Accomplishments in Guatemala 2025
There was a new beginning for Cotinga Foundation this year. We were invited by Eyes Wide Open Ministries (EWO) in Chiquimula, Guatemala to partner with them to help the many schools there. There are not any government special education schools, so as a result, most students with learning needs do not attend school. EWO visits many schools there to help with physical needs, like water and school supplies. They see the needs of the teachers. They also hear from the teachers of their desire to know how to teach and adapt to all students.
Terry and Bob Lancaster traveled to Guatemala in April, 2025 to determine whether Cotinga Foundation could partner with the schools there to meet their needs. We met with the director of CEICA in Chiquimula, with several directors in El Morral and the director in Veguitas. These towns are many miles apart. Each director heard a presentation about the work of Cotinga in Ecuador. Each director wanted to know how soon we could come. They all talked about the desires of their teachers to teach all students, but the lack of training to help all students.
After raising a team, and writing a curriculum to present, 5 teachers and one support person arrived in Guatemala city On August 2. We started the almost 6 hour bus ride to Chiquimula, Guatemala. We partnered with Eyes Wide Open Ministries there in our first effort in Guatemala. EWO made all the arrangements for us: lodging, transportation, translators, food. We weren’t sure what to expect, but prepared for anything and everything.
We spent Saturday and Sunday (outside of our morning worship with a mountain church) organizing and preparing for the week. We set up work stations in our hotel rooms with computers, printers and laminators. We sorted, counted out, bagged and sorted again. EWO Ministries provided us with everything that we needed, along with multiple translators.
On Monday, we went to CEICO school in Chiquimula. It is a private church school that invited us to come. They cancelled school that day so that all the teachers could attend. They invited all of the surrounding schools to do the same. Thirty four teachers presenting 11 schools attended. Our google slides presentation involved all of our teachers. It was broken into sections: Welcome, Who we are, Goals for the Seminar and Instructions, Classroom Management Ideas, Student Information Folders and Data Documentation, Ways Students Learn, Reading Ideas, Writing Ideas, Math Ideas, Strategies for modifying curriculum, Strategies for modifying assessments, Questions and Conclusions. We had two break out small group times throughout the morning. Teachers joined other teachers that taught the same grade. Each Cotinga teacher took a group with a translator.
Cotinga Foundation offered an afternoon session for any teacher that wanted to stay. We did not expect very many teachers to stay, since most of them have second jobs in the afternoon. BUT most of them stayed! We provided lunch for all of the teachers. They could move around to different groups about different topics. We offered copying, laminating to create resources for their classrooms.
On Tuesday, we did the same presentation in El Morral, about 20 minutes from Chiquimula. Schools in the area were cancelled for the day. There were 32 teachers from 9 different schools. Again, we offered an afternoon session and lunch to the teachers that were able to stay. Those teachers helped their friends that had to leave, so that many classes were provided with resources.
On Wednesday, we did the same presentation up on the mountain called Veguitas. Schools in the area were cancelled for the day. There were 38 teachers from 13 different schools. Most teachers stayed in the afternoon for our work and group times. We were able to help so many of them to create activities for their classroom and answer individual questions about student concerns.
At the end of each seminar, each teacher was offered access to Cotinga’s Guatemala google drive of resources created for this trip. In addition to all of the documents that we have created over the years for every subject (all in spanish), there are now 978 spanish books with tests and worksheets. They cover all grade levels and subjects. (Every school received a flashdrive with all of the resources from our google drive when we discovered that most did not have internet access. This allowed them to download everything onto their computers.)
Only one or two of the schools (out of 35) had a computer in their school, but the directors own a computer. Most schools had a printer that had been provided by EWO, however ink and paper are hard to come by. Our afternoon printing and laminating sessions were appreciated.
We presented each host school with 50 kids picture books in Spanish for their library. (Actually, these books became their whole library.) They were very appreciative. They did not have any books to read to students and were very excited.
On Thursday and Friday, we split into three groups to visit schools in different towns. That allowed us to see schools at different grade levels with students in attendance. We were able to see a huge gamut of types of schools, grades of schools, with differing resources and economic areas. As we shared with each other, we documented the needs of each area. The teachers shared with us their biggest concerns. All school areas only go to 9th grade. CEICA (the private school) extends to grade 12. We discovered that the biggest concern is that all students must pass the national government curriculum.
On Friday, Terry was able to meet with the director of private schools, along with several administrators from CEICA. This meeting led to ideas about how to incorporate ALL levels and abilities of students into their population. CEICA is being asked by the Ministry of Education to accept many students with different learning abilities.
SO: Cotinga Foundation believes that these schools in Guatemala present an enormous area of need. Everything that we have taught in Ecuador can be used in Guatemala. All of the teachers were caring, open, interested and hopeful that we can help them to meet the needs of ‘The Least of These’. We believe that we can meet these needs in the years to come.