Mayatan Bilingual School

About

Mayatan is a non-profit bilingual school that brings top-quality education in English and Spanish to children of all social backgrounds in rural Copán Ruinas, Honduras. We were founded in 1991 by local mothers and are the only fully staffed bilingual school in the region. Every year, our 22 volunteer U.S. teachers serve the local community by teaching PK-12 grade to our student body of 400 pupils.

Mayatan fulfills its social mission through an extensive scholarship & sponsorship program which allows nearly half of our 400 students to attend the school with the help of financial aid.  For many families, a bilingual education represents a path out of poverty and a step up in the world. Mayatan also attracts middle class students who, without financial aid and Mayatan's affordability (compared to other bilingual schools), would not be able to attain a bilingual education.

Bilingual education truly is a life-transforming opportunity, and families in and around Copán recognize its importance, pooling resources and taking an active involvement in their child's education. Many of our students are the first in their families to learn English, and entire households often depend upon one student to pass on his or her skills and knowledge to siblings and other family members. This pattern continues when Mayatan students become the first in their families to graduate from high school, attend college, or secure high-paying work that requires English skills. In such cases, Mayatan students can use their education to help entire extended families, just as extended families and foreign sponsors often contribute to fund a single child's Mayatan education.

• Nearly 50% of the students at Mayatan Bilingual School receive financial assistance.
  
  
• 5% come from outlying Ch’orti villages, small communities of indigenous Maya descendants. These families are usually subsistence farmers with very little land ownership or capital. We operate a full financial aid program for these children, including tuition, books, shoes, uniforms, and often lunch.
  
  
• 10% are from the most disadvantaged families in and around the town of Copán Ruinas and are receiving full tuition scholarships with registration and book fees paid as well.
  
  
• 30% come from families able to contribute in some way to their child’s education but unable to afford the full school fees and receive assistance with their tuition costs ranging from 50% to 100%.

Goal

The Mayatan Bilingual School is continually dedicated to expanding our ability to educate as many children as possible, and we rely on the support of our community, including our friends from abroad, to help us achieve this.

For several years our dream has been to expand Mayatan's campus to include a 3 story building to be used for our secondary and high school programs.  This new building will allow us to expand our total school enrollment to 600 students.  We will be abe to do this by both creating new classroom space and opening up other parts of our campus to our kinder and primary sections.  This will in turn positively affect the community by increasing the amount of bilingual educational opportunities available in Copan, increasing Mayatan's total allocation of school scholarships to as many as 300 students, and increasing job opportunities for both foreign and Honduran educators.

To commemorate our 25th anniversary, long time Mayatan supporter Irene Fast has been kind enough to assist us in reaching our dreams by matching all donations made towards our goal.  This means that every dollar donated toward the project will be valued at $2!

All donations are tax-deductible and can either be donated online with Razoo or through our partner organization, Hope for Tomorrow, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization in the U.S. that supports educational opportunities for low income students in Central America. All offline donations will be tracked and added back on to our "on-line" total.

Hope for Tomorrow

c/o Brian & Debby Webb

202 Buttercup Dr

Jamestown  NC  27282

Please also include a note indicating the purpose of your gift (classroom project) and an e-mail address. Note: there are no processing/administration costs associated with offline donations to Hope for Tomorrow.

Hope for Tomorrow also has a brokerage account for those interested in donating investments/securities.

Lastly, be sure to view this list to see if your company offers "matching gift" opportunities!

http://nnedv.org/downloads/Other/Matching_gifts_companies.pdf

Help us make our 25th anniversary unforgetable!