Community service programs

Day Care/Nutrition Center (1994-present)

The Children's Center Program was founded in 1994 by the members of UPAVIM to provide to the community an infant daycare service and pre-school education. The Children's Center began as a nutrition center and a Montessori style daycare.


The Montessori 2 day care center attends to children from 3 to 5 years of age and employs three theachers.

Several members of UPAVIM were trained as teachers by Dr. Lilian Moncada Davidson, profesor of Queens College, New York, and by other teachers experienced in the Montessori system. Additionally, all of them received training in nutrition. In the following years, the teachers have continued their studies in the United States, El Salvador, the Conference of the Reading Council in Guatemala and in workships organized by the Secretary of Social Well-Being of the Presidency of Guatemala. The Kellogg Foundation financed a trip for two teachers to Brazil to observe a similar project.

The children who enter into the daycare center should be from families with working parents and children are accepted between the ages of 45 days to 2 years 6 months. To obtain a full or half scholarship, the parents or the mother should demonstate that their income is extremely low.

The daycare staff, previous to being hired, should be trained so that they know the Montessori Method and should receive training in early childhood stimulation and nutrition. First consideration is given to members of UPAVIM for the jobs, and if there is no member interested, the position is opened up to anyone who fulfills the requirements.

The Children's Center opens its doors from 6:30am to 5:30pm. The parents pay a montly fee of Q. 50.00 (US$6.25), members of UPAVIM, pay Q. 25.00 (US$3.25) and UPAVIM awards ten scholarships a year. 100% of the expenses of the Children's Center are covered by the sale of crafts.

More Photos of the daycare

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Montessori 1 attends to children from 1 to 3 years of age and employs three teachers.

The Current Needs:

  • There is significant demand as we are unable to attend to more children because we need to finish the construction of the Annex to have more classrooms for the children.
  • We also need more funds to pay for additional teachers in order to attend to more children. At the moment we can only have 30 children in each daycare room and 10 children in the cribs area.

Programs
 Home I Dental Clinic I Healthy Babies I Medical Clinic I Alternative Learning Center I Day Care Center I Scholarships I Tutoring Center

Projects
Home I Crafts I Annex Construction I UPA-SOYA I Bakery and Store I Future Plans