Catherine Reinhardt-Zacair, 3353 Topaz Lane, Fullerton, CA 92831 (714) 572-3847
[email protected]

Dear Friends,

We are happy to celebrate with you P.E.M.’s 10th anniversary this year! With our two new graduates Mirna Lucrecia López (accountant) and Luisvan Mican (industrial and electrical studies) P.E.M. has made it possible for eleven young Indigena women and men from San Antonio Aguas Calientes to graduate from high school with professional training including bilingual secretary, computer sciences, marketing and home economics. Several of our graduates have pursued university degrees while working professionally in Antigua and Guatemala City. Your financial support during the past ten years has contributed to changing the lives of these young people. They will not have to join their parents on the sidewalks of Antigua to sell handicrafts and hand-woven tissues to passing tourists for ridiculously low prices. Instead, they are getting out of the miserable condition most of the Indigena live in and are taking control of their lives while preserving their cultural traditions. Education puts an end to child labor, one of the greatest problems for the future of the Indigena community. We hope that the thirteen students still studying through P.E.M. (five in high school, five in middle school and three in elementary school) will fare as well thanks to the interest you continue to take in their school education.

Since we recently moved again, we ask you to please take note of our new address and send your tax-deductable donations made payable to “Proyecto Educación Maya” to: c/o Reinhardt-Zacaïr, 3353 Topaz Lane, Fullerton, CA 92831, (714) 572-3847, [email protected]. The birth of our second child last August has made it difficult for us to return to Guatemala, but I hope to go at the end of this year. We wish you all the best and thank you again for your generous support!

Luisvan Mican with his mother Doña Tegua after the graduation ceremony in November 2002