Indigenous Women and Girls Lack Access to Education
Education for Maya women and girls falls below the Guatemalan average. They make up the most marginalized group in Guatemala, as fewer than 20% complete high school and only an average of four years of schooling. In Sololá, the city where MAIA operates, 57% are married or have become mothers by the time they are 18, which significantly hinders the ability of indigenous women and girls to reach their fullest potential and become active leaders of their community and country.
The MAIA Impact School Provides Opportunity for Stable Learning
The MAIA Impact School is Central America’s only school with the explicit mission to support poor, rural, female, indigenous Maya students. As a result, they connect students with the opportunities of 21st-century education and have four long-term goals for every student:
- Economic Autonomy – earn at least a minimum wage in the formal economy
- Lifelong Learning — complete an average of 15 years of formal schooling
- Her Family, Her Terms — prevent early marriage and motherhood
- Empowered to Empower — become leaders to create a more equitable society
Team4Tech Aids in Standardizing Content and Integrating Technology
Team4Tech will aid MAIA in developing standards and content as well as coaching for educators. In the end, they aim to support integrating technology into the classrooms. Team4Tech will help them create spaces with sustainable internet access for girls to have access to technology for learning. Team4Tech will also help MAIA educators identify skills to prepare girls for vocational success. To date, Team4Tech has helped support the following projects:
- 2022: 8 Barracuda Networks volunteers supported MAIA’s curriculum on internet safety, by creating content to address the importance of digital security and how to protect yourself from danger on the internet, such as bullying and identity theft. They also researched and developed a roadmap for MAIA on what the makerspaces could include in their low-tech, low-resource environment.
Get Involved with Team4Tech and Our Partners
If you would like to learn more about our work, subscribe to the Team4Tech mailing list. You can read about more projects improving education for Maya women in Central America and in other regions. Then, you can follow the progression of other international projects and hear from the experiences of corporate and non-profit partners alike.