DISA 2015 |儿童救助
儿童援助, a non-governmental organization based in Portland, 俄勒冈州, trains teachers in rural areas of Guatemala and helps students develop literacy and critical thinking skills as they progress in their school years, 加利西亚阿尔瓦雷斯, the DISA committee head said. 儿童援助 trains literacy coaches and through them teachers and students, and distributes Spanish books to schools and libraries she said. Guatemala has the lowest literacy rate in Latin America, 阿尔瓦雷斯说.
“We believe children and education are important,” 阿尔瓦雷斯说.
格雷格Meenahan, the chief operating officer of 儿童援助, said the founders of 儿童援助 studied Spanish in Guatemala and noticed a lack of books in classrooms and homes. He said the libraries do not lend books traditionally, and teachers have books in the corner of their rooms. The founders helped to develop library programming and outreach to the schools, Meenahan said.
Every year, a literacy coach can train 30-50 teachers in Guatemala, Meenahan said. He said 儿童援助 wants to double the number of literacy coaches for double the number of Guatemalan schools.
“We’re giving teachers the fundamentals of instruction,” Meenahan said.
Meenahan said the United States has been working with the Ministry of Education in Guatemala to sample schools by giving standardized tests. Many students in the schools are not learning how to read, Meenahan said.
“We hope we can be a source of trained employees for them. Children are empty vessels. But what we do is we fill them with knowledge and information. That's our job,” Meenahan said.
塞纳Pankopf, the freshmen class representative of the DISA committee, said 儿童援助 is a good way to see how U.S. citizens can engage abroad.
比尔•史密斯, the director of the 马丁研究所 and Program in International Studies, chooses students to be part of the DISA committee, which selects the DISA recipient, 阿尔瓦雷斯说.
The committee then chooses a non-governmental organization which works internationally to receive the award, 阿尔瓦雷斯说. She said it was difficult to choose an organization. The committee voted to focus on children and chose 儿童援助, 阿尔瓦雷斯说.
DISA was established in 2011, Smith said. 阿尔瓦雷斯说 the DISA recognizes organizations in the Pacific Northwest, which for this year’s committee included Washington, 俄勒冈州和爱达荷州. 阿莱Heuring, Caitlin Jacobshagen and Adrian Sherman joined Alvarez and Pankopf on the DISA committee.
For more information on 儿童援助, visit www.儿童援助.org.