Seth in CA (for the summer)

Fundación Nueva Esperanza opens new classrooms, library

June 21, 2006 at 10:18 pm | In human rights, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Fundación Nueva Esperanza opens new classrooms, library

If you only have a minute, please sign this petition, End Impunity – Support the Spanish Investigative Commission in Guatemala. If you’re confused, read to the end.

This is really exciting news. Over spring break I went to Fundación Nueva Esperanza, a school for the indigenous Maya Achi in Rabinal, Guatemala with Hillel and American Jewish World Service. Guillermo Chen Morales, who we interacted with a lot while we were there writes:

Dear friends,

We would like to share with you the success of the Foundation Nueva Esperanza and our secondary school which are: an opening of our new classrooms, our new scince lab and the library. This achievement is for all young indigenous people of Rabinal. Best wishes.

When we were there we stayed in two rooms that weren’t in use for anything else. I’m pretty sure one of them is now the library. We were also there when they were working on the new classrooms. We weren’t qualified to actually help with the construction, but we did clean up. You can see part of one of the new classrooms on the right in the back of this picture:

And here’s a picture from a newspaper clipping of it completed. Wow:

There’s a bunch more pictures from the newspaper article here.

AJWS, which is itself a wonderful organization, has more information about the vitally important work that the Fundación does for a people that has, at the hands of the Guatemalan government and paramilitaries, been at best neglected and at worst massacred. The founder of the organization, Jesús Tecú, is himself a survivor of the Rio Negro Massacre. Before founding the school and since, Jesús has worked for justice, testifying against paramilitaries in one court case and encouraging others to speak up.So now, if you haven’t already, please sign the petition: End Impunity – Support the Spanish Investigative Commission in Guatemala.

One more picture: