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Deep Roots Guatemala (DRG) provides scholarships to at-risk youth and future leaders in the Chisec region of Alta
Verapaz, Guatemala. DRG concentrates its efforts in this Q'eqchi'-Maya rainforest region because it is one of
the most isolated and abandoned in the country. With more than 60% of the population illiterate (over 75% of the women)
and the majority of rural children not in school past the second grade, urgent efforts are needed to promote
education in this area.
DRG works in cooperation with the local Guatemalan organization SANK - a Q'eqchi'-Maya acronym that is the Q'eqchi'
word for "leaf-cutter ant" - by far, the strongest animal in the rainforest. SANK helps us ensure that donations
reach the most deserving and needy children and helps us track the progress of our scholars over time. SANK's work
focuses on environmental and educational projects in the Chisec region, cooperating with demanding agencies including
the Guatemalan government, US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the European Union (EU). DRG knows
the value of formal education for at risk children in rural Guatemala and has focused efforts on two special populations.
AT RISK YOUTH - The Chisec Shoeshine Union
Some of the most dynamic and brightest children in Chisec are the town's shoe-shiners, who spend their days
pitching shines to customers in the three local languages - Spanish, Q'eqchi' and Poqomchi. DRG has been
providing scholarships for these hard-working children and their siblings to enable them to stay in school since 2002.
Guatemala's long civil war, which twice led to the destruction of this town, brought organized violence to the
region over 20 years ago. Now, despite the peace, young, restless and unemployed youth are banding together to
form local chapters of international Latin gangs like Mara Salvatrucha and Mara 18.
Coming from some of the poorest households in town (where 84% of the population lives below the UN
poverty line of $2/day) and spending all day unsupervised in the streets, the shoe shiners are prime recruits
for these new gangs.
Recognizing both the potential and peril of these young entrepreneurs, SANK helped set up a local shoe-shiners
union in 2001. Working with the local mayor and a committee of parents, SANK helped double the price of a
shoeshine, developed a set of rules to promote structure, discipline, and pride among the youth and provided
uniforms and self-esteem workshops for the shoe-shiners. DRG's scholarships are an integral part of the
efforts to give these children a better chance for a brighter future.
It is a source of great pride for SANK, Deep Roots donors and volunteers to now have some of our first shoe
shiners graduating from high school and technical trade schools, reaching heights that no one in their
families have ever reached before and creating income potential for their families that were similarly never imagined.
A visit by shoe-shine scholars to Guatemala City's airport
FUTURE LEADERS - The 21st Century Leaders Program
21st Century Leader scholars receive a monthly training on self-esteem
DRG's Future Leaders program provides scholarships to young women and men from rural villages to enable them
to continue their studies at the junior-high (grades 7 - 9) and high school (grades 10 - 12) levels. This
program not only provides for tuition, uniforms and school supplies, it also includes monthly seminars in
leadership development, environmental education, human rights and a variety of other topics that are
under-addressed in the local academic curriculum. In the spirit of Deep Roots mission, over 2/3rds of
our scholars are young women.
One of the most devastating effects of the 36-year civil war in Guatemala was the destruction of local leadership.
Years after the Guatemalan Peace Accords were signed, rural areas like Chisec, which were destroyed during
the war, are still struggling to recover their sense of local empowerment and organization.
The 21st Century Leaders Program is DRG's way to accelerate this process. DRG is working to
develop local youth into educated community leaders in order to help fill the void left behind by the war.
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