(At left) PEX graduate Juana Gomez Lopez will serve as the first instructor at Xela Aid's new "Centro de Estudios."

The challenges of receiving an education are especially difficult in Guatemalan villages like San Martin, where money is scarce and children are often needed to work in the fields or tend to siblings. Illiteracy rates reach 80%.

In San Martin, many children who do have the opportunity to be in school struggle because they speak Mam in their home, rather than Spanish which is spoken in school. Parents often cannot read and are unable to assist with studies, and there is limited access to textbooks and school supplies.

El Centro de Estudios (Study Center) being launched this summer provides the children of San Martin with a comfortable, safe place to study, read, do their homework, and talk with one another about books and ideas. With donations and small grants, we have begun to furnish the Study Center and have purchased school texts and materials.

Of course, to make the study center complete, we must also fund the instructor who supervises the room and assists the children. The chosen instructor--a young woman whose education was supported through PEX ("Proyecto Educativo de Xela Aid"), the Xela Aid tuition program--recently graduated with a teaching certificate. Juana Lopez Gomez reads and writes both Spanish and Mam, knows the children in the village, and wants to work with us to develop programs whereby the children can work with one another and can use El Centro de Estudios to its fullest advantage.

We understand how easily our hearts (and wallets) can get pulled in many important directions. We hope that this project may touch you, and we invite you to send any contributions that you are able (one-time annual gifts) to provide a salary for the instructor and to assist with additional books and supplies. At the time of this mailing,  we are less than $700 away from having funding on hand for a full year!

Checks should be made out to Xela Aid, with "El Centro de Estudios" indicated in the memo line of the check, and mailed to: Sheryl Fontaine English Department California State University Fullerton; Fullerton, California 92834 or you can make a secure online contribution to El Centro de Estudios.

We thank the following individuals who have generously sponsored the launch of El Entro de Estudios, so far:

Sponsors of teacher and supplies 2007/2008