Las Victorias

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A School for Las Victorias - Project Details

Meet the children of Las Victorias. They live in a small Maya village in north-central Guatemala. For years, their families have dreamed of a new primary school where the children can prepare for a better future.

Las Victorias is located in Guatemala’s Alta Verapaz region. Some 80 families are scattered among farms and rainforest in this beautiful, but impoverished, area. The nearest town, San Cristobal Verapaz, is about an hour’s walk.

The region is known for its coffee. Corn, beans and livestock are also prevalent. Many residents work at local farms and others work in trades such as masonry, carpentry or textiles.

Illiteracy rates among indigenous adults in Guatemala reach as high as 33 percent. Experts estimate that for every 10 children in Guatemala, only four will make it to middle school, and only two will complete high school.

Families in Las Victorias want better for their children. More than 200 children live within a 1-mile radius of the community center but fewer than half those children are currently able to attend school.

Until now classes in Las Victorias were held in a small, two-room structure that could not accommodate all the students. Some children were taught in a lean-to type addition.

The people of Las Victorias organized and defined their hopes for a school: adequate classroom space, sanitary restrooms, kitchen, storage space, administrative office and playground.

The community needed design and engineering help, construction advice and funding support. The Central Ohio Professional Chapter of Engineers Without Borders USA (EWB-COh) embraced the opportunity and is partnering with Las Victorias.

Initial steps in the project included:

Develop a preferred master plan for the school property;
Establish a construction timeline; and
Create a partnership agreement that includes monetary contributions from the community and volunteer manual labor.

Phase 1 of the project, completed in May 2017, was to design and build a 15-foot-high retaining wall, required because the site for the school is cut into a hillside.

Besides guiding and assisting with construction activities, the high point of the project team's site visits has been interacting with the children of Las Victorias and their families. The community has been extremely excited about the prospect of a new school campus, and they have eagerly contributed their time and energy to the project.

Phase 2 was the main classroom building. The EWB-COh project team worked many hours to develop the detailed plans and engineering calculations. Their task was complicated by the need to assure structural stability in a region vulnerable to seismic activity. Happily, construction was completed in late 2019, ready for use with the start of the school year in early 2020. The building features has three bright, spacious classrooms, with provisions to add a second story and three more classrooms as needed in the future.

Phase 3 of the project, currently underway, is a new kitchen. In recent years. lunches were prepared in a poorly ventilated shed.

The project team gathered input and a "wish list" from school leaders and kitchen volunteers, then invited them to choose among several preliminary designs.

After we completed final designs, the community--with the support of a professional construction supervisor and skilled masons--began work on a retaining wall and the kitchen building. We expect the new cocina to be completed by mid-2021.

Future project phases will include a water catchment system, restroom and handwashing stations, and a dining area.

The generous support of donors and sponsors like you is making this dream come true for the families of Las Victorias!