Tecpán School, known locally as Colegio San Vicente, is a school run by the Sisters of Mercy in the town of Tecpán, some 60 miles away from Guatemala City. This school provides education to local children in grades from K to 9th at the school. However, children have to attend a high school nearby to complete their education after finishing their portion at Tecpán School. CI support is utilized for the children to cover school fees, and sometimes to provide school supplies, shoes, clothes and food.
The school is a cluster of buildings containing all classrooms for education, with the front building having a section for teacher’s workroom, principal office, storage and other administrative offices. The CI program runs from a small office not attached to the rest of the buildings. This school is run by the Sisters of Mercy, and they also have an area within the compound used as a home, and that it is utilized to house girls that are from small villages but wanted to come to study in Tecpán. Most are attending education at the Tecpán School, but some are in high school at another local school, and they go to their respective schools in the morning, and come back to the home in the afternoon. They are look after, help with homework and school work in general, feed and care for daily.
The school is in good shape, and keeps clean and have a good environment for the children. The CI children are selected among to poorest, and are assisted with their school fees, and sometimes, provided with uniforms and school supplies.
Overall, the school supports many children on our program here, and the need is great. We visited some families that are benefiting from the program, and they are in dire need, working day jobs, or anything to make a living, and normally living in rental rooms or very small dwellings. I noticed that this town is in general very needy, with limitations shown everywhere we went. However, we feel like the children are having a great opportunity for good and sound education in this location!
Tecpan School is located in Colonia 5 de octubre, la Giralda. Tecpán, Guatemala.Almost all our children attend “Colegio San Vicente”, known to us as Tecpac School, a private school with 610 children. This private school goes from kindergarten to Middle school.
Once the children are about to start high school, they have to move to another school to continue their studies, but if the child is a very good student and coordinator is able to do follow ups and keep in contact with the children, they stay in the program until they graduate from high school.
At this affiliation site we have at the moment 97 children participating in our program. Our coordinator here is Sor Virgina. She meets the children every two month to distribute the subsidies. Before Covid-19 they use to meet every month but after COVID-19 they had to do the distribution every other month due to the inflation and increase in food prices. She was not able to buy the same amount of products as before, therefore now, she has to save of two monthly subsidies just so she can make it equal or get close to the same among of food she used to distribute among the children.
Anderson is one of our children at Tecpan School. We had the opportunity to meet him and his family in their home. This child’s house is very modest consisting basically of two rooms and the bathroom area. The above room is use as the living room and bedroom. It’s the first thing you’ll see as soon as you enter the house.
He lives with his sister (the child in the photo), his parents (the two adults at the bottom of the picture) and Angel Gabriel, his older brother who is also participating at Children Incorporated program.
Angel at the moment of our visit was working his part time job from 2:00 pm. to 8:00 pm. at a local pizza restaurant as a delivery. This brave 15 year old child along with his mother, who works occasionally washing clothes for the neighbors, are the main providers for the family.
His father is very sick and unable to provide for then, so Angel got a part time job while attending school in the morning. The coordinator explained to us that due to the economic difficulties he and his family faces, and the fact that he has to work to help support the family; his academic development has been affected as he has very little time a day to study.
This family expressed how helpful the program has been to them in providing resources to their children, but mainly the money to cover the children’s payment fees so they can have the opportunity to go to school and have a better education. They were also thankful to be provided with nutritious food for the children.