Long Way Home / Projects - Alternative Construction

Tecnico Maya Vocational School Project
Start Date: January 2009
Main Contact: Tecnico Maya, Mateo Paneitz
Project Manager : Adam Howland
Current Status: Seeking Funding - Under Construction

Tecnico Maya - Newest Update

Oct 10 - Oct 23, 2011 Construction Update

Tecnico Maya - Past Updates

The purpose of the Vocational School Project is to provide the young people of Comalapa with marketable skills that will enable them to be responsible citizens and entrepreneurs. There is a severe lack of educational opportunities for teenagers and young adults in rural Guatemala, and this project will give the young people of Comalapa the tools they need to be competitive in the local job market. The Vocational School will educate the local people, create jobs, and combat environmental degradation in Guatemala.

Long Way Home is teaming with an existing school in Comalapa, Guatemala, to build an Appropriate Technologies Vocational School. In addition to the standard educational curriculum, the Vocational School will offer coursework in carpentry, masonry, mechanics, electrical, welding, and horticulture, along with the business and technology aspects of alternative energy production. The project will create a new group of Guatemalan students, environmentalist and entrepreneurs, uniquely skilled and motivated to be innovative. Long Way Home's role will be to fundraise for the project, construct the school, and oversee the new curriculum's implementation.

In January 2012 the first three classrooms will be handed over to Tecnico Maya. The official opening of the whole school complex will be in January 2014. It will consist of a total of 17 buildings: four vocational workshops, a mechanic shop, an administrative office, a cafeteria/library/computer lab, eight classrooms, an art lab and a volunteer house.

The Tecnico Maya school endures persistent problems with obtaining sufficient funding, and the dedicated staff and faculty at the school have sacrificed time and money to provide a multicultural education at a low cost to students, only charging a nominal fee. Teachers often work many months without salary due to lack of funding, along with the substandard building the school currently occupies. Consequently, Long Way Home purchased a piece of land in 2008 in Paxan, a village one mile from the center of Comalapa, to build the Vocational School to alleviate these problems.

The Vocational School will provide a venue for young Comalapans to learn such trades as masonry, carpentry, and bicycle repair. The workshops in the school will serve as hands-on classrooms, and will be viable businesses where the students will work as apprentices to professionals in each field. The income generated by the workshops will pay the teachers' salaries, helping the school near its goal of financial sustainability. The school will also include an area where students can learn alternative energy production. Once the school is successfully producing alternative fuels, the sale of fuel will provide additional funding for the institution.

Interns and volunteers from around the world who come to work at the Tecnico Maya Vocational School will also contribute to the financial sustainability of the project. The monthly fee that each volunteer pays will directly fund educational programs at the school and supplement teacher salaries.

The first aspect of the school that makes an environmental impact on the community of Comalapa is the techniques we implement for its construction. Using environmentally friendly construction methods such as trash bottles, rammed earth, and earth bag, the school is a practical demonstration of how to reuse discarded materials. The locals who participate in the school's construction have hands-on experience with these money-saving construction techniques and will hopefully apply their new knowledge within the community.

Environmental education will be a main focus of the school's new curriculum. From organic gardening to environmentally friendly construction methods, young Comalapans will be learning responsible stewardship of the Earth through their coursework. The addition of alternative fuel production education should make a long-term impact on the surrounding communities as well.

The most immediate way that the construction of the vocational school will contribute to the economy of Comalapa is through providing jobs for teachers. Not only will the current Tecnico Maya teachers have a more consistent source of income, but the newly added vocational curriculum will require the addition of several new teachers from within the community. The long-term economic effects of the vocational school will be felt when a group of skilled young Comalapans, uniquely trained to be environmental entrepreneurs, enter the Guatemalan job market.