If you’ve been to Guatemala during the rainy season, you know just how muddy Tactic can get – and the outdoor play area at Vida Chijacorral School is no exception! While it’s not usually quite as wet as it has been this year with Tropical Storm Eta, we still regularly expect many, many rainy days in our region!
We’ve often thought what a difference a covered sports field would make – a dry area for our kids to run and play both during their gym classes and during their breaks. We know that physical activity and recreation are vital for the healthy development of children.
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Then Covid hit, and suddenly having access to a covered outdoor area has taken on an additional sense of urgency. In Canada, for months the health officials have been encouraging us to move our social interactions outside whenever possible to reduce transmission. Hard to do in “the great white north” in the middle of winter – but definitely possible in “the land of eternal spring”!
Will you help us build a large, covered, open air structure over the existing playground area at Vida Chijacorral School? As part of our Build a Brighter Future campaign, this project looks ahead to the benefits of a dedicated area for physical activity for our students, regardless of the weather. But right now it also fills the need for a Covid-friendly space accessible to our largest school that we can use for classes and devotionals.
When it’s done, it will look something like this:
As an added bonus, this project will provide employment opportunities: jobs now for construction workers who have been struggling to find enough work, and future employment for some of our students. You see, covered sports fields are in high demand in our part of Guatemala, and we’ll be able to rent out the field once sports are given the green light once again.
How’s that for win-win?