Proyecto Educativo de Xela Aid, or PEX, matches sponsors with children in the rural community of San Martin Chiquita, Guatemala, who wish to attend school. As of July 2007, 67 children are sponsored through the program. Last summer we celebrated the success of our first two college graduates. One completed an engineering degree and is now working for a large construction company headquartered in Guatemala City. The other student is working as a full-time teacher in the community and is also the coordinator of the new PEX Learning Center located in the second floor library of the medical clinic.

In 2008, Xela Aid welcomed the PEX "Coordinadora," or coordinating body. The five members assess the needs of PEX scholarship applicants from San Martin and surrounding communities and make recommendations to PEX Director Patricia Florez. (From left, back: Alma Iboy, Ruth Garcia; left, front: Luciana Vasquez, Esperanza Ordonez, Justa Vasquez)

Your annual PEX contribution goes directly to the student you select to sponsor. In fact, the monies are hand-delivered to each child and their parent or guardian twice a year. Your gift goes to pay for tuition, books, and other school supplies. It also assists the family by providing all of them with medical care at the clinic and with other necessary purchases such as shoes, sweaters or jackets, and other individual needs.

A small portion of your yearly gift, $25 of the total, goes to pay the salary of our PEX Learning Center coordinator. The Center is available to your student during certain hours for tutoring and provides them with library reference books and other study materials they may not have at home. The Center is also available to all of the students in the community, not just PEX students. However, starting in 2008, PEX students will be required to either receive tutoring assistance at the Center or work with our coordinator to tutor younger children in subjects that your sponsored child excels at. Each sponsored student will be required to log 20 visits over a six month period.

Each PEX student is required to provide us with a copy of their most recent school transcript to remain in the program. Students who are unable to verify their school attendance are sometimes given one semester to resolve the issue, depending on the circumstances.

Kids from this community commonly leave school because they need to work to help support the family. When this happens, a parent will sometimes ask that a younger child be given the PEX student’s place in the program. As a rule, we do not do this. Our goal is to encourage students to stay in school, even if they need to work as well. We believe that education will provide these young people with the tools that will make their personal survival even more likely.

You are welcome to go to Xela on any one of the trips that are organized over a year and meet your student in person. The students will often ask if their "padrino" or "padrina" had come to San Martin, they are eager to greet and welcome you in person. And, they will sometimes draw pictures or make weavings for us to give to their sponsor when we get back home. You are welcome to send a small gift to your student also and we will let you know before a trip what types of gifts are size-appropriate and when we need to have the gifts in-hand. You may also wish to give your student or their family a little more financial help beyond the sponsorship. This is a decision that is completely left up to you.

We try to plan a special event for all of the PEX students and some of their family members when we are in the village. These trips and events cost anywhere from $100 to $400 total. In July 2007, we rented a chicken bus and took more than 100 people to the beach for the day. We dined on delicious homemade tortillas, boiled chicken, rice, and black beans. And, the big expense of the day? Several large coconuts and bottles of water. If you would like to contribute to one of these outings, please include the amount with your annual sponsorship and indicate the amount that is intended for "OUTINGS" in a short note with the check.

In another part of the world a beloved master wrote that "If you plan for a year; plant a seed. If for ten years, plant a tree. If for a hundred years, teach the people. When you sow a seed once, you will reap a single harvest. When you teach the people, you will reap a hundred harvests." Kuan Chung.