A Voice For the Voiceless

MISSION

The Advocacy Project seeks to help community-based advocates produce, disseminate and use information, and so become more effective advocates for human rights and social justice

ADIVIMA Launches Girls' Scholarship Program (2007)

This month, ADIVIMA is launching a scholarship program for girls to attend school from families that were affected and displaced by the Rio Negro massacres. While several organizations in the area offer scholarship programs, none are specifically designed to serve children of survivors of the massacres in the Rabinal area. ADIVIMA saw this as a chance to uniquely serve their constituent population by contributing to the education and development of the next generation of leaders. 

While the massacres occurred over twenty years ago, the communities are still suffering the effects of the debilitating poverty induced by their loss of land due to displacement by the Chixoy Hydroelectric Dam Project. The only wealth that many of these families had was their land, and when they were forcibly displaced they were no longer able to participate in their livelihood of subsistence farming. This forced them, as unskilled workers, to attempt to find jobs in an already dismal job market. Most do not have the skills to for any job other than domestic work or hard agricultural labor in fields owned by large landowners. 

When families are able to send a child to school, it is almost always a male child due to the machismo culture in Guatemala and the feeling that they might have a better chance at getting a job. Many of the girls in these communities end up married or pregnant at the young ages of thirteen or fourteen, and because of this they are no longer able to pursue education, and often struggle with the same aspects of poverty as their parents. ADIVIMA asserts that one of the best ways to help the socioeconomic development of these communities of survivors is to send girls to school to acquire professional skills so they can obtain jobs, return to help their communities, and raise children that also have the opportunity to go to school and attain an education.

Students who applied to the program went through a rigorous interview process to gauge their commitment to education and willingness to returning to help their communities. They were judged according to financial need, blood relation to survivors of the massacres, former educational record in primary school, and their desire to serve their communities. The program will provide five children for the upcoming school year with tuition, school supplies, uniforms, room and board, medical expenses, as well as transportation to and from school. The amount allotted for the scholarship depends on where the girls choose to go to school among the secondary schools in the Rabinal area, what their living situations will be, and what their other needs, such as medical or transportation, may be. However, the average amount is around $350 to support one girl for the entire school year. Below are two profiles of extraordinary girls that have been accepted to the program.

The efforts of ADIVIMA to send these girls to school have the possibility of forever changing these communities. Each girl that receives an education has the possibility return to the community to help repair the social fabric torn by years of internal conflict, repression by the government and military, and economic difficulties. As of now the program is very small, only fully supporting five children to go to school. ADIVIMA hopes to both continue and enlarge the program for the future through support of donors and those who believe that education truly is the road to creating a more developed and peaceful world.

Brenda Noemy Chen Perez

Brenda Noemy Chen Perez is 13 years old and her family survived the massacres and was displaced from the community of Rio Negro. She currently lives in Pacux, the village slum outside of Rabinal where many of the former residents of Rio Negro that survived the massacres were forcibly relocated by the military. Her mother died three years ago and her father is not a part of her life, so currently her sister is her legal guardian and her sole provider. 

She wants to continue school to become a professional accountant, but obviously does not have the resources at this time to do so. Her favorite subjects are language and mathematics, which will certainly serve her well as she continues her education to become an accountant. Brenda is such an incredibly dedicated student that she is currently taking extra classes on the weekends in computer systems and typing. Many residents of these communities do not have any computer or typing skills, and these will be invaluable in her ability to secure employment when she graduates. 

When asked how she would help her community once she graduates she replied, “If ADIVIMA is able to help me to obtain an education, I will be able to return to help those girls in need who are just like me to go to school in the future.” Her sister, Irma Yolanda Chen, explained, “women should have the same right as men to go to school. It is imperative for the development of our communities and for us to gain respect from others.”

Flory Marisol Iboy Alvarado

Flory Marisol Iboy Alvarado is 12 years old and her parents are also survivors of the Rio Negro massacres and live in the displacement community of Pacux. Her family has many children and her parents cannot afford to send all of them to school.  Her father noted that, “education of girls is essential to the development of the community and family. We are unable to pay and are so grateful for the support of ADIVIMA to send Flory to school.”  Flory is an excellent student whose favorite subject is mathematics. She hopes to one day become a professional in public administration, which could be invaluable to the development of her community in the future. Flory will return to help her village when she graduates, “in all of their efforts and in any way that they need.”