Rural Guatemala Anticipates Its First Technology Center to Be Built by U.S. Volunteer Program

PRLog (Press Release) - Oct 12, 2009 -
PORTLAND, OR—Roots and Wings International, through corporate sponsorship, has plans to complete the first technology center in the Boca Costa region by end of this year. Land has been purchased with funding from TECO Energy, and an architect has begun the design of the technology center. Roots and Wings International, however, still seeks $40,800 in funding to see the project through completion and, subsequently, improve the lives of members of Pasac, an indigenous, coffee-growing community in Boca Costa.  

Currently, Roots & Wings International operates a modest computer lab with seven recycled laptops in a shared office. The new technology center has plans to serve over 500 youths, aged 5 to 25 from Pasac and neighboring villages. Pasac is two-and-a-half hours away from Guatemala city.

The proposed technology center is poised to offer educational opportunities that will lead the community members out of the cycle of poverty. Boca Costa is a coffee-growing highland in rural Guatemala, where the average family earns $2 or less per day.  

“Education is the best tool to empower indigenous communities,” says Erik Swanson, President of Roots and Wings International. By providing university scholarships, after-school tutoring, academic counseling, and computer literacy programs in dozens of Mayan communities, the villagers and Swanson are looking forward to welcoming their first university graduates in 2010.

For Swanson, what started in 2004 as a college student's desire to learn Spanish turned into a passion to bring opportunities to the K'iche' speaking farmers through establishment of Roots & Wings International. Swanson personally sponsored three of the nonprofit's university scholars and since then, has expanded the program to include many more female students and created the after-school tutoring program to help kids finish elementary school.

Roots & Wings International is staffed entirely by volunteers in the U.S. with over 90% of its funding money going directly into programs. Roots & Wings International promotes elementary through university education in rural Guatemala. Our programs in Guatemala include college scholarships, after-school elementary tutoring and computer classes. For more information, please visit www.rootsandwingsintl.org or contact Erik Swanson at 202.747.4946.

Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/10373515/1