Construction Begins at Our Second School: Cantón San José, Guatemala

Welcome to Cantón San José, Guatemala

Air Plant Supply Co. is pleased to announce the location of our second school project in Guatemala. We will be providing two additional classrooms to a small community school in the Boca Costa region of the country. Pencils of Promise (PoP) and Air Plant Supply Co. have been partnered since 2016. Air Plant Supply Co. donates $1 from every order to Pencils of Promise. Thank you to our customers for making this possible. Keep checking back for future construction updates and photos from the school's inauguration. Continue reading below to learn more about the community, Pencils of Promise and our reasons for choosing to change lives in Guatemala.

With Air Plant Supply’s support, PoP is partnering with the Cantón San José community to construct a new classroom block and create a quality learning environment for hundreds of students and teachers.

WHY GUATEMALA?

In Guatemala, where 59% of the population lives below the poverty line, socioeconomic status is one of the biggest barriers to accessing a quality education.

The average length of schooling for a Guatemalan child is only four years and 24% of the population is illiterate. This is one of the highest illiteracy rates in the Western Hemisphere.

Pencils of Promise works with 190 communities in Guatemala to ensure students overcome these, and other, barriers to accessing quality education. Currently, PoP is impacting over 38,000 students in Guatemala.

BOCA COSTA REGION

The region of Boca Costa, located southeast of PoP’s Guatemala headquarters in Xela, is home to a more tropical climate than any of the other regions in Guatemala in which Pop works. PoP expanded to Boca Costa in early 2012, with our regional office located in Santo Tomás La Unión.

To date, they’ve built 121 schools in the region and have also provided teacher training and educational programming to many PoP schools in the region.

Air Plant Supply’s Impact in Cantón San José

In 2016, PoP built a module of two classrooms; currently, one of those classrooms serves forty students. However, current regulations declare that twenty students maximum can be served per classroom. Fourth, fifth, and six grades are currently learning under trees.

In the current structure students are easily distracted, and overcrowded, often forcing grades to double up in classrooms.

A school build is only the start of a transformative education experience, and we are excited to begin this process. In the coming months, PoP will be partnering with the Cantón San José community to build a new two-unit classroom block! The community is devoted to providing a valuable education to its students, and will contribute 20 percent of the resources and labor required for construction.

We establish partnerships with communities who are deeply committed to their children’s education. The support of the Cantón San José community ensures the sustainability of the school that it will remain a quality learning environment for generations to come.