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11 April 2010
"Our vision is to offer children born into poverty the opportunity to build a brighter future through full access to education."
Education for the Children Foundation was established in 2003. We are a registered charity in the UK, the registration number is 1099280.
On 5th October 2005, we also established a legal charitable foundation in Guatemala called Fundacion Educando A Los Niños.
The stated aims of the charity are:
- 'to advance the education of children in Central America by the provision of schools, school equipment and teaching personnel.'
- 'to relieve the poverty and sickness of children who are educated by the foundation, together with their families, by the provision of shelter, amenities, facilities and equipment, in any such charitable way as the charity trustees determine.'
Our Story So Far- Timeline of EFTC
2003
In June of 2003, we became aware of a small junior school for poor children in La Antigua, Guatemala. Due to the withdrawal of a major benefactor, it was about to close. We formed Education for the Children Foundation (EFTC) to raise the necessary funds to keep the school open. The school had 85 children and 5 teachers. Our annual budget to cover their shortfall was US$20,000. EFTC achieved official charitable status with the Charities Commission on 04th September 2003 and is registered charity number 1099280.
2004
We stabilised the school and during 2004, we raised standards of teaching and the quality of the materials. Numbers were unchanged but our budget increased to US$25,000. A foreign NGO, Suivi Du Project, carried out a survey on the school and made some far reaching recommendations and identified areas of weakness.
2005
Following on from the Suivi report and the success of our fundraising efforts, we decided to try to implement as many of the recommendations as we could afford. We took over, completely, the school and moved it to bigger and better premises in nearby Jocotenango. We created a formal structure with separate classes and teachers for each grade from pre-school to year 6. Numbers were increased to 153. There were 128 junior school students and 15 scholarships to senior school. Budget had increased dramatically to £55,000. To help fundraising, we instigated our dedicated child sponsorship programme.
Fundacion Educando a Los Ninos achieved official charitable status with the Guatemalan Government in October 2005.
2006
In January, we filled the school to capacity and extended our scholarship programme. Numbers were increased to 193. There were 175 junior school students and 18 scholarships to senior school. Our annual budget was now pushing £80,000.
As we got to know our children and families better, it became obvious that they desperately needed additional help if they were to have a chance of succeeding at school. Hurricane Stan had devastated the area. We rehoused our first family of 8 and instigated a small medical and psychological help programme through an North American NGO.
2007
Our scholarship students were struggling due to lack of supervision and inability to study at home (most had no light). We opened our own senior school with 75 students. Numbers were increased to 266. There were 175 junior school students, 75 senior school students and 14 further education scholarships.
Our social services offering started to grow due to chronic need. We took on a part time psychologist, increased our medical help programme and provided smoke free stoves to all our families. We took on our first legal case and rescued a family of 5 who were being repeatedly abused. We took another family into our care who had a child with leukaemia. If not, he would have not survived. By the end of the year we had 27 children receiving psychological treatment.
2008
Demand for free education among the poor in the area is huge. We moved our junior school to neighbouring San Felipe and increased our intake dramatically. We also increased the classes in our senior school. Numbers were increased to 404. There were 275 in junior school, 100 in senior school and 29 in further education scholarships. Our budget had risen to just under £200,000.
Our psychology programme had increased so much that we employed a full time psychologist. We had our first foreign scholarship awards and 2 young boys came to the UK to study English for a year. In an effort to create a permanent legacy towards the end of the year, we started a fundraising campaign to allow us to either build or buy our own school(s).
We finished the building of our “safehouse” which exists to provide care, food and shelter for the most vulnerable children. It houses children who have been orphaned, abused, neglected or who have serious life threatening illnesses
2009
Numbers were increased to 427. There were 279 in junior school, 101 in senior school and 47 in further education scholarships. This included our first 4 in University. Our budget had risen to £248,000.
We instigated our water filter programme and all families were given a safe water filter. We instigated sex, health and social education classes dealing with pregnancy prevention, alcohol and drug awareness and domestic and gang related violence. We built 3 new concrete houses bringing the total built by us to 5.
2010
Numbers were increased to 443. There were 275 in junior school, 100 in senior school and 68 further education scholarships. 2010 saw the first junior school graduation of a full class that had its entire education with the Foundation. Our Year 1 of 2005 graduated Year 6 in October. Our budget had risen to £280,000.
We finally completed the fundraising to allow us to begin the construction of a new purpose built school to house both our junior and senior schools. Construction began in January and was completed on time in November.
We lost our first student in 2010 to Dengue Fever. Due to an emergency appeal for funds, we managed to save her younger brother from the same fate.
2011
Our new school opened in January. Classrooms are spacious and airy. Materials are as good as can be bought in Guatemala and there is open field space to play. A brand new IT lab has been fitted out and we have created a library with “quiet time” to read. Extracurricular sports, art and music programmes have been started after school and English reinforcement starts as early as year 1 in junior school. The capacity of the school is 500 but we lacked resources to fill it to capacity with 100 spaces waiting for sponsors. Numbers were increased to 497. There were 301 in junior school, 100 in senior school and 96 in further education scholarships. Our budget had risen to £308,000.
We employed our first 2 graduates from our programmes. One is a teacher and one is a scholarship programme administrator. We successfully appealed for funds for a life saving operation for one of our students with a serious heart condition.
All of our social programmes have grown with too many examples to list.
We are due to launch our USA Foundation with full charitable status in California later this year.
As you will see from the next few pages, we have substantially increased our presence and have major plans to further improve the opportunities open to the poorest children of Central America.