How We Work
In our scholarship program, we support students from disadvantaged families, focusing on girls.
ETHICAL BEAN SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM
Scholarships are available for middle and high school students.
We give scholarships only for students entering 1st grade of secondary or high school.
Our students go to public schools or schools that are a joint initiative of Ministry of Education, local government and parents; we do not provide scholarships for private schools.
Only one child per family can have a FUNDIT scholarship within a given year.
We provide the tuition fee, educational materials, a daily uniform, books, a typing course for the first grade of middle school, and an internship uniform for the last year high school students.
Our students participate twice a year in workshops on topics that pertain to their lives.
Every student receives tutoring from the library teachers.
Students have an obligation to bring in their grades every two months, including year-end certificate
Our students volunteer in the library or preschool.
Families who do not comply with the program rules or students who do not pass the school year are not eligible to continue benefitting from the program.
Interested families have to submit an application with an explanation as to why we should assign a scholarship to their child. This is normally done from October to mid-November. The next step is a socioeconomic study done by part of the FUNDIT scholarship program committee. The committee meets to decide who will benefit from the scholarship for the coming year. The list of benefited students is made public in the first days of December.
The scholarship program committee meets every two months to evaluate its progress, talk about cases that need special care, and plan next month’s meeting.
Ethical Bean has been supporting our scholarship program for 11 years. It allows dozens of students to continue education after primary school. Thank you, Ethical Bean, for your huge support.
With Ethical Bean we currently support 62 students in our scholarship program. Community needs are much higher. Your support can change the future of one or several young persons in El Tejar.
WHY WE OFFER A SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM?
Only 50% of children in Guatemala finish secondary school, and only 3% finish high school. It´s even worse among women.
Before FUNDIT became a registered NGO, Nancy and other women were supporting a group of children with their homework and school expenses. It was the foundation of the scholarship program of FUNDIT, to assist school children with the costs of tuition, uniforms, books, and school utilities. Many families could not afford these expenses and as a result were not sending their children to school.
By the time FUNDIT started operating as an NGO, about 150 primary and secondary school students had scholarships. They were given school materials, a uniform, books, paid tuition and fees, a typing course, and in some cases the monthly cost of transportation.
From 1987 to 2000, FUNDIT was accepting applications for scholarships to private schools. After Nancy died in 2000, it was decided that students who wanted to apply for the scholarship should study in public schools.
In 2012, we began to offer scholarships to high school students. The program provided workshops and the students had to volunteer for one week in the library. Since 2016, we only accept applications for secondary and high school.
The community of El Tejar is affected by a high rate of gang violence. We feel that the only way to change the situation long term is to educate young people.
Our Students
Darlin Eunice Darlin is 14 years old and enrolled in her second year of secondary school at INSOL in Antigua, Guatemala. She lives with her mother and two younger siblings. Her younger brother has visual problems and needs special help at school. Darlin´s father had to migrate to the United States to be able to maintain the family.
During her three years at CEDIN, Darlin was one of the best students in her class. In primary school she has been one of the top three students in her class and among the top 10 in her school, currently maintaining a 94 percent average. She wants to be a pre-primary teacher and would like to study psychology at the university. She also enjoys painting, listening to music, and mathematics.
Darlin is very grateful to FUNDIT donors for providing the scholarship funds that have supported her throughout her education. She feels the funds have helped her to develop her character as well as further her education—knowing she had to do all the homework to continue receiving her scholarship, she was forced to become more responsible and well-organized. It makes her happy that the FUNDIT scholarship is helping many children and young people like herself in El Tejar. Darlin adds that she wouldn’t be so successful without the love and support of her parents, and that her mother accompanies her through every success and failure.
Barbara Sucely “I’m going to be a teacher when I grow up.” This is what Sucely would say whenever she was taking care of her younger cousins.
Sucely’s father was never present in her life, and her mother died when Sucely was 10. Since that time, her grandparents have been responsible for her. Sucely has had serious medical problems: two years ago medical tests revealed she had a heart murmur. She underwent open-heart surgery in August 2016. Following several months of recovery she was able to take her exams and graduate from middle school in November 2016. Sucely is a CEDIN alumna and now receives an Ethical Bean scholarship.
“I like working with children, spending time with them, teaching them to do manual activities. When I graduate I would like to start studying at the university, working at the same time to be able to support my grandparents,” says Sucely.
Sucely’s grandmother says, “The FUNDIT scholarship is a huge support for us. We are getting older. My husband cannot work anymore as he had surgery in his legs a few years ago. I sell ‘atoll’ at the nearby school in the afternoons. Unfortunately, our income is very low. We try to have some money every day for Sucely’s transportation to school and materials. FUNDIT helped us with school necessities in the beginning of the year. Without their support we could not send her to school. My husband and I cannot read or write. All our 10 children work very hard. They all have families now. Our last mission is to help Sucely. The only thing we can give her is an education so that she can defend herself in life. We want her to learn to be independent.”
Sucely is now 17 and will graduate next year from INSOL high school in Antigua, where she is studying early childhood education. Within the next 10 years she hopes to have a stable job and be able to support other young people who are pursuing their education.
Maria Soledad is currently in her 1st year of middle school. Her father died four years ago, just a few months after Maria’s youngest brother was born. Maria’s older sister is taking weekend classes in a middle school far away, as she has to look after her younger siblings during the week. Her mother works some days as domestic help but sometimes she has no means of supporting her family. She is also illiterate, which makes finding a job even more challenging. She often resorts to collecting and recycling trash. Maria is studying in the afternoons at a public school. In the mornings, together with her older sister, she takes care of her younger brothers while her mother is out working.
The family lives in a house in return for hard work on the land. Another challenge they have to face is the fact that there is no running water in the house. They collect water from the neighbor’s house or the public pila.
Our Impact
.More than 1000 young people were beneficiaries of scholarships since Nancy started offering them in the 1980s.
Joselin Maggbioli Joselin says, “I live with my mom and my four sisters so the economic situation is always very difficult. I remember receiving education materials, books, and my uniform from FUNDIT. It made my middle school studies possible, as my mother didn’t have enough money to cover all the costs. I’m very grateful to all the people involved in the scholarship program, especially Ethical Bean Coffee Company. Thank you for supporting me all those years! I wouldn’t be where I am now without your support. I‘ll always remember my CEDIN teachers and the FUNDIT team supporting me. I’m happy that the program continues, and I hope it will help many more children in El Tejar.”
Recently, Joselin was promoted to the position of process analyst in the logistics area of FFACSA in Chimaltenango. She is finishing her Bachelor’s Degree in Language and Communication this year. After she graduates she plans to continue her studies towards her Master’s Degree. She hopes to marry and work in an education center where she can share her knowledge with the students. One of her goal is that her future income will be enough to help her mother
Hector is 18 years old.
His parents are separated so Hector has always lived with his mother and younger sister, together with their grandmother, an aunt, and an uncle. His mother has never had a stable job. She works as domestic help: washing clothes, cleaning, and cooking. Sometimes she can earn around $40 per week, but normally, it is not more than $25. Their family relies on the grandmother and the aunt to help them.
Luckily, Hector has been receiving FUNDIT support since the primary school. He received a scholarship to attend primary school. Later on, he continued his education in middle school. He graduated from a tourism and hospitality high school in Jocotenango near Antigua last year, completing an internship at a hotel in Antigua.
Hector is now studying enterprise administration at San Carlos University in the afternoons. He would like to start working in the coming months.