Support of daily school meals

The „Centro Educativo Francisco Coll“ is a primary school, i.e. it educates and teaches pupils from the age of 6 to 12 ; the school is situated in the capital Guatemala City , very near to the city`s main landfill.

It was founded in the early nineties by the catholic Sisters of the orden „Dominicas de la Anunciata“, who wear secular clothing. In this school there are also teachers who are not part of the orden.

The main aim of the Sisters is to ensure  access to education  to  children,  who are very poor and who live in barracks , where many inhabitants live from collecting garbage;   also the children  should find shelter in the school, a basic medical care  , sexual education  with councils  for familiy planning   and finally – a daily meal , which consists of a sandwich with cheese and bacon  and a glass of milk.

There are between 250 up to 320 children who visit the school .  The Sisters try hard to strengthen the selfesteem of the boys and girls to ensure that Guatemala  become a  safe and peaceful country ,as  the director told us once.

We are supporting the school since 2005. Our contribution   makes out 15 -20 per cent  of the total budget and thus covers the costs of the daily school meal .  Besides, we have transferred money in times of Covid pandemia as to make sure that the sisters could give paquets with  food to the poor families  who at that time were also cut off the possibilities to work . During the lockdowns the sisters had to restrict education , i.e.  there were days when the children came to school to study in small groups with  masks and in large distances  , and during the other days they stayed at their homes and filled out learning-sheets.

At school there is  also a variety of activities  in art, sports,  and of course there are religious celebrations.  For the parents the sisters organize workshops and lectures  referring to themes like  rights and obligations of childhood, of good education  , of hygiene and prevention and much more.

Every year the actual director sends us a detailed report  about the situation of the school  and  besides, we can also put our questions  to her during our anual ZOOM meeting in January.  Thus our relations are very good.