Rudy and Sully Rojas, our Guatemalan project coordinators have sent in a report concerning staff training programs.

The following report details the school integration workshops for public school teachers that have recently taken place.

Goals:
To provide training along with theoretical and practical tools to public school teachers that have to deal with more than 30 students with special needs. Public school teachers are having to undergo special needs training as the Ministry of Education has changed some teaching policies that allows children with disabilities to attend the public school system.

The other goal is to open doors and new opportunities to people with special needs and to help the community accept and understand the fragile community of Guatemala.

Procedure:
Each workshop lasts five hours. To date we have trained 39 teachers from 7 different schools. If each teacher has more than 30 students including an average of 5 to 7 children with special needs then we can estimate how many people are impacted by these workshops.

The workshops are attended by teachers that are interested. One very good thing that we got is the authorization and recognition from the Ministry of Education. For the teachers this is a very big improvement and a stimulating step in their career, because they have more accreditation.

PRESENTATIONS AND CONFERENCES

These are held in Churches, Universities, Bible colleges, and Seminaries, and last between one or one and half hours. We present the whole idea about the Ministries La Fuerza de los Frá¡giles and Christian Horizons with the purpose of integration and inclusion.

Family Support Program and School construction: El Campanero village of Guatemala city

Christian Horizons is working with the family support program, supporting 29 children from the El Campanero Village. These children are receiving monthly economic support as well as counseling, evangelism, and school support.

Last year teachers and members from the community started a construction project of two new classrooms but they did not have the construction license from the city.

Christian Horizons is supporting this construction project and we are glad to report that the license procedure is ready. The new classrooms will accommodate 50 students. The completion date will be by the end of October 2007.

By Rudy Rojas

Christian Horizons is working in Sri Lanka, Guatemala, Ethiopia, Russia, Ecuador and with people from the First Nations community in Canada. Please pray for Christian Horizons Global Projects