Amigos raised funds to help local volunteers and contractors in the summer of 2019 pour concrete over the playing field (la cancha) and add soccer and basketball goals and painted lines. Outdoor activities are now held without concern for rain or other adverse conditions and provide students more opportunities for physical and cultural education. Amigos is pleased and proud to be a partner in this new addition to the middle school.
Leland H. (Lee) Chambers, a founding board member of Amigos de Chocolá, had a strong passion for education, helping the under-served and teaching the Spanish language. Lee passed away in early 2017 while still serving as a board member emeritus for Amigos. It was only fitting that the Board of Directors initiated the Leland Chambers Memorial College Scholarship Fund to help deserving students from Chocolá attend university in Guatemala.
In October 2018 the Amigos Board selected our first scholarship student, Maria Jimena Carrillo Hernandez. Jimena enrolled at a university near Chocolá to begin the 2019 school year. We wish Jimena success in realizing her goal of earning a college degree.
End-of-the-year academic award ceremonies recognized several of our scholarship students. While the schools recognized our students for their achievements in the classroom, Amigos recognized these same students for their community service work in the village. All our scholarship students participated in the renewal of the central “triangle” park in Chocolá that included a full cleanup, construction of flood walls and park benches and reshaping of the trees and shrubs that adorn the area.
In 2018 our students took on the major task of cleaning “mound one,” a significant Mayan archaeological site in the center of Chocolá dating back some 2,500 years. A pedestrian crossroads for local residents, this area is often littered with trash and other debris. Amigos students have spent many hours cleaning and maintaining this important historical site. Residents can now be proud of a public space free of litter and other debris, thanks to the hard work of their students.
Upon returning from their trip to Chocolá from October 12-20, 2018, our volunteers felt a sense of satisfaction that our scholarship students and other students we visited are eagerly learning and doing their best to improve their lives and the lives of neighbors in their community. Teachers and administrators commended our students for taking great pride in their schools and in the community at large. For more information about future volunteer trips to Chocolá, please contact John Hill at jb17dc@gmail.com.
In 2015, partnering with the organization Miracles in Action, Amigos was able to help improve conditions at the middle school (basico) in Chocolá. Funds were raised to purchase materials for the building of two new classrooms. Your generous donations also allowed Amigos to completely furnish the new classrooms with student and teacher desks, white boards and new cabinets that will house a library for the school. The new addition, completed in early March 2015, was built by volunteers from the village in only six weeks. The people of Chocolá join us in thanking you for your contributions to this important project.
Amigos scholarship students with volunteers
Volunteers are greeted warmly with ceremony and native dance
