Important News About Our Child Sponsorship Program
From the beginning of Mission Guatemala's Child Sponsorship program in 2011, individual and church sponsors have helped to provide many thousands of nutritious lunches to elementary school children here in San Andrés Semetabaj.
A new school year has now begun in Guatemala, and with it comes some news that we want to share with you. In late January, the community of Choquec requested that Mission Guatemala not continue the school lunch program in the coming year.
The residents of Choquec shared with us that the main reason for this change was that in this new school year, the Guatemalan Department of Education has allocated a substantially increased amount of money for the daily snack that the government provides in all public elementary schools.
In order for this expanded and more nutritious snack to be provided each day, it is going to be necessary for mothers from the community to begin to take turns preparing and serving the snack daily. Because of the time commitment that preparing this snack will require, the community told us that these same mothers felt that they would not have the time to be able to also volunteer to help prepare the lunch that Mission Guatemala has been providing through the sponsorship program.
While we are saddened by this decision from the community of Choquec, we understand the reason that they have presented for discontinuing the program, and we respect the decision that they have made. In everything that Mission Guatemala does, we work to seek community input and collaboration from the start of any program that we develop, and we also must provide the same respect for the community's desire for one of our programs to end.
We are thankful for the relationships we have had the opportunity to form with the children in Choquec, and though we will miss all of our young friends there, we also know that this change will provide us the opportunity to reach out into other communities that have even greater needs.
Although this program has ended, Mission Guatemala's focus and dedication to meeting nutrition needs in the areas that we serve continues!
As we begin to reach out to communities and identify areas of greatest need in the coming weeks, we will be sharing details about how you can get involved and continue to support the nutritional needs of underserved children in our area.
In the links below, you'll find some links to some of our favorite moments from Choquec over the past year!
New Desks and Chairs For Kindergarten Students
