Program for Disabled Students

The Foundation inaugurated an experimental program for disabled students in 2019. Disabled students are most often entirely ignored in rural Guatemala. Busy teachers have no training or resources with which to support them, and these students often spend years in the same grade without measurable improvement. The experimental program employs psychologists, a social worker and a master teacher to create instructional materials, offer workshops for classroom teachers and to work directly with disabled students and their families. The experimental program also funds lenses, prosthetics and other aids. The Brian and Joelle Kelly Foundation in Red Bank New Jersey provides almost half of the funding for the program. In 2023 the program works directly with 90 students and their families, is assisted  by 4 psychology students from the area Jesuit university and has partnered with the Guatemalan Department of Education to provide a modest student crafts making project.