2024 UPDATES

Happy New Year to all of our SANA friends.  It’s a new exciting year for SANA too and we want to share with you what we will be doing.

Preschool & Annex

You may remember that we were building an educational annex connected to our clinic.  This project was finished in October and on January 15, our preschool opened with 82 children (4 and 5 years old).  In addition to larger classrooms with separate art spaces, we built a roof-top playground for the little ones.  This gives them a place to exercise and play instead of needing to do this on the street! 

In November we offered “vacation preschool” classes for a smaller group and it was so well received that we will be doing this throughout the spring break and mid-October to mid-December in 2024.   

Library & Education

We will continue to offer book clubs at our library, and have added many more books for those that just want to stop by and read.  The library is open Monday through Friday from 8 am to 5 pm but by mid-year we may be able to extend these hours to include some time on Saturday.  Additionally, we began offering tutoring classes in October for children struggling in school.  We have 2 dedicated teachers who will lead the tutoring in 2024.  We also set up 10 computer stations and have downloaded Duolingo to help the students struggling with Spanish and English.  Just FYI … the Guatemalan government requires that the students speak Kaqchikel, Spanish and English.  Just another way of making it difficult for the children to achieve but we will make sure they pass these subjects!

Scholarships & Workshops

Guatemala only requires children to receive an education through 6^th grade.  If children want to learn more, the parents must pay the tuition, books, and all other materials for junior high school, trade school and/or college. Unfortunately, particularly in the rural areas, this is cost-prohibitive.  Since 2022 we have been offering scholarships on a trial basis and have found that it is helping many more children stay in school.

For 2024, we have 40 students receiving scholarships.  We also will begin offering monthly workshops in February to expose the children to different types of trades so they can experience what is required and decide if that’s something they want to pursue after junior high school.  Our workshops for 2024 will include haircuts and styling, baking, floral arrangements, candle making, and tailoring.  Depending on the success of this program in 2024, we will add nursing, auto repairs, and other programs in 2025.  Here are the scholarship children who started 8^th grade in January; all passed their classes in 2023.

Healthcare Programs

Our flagship project, the healthcare clinic, continues to grow.  In 2023, we provided care for 6,144 patients.  We offer general medical care, pediatric care, dental services including minor surgeries, and added a part-time ob-gyn to our clinic to manage the pregnancy program.  In 2024, we will offer medical education classes for our patients, scholarship students, and preschoolers (reproductive health for girls, dental hygiene, etc.).