Newsletter #13: A Festive Season
Make an impact with your holiday shopping!
After having to cancel last year’s highly anticipated event we are so excited to announce the return of our 4th Annual EDUPAVI Craft Fair sponsored by TD Canada Trust, which will take place on Sunday, December 12th, 2021. All purchases support local artisans who will also be donating a portion of their proceeds to EDUPAVI, so this is the perfect way to make your gift giving all the more meaningful.
In Guatemala, the mothers in our program had an artisan fair of their own! Over the past year, we have been making a more focused effort to equip women in the community to be able to increase their family resilience and self-sustainability. Through workshops covering topics like baking, vegetable cultivation and micro-business strategies, our mission to dignify lives through education has extended to include the mothers as well as the children in the community of Zaragoza.
On Oct 29th, we hosted an "Artisan Market" for all the mothers to sell and display their goods. Some sold excess produce from the gardens they started as part of our "Seeds of Hope" program, others sold baked goods made at our "EDUPAN" program, and others sold items from skills they learned at our other workshops. We are honoured to be able to walk alongside the women of this community as they fight to support their families during the ongoing economic challenges caused by COVID-19.
The end of October also marked the end of the school year in Guatemala! To celebrate, our team worked hard to coordinate the return of a two-week, COVID-friendly version of our annual year end festival.
The first week was for the 65+ mothers of the program who received gift baskets, home visits, and were able to celebrate and support each other during the tail end of a difficult year. The second week was a day camp led by a team of volunteers (some of which were youth & young adult alumni of our program), who danced, sang, played games and gave gifts to the children to congratulate them for persevering in their education.
We are so proud of all 90+ of our students for completing their school year in a time where an unprecedented number of children in Guatemala dropped out due to extended school closures and economic burdens due to COVID-19, which is still very much a factor in the community. We know for certain that without our program, the students would have had no consistent in-person class for over a year. Many do not have access to internet or electronic devices for virtual learning, even if their public schools were one of the few that offered it.
Our program would not have existed without your support. Your generosity this past year provided the means for 90+ children to fight for their right to an education, and empowered their families in the process.
As we head into the last month of the year, please consider including our mission to empower real lives through education in your year-end giving!
Your gift is most needed at this time of year as we gather supplies and prepare for the start of a new school year in late January 2022.
Tax receipts are available for all donations.
Thank you for reading, and see you at the Craft Fair!
Team EDUPAVI Canada