- ATD Fourth World

Guatemala

ATD Fourth World began its activities in Guatemala in 1979, starting in San Jacinto in the Chiquimula region.
Since 1987 we have been active in Guatemala City, and since 2002 also in Escuintia. It is mainly in these two places that our activities continue today.

In response to the problem of academic failure in schools, experienced by the majority of families living in poor neighbourhoods, our main area of activity is education and access to knowledge. In partnership with the state and with society as a whole, we are developing a comprehensive campaign around school attendance and support, in order to improve access to education.

This campaign has involved the following activities in particular:

• Street libraries. These enable children to stay motivated in school and to complete the school year; they open a pathway to children’s dreams through tales, beauty, art, poetry, and self-expression. Our regular presence in the streets creates friendly relationships in a co-operative atmosphere. The libraries also encourage neighbourly interactions which improve or create relationships between families, and this in turn strengthens values such as solidarity, friendship and mutual support.
• Family meetings. Most of the people who come to these meetings are unused to speaking in public, or to being listened to and acknowledged. They therefore have regular meetings so that they can discuss, reflect together or be creative on themes of general interest. These meetings bring together very different people who do not normally meet on an equal footing – health, education and arts professionals, very poor families, and friends of ATD Fourth World.
• Special events are also organized, in which very poor people can speak out in public, to give testimony about their lives and their own knowledge These events allow society as a whole to listen to, and learn from, the most socially excluded. These presentations form part in particular of the World Day to Overcome Extreme Poverty on 17th October.

To visit the website of ATD Fourth World in Guatemala (in Spanish) click here.

• International Action

• Research and Studies

• Sharing Experiences Worldwide

• Memory and Knowledge.