Escuelita Maya After- School Programs and Nido Maya (Pre-K 4)

Escuelita Maya was established in 1995 to provide a safe place for children to stay until their parents come home from work. Without the program, many of the K-5 grade children would be at risk, especially the older children for gang recruitment and drug abuse. The children receive academic tutoring, Maya cultural education, and outdoor recreation daily. The school operates on a year-round basis with part-time days during the school year, and full-time days during the summer. During the summer months a two week summer camp is conducted during the day; the children are taken on field trips, and engage in many fun activities. The Guatemalan Maya children are at a definite disadvantage in education; most of these

underserved families are poverty stricken, have language barriers and very low literacy skills.
Another goal of the program is to work with these children through special tutoring to enable them to achieve higher levels in their educational process.

A Pre-K 4 program was added this past year. We feel that educating these children at a younger age becomes very advantageous to their future education.