Hello,

Peyton and Joe here. We are writing this from Esquipulas, Guatemala. Where we have spent the last 4 months as part of the Benedictine Volunteer Corps. During our time here we have partaken in a few different projects. One of them being working at a school in a small nearby village.

The initial goal was for us to teach the kids, but each week we are reminded that maybe there is more for us to learn from them. The infectious energy that the kids have makes us forget that they have so little. Our goal with this fundraiser is to help them in any way that we can.

The village is called San Pedro Jagua de las Peñas. The school is K-6 and has about 30 students in total. When we first started working we realized there was a lot of potential for us improve the learning experience for the students.

In conversations with the director of the school we asked which areas needed the most improvement and where our help could make the biggest impact for the students. Without hesitation his reply was "Books". He went on to say that every year he struggles to provide the students with the books necessary for their education. In America, it is something that we take for granted. Having books that keep up the ever changing curriculum and provide basic/up to date education. Here, they are stuck with old and damaged books. The hunger for learning is here but they don't have the tools to satisfy it.

BOOKS (How can you help?)

It's about $15 per PDF book. It costs about $70 per kid to provide them with the necessary books for the whole year.

The second area that could use financial help is a kitchen. As of now each student receives 6 Quetzal (~$0.77) per day from the government. This money's purpose is to pay for daily school meals that should be prepared in the schools kitchen. Our school does not have a kitchen so the director is forced to put together meal packages that are supposed to go each student. Due to the lack of funds locally, it ends up being a meal package for the whole family instead of feeding that student during the school day. Rather than lasting the intended week, the students often come to class with empty stomachs by Wednesday. Having a kitchen will allow each student to eat a meal each day. Learning is a lot easier when you don't have to worry about when your next meal is coming.

KITCHEN (How can you help?)

$0.30 1 lb rice

$1.03 1 lb beans

$1.80 1 lb chicken

Eco Waterfilter:

$28 per filter (Provides clean water for about 2 years)

At the end of the day, this group is just like any other group of 6-12 year old kids. They love to play and goof around. Any additional funds we raise after taking care of the books and the kitchen, will be put towards things like basketballs, board games, toys, and other items to make coming to school as fun as possible.

We realize that we are not able able to solve all of the problems here but as we keep hearing here in Guatemala "Algo es Algo" or "Every little bit counts".

Here are some photos: