Smiles!

Smiles, tears, cheers, thumbs up, high fives, and celebrations as 7 individuals who have never been able to read or write had their first opportunity to beta test our new remote learning app. What an experience! 

Cahabon Guatemala has one of the highest illiteracy rates in the world. Many of the villages do not have schools or teachers. The number of people who cannot read or write is staggering. EnLevo needed a solution that could be used in the most remote village. We had been pursuing the use of an existing app and trying to tailor it to the needs of the area we are working. 

About 4 months ago we determined that the remote learning app we were looking at (as well as other apps we had considered) had some major limitations and was not going to be flexible enough to meet the needs of those people we are working with. There were many challenges with the idea of using an existing app, and one major issue is that most of the people in the villages speak only Q’eqchi, a native Mayan dialect. At that time we decided to create our own learning app. 

We spent time working with developers and giving a vision of what we wanted and needed. We needed the ability to show/present lessons remotely. We needed the ability for students to  do activities during the lesson that will reinforce the lesson. We needed the ability to present lessons in any language, including indigenous dialects. We needed flexibility. As we identified all of these needs and more, StudiaOne was created. 

Fast forward 4 months. Unbelievable progress has been made on the app, even though we are in the early stages. Over the past week, a group of amazing individuals (Doug and Kim Roylance, Jeff Freeman, Ruel Haymond, Loraena Quib, Gady Juarez), have been working here in Guatemala to videotape our first Spanish lessons and upload and incorporate them to the new app. We worked through bugs and issues, and yesterday afternoon we had 7 individuals come to our home where many of them held/used a tablet for the first time. 

We used a large TV and individual tablets to present the first two lessons. Eventually the full lessons will be on the tablets. Tears were near the surface so many times during the two and a half hours the group was here. These beautiful people have such a desire to learn. We cheered and cried as they traced the letters “E e” and “A a”. We watched them cheer each other on and tear up. We watched an 8 year old girl cheer her mother on as her mother traced the letter for the first time. None of us will ever forget the experience of seeing someone 55 years old learn to write and identify a letter for the first time. 

This was just the first test of the app. We learned and identified so many things, and now take the things we learned from this group and work to refine and improve the app. More smiles and cheers to come! 

Do you want to help? We need tablets and funding. If you know of a source where we can get used tablets at a deep discount (or donated) and/or know someone who may want to help fund a project like this, please let us know! We are in the process of changing lives!