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Maya Educational Foundation |
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| 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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Oxlajuj B’atz’, A Maya Weavers Resource Project The goal of this project is to help Maya women achieve economic self-sufficiency through their own businesses so that they can provide better lives for themselves and their children. MEF is assisting in the creation of a resource project for 300 women weavers in the Guatemalan highlands, with a grant from a generous foundation and under the auspices of the non profit organizations Mayan Hands, Maya Traditions and Tejedoras Unidas. Women young and old, from six different ethnic Maya groups, receive assistance and training. Workshops to address women’s health, empowerment, and business issues are being implemented. This pilot project is intended to last for one and a half years and we hope it will be expanded in scope and duration gradually, reaching more weavers and empowering more women. MAYA TRADITIONS The Maya Traditions’ scholarship program was created in 1997 in response to the needs of the Maya women in the cooperative weaving groups we work with, who had great financial difficulty to pay for the education of their children. We saw scholarships as a way to benefit the women as well as their families. The students are from Nahualá, Sololá, Chichicastenango, Santa Clara and San Juan La Laguna. All primary or junior high school students (usually over 150 students) receive once yearly money for school supplies, $7-15 each. Each year there are between 25-30 high school students, both male and female, who receive a stipend of $27-30 monthly plus all inscription fees. They must complete their courses and attendance to be considered for future scholarships. A Community Service Project (CSP) is a dynamic component of the scholarship program. Students ‘give back’ by teaching the women for the two months of vacation at the end of the school year. They participate in bi-annual workshops sponsored by Maya Traditions, generally conducted by Maya educators. The CSP workshops inspire the students to share experiences and return to their communities to implement projects that benefit the members of the artisan groups. They use their native languages, mainly K’iche’, Kaqchikel, and some Tz’utuhil, as well as Spanish. They learn techniques of how to teach spoken Spanish, some writing and basic math to the mothers, who most often have never learned to read or write. The women want to learn to speak Spanish so that they can communicate with the outside world. Students also discuss issues that they face when they leave their villages to pursue education, such as indigenous identity, discrimination, and their concerns about issues such as gang violence, alcoholism, and family disintegration. Last year after Hurricane Stan, the focus was on Disaster Preparedness. The students in turn use these themes in discussions with the women’s group. Maya Traditions goes to the communities to observe students teaching and give support and feedback. Maya Traditions depends on donations to support ongoing scholarship program. We particularly need more donations for high school students, as our current funds are not sufficient to cover the need. The benefits of the scholarship program over ten years have shown in the increased well-being of the families we work with.
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