History of Jardín de Amor
According to the United Nations Development Programme, in Guatemala the 49.8% of the children under 5 years suffer from chronic malnutrition, being the Central American contry with the biggest percent of child malnutrition.
The first years were difficult and slow, but thanks to the effort of Julio (the director of the school), the work of the teachers and the support of the volunteers, the school has been growing and its construction is still in process nowadays. Our objective was to finish the construction of the primary and secondary school, as well as the professional training classrooms from 2012 till 2019, in order to be able to give a proper education to the kids.
2005
Julio, founder of the school, decided to help a group of mothers who asked for help in one of the poorest towns of Guatemala: Santa María de Jesús.
He rented a place where he started givings lessons without any material or a proper infrastructure. There was a small classroom and a little playground. When the families heard this school, they started bringing their children there. This was the moment when PEAC was created, a class in which kids of all ages were taught the same contests (necessary since any of the kids had never been in a school before).
This is how Jardín de Amor was born, with the purpose of breaking the poverty chains and the ignorance trough the education.
2011
Thanks to the money raised by the volunteers of JDA Spain, Julio is able to travel to Spain. The goal of this trip is to search for funding in order to buy a piece of land in Santa María de Jesús for the future construction of a proper school.
2012
Jardín de Amor creates a new school in the piece of land which was bought. A first floor with 5 classrooms and two bathrooms are built. The students are divided in different classes dependeing on their educational level. Also, a new classroom is made with kids of the same age. The idea is to introduce a new classroom each year in order to give a proper education, divided in several school years, to all the students. PEAC is still available for those who need it.
2013
The school keeps growing and achieves the funding necessary for the construction of the second floor of the school, increasing the numer of classrooms to 9. The kitchen and the clasrooms for the pre-school are built.
Also, the idea of providing an everyday meal to all the students is started. We start working with a construction company of Guatemala and we are able to reform some of the houses of the families.
2014
Jardín de Amor acquires a small piece of ground in order to have a vegetable garden and a henhouse with the help of the University of Guatemala.
The students who finish primary school were given scholarships in order to continue with their education in a private school in Antigua.
2017
A computer classroom is added to the existing clasrooms for the older students. This clasrooms can also be used as a library and a study room for the students who need it.
A new group of pre-school is created.
2017
The Association of Jardín de Amor España is created in order to represent the interests of the Guatemalan ONG.
2017
Some of our students get graduated from university. This was a really exciting and important event for the school.
One of our graduated students will be the teacher of the new group of pre-school.
2018
The construction of a new building for the Secondary School and the Vocational Training is started; the ground were the vegetable garden is used. Also, the playground is finished and the road to the school is paved.
2019
The constrcution of the new building is finished, which enables to start with the first two years of Secondary School (the mandatory years of Secondary School in Guatemala), and the vocational training courses of sewing, carpentry and confectionery.
2020
The Volunteering is stopped because of Covid-19 and we start with the online events such as the first crowdfunding. Thanks to this crowdfunding, the families of our students were given food bags during several weeks. If you want to know more about how we did this, click below.
2021
On-site events are resumed in order to raise funds for the school. Street markets, afterworks and paddle tournaments are held.
2022
The Be a godparent project is launched. Volunteers are once again sent to the school. The health clinic, is created where check-ups, deworming and health education workshops are carried out.
2023
Se crea un aula de ordenadores para Básico.
Se llevan a cabo revisiones médicas trimestrales tanto al alumnado como a sus familias.
Se crea la tienda de la escuela en la que se venden distintos snacks para el alumnado.
