Melchora Rujuch, the director of the Escuelita.
Hi friends,
After 13 years in its current location, the Escuelita David LaMotte in Tzanchaj, Atitlán, Guatemala needs a new home. The land upon which it sits, which has been generously provided for over a decade, needs to be sold, and for various reasons, it makes more sense to move the school than for us to buy that land.
The good news is that some land that suits our needs well has just come up for sale, and if we can raise the money quickly, we can buy it and begin work on building the new school, so that at the end of this school year, we can move in a fairly smooth transition. The new location will also allow us to expand the school up through fifth grade, which the director and teachers are eager to do.
Altogether, we need about $30,000 to buy the land, and between our own resources at PEG and a generous donation from Downtown Rotary Asheville, we are well on our way. The challenge is that, while PEG has some of the money for that purchase, we are still about $16,000 short. Or at least we were 24 hours ago. Friends of PEG and of this school have begun pitching in, and we think we will be able to buy this land.
The time crunch is simply due to the fact that someone else could buy the land, and there is not a lot of land nearby that would work for a school. This is an exciting opportunity, and we need to make it happen quickly.
If you can help, we are deeply grateful, as are our friends in Tzanchaj. If you can spread the word, that’s truly wonderful, too! We have set up a YouCaring site for this project, at www.youcaring.com/TzanchajSchool. Please feel free to share that web site as far and wide as you can!
Thanks much for your support of PEG and of our friends in Guatemala. It is amazing to me to see how much we can do with so little. This school has nourished this community for over a decade, and we are excited to be investing in the future of the village.