{"id":4116,"date":"2021-02-03T16:33:31","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T21:33:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentsofferingsupport.org\/?p=4116"},"modified":"2021-10-10T04:08:32","modified_gmt":"2021-10-10T04:08:32","slug":"4116-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentsofferingsupport.org\/4116-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Guate Groundswell: January Recap"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hola amigos,<\/p>\n

After a well-deserved break for our local and international team in which everyone had the opportunity to spend time with family and celebrate December festivities, we came back fresh and ready to start coordinating our first activities.<\/span><\/p>\n

We concluded the month of January. The beginning of the new year and the time to make New Year resolutions. Did you know that in the old days, the new year started with a custom called \u201cfirst footing\u201d, this was to bring good luck to the people for the coming year. As soon as midnight had passed and January 1st had started, people used to wait behind doors for a dark-haired person to arrive. The visitor carried a piece of coal, some bread, some money, and some greenery. These were all for good luck – The coal to make sure that the house would always be warm, the bread to make sure everyone in the house would have enough food to eat, money so that they would have enough money, and the greenery to make sure that they had a long life (Mandy Barrow, 2013).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Though we do not follow this custom, SOS\u2019s resolution for 2021 is to keep spreading love, kindness, warmth, and a good willing heart within our local and international communities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Starting January, we hosted a training between the Program Officers (Antonio, Isabel, and Noe) and our colleague Jensen Arsenault, SOS program coordinator for online exchanges.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jensen has extensive experience in education. She teaches youth and children with a focus on human rights and human diversity. She shared some of her learning strategies so youth mentors in Guatemala could implement them in learning circles with younger students.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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We ended our training by describing our team\u2019s strengths. Some of the qualities that were mentioned by James Arron (Executive Director) are perseverance, compassion, commitment, and creativity. Thank you team, these are the qualities that have brought us so far into a journey where we hope to keep building more sustainable communities with driven and committed youth.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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During the week of January 11 to 15. While the team continued to coordinate the activities of 2021, our youth mentors had the opportunity to attend an effective communications workshop delivered by INTECAP. The program consists of a total of 40 hours (20h being practical training and 20h being theoretical) over a period of one week (Monday to Friday). The face-to-face sessions occurred in the community’s schools of Las Arrugas, San Felipe Chenla, and Ojo de Agua. These sessions followed the criteria outlined below.<\/span><\/p>\n