staff visited on their own time just to see the students and classrooms being used one again!
As we enter this 4th unit we are working hard to adapt to not only the changing circumstances in Guatemala but also the changing needs of each student to ensure they succeed, academically and personally!
We are so excited to see all of these young women succeeding and continuing to grow despite the challenges in front of them.
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