Child Aid

Child Aid's mission is to create opportunity for Latin America's rural and indigenous poor through childhood literacy and education programs. We conduct reading programs in partnership with over 25 communities in Guatemala and put books into the hands of thousands of children. We provide critical training to teachers and librarians and offer scholarships to impoverished students. Child Aid's literacy work provides the means for children to break out of poverty and build better lives for themselves and their families.

Transforming Community Libraries:
Local libraries are a cornerstone of our literacy work. Child Aid provides resources and ongoing training to librarians. We connect libraries with schools and transform them into sustainable centers for learning. Working with local organizations for over 16 years, Child Aid has helped create more than 35 libraries in Guatemala, and we continue to support and improve them for the benefit of children.

Training Rural Teachers:
Most teachers in Guatemala have the equivalent of a high school diploma and lack training to effectively teach and promote reading. We provide ongoing teacher training and classroom follow-up, reaching hundreds of rural educators, benefiting thousands of children.

Bringing Books to Children:
Most classrooms in rural Guatemala lack books entirely. Each year, Child Aid sends tens of thousands of quality Spanish language books to rural schools and libraries in Guatemala. Many children in our literacy programs are able to bring books home to share and enjoy for the first time in their lives.

Donate
-More than anything, Child Aid relies on donations to fund our literacy work. Our donors' willingness to give is key in maintaining and expanding our reading programs in Guatemala. Your contributions are immensely appreciated.

Volunteer
- Our volunteer program helps us to keep our overhead low, while at the same time bringing the human and technical resources that are needed by our partners in Latin America. Our volunteers have ranged from skilled librarians, teachers, audiologists and computer experts to individuals with no specialty who wanted to give of themselves to help others.

Your Input
- One of our greatest assets is our willingness and ability to meet changing needs and circumstances. In turn, we are always looking for input and suggestions that can help us to improve our work. Just as importantly, we welcome input that improves our relationship with you, our donors and friends.

Learn more about all of these opportunities by clicking on the "Get Involved" link at the bottom of the page.
You can also contact Danny Palmerlee, Director of Development at danny@child-aid.org, or call us at 503-223-3008.

For 20 years Child Aid has been working to build better futures for the children of Latin America. The story of this compassionate journey began in Oaxaca, Mexico when husband and wife founders Rick Carroll and Nancy Press witnessed the crippling poverty in this extremely poor state. Recognizing that a lack of resources for the poor made progress slow, if not impossible, Rick and Nancy embarked on a path to connect resources in the United States with key people in Latin America. The people who were working to make a better future for their own communities.

- Guatemala has the lowest literacy rate in all of Latin America.
- The country also rates lower on the UN's Human Development Index than any other country in the region.
- More than 50% of the region's indigenous children never make it through primary school and only 24% finish middle school.
- In some indigenous areas, as many as 75% of the women cannot read or write.
- Most teachers and librarians have only the equivalent of a high school diploma and almost none have had specific training in reading promotion or literacy education.

At the root of these sad statistics is an educational system that fails to keep poor children in school or to offer the basic skills they need to improve their lives.