In the process in Guatemala

Mayan Families is in the process of opening a Trade School. We have received the funding for this from the Columbus Ohio Rotary Club.

This is one of the reasons that we are moving to the new building.

We have a carpentry school, computer classes, English classes, Sewing classes...and we hoping to offer a variety of other trades.

We also hope to have Tutoring classes there for before or after school. 

We hope to have a small library there as well. 

We recognize that not all our students are going to be able to study and they need other skills.  We hope that this center will be able to offer a lot of life skills for students.  We  hope to have visitors and volunteers who will run workshops and share their skills.

We  hope to have cooking classes soon available. 

Right now we have classes being given twice a week by a wonderful volunteer, Tony who has been here 3 years in a row volunteering with his family. He usually gives shows at the preschools but this year we asked him to also please teach his skills to a group of interested teenagers.

We hope that one of them will be able to take this skill and use it to supplement their income.

The boys from the Junior High in Tierra Linda have taken advantage of this opportunity and they are now learning from Tony and also they are now assisting him in the shows that he is giving at the different preschools.  We hope this will give them another skill and at the very least, improve their self confidence .

They had never seen a magician before, they had never seen magic tricks. They are all just enthralled with this class.

We also have several volunteers who will be starting to paint murals at the new office....we have an invitation for all students who are interested and have the time to come and help....they will be learning from people who are very good artists.  

We have lots of ideas and hope that other people will share their ideas with us........right now we are focusing on moving into the new office and getting settled there...it is a big job ...while in the meantime, we are continuing business as usual.

Sharon

Sharon Smart-Poage
MAYAN FAMILIES

a registered 501.(c).(3) Non Profit Charity