Basketball Court and Training Classroom
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The community of Lancetillo La Parroquia in the municipality of Uspantán is located in the department of El Quiché, Guatemala. Lancetillo La Parroquia has a population of 2, 633 habitants that live in the center and 2 surrounding smaller towns—El Vergel and Los Cerritos. The population is 90% indigenous and 10% ladino (meaning of Spanish origin). The majority of the people speak the indigenous language of Kékchi or Spanish, but some families have migrated from Southern Quiché—speaking the indigenous languages of Quiché and Ixil. La Parroquia was founded by Don Juan Alonzo in 1957, who arrived from Spain and established a Catholic church. The population is primarily Catholic, however there are various Evangelical groups in existence.
Through collaboration with local Peace Corps volunteers, teachers and the director of the middle school, the beneficiaries of this project will be able to sustain practicing the learned methods in relation to life skills and the environment. Follow up educational talks will occur throughout the school year with the students and parent group to ensure the comprehension and understanding of these topics. The students, teachers and director will create awareness about life skills and will share this information through community talks.
Through these activities, students will have the ability to access their true potential through learning about self-esteem, to become better at communicating and making decisions for themselves, as well as creating awareness and knowledge of these topics and more for all youth and their parents in La Parroquia. Teachers and the director will go through weekly participatory trainings on creating a classroom environment that focuses on the individual student and their ideas.