Safe Passage transforms lives by providing students with an excellent education, a higher quality of life, and pathways to a job with dignity so they can achieve a better future for themselves and their families.
Chapelwood Foundation Impact
The Foundation gifted a $4,000 grant to cover three areas. The grant helped to continue to evaluate and diagnose students falling into the underweight and malnourished levels for further nourishment. Evaluate, improve, and adjust students’ menu to meet nutritional needs. Engage, educate, and support Safe Passage families in the importance of nutrition and healthy food choices. Safe Passage has always used a combination of in kind donations and purchased food for student meals and snacks.
Safe Passage's Story
The Guatemala City garbage dump community lies along the periphery of one of the largest open-air landfills in Central America. An estimated 60,000 people live in abject poverty in this locality. Safe Passage changes lives by offering students in the Guatemala City garbage dump community an exceptional
education, a better quality of life, and opportunities for dignified employment.
The statistics for the garbage dump community are staggering. Only one out of three residents living in this village has ever been to school, most adults only have a 4th grade education, and currently, the average family of six lives on $4 a day. The Guatemalan public schools offer only four hours of education each day, and much of it is just rote memorization.
Safe Passage recognizes that the only way to end the cycle of poverty is through a good education. This inspired them to set up a full-time Pre-K through 9th grade school in the Guatemala City garbage dump in 2012. The Guatemalan Ministry of Education accredits the school, and it has become an international model for addressing a holistic approach to education in impoverished communities.
The organization’s holistic approach expands beyond the traditional definition of education to include wellness, lifelong learning, vocational skills, and community engagement. To this end, they offer educational reinforcement for high school students, adult education, health care, and nutritional services. Safe Passage aims to bring hope and opportunity to children and families living around the city’s garbage dump community by creating well-rounded, healthy, and educated individuals.
The impact of Safe Passage is evident by the significant achievements of its students and their families. The school has a 96% retention rate, 70% of parents and grandparents participate in adult education, and families of Safe Passage graduates earn five times more than families without graduates.
The Chapelwood Foundation is proud to partner with Safe Passage to help individuals and their families break the cycle of poverty through education. We currently provide Safe Passage with funds for student meals and snacks.
