16.07.2014 – Twenty-two-year-old Aura Marina Teni Choc always has a book in her hands. In North Guatemala, this is not a common thing, given that Aura is the first girl from her village to attend university. “Until recently, girls stayed at home after finishing primary school. There wasn’t a high school nearby, so they had no choice but to stay and help their parents in cardamom farming, and they married early. Now we have the opportunity to get educated.”

Aura completed secondary school and obtained an elementary school teaching diploma as a result of the opening of the Maya K’amolb'e Walo Suter Institute. This organisation is largely financed by the Swiss national Walo Suter, a very generous contributor to Enfants du Monde. Now, about twenty neighbouring villages are benefiting from the opportunity to send their children to secondary school.

Aura tells us: “I was taught in both the local language and Spanish, and I learnt a lot about the customs of my Mayan ancestors.” The schools supported by Enfants du Monde use the Pedagogy of Text approach, which promotes bilingualism and places the emphasis on the student’s local culture. Aura adds: “In the future, I would like to teach at the Maya Institute to allow many other children from my village to study.”