Roots & Wings International Uses FBB Support to Fund Education for Guatemalan Students

First-quarter education beneficiary Roots & Wings International gave us this report about how they are using the funds contributed by members of Foundation Beyond Belief.

Thanks to our partnership with Foundation Beyond Belief, Roots & Wings International received $3,390 in donations during the first quarter of 2011. This money will go a long way toward providing higher education to the children of indigenous Guatemalan coffee farmers. For these families, most of whom subsist on about $2 a day, providing a college education for their children under normal circumstances would be nearly impossible. Now, we’ll be able to make the impossible possible. Not only will we be able to provide scholarships to new students but continue to support those students currently in our scholarship program as well. Here are just a few of our current scholars:

• Manuela Tambriz Ixtos is currently studying pedagogy at university and hopes to become a teacher at the RWI university preparatory school, which we hope to have open by 2012.
• Pascual Marroquín Guarchaj is studying social work, in the hope of returning home and working with the youth of his community to curb the rise of gang activity.
• Miguel Lomberto Sohom wants to become the first indigenous nurse in his village, which has been historically staffed by nurses from large cities. Miguel is currently studying at university to achieve this goal.

Roots and Wings International is grateful for the support of Foundation Beyond Belief. As Epictetus once said, “Only the educated are free.” Roots and Wings International is committed to helping Guatemala’s indigenous youth attain freedom from poverty through education, and we could not do it without your help.

Erik Swanson
Executive Director and Founder
Roots & Wings International