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CEBAR Homepage  History of CEBAR A commentary on  Education 
for rural Guatemalan Girls 		 Schools of Chichicastenango
The Educational Resource Center The "Happy Smiles" 
Dental Hygiene Program 		Organizational Links and
Educational Research Programs


What is CEBAR?

ACEBAR is an organization dedicated to the advancement of family well-being in the rural Maya Highlands of Guatemala.  Through funding and donations of time and materials derived primarily though not exclusively from outside Guatemala, ACEBAR focuses on education through formal institutions, health education through both formal and informal means, and enhancement of economic opportunities.  Because women tend to be the nexus of coherent and functional family life while at the same time being the poorest and most marginalized component of rural Maya society - which itself is Guatemala's poorest and most marginalized social sector -  ACEBAR focuses its resources on the advancement of women.  Our conviction is that through better education and health, women will take a greater leadership role in both the marketplace and the political sphere.  We further believe that over the course of only a few years, the leadership of Guatemalan women will positively impact all ethnic and economic sectors, and result in a better life for most Guatemalans.

Although ACEBAR's educational projects have been in existence for several years as a community service project of Centro Maya de Idiomas (click here to read about ACEBAR and its history).  In summer of 2004 ACEBAR projects were formalized into an autonomous organization, and early in 2006 the two organizations found it expedient to formalize ACEBAR as a separate non-governmental organization (NGO).  Along with the new name, came a large expansion of services.  ACEBAR began academic year 2006 with 271 children and women with Kindergarten through sexta diversificado (roughly equivalent to our 12th grade), assists schools with new equipment and maintenance/remodeling services, offers continuing education seminars to teachers, and offers very low-cost support services to more than 700 teachers.   ACEBAR also has an ongoing internal research component, whereby volunteer social scientists and visiting scholars cooperate with the Ministry of Education to track and analyze progress of its programs to measure efficiency, ensure accountability, and make recommendations for new procedures and methods of organization and resource distribution.  Finally, ACEBAR seeks to promote cooperation and collaboration among local grass roots groups and NGOs, and to be a resource and partner to other organizations when such liaisons are possible and appropriate.

ACEBAR's geographic reach is currently limited to the municipality of Chichicastenango.  Just this one municipality represents quite a reach, however.  The municipio is comprised of 87 discreet cantones, or hamlets, spread over 400 very rough, mountainous, gorge-carved square kilometers.  We seek resources to permit expansion of services both within Chichi, and beyond that, to other similarly impoverished Highland Maya communities.  Meanwhile, we maintain close links with organizations in El Quiche, Quetzaltenango, and Cantel, and will develop partnership arrangements with other organizations in other communities as they become productive and appropriate. 

 


New!  PDF map of Chichicastenango!

The following strategies have been recently adopted by CEBAR directors.  
Asterisks indicate goals already accomplished or underway.  


To focus, at least initially, on advancing education for women and girls with the justification that advancement of indigenous women will bring about the general advancement of Guatemalan society

** To expand the scholarship program, especially for girls living in the more remote of the 87-odd 'cantones,' or hamlets that comprise Chichicastenango (we jumped from 35 to 250+ scholarships in one year!)

** To create an "Educational Resource Center" ( Centro de Recursos Educativos - CRE )  to provide services and material assistance (free use of computers, very low-cost copies, provision of texts, etc) to all of the 700+ teachers who work in Chichi's approximately 95 public and private schools

** To provide schools with material assistance when possible, to include new whiteboards, refurbishing of classroom furnishing, repairs to buildings, etc.

To coordinate an ongoing professional development program of seminars and classes for teachers with a brand new understaffed and underfunded program recently initiated by the local Ministry of Education offices.  An early central effort will be to offer classes in K'iche' literacy for those teachers who speak but do not adequately read or write the language, and to help non-K'iche' speakers learn more effective methods to teach non-Spanish speaking children (an expanded program to begin in earnest in Spring, 2006)

* To work closely with the Ministry of Health and the three or four organization that provide rural health services in Chichicastenango to promote awareness of health and hygiene problems and, when possible, to provide basic health services to those for whom routine medical attention is simply not available (Contacts made and plans are already underway to combine the efforts of various grassroots organizations and the local Centro Tecnico de Administración of the National Ministry of Education to make health education - to include traditional natural medicine - an integral part of school curriculum)

* To facilitate and lead tours for foreign groups interested in education and/or health problems, and to establish a volunteer program working with CEBAR and the CRE in Chichicastenango

* To establish a basic literacy and study-assistance project for Guatemalans who are not age-appropriate to attend the first years of traditional primary schools, and a reading assistance program for kids to foster self-learning

To create a Spanish-as-second-language and a Maya K'iche' language school for foreign visitors and volunteers (to begin in fall of 2005.  Come Join Us and learn Spanish or K'iche'!)

** To coordinate CEBAR's efforts at enhancing well-being with those of grassroots groups working in the municipality, as well as with the efforts of foreign NGOs that engage in meaningful projects in the region.

 

Except as specifically noted, all text and graphics on the centromaya.org website are by Max Kintner & Mary Pliska.  All photos are by Lynn Waespi, Ray Waespi, Mary Pliska, or Max Kintner.  All material in this website is protected by international copyright laws, and may not be duplicated or copied in any manner without the express written consent of centromaya.org administrators.  Contact Max Kintner at Max @ Maya Education for further information or to seek permission to use materials posted here.
7 March 2006

 

Prototype of new MayaCREW pamphlet / page 1 only