This document makes a case for supporting Escuela Caracol, the first and only Waldorf school in Guatemala. It discusses how the school serves an impoverished region recovering from civil war by providing high-quality, intercultural education. However, only a small percentage of Guatemalan youth complete their education, so the school needs funding to continue its important work of educating and empowering students. The school aims to strengthen its financial stability through initiatives like increasing international sponsors and launching a parent-led business cooperative to support the costs of education.

1. EDUCATION = OPPORTUNITY = FREEDOM!
We need your support. To continue providing this
high-impact educational experience please become a sponsor
or make a one-time annual gift today!
In one of the poorest regions in Guatemala, where 80% live in poverty
and recovery from a 36 yearlong civil war continues, there is a great
need for healing and comprehensive educational communities that
will remove the residue of domination and exclusion, build an
intercultural community and empower the people. With the
attempted border crossings exploding in quantity (in 2011 there were
6,500 minors apprehended at U.S. borders and just 3 years later it is
estimated to be 90,000) these children need a reason to stay, they
need good education, and they need confirmation of opportunity.
Providing
Opportunities
For every 10 Guatemalan children who
enter the school system...
only 4 graduate from
primary school...
only 1 completes lower
secondary school...
and only 8.5% of youth
pursue university education,
it is less than 1% for women.
Now in our 8th year we continue to break through paradigms
and emerge as a model of intercultural education in this
community along the shores of Lake Atitlán. In this cultural
center of the Ancient Maya we are following an impulse to
celebrate and honor traditional customs while recognizing
ways to integrate and emerge together as a new culture.
Waldorf is an education that allows for the unfolding of each
individual’s innate capacities and supports the children in
becoming self-directed, motivated and accountable for them-
selves and the community in which they live in.
The collective voice (‘La Voz’) of Escuela Caracol’s, staff, parents
and students, is moving forward in modeling a center for
educational renewal. We will continue this effort by:
The first and only
Waldorf school in Guatemala
To further strengthen Escuela Caracol as a model of educational
renewal for Latin America we must focus on fiscal stability. In
2015 we are aiming to build new revenue by engaging with
social and economic leaders in Guatemala, increasing the
number of sponsors in the United States and Europe, and launch-
ing a parent-led business cooperative inspired by Indigenous
Mayan arts: Colabora Caracol. Colabora will help support the cost
of education for our students, place the needs of our community
at the center of our value determining equation and demon-
strate a sustainable, life-giving enterprise that provides educa-
tion and experience in business and community leadership.
Actively recruiting girl students to reach an equal
school-wide proportion of girls to boys
Continuing to provide teacher training to all teachers
Offering professional development opportunities to
many other Guatemalan educators
Initiating a social-impact enterprise that transforms
the needs and challenges of the community into
income for the parents and the school