What We Do

The Chiapas Children’s Project began modestly in 1999 in San Cristobal de Las Casas, a large hill town in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. The area is the regional focal point for indigenous Mayan culture and probably best known for the so-called Zapatista uprising of 1994. San Cristobal itself is home to a growing population of families displaced from their native villages by a mixture of political and religious conflict. These families form communities in San Cristobal that are often incredibly poor and as a consequence struggle to give their children the benefit of a stable home and a quality education.

At its core the Project aims to keep children of these families in education – to help them graduate high school, perhaps pursue higher education and ultimately to take up careers that help their communities move away from the subsistence living which they currently endure.

At the center of our effort is an after school program intended to enhance the often inadequate education the kids receive at ‘regular’ school. The program runs for two and a half hours a day, five days a week and focuses on reading and writing in Spanish and on math, a subject which is taught almost universally badly in Mexico. In addition we run weekly workshops in Mayan languages and creative arts. The program is led by Steve Bachrach with the support of four locally hired staff.

Our intention is to consolidate and expand the after school program over the coming years with a plan to open a junior high / high school within the next seven years which will offer quality secondary education to the indigenous population, free of charge.

At its core the Project aims to keep children of these families in education.

Susana and Ana in La Chozita

Current Program Offerings

The heart of our project is an after-school tutoring and curriculum-enrichment program, which students attend from 4-7 P.M. each weekday afternoon. Students receive supplemental instruction in all content areas, with particular emphasis on Math and Spanish basics. Additional weekly workshops include: Mayan history, Tzotzil & Tzeltal (the languages spoken in their homes) and art.

The program also provides the following materials and services:

A learning facility where the students can come to study after school and on weekends;
Items normally needed by the students including: school uniforms, textbooks and school supplies.
Transportation between their homes, school and the after-school program;
A parent outreach program to keep student’s families informed and involved as their child progresses through the educational system.
A comprehensive program for our three hearing-impaired students and their families, which focuses on speech therapy, listening skills, lip-reading, signing, and fundamentals of written language.
Reimbursement of families for reasonable lost income that their children would earn were they not focusing exclusively on education.
Field trips to sites of educational, cultural, and historical interest.
Medical and Dental check-ups as needed.
A comprehensive program for our three hearing-impaired students and their families which focuses on speech therapy, listening skills, lip-reading, signing, and basic

Planning for the Future

The program plans to grow within the following objectives:

To double the number of students served in the afterschool program (to approximately 30) by the start of the 2004/5 school year.
To seek funding, staff and a location for a school from 2004 to 2007
To open a Secondaria/Prepa (U.S. Junior High/High School Equivalent) school for the 2007/8 school year starting with a single grade. The school will offer a quality college preparatory education free of charge to indigenous students from San Cristóbal de las Casas and its outlying communities. Once the school opens the elementary outreach program currently existing will remain in place.
To add grades in successive years to achieve a complete range of grades by 2013