Safe Passage Blog

Voting for the Parents Committee

Tuesday, May 21st, 2013

Families voted for the parents committee members.

Every ‘Reunion Mensual' (Monthly Meeting) here at Safe Passage is a big day, as once a month we ask our students to stay home for the day and instead invite the parents to an afternoon full of encouragement and support. It’s one of my favorite days of the month. Volunteers and staff line the front door with drums and maracas and applaud and cheer for the parents one by one as they enter, expressing our pride and thankfulness for caring for their student’s education.

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The Crazy Idea is Hatched

Thursday, May 16th, 2013

It was two people and a bottle of wine at a dinner in a tropical garden in Guatemala:

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Running Club Revolution

Monday, April 29th, 2013

The Safe Passage mothers have begun 2013 by starting a revolution. They were tired of feeling tired, unhealthy and inactive. Although they have been expressing these feelings for a while, the excessive amount of tamales, a mass of starchy corn based dough, during the Christmas season were the final straw. Unlike other Western Countries where a woman wouldn’t dare touch on the taboo topic of a woman’s weight, in Guatemala women will just poke at each other’s bellies and just bluntly say “you have really gotten fat.” But for the women it was not about “being fat”, I actually once was told “the fatter the better.” For them, they longed to have that beautiful healthy feeling, to feel good about themselves and to take their bodies into their own hands.

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Look, teacher! A zebra!

Friday, April 26th, 2013

It’s not often that our students get the opportunity to leave the barrio where they live. For most of our students, the reality of a neighborhood seeping with trash and drenched in poverty, violence, and addiction is the only reality they ever get to see. When an opportunity did arrive for our 4-7 year olds to leave, even just for half a day to the Guatemala City Zoo, it was a dream come true.