Scaling our Program
We’ve got this wild notion that every child in Guatemala deserves access to a quality education. So, we’re doing something about it: Growing!
Growth creates opportunity. With each new school and community we reach, we have the opportunity to serve more teachers and students. We have the opportunity to promote more local leadership. And we have the opportunity to spread our educational philosophy and promote lasting change.
After demonstrating that Reading for Life works and is effective in improving student outcomes, Child Aid expanded our reach to more schools and communities in other regions of the country. Our model of growth is designed to reach the poorest and most isolated communities while maintaining our high quality of teacher training and strong results in improving student outcomes.
With our team-based structure, Child Aid efficiently adds significant new capacity to our program while maintaining the culture and and self-sufficiency that makes our literacy efforts effective.
Each new literacy trainer we hire can work with up to 50 teachers, impacting over 1,250 students each year.
Regional Hubs
- Our literacy trainers work in small teams based in three regional offices, or hubs.
- Our regional hubs consist of one or more small teams of four literacy trainers and a supervisor who work together on a portfolio of schools.
- We hire staff who live in the region, speak the local languages and understand the culture and community.
- Many of the schools were we work are in remote, isolated communities. So, these regional offices help reduce travel time and make it possible for trainers to visit schools frequently throughout the year.
Partnering with local schools and districts
We can’t do it alone. We recognize the importance of building effective working relationships to create a supportive environment for innovation and change.
When we begin working in a new school district, Child Aid makes a commitment to work with every school and reach every teacher. In the planning phase, our organization meets with school principals to share our past results and explain how our program will benefit the teachers and students in their schools. Our goal is to build understanding and acceptance of our approach and to gain the trust of district leaders who play a vital role in supporting teachers and improving student outcomes.
This relationship building is key to the long term success and sustainability of our program. When principals and district leaders are engaged in our work, teachers are more open to participating and feel more supported when they do. When teachers participate in workshops with colleagues from other schools in their district, teachers are better able to share ideas and resources and the community has a greater capacity to work together toward the shared goals of improving student learning.
Since 2010, Child Aid has worked in 23 local school districts in three departments (states) in Guatemala.
Championing a New Chapter in Education for Guatemala
We believe in education for all. Our vision is for every child in Guatemala to have access to a quality education. We’re actively advocating for best practices in education and teacher training at all levels of Guatemala’s Ministry of Education.
In 2017, Child Aid received accreditation and certification from the Ministry of Education as a high-quality education program. Only a few organizations have achieved this recognition, which enhances our ability to become preferred partners with district and state education leaders working on literacy development and teacher training initiatives.
We work in partnership with local education leaders, sharing evidence of the effectiveness of our program and our expertise in teacher professional development to help drive reforms and new approaches. At the federal level, we provide input into various programs and improvements being considered by the Ministry of Education.
“I have worked in the Ministry of Education for six years, and I have not seen another organization that has been as effective as Child Aid. The San Antonio School District has achieved a lot, and we can’t imagine these changes happening without Child Aid. The results are visible. And everything we’ve accomplished is thanks to you.”
Edwin Yaxón
District Superintendent, San Antonio Palapó
