Education and Hope

Education and Hope We believe that education is a human right and the key to breaking the cycle of poverty. Scholarships and after school tutoring are the heart of our work.

Scholarships (backpacks, school uniforms, school shoes and sneakers, materials, bus fare);

After School Program (nutritious meals, tutoring, showers, hot snack, recreation, computer lab, family atmosphere, 46 employees);

Family Assistance Program (food pantry, small home improvement grants).

In my experience, there is something magical about the people born during the last days of the year. I wonder if it’s be...
01/01/2026

In my experience, there is something magical about the people born during the last days of the year. I wonder if it’s because it’s a time when so many of us are reflecting on what transpired in the past year and dreaming about what we hope to call forward in the new year ahead.

Wilson is one of these special people. He was born on December 31st, and is currently living a dream come true as a first year student at Berea College. Despite all the challenges that come with an unfamiliar language, culture, and customs, living life thousands of miles from a home he had never really been away from, Wilson has been absolutely thriving. He has always been a bright, driven, and dedicated student, but nothing prepared me for the surprise of hearing that his first semester GPA was a 4.0!

Having him close by in CT during winter break, I’ve heard him say multiple times: I just can’t believe what I’m living is real. Wilson has managed to infuse the end of an incredibly challenging year with a very real sense of hope. He’s helping to remind me what is possible.

Please join me in wishing Wilson a very happy birthday! This is his first Christmas and his first birthday apart from his family, and I know how much he’ll appreciate feeling loved and remembered.

Cheers to the brightest and most unexpected moments of 2025, the light that carried us through and kept us floating during the darkest moments. To the sparkle that reminds us that hope is always here with us. 🌟

((Two photos taken 10 years apart with a lifetime of love in between ♥️))

So much pride, so many tears! Images of some of our new high school graduates with their families. In 2025, eight of our...
29/12/2025

So much pride, so many tears! Images of some of our new high school graduates with their families.

In 2025, eight of our Education and Hope scholarship recipients earned high school diplomas. This brings the total of high school graduates in our history to 240! 240 young professionals we've helped earn degrees! So much to celebrate.

Our holistic support is creating concrete, lasting change, and we are so proud of the ways this change is rippling out into our community. Thank you for the generous gifts that make it possible to help lift and empower so many lives. It truly is a gift to the world.





Not much brings me more joy than watching our kids perform on stage! It never gets old seeing eyes sparkle as they step ...
28/12/2025

Not much brings me more joy than watching our kids perform on stage! It never gets old seeing eyes sparkle as they step into the spotlight to sing and dance, uncovering talents and building confidence. Sometimes, the kids beg to do their acts all over again after the show has finished! These shows are among the many benefits our after-school program offers our kids that schools in our area do not. Without fail, gratitude and pride move me to tears. It melts me to see this blend of self-expression and self-discovery evolve and grow within our community care.

Emotions were especially high because the Christmas show was on the last day of our academic year and the start of winter break. Everyone wore red, green, and white to show their spirit, and the kitchen team made a special lunch of roasted chicken, baked potato, and green salad. The sign behind the stage reads: "May the magic of Christmas bring you love, peace, and hope."

Thank you to everyone whose generous support makes moments like these possible. May your holiday season bring you moments of joy and magic! May the love, peace, and hope you help us create with our extended family return to you a hundred-fold. ❤

📷: Lorena Sac






Bright Spots of 2025🌟Ten new sixth-grade graduates! The future looks bright! It's exciting to have a group of graduates ...
24/12/2025

Bright Spots of 2025🌟

Ten new sixth-grade graduates! The future looks bright! It's exciting to have a group of graduates this big, and almost all of them have been together since kindergarten. At graduation ceremonies, the top four GPAs have the honor of carrying the flag. In this class, three of the four students were ours! It has been so rewarding to watch this incredibly motivated, kind, and thoughtful group learn and grow together.

Education costs rise sharply from elementary school to middle school. For far too many families, especially those in rural areas, supporting a child's education beyond elementary school is simply out of reach. This is why sixth-grade graduation remains a significant milestone for students in Guatemala; for some students, it may be their only graduation.

The afternoon before the ceremony, a few of the moms were buzzing with excitement and pride. One mother told me she was certain that her children would never have made it this far without scholarship support and tutoring. She didn't have the opportunity to attend school as a young girl, and it was hard for her to believe her children would soon be entering middle school.

Ten bright young students walking confidently toward a future their families hadn't dreamed possible. These moments remind me there is no such thing as a "small" achievement. Our community support is helping to open new doors. As we seed new dreams, we're helping to shift long-held beliefs about what is possible.




For me, one of the most inspiring things about our Education and Hope community is seeing how our family members constan...
23/12/2025

For me, one of the most inspiring things about our Education and Hope community is seeing how our family members constantly translate their gratitude into action.

While the bulk of our meals are prepared on industrial gas stoves, some of the more traditional dishes are still cooked on a wood-burning oven. We used to buy firewood and have it delivered to the city center. In our ongoing efforts to reduce costs and stretch our funding, staff and family members have volunteered to periodically gather firewood in the countryside. They spend long hours on Sunday working together, often braving both rain and hot sun. The enthusiastic volunteers carry heavy logs down steep hillsides, split them, and then load them onto a truck. Upon delivery, the logs are unloaded and stacked at Education and Hope. Despite the hard work, the sentiment expressed by all is one of gratitude for the opportunity to contribute to the meals that nourish our community each day.

When we are consciously aware of all we have been given, it's only natural to want to give back in return. I'm so thankful to belong to a community that never takes the support they receive for granted, actively expressing their deep gratitude in the ways they can, through good works, great and small.





🌟First generation high school graduate! If you look closely, you can see the molecules of the future rearranging right b...
26/11/2025

🌟First generation high school graduate! If you look closely, you can see the molecules of the future rearranging right before your eyes.

More photos of this extraordinary day on the way, but the emotion wrapped up in this first one filled my heart all over again. I had to pause to take it in.

Every single day I am grateful for the change created by our collective efforts. Thank you for believing with me that a new world is not only possible, it’s on its way.






Celebrating 86 trips around the sun…The span of her life has encompassed more loss than most people will ever know. Yet ...
13/11/2025

Celebrating 86 trips around the sun…

The span of her life has encompassed more loss than most people will ever know. Yet our beloved abuelita, Doña Diega, greets each day with courage and strength, and a profound gratitude for the blessings she has received. She has been a caregiver and guardian for many of her grandchildren and great grandchildren, taking them into her home at an age when others in the world might be beginning to enjoy retirement. Her grandmotherly love and steady presence extends beyond her immediate family, enriching all of our lives. She is someone who never takes for granted a morning that she is able to open her eyes and live another day.

Jenny mentioned the other day that her grandmother’s hair had never been as long as it is now and that gave me an idea. When my dad was receiving dialysis and couldn’t shower, I took him to a barbershop that had a sink. He had never had his head shampooed before and he LOVED it. He told everyone that I had taken him to The Spa! So to celebrate Doña Diega’s birthday, I gave her an afternoon at the salon. It was just a shampoo, trim, and blow dry, but it was her first time sitting in a chair and being pampered. Her eyes glistened and her smile was so bright. I was so grateful to be able to share the same simple thing that made my dad feel special too. Everyone deserves to be pampered once in a while. Especially if it’s your birthday and you’ve made it all the way to 86!

Happy 86th birthday, Doña Diega! We love and appreciate you so much!

Mama Coco! Que Dios le siga derramando bendiciónes tanto como su presencia es una bendición para todos nosotros. ¡La apreciamos y la queremos mucho! ❤️


Amor por los Súper Chivos! Identidad y comunidad ❤️💙Love for the Xelajú Super Chivos runs DEEP at Education and Hope! To...
30/10/2025

Amor por los Súper Chivos! Identidad y comunidad ❤️💙

Love for the Xelajú Super Chivos runs DEEP at Education and Hope! Tonight Xela plays in the semi-finals of the Central American Cup and today the after school program was a sea of red and blue! Teachers, cooks, admin, students - even the Early Childhood littles! Tons of pics here and we still didn’t manage to get everyone who was representing their beloved Super Chivos. So much excitement and so many happy faces!

Cúanto amor, Rebaño Sagrado!





23/10/2025

Zumba days are the best days!!!

I’ve never seen a Zumba class with our kitchen team that didn’t make me cry happy tears🥹. Watching everyone dance their hearts out and laugh hysterically is so good for my soul! Bodies moving together and having so much fun, generating enormous amounts of health and happiness. What a privilege that we can offer our staff the chance to set aside the heaviness of life and just be in the moment. Healing comes in so many forms.

Gracias Jonathan por hacer posible esta felicidad!!





Today, October 20th, el Día de la Revolución is commemorated in Guatemala. Xela’s Otto Rene Castillo has been on my mind...
21/10/2025

Today, October 20th, el Día de la Revolución is commemorated in Guatemala. Xela’s Otto Rene Castillo has been on my mind all day.

A collection of Otto René Castillo’s poems was the first book I bought in Xela when I arrived in 1994. I read the poems over and over again as I attempted to improve my Spanish. Learning the story of Castillo’s life, activism, torture, and murder made an extraordinary impression on me as I studied the political history of Guatemala.

Ten or twelve years ago, a graffiti image of this revolutionary poet appeared on the wall of an abandoned building across the street from Education and Hope. Castillo’s face appeared underneath the words, Sin justicia no hay paz (without justice there is no peace), inspiring me each day as I turned the corner to the after school program. Every single time, without fail, I heard the phrase in my mind, “Vámonos patria a caminar, yo te acompaño.”

If you’ve never heard of Otto René Castillo, I encourage you to read about his pursuit of justice in the face of violent oppression, ultimately giving his life in solidarity with the people of Guatemala.

Vamos Patria a Caminar

Vámonos patria a caminar, yo te acompaño.
Yo bajaré los abismos que me digas.
Yo beberé tus cálices amargos.
Yo me quedaré ciego para que tengas ojos.
Yo me quedaré sin voz para que tú cantes.
Yo he de morir para que tú no mueras,
para que emerja tu rostro flameando al horizonte
de cada flor que nazca de mis huesos.

Tiene que ser así, indiscutiblemente.

Ya me cansé de llevar tus lágrimas conmigo.
Ahora quiero caminar contigo, relampagueante.
Acompañarte en tu jornada, porque soy un hombre
del pueblo, nacido en octubre para la faz del mundo.
Ay, patria,
a los coroneles que orinan tus muros
tenemos que arrancarlos de raíces,
colgarlos de un árbol de rocío agudo,
violento de cóleras de pueblo.
Por ello pido que caminemos juntos. Siempre
con los campesinos agrarios
y los obreros sindicales,
con el que tenga un corazón para quererte.

Vámonos patria a caminar, yo te acompaño.

I remember this first image like it was yesterday, Oscar Díaz on his patio, with the first box of 64 crayons that I had ...
19/10/2025

I remember this first image like it was yesterday, Oscar Díaz on his patio, with the first box of 64 crayons that I had brought him back from the US after noticing his artistic ability. His smile unforgettable, bursting with happiness because of this special gift. Challenged by what would later be understood as learning differences, the world of art was where he excelled. The environment that gave him wings. No one could have foreseen the future set in motion by this single act of encouragement.

Among the pictures below you’ll see Oscar at his high school graduation; in front of the Where the Wild Things Are mural he and Erick Maldonado painted together while teaching at the after school program; a slide from a national digital art competition Oscar won during college; and me sobbing uncontrollably at Oscar’s college graduation. Other photos include the murals Oscar has painted for Education and Hope, and two paintings Oscar has made for me as gifts.

The young boy who might not have made it through school without the necessary support now has a prestigious job as art instructor at the INTECAP institute in Xela. This month he will travel to Columbia with one of his students who was selected as one of eight finalists in a Latin American competition. Oscar still makes time to come to the after school program to touch up his murals and paint new ones, often bringing along his daughter.

How many worlds can arise from a single box of crayons? One day we’ll know. Today we’re still counting. 🌈




Dirección

4 Calle 9-07, Zona 1
Quetzaltenango

Horario de Apertura

Lunes 09:00 - 17:00
Martes 09:00 - 17:00
Miércoles 09:00 - 17:00
Jueves 09:00 - 17:00
Viernes 09:00 - 17:00

Página web

Notificaciones

Sé el primero en enterarse y déjanos enviarle un correo electrónico cuando Education and Hope publique noticias y promociones. Su dirección de correo electrónico no se utilizará para ningún otro fin, y puede darse de baja en cualquier momento.

Atajos

Compartir