Limitless Horizons Ixil, Inc. | United States

An Educational Campaign to Support Maya Ixil Students’ Transition Back to the Classroom during the Pandemic

Provide educational programming for youth in the Chajul municipality that mitigates learning loss, prevents dropout, and supports under-resourced schools to address learning gaps

AWARD YEAR
2021
FUNDING AREA
Education
PROJECT LOCATION
Guatemala
AMOUNT AWARDED
$20,000
PROJECT DURATION
12 months

Chajul is a small municipality located in the rural highlands of Quiché, one of Guatemala’s 22 departments. Its population is Maya Ixil, an indigenous group that that faced genocidal violence during the Guatemalan civil war and remains impoverished today. Many students drop out after elementary school, and only about 11% complete middle school (compared to an average of 19% in Quiché and 33% nationally). Through its programming, Limitless Horizons Ixil (LHI) creates opportunities for Chajul’s youth to learn and develop, and over 80% of its program participants graduate middle school. Through this project, LHI will support students and teachers to prevent dropout and minimize learning gaps. It will start a back-to-school campaign using radio, television, and in-person programming to provide learning opportunities and parental engagement for over half of Chajul’s households, or about 24,000 people. The radio program will broadcast Spanish and Ixil stories and learning activities six times per day, seven days per week. In addition, LHI will pilot two weekly bilingual television educational programs that incorporate at-home learning activities and reinforce curriculum-aligned content. Finally, LHI will expand its library services and offer remedial classes and tutoring. Intensive day-long remedial classes will target 25 middle school girls and weekly tutoring will be available for up to 50 students in the community at the library.