Proyecto Educación Maya 
3. Avenida "A" 1-09, Zona 3
San Antonio Aguas Calientes, Sacatepequez
La Antigua Guatemala
Guatemala, Centroamerica

Newsletter No.12, May 1st, 2000

Dear Friends,

I hope this letter finds you all well. It is always a particular pleasure for me to write these letters after a trip to Guatemala and a wonderful visit with our friends from San Antonio. During the month of March, my husband Philippe and I spent 10 days in San Antonio Aguas Calientes where we were very well received in the home of a San Antonio family. It was Philippe's first visit and he loved it. P.E.M.'s families were also very happy to meet him and to know that there are two of us now raising funds for P.E.M. in the United States.

We are happy to be able to share with you some good news since we found the "Proyecto Educación Maya" to be very well run by the parents. Cesar, Imeldo, Doña Tegua, Alejandro and former graduate Hilda do an excellent job administering P.E.M.'s funds to the families and keeping a perfect record of the monthly and yearly spending. The Macintosh computer my parents donated to P.E.M. was a great success and will help the office staff considerably.

Our most recent graduate, Silvia Salazar is now working as a shop manager in an international ceramic company in
Guatemala City. She loves her job and is also furthering her education at the university level in the evenings. We are very pleased to see the interest P.E.M.'s graduates develop in education. Former graduates Hilda López and Gregoria Xicay Pichóla are also pursuing university degrees in the evenings. Hilda works as a bilingual secretary in a Spanish and Mayan Language School in Antigua and Gregoria works with women in rural development.

This year P.E.M. is sending 17 students to school, four high school students, four middle school students and eight primary school students. While nobody will be graduating this year, we expect to have two new graduates in 2001.

Thanks to the invaluable help of my mom, Annie Reinhardt, P.E.M. now boasts a Website: http://www.geocities.com/proyectomaya/ Please visit our Website and tell your friends and acquaintances about it. We are now hoping to reach a much wider audience and expand our fundraising efforts. If you have any suggestions in this regard we would be very happy to hear from you.

If you would like to make a donation please make your check payable to
"Proyecto Educación Maya" and send it to us at: 150 St. Agnes #3, Memphis, TN 38112.

Thank you for your commitment to P.E.M. Have an enjoyable summer!

Catherine Reinhardt-Zacaïr & Philippe Zacaïr

Top left: Some of the project children enjoying "Pepián", a San Antonio specialty, during a P.E.M . gathering.

Middle right: Maylin, José, Verónica, Maribel and Elly