Since I kicked off Make Money Your Way in mid-2013, I committed to donating 10% of my blogging income to support children’s education in my village. As mentioned in previous updates about the project, I awarded two scholarships to the top middle school students so they can attend high school 150 miles away for the next three years.
The projected cost for boarding school is around $2,500 per child per year, totaling $15,000 over three years. Ideally, I need to earn $150,000 from blogging to sustain this commitment.
Last I updated, I had $1,305. Adding my contributions from July ($464) and August ($490), I now have $2,259.
Book and Computer Project
July was a particularly good month as a generous teenager from New York sent a wonderful package of school supplies. Her father matched her donations, and she saved up from her part-time job to send us a large bag of supplies. Additionally, she donated her old laptop, which has been an excellent addition to the computer project.
July’s expenses were higher than usual as I spent more on internet classes and data. The kids, on break from school, used extra data to watch music videos and play online games. Additionally, my brother visited and provided more hours of computer classes than usual, along with the Spanish girl who usually teaches as a backup.
The kids love the computer project. Currently, I employ the girl for 12 hours a week to supervise groups of 4-5 kids per hour. They learn to create PowerPoint presentations about local wildlife, participate in speed search contests, and the younger ones play educational games to get familiar with using a mouse and other basic tasks.
Over 50 kids benefit from the project each week, and now, with the extra computer, 12 more kids can join the weekly sessions.
Every computer class, the kids take a book home and return it the next time. They enjoy reading so much that many have already read all the 100+ books I initially provided. Therefore, I bought more books. Since book costs are high, I plan to buy more during trips to Miami or Mexico. Previously, I bought mainly comics, so this time I chose fairy tales to encourage reading among girls.
As the school year was halfway through, I decided to donate the received school supplies to an orphanage two hours away called Ahicam. This place provides a safe environment for children placed there by a judge after being removed from abusive homes. Some kids are orphans, and some foster girls, only 11 or 12 years old, arrive pregnant, often from relationships with much older family members.
The couple running the orphanage recently received a donated well, courtesy of the engineers who dug my well. I had originally paid for the well and the profits were used to dig free wells for those in need, which is how I learned about this project and decided to help.
Before visiting, I bought four stacks of 500 sheets of paper for the kids to draw on, as I suspected they might not have paper, which turned out to be true. I added about 50 notepads and roughly a hundred pens and pencils to the donation. Furthermore, I purchased around 50 stuffed animals from a local second-hand store. Although I wanted to buy toys, the selection was limited. For about $100 spent on stuffed animals, I would have only gotten a few low-quality games from the regular toy store.
Lastly, as the generous donor included stickers and rubber bands for making bracelets, I bought extra rubber bands so all the kids could have a bracelet. My brother and I enjoyed making the bracelets with the kids at the orphanage.
Total Expenses for July and August
The expenses for internet, staff, books, and donations to the orphanage amounted to $813. Given the high costs, I’m considering pausing book purchases to ensure I can cover the $650 monthly cost for the boarding school and computer project. Donations received, which totaled almost $3,000 from readers and friends (thank you!), have helped, but I need to keep some financial flexibility since $650/month exceeds 10% of my income. With about 150 books and 300 donated textbooks, the kids have plenty to read for a while.
Big Textbook Donation
After my update last month, a reader named Lisa suggested contacting charities that donate books in Guatemala. I reached out to several NGOs, most of whom don’t work in Northern Guatemala, being 300 miles from the capital where they generally coordinate efforts. However, a couple of organizations offered to let me purchase books at their discounted rates, which is still a great saving.
One organization, Cooperative for Education, generously donated 300 textbooks! Middle school students need four books each: Math, Literature, Science, and Social Science. They donated 12 different books, 25 copies each, so 24 students and their teacher can each have a book. I picked them up at their headquarters in Guatemala City. The books will be used next year, so the students won’t need to buy them for the entire three years of middle school. In the meantime, they’ll use the books for additional research and information. The books, about 10 years old and lightly used, came from previous charity projects in the highlands, and are in great condition.
Boarding School Kids
There isn’t much new with the boarding school kids; they are doing well and getting good grades. I was happy to cover the usual $956 tuition for two months.
Remaining Funds
Total money left: $2,259 – $1,769 = $490.