Foundations For Education (Cimientos de Educacion) welcomes 16 university students into the scholarship that serves rural areas and indigenous young people. Part of our work includes awareness of current events and that is why we talk about the genocide trial in this issue. We also focus on the students and their community service work.

1. FOUNDATIONS FOR EDUCATION (FFE)
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University Students
Vacation Homework
Genocide Trial
Help us with the Los
Llanos Computer
United States - Canada
April 2013 Issue 52 – Ramelle Gonzales
www.foundations4education.org.donate.html
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NEW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
Last year we had over 65 students that inquired or applied. I responded to all of them and sent them the
requirements and reviewed their applications. We gave scholarships to only 11 students that qualified and finished
their social leadership projects. Many of the applicants had problems with their grades, some didn´t have them
because they had not paid their tuition, some because they had very low grades, some because they needed to
solicit their grades and I never heard from them again. Many of the students did not want to do the 30 hour project
that had to be completed before they could receive funds from the scholarship.
This year we have had 25 inquires and have accepted 16 students of which some students had applied in 2012 but
finished their projects in 2013. Meanwhile some of the students that were in the university program were dropped
for various reasons. So it was a couple of steps forward and then some steps back. I am still positive as almost
once a week I have students that get as far as an interview in the office. It is a long process because of the project
that needs to be completed before they are totally accepted into the program. As of this date we have a total of 31
university students.
The letters from the university students will not be as personalized as the letters from the high school students for
obvious reasons. The university students have a special format that they follow that consists of first telling about
their academic studies, social leadership project, work, news that impacts them about Guatemala and a little about
their personal lives. It has been very challenging with some of the university students because of their writing
skills but I think the biggest challenge has been for me to translate the letters. Of course the vocabulary is totally
different than the high school students so I am making a list of the unknown or questionable Spanish words along
with the words in English. So far I have a large list but at the same time I am increasing my vocabulary in Spanish
and learning a lot from the students. If you want more information about your student please contact me and I will
send more about them.
VACATION HOMEWORK
The students in high school that will graduate this year gave 13 reading and comprehension classes to students of
6th grade up to 9th grade with a minimum of 5 students to a class. The themes in the reading materials were
violence in the house explaining various laws regarding violence against women. A scientific article about
penguins, how time was measured by the ancient Mayas, laws that
protect children and adolescents, native languages and their origins, story
of a girl becoming a mayor in her community in comic format, children
and adolescents sold in the world, celebration of
the new Maya year, proverbs, extreme poverty in
Guatemala, the silence during the war,
organization of information, math problems to
resolve, and an indigenous woman weaving
poems. The stories were given to all the
students so they could share them with their
families.
Ana Gricelda wrote a page saying “I really enjoyed having the opportunity to participate
with the students and everyone came to class full of enthusiasm. Everyone did the
evaluations at the end of each theme and when some of them didn´t understand I explained
it to them. They all came to the classes. The students and parents were thankful for the classes and especially for
the information about the protective laws for children and adolescents. One of my students said that with the

2. stories she had each day she shared the information with her family that night and that motivated her even more to
come to classes every day. Personally I learned a lot. I was a bit nervous because two of the students were in 8th
and 9th grade and I thought I would not be able to explain any doubts they had but I did. At the end of the classes I
had a lot more confidence in myself.”
Another part of the homework was to read “Memory, Truth and Hope”. This
popular version book was published in 2000 by the Office of Human Rights of
the Archdiocese of Guatemala. This book, in the graphic novel format (left),
makes it easier for people to understand the original report about the war and
the violence the people suffered during the 36 year old civil war. The original
report called Guatemala: Never Again was presented by Bishop Juan Gerardi
who was murdered two days after he presented the book to the public. The
presentation in this popular version book was written by Auxiliary Bishop of
Guatemala, Mario Enrique Rios Mont the brother of the ex-dictator president
Efrain Rios Montt who is presently on trial for charges of Genocide and
crimes of humanity. I gave a copy of the book to the 10 students that will be
graduating as primary school teachers this year so that they will have accurate
information about the war and will be able to share the information with
others.
All of the students had to write a book report about the book including their
personal opinion. I was surprised at the comments from 18 year old Juana
Maribel (Q´anjob´al/Maya) from Santa Eulalia
Huehuetenango who will graduate this year. I
thought she wrote a complete and thoughtful commentary so I would like to share her
thoughts with you.
Juana wrote, “Reading the book I realized the terrible cruelty and suffering during
this time. The soldiers used the people like slaves, like they were objects. The truth for
me is a sadness to read about how the indigenous people were humiliated, forbidden to
use their customs and traditions, and forbidden to use their identity as people. It is a
big sadness for me that with all the presidents no one valued the lives of the indigenous
people and tried to save their lives as they were the cause of the deaths. As an
indigenous person it is fundamental and valuable for a woman to have her virginity and dignity but the army
destroyed and violated the women sexually. In addition to killing the people they destroyed their happiness and
the fun of the children without knowing why they were being destroyed totally and they destroyed the integrity of
the children that survived. I still don´t understand why the army and the guerrillas did such horrible things.
If the armed conflict had never happened maybe Guatemala would be another type of country without the
corruption, kidnapping, murders, Femicidio (crimes against women being killed because they are women),and
drug trafficking like what is happening now. It is truth that with the signing of the peace accords the army was no
longer the dominant rule but now we have many delinquency and thanks to the all the problems that happened
during the armed conflict now there is even more discrimination and racism that provokes the inequality between
people. With all that happened during the armed conflict we did learn some things at the same time and that is to
value each person, life, our customs and traditions and to not be ashamed of our Maya culture. In addition with
the help of human rights laws and the people that fought for those rights in Guatemala we must safeguard our
rights and the respect the rights of others.”
GENOCIDE TRIAL AGAINST FORMER GUATEMALAN DICTATOR RIOS MONTT
Former Guatemalan dictator and ex-president of Guatemala, Efraín Ríos Montt will stand trial on charges of
genocide and crimes against humanity in a Guatemalan court after his indictment Jan. 26, news outlets reported,
and experts are saying this is “huge news” for Guatemala and the world. Guatemala’s attorney general, Claudia
Paz y Paz, is charging Ríos Montt as the intellectual author of the crime of genocide and crimes against humanity
that occurred when he was head of the military during the 1980s civil war. Claudia Paz y Paz, attorney general

3. since late 2010 that was appointed by the former president of Guatemala, last year prosecuted four soldiers in
connection with civil war killings in 1982 in the town of Dos Erres. Each soldier received 30 years for each of the
201 people killed. Judge Carol Patricia Flores Blanco ruled that Ríos Montt should stand trial for his part in the
genocide, saying there was enough evidence to link him to it.
Former general Ríos Montt, 85, was president of Guatemala for 17 months during the years 1982 and 1983, years
that saw some of the worst violence of Guatemala’s civil war. His defense said that he could not be charged
because he did not control battlefield operations, according to news reports. About 200,000 people, mostly Mayan
Indigenous, were killed or disappeared in the war, which lasted from 1960 to 1996, and many are still missing. The
government used a “scorched earth” policy to rid the country of left-wing guerrillas, but families of the dead and
the Commission for Historical Clarification, Guatemala’s truth commission, says it was a massacre of people
caught in the crossfire. It is believed that this is the first time a national court has prosecuted one of its citizens for
genocide as normally they are prosecuted in international courts. Rios Montt had immunity because he was a
member of Congress until January 14th of this year.
Each day the testimonies especially of the Ixil women being violated by soldiers, has been heartbreaking. There
have been approximately 15 witnesses a day including Bernice Manz a professor of Anthropology at UC Berkeley.
One of the witnesses who was an ex-soldier stated that the current President of Guatemala, Otto Perez Molino,
who was an army major in charge of the forces in the Ixil area, allegeable gave orders for many of the massacres in
the Ixil area. Note: President Otto Perez is in the process of buying (borrowing money over 12 years from Brazil) 6 fighter
planes ¨Super Tucanos¨ from Brazil at the price of $170 million dollars which includes $37 million for 2 radar systems. The
planes are to be used against in the drug war, meanwhile the country is very unstable and people are starving. The United
States has recently purchased 20 of these planes for $355 million to send to Afghanistan.)
The village of Xix where I built a boarding school for 7-9th grade is actually one of the villages involved in the trial
and the number of people massacred there are included in the 1,771 killed that Rios Montt is accused of. Xix was
also one of the model villages created by the military for the people that came down from the mountains because
they were starving to death.
I will not go into details but for further current information look on the internet for trial of Rios Montt or
http://www.riosmontt-trial.org/2013/04/court-returns-after-holy-week-recess-witnesses-testify-to-torture-andmassacres-and-announce-forthcoming-testimony-of-sexual-assault-survivors/. There are also two good
documentaries directed by Pamela Yates. One was made in 2011: From the film "Granito: How to Nail a Dictator"
(Skylight Pictures) and “When the Mountains Tremble” (1983), which are informative about Guatemala and the
war. Other sources are NISGUA and GHRC which you can check out on Facebook. Hopefully justice will reign
in Guatemala for the survivors that lost so much and it will serve as a warning to other dictators in the world. If
you want more information feel free to contact me.
HELP US EXPAND A TECHNOLOGY CENTER IN A RURAL VILLAGE
Miguel (left) is a Foundations scholarship student who in his 6th year at the university and is presently working on
his thesis in bilingual education in 3rd grade. Miguel came into the Foundations program when
he was in 7th grade and he graduated from high school in 2002. He is married with 2 small
children. He has been the director of a national middle school with 73 students in grades 7
through 9th grade for 2 years. The school is a primary national school in the mornings and has
274 primary school children with 9 teachers including the principal. There are 9 classrooms
with an office and a Technology Center. All of the students speak their
native Maya language of Kiche.
Martina (right) is also a Foundations scholarship student in her first year
of secondary education specializing in Pedagogic and Social Science.
Martina teaches all the computer classes from the experience she gained working as a
secretary for the church in the village. She also teaches some Spanish classes and classes in
her native language of K´iche´. She receives a monthly salary provided by her sponsors from
the St. Isidore Parish in Canada. Martina is pictured below with her family in front of her

4. adobe house (left).
The school where Miguel works is in a small
isolated village of San Juan Los Llanos,
Joyabaj in the department of El Quiché,
Guatemala. The village is about 45 minutes
on a mountainous road in a 4 x 4 pickup from
the municipal of Joyabaj. About 75% of the
people in the community over 18 years of
age are illiterate but the majority of the children do attend school. 5% of the
young people of school age have graduated from high school. The reason is finances and the fact that there is no
high school close to the community. Approximately 1,600 people live in the community. The main occupation is
farming in beans and corn for their daily consumption. There is only transportation on market days which are on
Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. The community does have electricity. About 50% of the people travel to the
plantations on the coast and cut coffee every year for an income.
I went up to the village to visit with Miguel, Martina and a new middle school scholarship student. Tomasa is 15
years old and in 8th grade with fantastic grades. Miguel had told me the family is
having a really hard time. At the same time I have a sponsor, Jurg, from
Switzerland who is looking for a younger girl to sponsor so she can communicate
with his children in Spanish. The match was great. Visiting with Tomasa in her
home was sad. Her parents had been away for over a month working on a
plantation on the coast. Tomasa was left in charge of her two smaller sisters of 11
years and 13 years old so they would not miss any school. Life is tough for the
people but I admire the whole family because in spite of their poverty the parents
are thinking of the educations of their daughters.
The classroom that is used for the Technology Center was funded and built by the community but did not open last
year because of a lack of a teacher for the class. Seven computers were
donated by an indigenous government organization called FODIGUA
(Funds for the development of indigenous in Guatemala) and one was
donated by the Ministry of Education. Unfortunately there are two
students for each computer and there is no internet because they community
cannot afford to pay the $39.00 charge per month for the service.
Foundations would like to help out with the purchase of the following
equipment for the school.
One of our donors, Bob
Jackson, suggested that I
could raise the money to fund this project by creating a fundraising
page at the free online fundraising site, YouCaring.com. Bob took
my content and created this page to describe the project:
8 computers $271 each for a total = $2,168.00
8 UPS at $42 each
= $336.00
Modem for Internet
=
$23.00
Internet for 1 year
= $468.00
Exchange Rate 7.80 Grand Total = $2,995.00
http://www.youcaring.com/other/Technology-Center-Expansion/45086
Please visit the site and if you make a contribution there it goes straight to the Foundations PayPal account with no
fees taken out. Also, it´s designed to be really easy for you to share this project with your friends and family on
Facebook and other social media. Please pass it on to your networks through social media or by sending the link in
an email. Hopefully we´ll both raise money and broaden the awareness for the work we are doing in Guatemala.
Feel free to post your comments on the site or email me your feedback. Thank you for your continued support.
Foundations for Education
POB 669004 A-343
Miami Springs, FL 33266
Email: foundations4edu@gmail.com
Guatemala (502) 7832-7016
In Memory of
My sons,
Mark and Scott
Foundations for Education – Canada
Macdonald Sager Manis LLP
150 York St. Suite 800
Toronto, ON M5H 3S5
(416) 361-2625 SZaboroski@msmlaw.ca