Category Archives: Vocational Training

Inside the UN Innovation Fair: Day 1

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Ak’ Tenamit is in Geneva this week to share our approach to rural education with the United Nations at their 2011 Innovation Fair.  Jesse Schauben-Fuerst, Ak’ Tenamit’s Technical Advisor for Cancuen, is representing Ak’ Tenamit at the Innovation Fair and sends this update about the first day of the event:

“Save the Children, World Vision, Actionaid. Cisco, Nokia, and Shell. These are the names of several organizations and socially conscious businesses which one might expect to find at the United Nations “Innovation Fair” on education. Yet, this week, amongst these fine and life-changing groups, sits Ak’ Tenamit. This is an affirmation of all that our students, the students that you have helped to support, have done.

Today, Dr. Asha-Rose Migiro, the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, welcomed Ak’ Tenamit and the other presenters. She spent time at our booth learning about what makes the work taking place in the Guatemalan jungles so special.

Already conversations are under way with groups from Malawi, India, and neighbors back in Central and South America. Ak’ Tenamit hopes to make new, strategic alliances; to learn from the experiences of other groups, and to share its life-changing methodologies to help other rural and indigenous villages across the globe.”

Invited to present at the United Nations!

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The United Nations recently invited Ak’ Tenamit to present its education program at the Economic and Social Council Conference in Switzerland on July 4-8, 2011!  We are one of only 30 education programs around the world invited to present its best practices, and we will have the opportunity to speak directly with UN Ministers of Education and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Thank you to all those who have supported and believed in Ak’ Tenamit’s mission, it is because of you that we have built such an innovative, successful school and received such a humbling recognition.

We need help financing our trip to Switzerland because we do not want to use program funding for such expenses.  Below is a letter from Jesse Schauben, Ak’ Tenamit’s Technical Advisor for Cancuen, that provides more information and explains how you can help.

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Dear Friends:

Ak’ Tenamit has been invited to share its methodology and vision for rural-appropriate education at the United Nations’ “Innovation Fair” in Geneva, Switzerland with other leaders in the field.

The United Nations has invited us to present because our program has been so successful. Ak’ Tenamit is renowned throughout Guatemala for its work developing and implementing innovative education programs, which allow rural, indigenous people to be successful without forcing them to leave their communities or traditional cultures.

This project is unique to Guatemala. Since 1992, Ak’ Tenamit has worked to help indigenous communities help themselves, providing an education that responds to their direct needs and preparing students vocationally. Each year one hundred more students graduate, find meaningful employment, and work to solve the long-term challenges that face their communities.

We can share our template for success and inspire others around the world who face similar challenges, but we need your help. While the invitation from the United Nations provides a unique platform to share Ak’ Tenamit’s work, disseminate its best practices, and build relationships with new donors, it does not cover costs related to transportation, lodging, or food. Therefore, your donation would go a great way to making this opportunity a reality. Thank you for any support you can offer and for spreading this message to others.

Donations at Ak’ Tenamit’s website.  To designate your donation, please type “UN Conference” in the box “Fund Immediate Need” (https://qnm14.securesites.net/akt/donate/index.php)

Sincerely,

Jesse Schauben

Tilapia tank project provides sustainable food source

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Members of the Rotary Club of Lake in the Hills (district 6440) were just down to implement an ambitious food security and sustainability project to benefit the students of Ak’ Tenamit’s Father Tom Moran Education Center and, in the long-term, their communities. They worked alongside students and teachers from the agricultural department to build two 4′ x 24′ tilapia tanks that will not only supplement students’ meals but serve as a practical classroom where students will gain experience maintaining a project that can provide income and food for their communities. In the coming months, students and staff hope to build an additional tank using their new skills and the materials Rotarians provided.

Preparing the area where the tanks were built

Filling the two side-by-side tanks with water

The tanks are a great fit for our students and their communities because tilapia is a nutritious fish, easy to care for, and the tank design is extremely sustainable.  The pumps in the pond filter water from the fish tanks up into a series of gravel beds in which a variety of plants and vegetables will be grown. The waste from the fish serves as a fertilizer for the plants and these plants filter the water before it returns to the fish tank.

Students don't waste time passing gravel

Filling the gravel beds

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Graduate advises village elders

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We’d like to tell you about two graduates who work double duty serving their community.  This week let’s meet Walter Xol Contreras.  He graduated from Ak’ Tenamit with a degree in Sustainable Tourism and works full-time coordinating Ak’ Tenamit’s HIV awareness programs.  Walter lives at our staff boarding facility during the week and returns home to his village, Plan Grande Tatín, on the weekends to volunteer with Tatín’s community’s tourism project, Centro Ecoturistico la Cueva del Tigre (The Tiger’s Cave Eco-tourism Center).  He also represents Plan Grande Tatin in front of the municipality.

He advises project leaders and leads workshops about administration, customer service, guiding, and conservation.  Under his guidance, the Eco-tourism Center will soon open a restaurant to cater to visitors and offer bicycle tours as part of the tour package.  Profits will be invested back into the community to improve the primary school and maintain infrastructure.  He is also the Secretary of CATCI, an organization that oversees and supports community tourism projects in the Rio Dulce area.  Walter emphasizes that,

“I do not want to be a leader or be superior; only an adviser and serve as the right hand of the community.”

The skills Walter learned at Ak’ Tenamit also prepared him to serve as the link between his village and the municipality.  At Ak’ Tenamit he learned to speak Spanish, write proposals and budgets, and work within local legal frameworks.  When his village’s primary school needed a new roof, he successfully petitioned the mayor to provide materials for the roof.  Village elders called upon him to draft the proposal and budget and approach the mayor.  Why?  Because they do not speak Spanish, know how to draft proposals, or use a computer, all of which were essential skills for approaching the municipality.  Walter has also been instrumental in empowering women in his community and now half of the community’s board of directors are women.

Walter illustrates the goal of Ak’ Tenamit’s education approach: to empower young people to foster self-sustaining growth in their own communities.