THE HISTORY OF EDELAC 

The Asociación Escuela de la Calle, (Street School Association), or EDELAC, began its activities in the city of Quetzaltenango in May, 1995. Its founders, E. Guadalupe Pos, Michael Shorr, Ubaldo Ruiz and Miguel Quiroa, saw the need to give attention to the boys and girls known as "de la calle," or "street kids".

The project began by helping children in the Central Park area, commercial centers, and main streets of the city, providing both education and more (medical help, food, and social work for personal and family issues).

Later, knowing the problems that street children faced, EDELAC, with the help of Gavin Barker and other foreign volunteers, began a pilot program CASA HOGAR de EDELAC (The EDELAC Home). This new program paid full attention to the needs of children and youth, providing food, clothing, academica help, medical and psychological attention, literacy and preparation for entering a public school the next year.

The program yielded positive results, because the home served children not only as preparation for re-entering school, but also joining back with their families. The project helped numerous young people resolve family crises and eventually attain stability.

At the same time, the number of street children and youth (mainly boys, but also girls) grew in Quetzaltenango. In 1996, a study was ordered to look at children's living conditions in the outer areas of Quetzaltenango and the surrounding villages. The study found that the population of these areas was at high risk for becoming street children, and that large portions of the street children population came from these areas. (The Las Rosas neighborhood, in Zone 5 of Quetzaltenango, was one of areas cited.)

For this reason, EDELAC began to focus on the education of children in the Las Rosas neighborhood at the end of 1996. They founded the Centro de Formación Las Rosas, (Las Rosas Development Center), and the number of students has grown every year, including students coming from Zone 5 and other neighborhoods in Quetzaltenango.

The program began in 1996 with 15 boys and girls, and in 2001 there was a permanent group of 30 boys and girls. From 2002 to 2003, enrollment increased by more than 100 percent. From 2004 to 2008, there was another considerable increase in the number of beneficiaries, and currently the school serves 200 students between the ages of 6 and 15. At the same time, the "Hogar Abierto," or "Open Home" program, permanently houses between 15 and 20 children who don't have their own homes. The number of children that Hogar Abierto can serve is limited by the high costs of running the program.

Currently the school has its own land and building for the school year. The school includes a playground, an outdoor multi-sport court, a library, classrooms for seven grades, a kitchen, multi-purpose room, storage rooms and administrative offices. The school has 16 employees, including teachers, administrators, and social workers that work at both the school and in Hogar Abierto. There are also between five and eight volunteers who work in any of the four EDELAC programs.