Buildings become schools when teachers and students are joined with a wide variety of books and information, without books and information, schools are just hollowed buildings. 

Public education throughout the world varies widely.  The United States of America’s public educational system strives to provide world class education through publicly funding the construction of schools along with stocked classrooms and libraries with plenty of books, materials, and other learning tools.  These institutions are predominantly funded on the local, state, and federal tax systems. Many families within these schools are able to organize fundraising activities that provide additional support for their child’s school to fund extra activities such as clubs, sport teams, and additional libraries.  Even with the challenges facing the U.S. public school system, this system is one of the best in world regarding access to the opportunity to study.  Our public schools do not charge fees for the basic classes, nor does the majority require a particular uniform and without it a child is turned away. 

Having said this, countries throughout Central America are not yet able to fund such opportunities for all children. TALICA strives to support public schools and rural communities in Central America by providing resources that will help give greater opportunities to obtain a basic education.   TALICA is dedicated to finding communities and schools that would never find them.  To do this, they explore some of the poorest and most isolated communities where they build partnerships and foster friendships with educators and families.  Through thoughtful collaboration they discovered where they can support local and public educational efforts by providing books, other printed material, and internal infrastructure such as book cases and cabinets that will house and protect the books.  Based on “Discovery Journeys” to Guatemala and Nicaragua, TALICA discovered that access to public education is vastly different than what is accessible in the United States.  Many schools do not have a single book.  Many schools are not equipped to maintain book collections and other learning materials such as maps, globes, or computers.  TALICA asked, “Why?”  By continuing to listen and observe, they found that based on many complicated factors, communities are just not able or unaware of what type of educational experience is possible. 

Without vision, without the ability to see beyond what is there, it is almost impossible for many educators in these rural isolated areas with no financial support to reach their potential to educate every single child through basic education.  Many public schools are not funded to provide what the the U.S. would call the necessities:  teachers in every classroom, textbooks and curricular materials to help implement the national and local curriculums set forth by government committees, not to mention the physical buildings can be in disrepair due to the inablity to maintain facilities on a regular basis.

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The chart below shows the disparity in literacy levels between the US and Guatemala and Nicaragua:

Source: CIA - World Fact Book

Statistics like these truly illustrate the need for organizations like TALICA to help. To further add to the case, TALICA is working in areas that are poorer than average. These areas also have lower-than-average literacy rates, hovering around 50%.