"¿Buen precio, quiere comprar?…" As yet another girl approaches you with trinkets for sale, do you view her as just another of the countless vendors hassling tourists for money or as a young child fighting to build her future? It is children like her who attend Niño Obrero (Working Child) School in Antigua, which provides a positive alternative to life on the streets facing poverty, abuse an hunger.
Five years ago, 14-year-old Edgar wrote about his experiences at Niño Obrero School and his ambitions for the future: "I'm in fourth grade at Niño Obrero School. I like studying nature, history and mathematics. In the afternoons we learn to make clothes to sell to earn money for our families. After school I train at boxing in the gym. When I grow up, I want to be a doctor and a professional boxer."
The Antigua area is home to many families like Edgar's, who struggle daily just to put food on their tables. But Niño Obrero, a school that provides education and a hot meal every day, offers hope. Niño Obrero School gave young Edgar, now 19, the confidence to follow his dreams. He is continuing his studies at college and earning money competing as a professional boxer.
Some 1,000 children like Edgar have benefited from this innovative school in Antigua. Its pupils, age 4-17, are the girls selling handicraft to tourists, the shoeshine boys and other children who work in the markets or farms in and around Antigua. According to Instituto Nacional de Estadistica data, around 507,000 Guatemalan children work; 8 percent of Guatemalan children are denied access to education because of work and a further 12 percent juggle work and schooling.
Project Director Carlos Alfredo Toledo Urrutia explains: "The Niño Obrero approach focuses on prevention. Our sister project, Nuestros Derechos, delivers frontline support to street children in Guatemala City. Niño Obrero works one step ahead, to break the cycle of poverty and ensure that Antigua's poorest children never have to face this prospect of street life. Niño Obrero succeeds because it is designed specifically for working children and can address the difficulties they encounter juggling work and education. Our hope is that these children progress to further education or valuable employment and a sustainable way of life for their own families in the future."
Families like Edgar's cannot afford to send their children to standard public school, which, though low-cost, is not free. The cost of public school fees, uniform and stationery amounts to about Q750 per pupil per year - about the monthly income for many families. With five or six children in most families this is an impossible expenditure, especially when a child in school is a child not earning.
Niño Obrero School offers a financial incentive for attendance so that parents allow their children this time out of working. School Principal Maria Luisa Urias explains: "We ensure that attendance at Niño Obrero is financially possible for the poorest of families. We offer a hot meal every day, which offsets the loss of a child's half-day income. In the afternoons the children can make handicrafts to sell to tourists. The money earned is both invested in new materials and added to the family's income."
There's another key difference between the standard school system and Niño Obrero: It's never too late to start learning at Niño Obrero. Pupils can enroll regardless of age or previous education. This flexibility ensures that children who don't enroll at a young age, often due to financial difficulties or family migration, do not lose out on an education altogether.
Niño Obrero has developed significantly over its 11-year lifetime. It began in January 1992 as an informal drop-in library for 10 children who were working and begging around Antigua's plaza and market. By June 1993 the project offered formal morning classes to 23 children from first through third grade. Today the school goes up to sixth grade and serves 80 pupils annually.
The formal education offered is complemented by a nutrition program and access to health services, including visits from health professionals such as doctors, dentists and opticians.
Marcela, a 13-year-old fourth-grader, sums up this holistic approach: "I like learning at Niño Obrero. The teachers always explain things well, or if we don't understand something they repeat it. Also they give us refreshments and food at lunchtime. We learn to respect our parents, the teachers and each other. We also learn to take care of our health and hygiene."
Children leave Niño Obrero School after sixth grade. The program tries to raise any extra money needed to pay for further studies. Often children must continue working to supplement the family income. Glenda, 14, is in sixth grade and says: "When I grow up, I want to be a bilingual secretary. Next year, when I leave Niño Obrero, I will work to help my family and continue my studies at night school."
In the past, Niño Obrero has been funded by international organizations including SKN International and Denmark's Save the Children. However, due to the recent international economic crisis, all funding has been withdrawn. Reserve funding from the sister project, Nuestros Derechos, is just sufficient to provide the children's daily food, but educational and handicrafts resources are scarce. With the exception of daily bread donations from La Bodegona supermarket in Antigua, the project receives no help from Guatemalan government, businesses or organizations.
The teachers at Niño Obrero are all trainees, working without pay each morning as their practical work experience. Magda teaches second grade: "We have to teach creatively with the most basic materials because the school has minimal resources. Sometimes the children are difficult, due to their problematic backgrounds, but they are also honest and humble." Overseas volunteers assist the teachers in the mornings and run activities in the afternoon. German Edith Dörner is volunteering for five months: "Niño Obrero desperately needs funding, materials and volunteers to continue to give these children the education they deserve. Most of the children have no educational stimulation or support in the home so always want, and appreciate, my extra help. That's the biggest difference between children here and back home, and it's what makes my work here so rewarding."
For more information about Niño Obrero School, located at Calle de los Nazarenos #26A in Antigua, e-mail info@nuestrosderechos.org .
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