Maya Educational Foundation

	Maya Educational Foundation
	Route 106 / P. O. Box 38 South Woodstock, VT 05071-0038, USA Tel. (802) 457-1199 / Fax (802) 457-2212 mayaedfund@mayaedufound.org

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Colegio Bilingüe Intercultural “Paxil”

As of April 2007, in collaboration with Colegio Bilingüe Intercultural “Paxil”, MEF started a new highschool scholarship program in the Ixil area of Guatemala. This program provides opportunities for education to 59 Maya students with financial need.

MEF also supports Colegio Paxil’s library expansion and textbook acquisition program.

The Colegio de Educación Bilingüe Intercultural “Paxil” is a non profit educational center operating with the financial support of parents and friends who share this center’s philosophy.

Located in Nebaj, it offers highschool level education to young people from rural communities in the Ixil region. It seeks to expand their involvement in highschool education with a technological, bilingual, and intercultural orientation. The Colegio follows norms that reflect contemporary education, keeping the teenagers within their geographical, cultural, and social environment, and allowing them to acquire up-to-date and contextualized knowledge by following the program established by the Ministry of Education. Thanks to a donation of six computers this year, a small computing center is available for the students to keep up with the technological advances.

What is “Paxil”?

It is a sacred site for the Ixil Maya located in the village of Xo’lk’uay, Chajul, Quiché. According to historic oral accounts, the four colors of sacred corn (black, red, white, and yellow) were discovered in this site. To this day, Maya spiritual guides visit Paxil to ask for the blessing of the seeds through a Maya ceremony celebrated before, during, and after the corn crop. In the Ixil language, Paxil means “to spread, to reproduce”.

Students in 2006


In the classroom		1o Básico

2o Básico		3o Básico