Manos de Colores – “niños”

This is a free after-school program for local children, which offers a diverse range of subjects at different levels for different age groups. El Nahual employs experienced Guatemalan teachers to provide reinforcement classes in Spanish language and mathematics and volunteers design and implement additional classes in English, art, guitar and theatre. This focus on core academic subjects as well as the arts is in recognition of the fact that many of our children have never picked up a paintbrush or donned a mask because their parents think such activities are cost prohibitive or considered unnecessary. Through the Manos de Colores program, we encourage our kids to explore the arts as a means of personal expression and as a way to bolster confidence and creativity.

Currently, the Manos de Colores program is offered in four different locations:

Location 1: El Nahual Community Center

Manos de Colores at the El Nahual Community Center was the initial project implemented in October 2005 as a service to the local Pacaja community. Almost two years later the program is still making a substantial impact in the local area surrounding the center with approximately 60 students enrolled between the ages of 6 and 16. Most impressively is the fact that many of the kids that originally enrolled in the program are still using the center on a regular basis. To this extent, the El Nahual community center satisfies the important requirements for consistency and long-term interaction in the development of today's youth.

Location 2: La Cuchilla

Manos de Colores La Cuchilla is the second after school program developed and maintained by El Nahual. Like our Manos de Colores at the El Nahual Community Center, this program was developed to create a positive outlet for the children in another deprived area of Quetzaltenango.

Manos de Colores La Cuchilla began about a year ago with a small number of children, but there are now a total of 50 students enrolled in the program. We are currently seeking to open up a third class to provide more individual assistance to the students and to also employ a Guatemalan teacher who will offer reinforcement classes in Spanish Language and Mathematics. Situated on the other side of Quetzaltenango, our volunteers take a 15-minute bike ride to the school where they teach English and Art classes to students between the ages of 5 and 10. The program provides the kids with a safe haven after-school where they can explore the arts and learn English. For our volunteers, it is a rewarding, both culturally and socially, as they are able to observe the environment in which local kids study at this public school.

Location 3: Canton Candelaria

Taking advantage of our abundance of native English speakers, El Nahual began supporting Canton Candelaria earlier this year by providing English instructions to their students. After a couple of months of support El Nahual and the Director of the school came into an agreement that the children needed a more diverse curriculum and for this reason our volunteers now teach the children English, Art, and Physical Education twice a week. Canton Candelaria is a very disadvantaged school located in the outskirts of Xela; it takes our volunteers approximately 45 minutes on a bike to travel to the school. Currently, our volunteers teach 6 different classes with more than 30 kids in each class. Canton Candelaria has approximately 160 students enrolled between the ages of 5 and 12. With the support of the of El Nahual, these children are now able to concentrate for two hours a week on subjects that, without our help, would not be offered to them.
El Nahual has future plans to run the Manos de Colores after-school program at Canton Candelaria as well as getting involved in the teaching of arts, English and P.E. during the current school schedule. We are currently also providing the manual labor for the construction of a new school which will drastically improve the environment in which the children study.

Location 4: Telesecondaria

Telesecondaria is a local high school that offers classes in the afternoon to students between the ages of 11 and 17. A large percentage of the students attending this school maintain jobs during in the morning and for this reason are only able to attend school in the afternoons. El Nahual assists this school by providing volunteers to teach English one day out of the week. Our volunteers teach six different English classes to a total 190 students.