Guatemala Scholarship Drive: Deadline October 4

GUATEMALA SCHOLARSHIP DRIVE FOR 2016 SCHOOL YEAR

Here at GCPC we are proud of our outreach programs in local and global communities alike.  One of the biggest outreach programs we participate in is the Scholarship Program in Coatepeque, Guatemala.  During our recent visit, the members of the Guatemala Team witnessed the tremendous impact the Scholarship Program has on so many lives in Guatemala.

By donating to the Scholarship Fund, you have changed the outcome for real children and families.  The economic plight of the residents of the Western Highlands of Guatemala is not entirely unlike that of the residents of our own area: because of historical and geographical influences, escaping poverty there is harder than it is in most places.  The Scholarship Program eliminates one of the many challenges that block children from opportunity: the high cost of books and uniforms.  Like here, in Guatemala, staying in school is one of the most influential things a child can do to escape poverty.

By participating in the Scholarship Program you are helping a child obtain an education that would ordinarily be out of reach. There are over 30 Scholarship recipients of all ages and attend various schools in the Coatepeque area.  Most of them are children of families of our sister church, Iglesia Jerusalem. What impact does participating in the Scholarship Program have?  That child is able to attend school instead of working in the fields, selling firewood, or working at a tortilla factory.  Scholarship students are able to attend school, graduate, and qualify for a job that will make more money for them and their family - a bank teller for example.  Helping families escape poverty creates strength in the community.  It is well known to social scientists and laypeople alike that building the strength of communities is what it takes to defeat poverty on a global scale.

Thank you, GCPC people, for your generous donations to the Scholarship Fund in the past.  We have seen the difference your resources have made and would like for you to consider donating again  The academic year in Guatemala begins in January 2016.  Because of this scheduling, the deadline for donations is October 4, 2015!

Please scan the next page for further information on specific Scholarship students and how scholarships have changed their lives.

You can make you check out to GCPC and write “Guatemala Scholarship” on the memo line.

Any amount is welcome; it only takes $180 for a full scholarship.

Shalom,

The GCPC Guatemala Partnership Committee

 

On our visit to Iglesia Jerusalem in Coatepeque in July of 2015, we found the Partnership Scholarship students to be a uniformly bright, healthy, and happy group.  The scholarship obviously sets these kids and young adults apart from the general populace. 

I present to you Nestor.  He lives with his family in a community that is an hour bus ride from Coatepeque.  From the stories that he related to team members, we found that his experience is typical of the cycle of poverty that is prevalent among the rural indigenous population.  It includes disabled and missing family members, abusive step-parents in a rural setting not conducive to advancement, to say the least.  He is a Scholarship student and a deacon in IJ  His story looks promising, but he still has a long way to go.  Growing up in a very rural area, he did not acquire personal and foundation-level skills that help with life in a more urban setting.  The Torres family tries to find work for him in their thriving hardware store.

 

 This is Thelma.  She is pictured with Lucille Mullen of GCPC.  Thelma has been a Scholarship student for three years.  As a student, she is making great strides toward becoming ready for a job in the higher paying vocations.  We heard from her directly that if not for the support of the Scholarship, Marta Angel, and IJ that her life was going to repeat the cycle of poverty that she was born into.

 

 

 During our visits to families of La Union, a small, impoverished outskirt of Coatepeque, we observed many of the more common avocations for children who do not go to school: hard labor in the tortilla factories like the one shown below, and other dangerous, low wage jobs which perpetuate a cycle of poverty.  Children are often required to work because one or more of the wage earner parents is injured or disabled from dangerous work.  The Scholarship helps to break this cycle of poverty.