Laughter echoes throughout the garden as children greet their friends and teachers. One
teacher joins students at breakfast while another supervises children playing in the courtyard.
Classrooms sit ready for students and the day’s lunch is being prepared in the kitchen. This is a
typical morning at Sueños.
Sueños is an Antigua-based organization focused on stopping the cycle of child labor through
education. It operates a preschool and primary school for 40 children ages four to
fourteen. In addition to education, Sueños provides healthy meals, social work, psychology, and
parent workshops for the community.
Sueños works with indigenous, K’iche speaking families who moved to Antigua from rural
Guatemala in search of economic opportunity. Parents work as street vendors in Antigua’s
Central Park and have struggled to send their children to school because of the significant costs
it adds to the household. Even when students made it to public school, they faced discrimination
based on their language, culture, and socioeconomic status. They also experienced significant
difficulties learning in Spanish, their second language.
At Sueños, students receive lessons and maintain fluid oral communication with their peers and
teachers in K’iche’. Sueños is the only school offering bilingual education in a Mayan language
in Antigua and the only school offering bilingual education in K’iche’ in the region. Sueños’ offers
a progressive approach to education. Community-centered learning allows students to learn in
both K’iche’ and Spanish, while exploring topics that are culturally relevant such as the Mayan
cosmovision and culinary and arts traditions. Sueños teachers are members of the students’
community, which creates trust and respect between families and the school. Parents are also
invited into the learning process through monthly workshops, parent-teacher conferences, and
monthly visits to the center where they help in the kitchen or classroom.
Sueños supports students to finish primary school so that they can acquire jobs that will provide
them with economic stability, either through secondary education, various trades, or
entrepreneurship upon graduation. The first graduates of the program will be finishing sixth
grade this year, marking the first graduating class at Sueños!
As a small nonprofit Sueños relies heavily on donations and volunteers. To support their efforts
or to learn more about Sueños, please visit their website.
