Collaboration | One Two... Tree

14 December, 2024 In Interviews, News

2024: A year of lively conversations, laughter and learning!

As 2024 comes to a close, we reflect on an incredible year of growth, impact, connection, fun and friendships at One, Two…Tree!. Thanks to the hard work of our volunteers, the support of our partners, and the enthusiasm of our students, we’ve made meaningful strides in Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala. Here’s a look at what we’ve achieved this year, our plans for 2025, and a HUGE heartfelt thank you to everyone who has been part of our journey this past year.

Celebrating Our 2024 Achievements

Supporting Public Schools

This year, we taught English to 379 students across grades 4, 5, and 6 in five public schools. These lessons go beyond language; they build confidence, inspire curiosity, and open doors to future opportunities.

Community Learning Center Programs

Our Learning programs continued to thrive, reaching 158 kids, teens, and adults across 2 semesters and 8 English programs. These tailored classes ensure that learners of all ages can enhance their English skills in a supportive environment.

Teach the Teachers Program

A major milestone in 2024 was launching our “Teach the Teachers” program, which trained five local teachers. This initiative empowers educators to independently teach English, amplifying our impact within the community.

Cultural Exchange Through Intercambio Sessions

We hosted six intercambio language exchange sessions, bringing together locals and international volunteers for cultural and linguistic exchange, fostering mutual respect, understanding and a few new friendships!

Environmental and Recreational Initiatives

Community Clean-Up: In collaboration with local residents, we organised a cleanup to help keep Lake Atitlán beautiful and sustainable.

Football Training for Girls: These sessions provided a fun and empowering space for girls to build confidence and teamwork skills.

Looking Ahead to 2025: Building on our impacts

As we look forward to 2025, we’re beyond excited to continue making a difference in Santiago Atitlán. Our plans include:

Continued Support for Public Schools

We remain committed to partnering with local schools to provide English education to more students, enhancing their skills and future prospects.

A New Round of Learning Centre Programs

Our English programs at our Learning Centre will resume, offering engaging, learner-centred opportunities for kids, teens, and adults in the community.

Expanding the Teach the Teachers Program

We aim to train more local educators, empowering them to lead English classes independently and sustainably. If you or anyone you know from within the Lake Atitlán community is interested in learning with us, reach out!

Launching an Internship Program

To support aspiring educators, we plan on launching an internship program for graduate teachers from the region. This program will provide practical work experience while allowing them to contribute to our mission as volunteers.

Exploring Partnership Opportunities

We’re actively seeking partnerships with local businesses, organisations, and stakeholders to expand our community support efforts and foster sustainable development

A Heartfelt Thank You

None of our achievements this year would have been possible without the unwavering support of so many:

Our Financial Donors: Your generosity fuels our programs and enables us to reach more people.

Homestay families: A very special thanks to the local homestay families who warmly welcomed our volunteers into their homes. By sharing meals, stories, and traditions, these families offered an immersive experience that allowed volunteers to be a part of the community.

The Community of Santiago Atitlán: Thank you for welcoming us and collaborating on every step of our journey.

Local Businesses: Space Coffee, Le Antigua, Germinación Cocina-Bistro and Restaurante Atitlán your support in hosting intercambio sessions created vibrant spaces for cultural exchange, engaged conversations and laughter.

The Local Government and Ministry of Education: We deeply appreciate your continued support of our work and initiatives and look forward to another fruitful partnership in the new year.

Public Schools and Students: Thank you for partnering with us and bringing your enthusiasm, dedication, and curiosity to learn and creating such a fantastic and welcoming teaching experience for our volunteers.

Our Volunteers: We welcomed 25 incredible volunteers from countries including Spain, Canada, England, Scotland, Korea, Chile, Germany, France, Belgium, the USA, Australia, Spain, Basque Country and Guatemala itself! Each volunteer brought unique skills and passion and without them our work would not be possible so big thanks to you all: Abbie, Denis, Susan, Charlie, Solange, Carlos, Tonito, Toño, Emma, Sonia, Sony, Max, Carla, Daniela, Janette, Edwin, Amber, Hannah, David GF, Marian, Amber, Emiel, David W, Dana and Andrea!

Our Volunteer and Project Coordinator: Candy, your leadership and dedication ensured our programs ran smoothly and effectively.

Join Us in 2025

If you’re inspired by our work and want to be part of something meaningful, here’s how you can contribute:

Volunteer with Us

Whether you’re interested in volunteer English teaching or community initiatives, there’s a place for you. Just fill out the Application Form on our website to express your interest!

Donate

Help us sustain and grow our impact in Santiago Atitlán. You can make a donation via our GoFundMe fundraising campaign or via a bank transfer (details available on our donate page).

Partner with Us

We’re eager to collaborate with individuals and organisations that share our mission. Reach out if you want to connect with us to share your ideas!

Looking Toward a Brighter Future

As we prepare for 2025, we carry forward the lessons, achievements, and partnerships of this year. Together, we’re creating a future where education empowers individuals, strengthens communities, and opens the door to endless possibilities.

Thank you for being part of the One, Two…Tree! family. We can’t wait to see what we’ll achieve together next year!

Visit One, Two… Tree! to learn more or get involved today.

21 April, 2022 In News

Our partnership with Puerta Abierta to increase our impact in Santiago

Who is Puerta Abierta?

Puerta Abierta is another non-profit in Santiago Atitlán focused on education and development of the community.

They have opened the first creative school in the area that focuses on education through innovative programming for students at the kindergarten level through to grade six. They also have a community library that is open to other schools and programs to use as a resource to support their curriculums.

School in Santiago, Guatemala

What does our partnership look like?

At the beginning of this year, we began our partnership with Puerta Abierta in order to bring more programming, resources, and development to Santiago.

We are providing English lessons to all students at Puerta Abierta, and providing bilingual materials to support their learning as well. Our English teacher volunteers are sharing their time with Puerta Abierta to ensure that these English classes are being delivered to their students on a regular basis.

In exchange, Puerta Abierta has provided us with books and materials to help our teachers with lesson planning and developing activities for our Learning Center so that they are well prepared and equipped, especially since some of our volunteers do not have an education background.

Amanda, the founder of Puerta Abierta, has also prepared a workshop as a resource for our teachers to learn techniques when working with younger students. We are so thankful for the opportunity to learn from their work in alternative education in Santiago.

English Teacher Volunteer in Guatemala

Our impact

This partnership means that both organizations can have a stronger impact. Amanda Flyer, the founder of Puerta Abierta talks about our impact and work together:

“At the beginning of 2022, we were overjoyed to learn that One Two…Tree! would be partnering with the Puerta Abierta Learning Center to offer English classes to our students.

Our collaboration with One Two…Tree! goes much further than teaching English. My favorite moments of observation have been the mutual exchanges of inquiry and curiosity passed between volunteers, teachers, and students regarding culture, lifestyles, and countries of origin. We have been fortunate to receive volunteers from Greece, Spain, Belgium, France, and different areas of Guatemala in just a short span of time.

One Two…Tree! volunteers have also been collaborating with ongoing cultural exchanges that the Puerta Abierta has established with schools in the United States. I have found great joy in working with Carmela on our preschool exchange with a school based in Boston, MA. I’m grateful for Carmela’s extra set of hands and creative outlook which have enhanced our interaction with young children in Guatemala and the USA.”

Puerta Abierta Partnership

Joining forces

Our partnership is beneficial for both nonprofits to do their work efficiently and effectively. Juanita Chiviliú, the Director of Puerta Abierta explains what this partnership means for her work.

“As the director of an unconventional school in rural Guatemala, finding creative, dynamic, and empathetic English teachers proves to be a great challenge. So having the link this year with One Two…Tree! has been a great opportunity for our center to continue to provide an education full of love, joy, and celebration of cultures with our students.

Personally, I love to see the friendship that is cultivated between the volunteers and the students and teachers during the English classes. Teachers and children always want more, which means that they enjoy it and want to learn, so both institutions are achieving our goals.”

English Teacher Volunteer in Santiago

Your role as a volunteer

Mary Chiviliu Ajtujal, a sixth-grade teacher with Puerta Abierta talks about the role of One Two Tree…! volunteers within this partnership.

“It has been nice to have the teachers of One Two Tree…! in the class during these months. For the students, it has been very positive to see different people and learn about other cultures while learning another language. It has helped them a lot since sometimes it is difficult to meet and talk with new people.

The teachers have made it possible to resume learning the English language. It has been difficult lately with the hybrid education modality (online and in person, due to the pandemic) to maintain continuous learning of this language, but the teachers have been very open to accommodate the changes that this modality represents. All the teachers are very grateful for the openness, passion, and creativity that they bring to our center in this way and in other ways.”

We are so grateful for and excited about this partnership with Puerta Abierta and all of the possibilities it brings to the students and the community of Santiago Atitlán.

If you would like to learn more about volunteering with us and Puerta Abierta, please send us an email to: guatemala@onetwo-tree.com

10 March, 2022 In News

Our first English Learning Center in Santiago, Guatemala!

Our English Learning Center opened in Santiago Atitlan in February to provide more English classes to more students, both children, and adults of all levels.

Our Learning Center Brings More English Classes to More Students!

At the beginning of February, the doors to our new Learning Center opened in Santiago, Atitlán. Since our work was affected by the pandemic due to the constantly changing rules around classes and restrictions in public schools, we decided to open our own center in order to bring more English classes to more students! We will still be bringing our English teachers and curriculum to schools, additionally offering these classes to the community.

English Teacher Volunteers at our Learning Center

We found the space in a central location, close to the schools we work with. With the help of our current volunteers, we painted the building and cleaned it up in order to open our doors quickly because we were receiving lots of inquiries from families in the community. We have already begun teaching our English curriculum to both children and adults in the center.

Volunteers Painting Our Learning Center

How the English Learning Center Works

The Learning Center is open every day and classes are available for students during after-school hours. Classes for children are available between 4:00-5:00 pm, and teens and adults can join us for classes between 6:00-7:00 pm. There are three classrooms in the center, meaning that multiple groups can study simultaneously. We currently have two classes for each age group; one is for students at the beginner level, and the other is for more advanced levels.

English Classes in our Learning Center

We are using the same curriculum as we have been using in public schools. This curriculum focuses on introducing our students to English with a special focus on developing listening and speaking as well as the acquisition of basic vocabulary to provide a foundation on which to continue learning English. We include worksheets, activities, games and short quizzes. Some of the materials, such as books, that we are using in the Learning Center are provided by Puerta Abierta, a nonprofit organization that we partner with here in Santiago. These materials help to enrich our English classes and enhance the experience of the students.

What Does This Mean for Our English Teacher Volunteers?

One Two…Tree! volunteers will still work with us for approximately 16 hours per week, however, now those hours will be divided between working in public school classrooms and teaching at the Learning Center. These hours will vary depending on the current government restrictions for public schools, as well as the demand for classes at the Learning Center.

English Teacher Volunteers in Santiago

The Learning Center will provide our English teacher volunteers with a home base that they can help develop and contribute to. So far, our volunteers have helped us set up the space and ensure the classrooms are optimized for learning at all levels.

The Space Will Be Open to the Community

Our Learning Center will also be open to other local programs and organizations. The intention behind the Learning Center is to create a safe learning space for everyone in the community. For example, Instituto Tzanjuyú, the secondary school that we partner with, has lent us chairs, tables, and whiteboards, and in exchange, they will use the space to host a chess club and guitar lessons for their students and anyone who wants to join.

The Learning Center will also be a recycling point for the community. Our friends at Amigos del Lago will come every Monday to pick up everyone’s recycling. Currently, the community throws everything out together in the garbage, so not only are we providing a space for recycling to be easily dropped off and picked up, but we are also educating the community on the importance of recycling and what items can be recycled in our programming.

Adult English Classes in Santiago Atitlan

We are excited to continue to develop our Learning Center to ensure it is an open space for the whole community to come together and learn.

If you are interested in learning more about our Learning Center or volunteering with us in Guatemala this year, please contact us at: guatemala@onetwo-tree.com