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09 April 2010
A quick look back at where it all began....
In 2003 we heard about a volunteer project that was on the brink of collapse and we stepped in to help. Our Foundation was set up to take over a small school in the town of Antigua, in Central Guatemala. The school had previously been running on volunteer donations alone and had only two teachers to take care of 75 children. These teachers were on the point of leaving as they had not been paid due to the instability of the project. We managed to keep the school open, and we immediately began trying to improve its infrastructure, its teaching standards and its stability. By 2004 we employed more teachers on full time contracts and we regularly purchased educational materials. The school was successfully catering for 90 children from disadvantaged backgrounds every day.
By 2007, the Foundation had attracted a great deal of support. We had found many dedicated supporters and our sponsorship programme had given us enough guaranteed annual income to contemplate expansion. We had been funding places in local secondary schools for students who had graduated from our primary school, but this wasn‟t as successful as we had hoped. With a background of extreme poverty, and with houses not conducive to studying, many of these students were underperforming. When a local secondary school closed in 2006 and our entire primary sixth grade wanted to continue their education, we decided it was time to open our own secondary school (called 'Basico' in Guatemala).
January 2007 was a very proud time for the Foundation as we opened the doors to our second school, Escuela Proyecto La Esperanza – Nivel Básico. The school had three years, each with 25 children plus 8 teachers and a cook. Jorge Castillo, who had been principal of our primary school since 2005, moved to the secondary school as director, and Patty, his deputy at the primary, stepped up to become principal of the Primary School. We renovated the new building to make sure it was up to standard and as with the primary school we began teaching the full national curriculum. Recognising the importance of IT skills, we also invested in new computers for our schools.
Due to our fantastic supporters we have been able to expand our student capacity every year. However, as our student population increased we became aware that our facilities were no longer big enough or suited to all our needs. Back in 2008 we began looking for new premises and finally after nearly a year of searching for the ideal premises we found, 'The Azotea'.
The Azotea is located in the valley of Jocotenango, just 3 kilometres from Antigua. We are eternally grateful to Ricardo Pokorny and Katie Cunningham who sold us the plot of land at the The Azotea at a massive 75% discount. We were also incredibly lucky to get further financial support from the Premier League which enabled us to buy this wonderful piece of land. Since then we have received further generous donations from The Premier League, Colin and Marie Goodall, St James's Place Foundation, The Allan and Nesta Foundation Charitable Trust, Opengate Charitable Trust, Rufford Maurice Laing Foundation and WEP.
In January 2010 the first tree was cut down by Sophie McKee, who at the time ran the project in Guatemala. Many of the men who helped clear the land have children studying within our project and we are proud to have helped them play a part in building a future for their children. Under the supervision of architect Pierre Turlin, who worked tirelessly at a hugely reduced rate, and with the help of some fantastic donors the school build progressed at an amazing pace.
Monday 17th January 2011 was a landmark day in the history of Education For The Children Foundation. After two years of fundraising and one year of building, our brand new school was ready to welcome students for the 2011 school year!!
The new school replaced our former primary and secondary schools in San Felipe and Jocotenango which we had been renting since 2008.
