Tuesday, March 6, 2007

PASO Helps Schools Twin


Judith Rapson is showing Tierra Linda school children pictures and valentines sent from Warminster Public School near Orillia Ontario.

Teachers at Warminster were delighted when local teacher Jean Earl presented them with the idea. Director Dave Rapson brought the valentines and photographs to Tierra Linda and posted some in each classroom.

Warminster is also a small rural village.

The intention is to keep up an exchange of stories, art, photos, experiences and email messages between the two school.

A Power Point presentation of Tierra Linda will soon be available.

PASO Directors Meet Tierra Linda Teachers and School Committee


Teachers, parents and village school committee see real improvement before rainy season for Tierra Linda's primary school.

Tierra Linda is a small mountain pueblo that receives few visitors and little attention.

Families work small farm fields high on the mountainside. Houses are mostly adobe brick and surrounded by plots of maize and vegetables.

Paso Helps Tierra Linda School


Fayne Bullen took the lead in convincing Paso directors to support the primary school in Tierra Linda, a small mountain village nearby. “It takes a half hour rough ride by vehicle over the mountain, or you can climb the footpath 800 feet,” says Fayne.

Directors visited the school twice and met with the school committee and teachers in January and early February.

The school will have door windows and doors for unfinished classrooms, repairs to the roof, additional electrical lighting. Village volunteers will do the installations and Paso will buy the materials.

Paso has also agreed to joint funding with another donor to complete two new classrooms on the roof. This will provide much needed additional space.

Paso will also appeal to donors to purchase school supplies, furniture and classroom and recreation equipment.

“We are making an investment in the children of hard working families,” says Fayne Bullen.

Plans for Micro Loans in Tierra Linda


Paso Por Paso directors will make twenty micro loans available to women in Tierra Linda, a village 800 feet up the mountain above Panajachel.

“It makes sense for Paso to focus its efforts in one small village,” director Pat Pretty explains, We are now working with the local school committee, and Tierra Linda has a women’s committee already in place.”

The women have already met twice to consult with women from San Jorge where a similar micro loan program has been in place for a couple of years.

The women decided that loans of 500 quetzales each (about $80 CAD) were the most manageable. These are awarded by lot and administered by the women’s committee. Participants learn how to do their own banking and make modest monthly repayments. No new loans are available until all loans have been repaid, so there is a collective responsibility to succeed.

The money usually helps to start small food based businesses raising chickens, selling vegetables, sewing, and weaving.

The trek to market in Panajachel is by a footpath straight up the mountain.