CBC 2011 Team

CBC 2011 Team
CBC 2011 Team: Cherri, Nick, Lana, Diana, Karie, Christy, Sherry, Rebecca, Steve

COUNTDOWN TO GUATEMALA

"Live a life worthy of the calling you have received." — Ephesians 4:1

International School Project

We are traveling as educators for the International School Project, a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ.

We have been invited by the National and Local Guatemalan Ministry of Education to conduct a teacher-training seminar in Guatemala City.

The overall purpose for this trip is to:
1) give the public school teachers a curriculum that they will use to teach their students about Christ and Christian ethics. 2) The Leadership Development Conference allows the invited, previously trained teachers, to discuss & share together how the ISP curriculum is changing their students’ lives, how they might develop more lessons, and how they might grow spiritually at a personal level.

All of these elements in combination give the teachers the encouragement and tools they need to have greater impact for Christ in their classrooms and communities.

Education

The government runs a number of public elementary and secondary-level schools. These schools are free, though the cost of uniforms, books, supplies, and transportation makes them less accessible to the poorer segments of society and significant numbers of poor children do not attend school. Many middle and upper-class children go to private schools. Only 69.1% of the population aged 15 and over are literate, the lowest literacy rate in Central America.

Economy

According to the World Bank, Guatemala has one of the most unequal income distributions in the hemisphere. The wealthiest 20% of the population consumes 51% of Guatemala’s GDP. As a result, about 51% of the population lives on less than $2 a day and 15% on less than $1 a day. Guatemala's social development indicators, such as infant mortality, chronic child malnutrition, and illiteracy, are among the worst in the hemisphere.

USA--Guatemalan Relations

Most U.S. assistance to Guatemala is provided through the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) offices for Guatemala. USAID/Guatemala's current program builds on the gains of the peace process that followed the signing of the peace accords in December 1996, as well as on the achievements of its 1997-2004 peace program. The current program works to advance U.S. foreign policy objectives by focusing on Guatemala's potential as Central America's largest economy and trading partner of the United States, but also recognizes the country's lagging social indicators and high rate of poverty. The three areas of focus for USAID/Guatemala's program are modeled after the Millennium Challenge Account areas--ruling justly, economic freedom, and investing in people, and are as follows:

More responsive, transparent governance, through:

  • Strengthened justice
  • Greater transparency and accountability of governments.

Open, diversified and expanding economies, through:

  • Laws, policies, and regulations that promote trade and investment;
  • More competitive, market-oriented private enterprises
  • Broader access to financial markets and services.

Healthier, better educated people, through:

  • Increased and improved quality of social sector (health and education) investments
  • Increased use of quality maternal-child and reproductive health services, particularly in rural areas.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

It's Time For Another Teacher's Convocation

Here it is 2011 and the time for our next Teacher's Convocation is coming up quickly! We will be traveling, Friday, February 18th, and arriving into Guatemala City early Saturday morning. The first day, we will spend waiting for all the other volunteers to arrive. They will be coming from several US states and as far north as Canada. When everyone has arrived without delay, hopefully, we will have a nice dinner and reunite with old friends while meeting new ones.
The next two days will be filled with training and refreshing ourselves with the curriculum we will be instructing the teachers to use.
Once we are prepared, the Convocation will begin! The teachers will come from all over the area to receive this free training, the free curriculum and the continuing education certificate from the Minister of Education. This is such an exciting time! We will meet these teachers and in the very few hours we will spend with them, we will form bonds of friendship. They are very sweet and open people. I look forward to sharing my friendship with Christ and my experience of forgiveness with them.
When the week comes to an end, there will be exchanging email addresses and parting gifts; lots of pictures and hugs of goodbye.
However, during the short time we have remaining before we depart, we are working on the last few details, reviewing the curriculum and raising the rest of our support.
If you would like to be a part of this project, please remember to pray for us. We need prayers that our support will come in a timely manner and that we will have safe travels. Also pray for the teachers as they prepare to come to the convocation. They will need to take time off, usually without pay, as well as pay their own way to the convocation. This may prove to be a hardship for some. Please pray the that obstacles will be removed and every teacher who needs this will be able to make it to the convocation.
In addition, we still need support financially. If you'd like to make a tax free donation, you can pay online with a credit/debit card or PayPal. You can also mail me a check. Once the funds are received, you will get a receipt from Campus Crusade for Christ.
Remember to follow our trip on the blog as I will be updating it often. Thank you for your prayers and support!
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Natural Disasters

Guatemala's location between the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean makes it a target for hurricanes, such as Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and Hurricane Stan in October 2005, which killed more than 1,500 people. The damage was not wind related, but rather due to significant flooding and resulting mudslides.

A town along the Pan-American Highway and in close proximity to a volcanic crater

Guatemala's highlands lie along the Motagua Fault, part of the boundary between the Caribbean and North American tectonic plates. This fault has been responsible for several major earthquakes in historic times, including a 7.5 magnitude tremor on February 4, 1976 which killed more than 25,000 people. In addition, the Middle America Trench, a major subduction zone lies off the Pacific coast. Here, the Cocos Plate is sinking beneath the Caribbean Plate, producing volcanic activity inland of the coast. Guatemala has 37 volcanoes, four of them are active:Pacaya, Santiaguito, Fuego and Tacaná. Fuego and Pacaya erupted in 2010.

Natural disasters have a long history in this geologically active part of the world. For example, two of the three moves of the capital of Guatemala have been due to volcanic mudflows in 1541 and earthquakes in 1773.

Volcano Pacaya

On Thursday May 27, 2010 (05-27-2010) the Pacaya volcano started erupting lava and rocks on Thursday afternoon, blanketing Guatemala City with black sand (and forcing the closure of the international airport). It was declared a "state of calamity." The Pacaya volcano left about 8 Centimeters of ash and sand through all of Guatemala City. Cleaning works are in progress.