Project Launch:

The Remote Caregivers Program is a program in which teachers travel to remote villages in the Toledo District of Belize to teach English to young children. The villages in this district speak K’ekchi (one of the three Mayan dialects). When the children begin pre-school, they are at a disadvantage if they don’t know any English as it is the official language of the country and the language spoken in the classroom.
These teachers go to the homes (usually thatched huts) and work with the children starting at the age of 8 months. They teach colors, numbers, and the alphabet mostly through the application of song. The K’ekchi people of San Miguel are extremely hard working - the men work nearly 16 hours per day on their farms or for the government building roads. The women traditionally handle the work at home, doing all laundry, dishes, and bathing in the river. There were no opportunities for recreation in the community, not even a park bench, until World Connect’s Kids to Kids Program awarded the community $500 in 2009 to build playground for the young children of the village; the community donated the land.