parallax background

Why Guatemala?

The most recent official study of the national institute of statistics in Guatemala states:

Education

  • 12% do not know how to read or write.12%
  • Only 40% of kids born in Guatemala will make it to middle school. 40%
  • And 2% has access to college education.2%

Poverty

  • 71% of population is poor, that means $3 to $6 dollars a day.71%
  • 13.5% of the population are extremely poor, living under $1.00 a day.13%

Children work

Families living in the rural areas below the poverty line expect their kids to bring 30% of their household income.
1 out of 5 children between 7-17 years old are not going to school, they are working.

Health

8 out of 10 children suffer malnutrition; 4 of these children suffer chronic malnutrition which will cause permanent consequences.

Guatemala, more than two million out-of-school youth between the ages of15 to 24, do not have basic life or vocational skills to enter the workforce.

We know GDP growth is highly correlated with higher levels of education.

US-AID states that in Guatemala, “More than two million out-of- school youth between the ages of 15 and 24, including 600,000 in the Western Highlands, do not have basic life or vocational skills to enter the workforce.

These teens do not have many choices, they either turn to drugs, turn to gangs or get an extremely low- income job that does not even provide for their basic needs." We know GDP growth is highly correlated with higher levels of education.

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