Ricardo Boehm – Helping Indigenous Students Get Educated in a Remote Area of Guatemala

The Club had Ricardo Boehm as the guest speaker for the Nov. 25 meeting. He is a member of the Palm Beach Rotary Club and has focused a lot of this personal attention to helping the indigenous people in a remote area of Guatemala and, in particular, the Ak’Tenamit school. Note below the boat, electric motor and solar panels all provided via Rotary Global Grants.

Rotary Global Grant’s mission there is to enable the indigenous people of Guatemala to become self-sustaining by supporting projects that:

Improve health care
Reduce illiteracy
Promote environmentally sound agriculture
Enterprise development to raise income levels

Note that 74.5% of the population aged 15 and over is literate, the lowest literacy rate in Central America

75% of indigenous Guatemalans live in poverty
10% of indigenous children are child laborers by age 10
Indigenous girls drop out after 1st grade, boys after 3rd
19% of men and 27% women are illiterate
Only 5% of indigenous girls finish high school

The three-year vocational high school is nationally and internationally recognized for its innovative program. The curriculum is adapted to the needs, interests, and culture of students learning in a rural context, and classroom learning is complemented with practical work experience.

Students earn 3,000 hours of on-the-job experience through the work-study program.

Rotary Supports Ak’Tenamit

Individual club grants, Humanitarian matching grants, and District grants have filled many needs.

Individual Rotarians have made innumerable individual contributions, and many are student sponsors and healthcare partners.

Rotary Works at Ak’Tenamit

Rotary service teams have been coming to Guatemala to help improve Ak’ Tenamit’s infrastructure for over 20 years. They brave the sticky jungle heat to work alongside students and community members to enhance Ak’ Tenamit’s education programs.

Here are the overall figures for the school.