A Long Road to a Small School in the Clouds

It took two hours down a long, rocky dirt road to reach the Q’eqchi’ community of Nimlah’akok in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. The truck climbed through enormous mountains and cloud forest until, finally, a small school appeared, nestled among the trees.

For many CaTec students here, the journey is even longer. Some walk hours from their villages. Others sleep in bunk beds at the school so they can be ready for class the next day.

We had come to visit our impact partner Xch’ool Ixim (Heart of Corn), a Maya Q’eqchi’ organization that has spent decades expanding access to education in rural communities. Together, we are implementing CaTec, Fabretto’s youth technical training program, creating spaces where rural youth can learn, lead, and imagine new possibilities rooted in their own culture and land.

Learning Where Roots Run Deep

The CaTec students we met were in primero básico (7th grade), a mix of vibrant, soft-spoken, and very bright girls and boys. The classroom that day was the school’s vegetable garden. Between rows of carrots, cabbage, cilantro, chiles, and hierbabuena, they proudly showed us what they had grown.

CaTec is a “learning-by-doing” program. Youth don’t just hear about agriculture in a textbook; they practice it in their school gardens and in their own family plots. Alongside teachers like Ismael, they explore how soil becomes fertile, why seeds behave differently, and how water, climate, and care all play a part.

Later, we visited some of the students’ homes. Parents and children walked us through their family gardens, pointing out where they had applied what they learned in class. The pride was visible in the way they touched the plants, in the way they said, “esto lo sembramos juntos” (we planted this together).

“I Want to Keep Learning”

In between the garden tours and computer lab visits, students told us what they want to learn next.

“More about what makes soil fertile.”
“About aves de patio, the chickens we’ll study next year.”
“About entrepreneurship.”

CaTec doesn’t stop at crops. Through modules like holistic farm management, youth entrepreneurship, and animal husbandry, students build communication skills, logical reasoning, and confidence in their own voices.

We saw the trust they had in their teacher, Ismael, the way they looked up to him, the way they laughed with him, the way they listened. Education here is not abstract. It’s a relationship: between students and teachers, between school and community, between traditional knowledge and new tools.

A Graduation Filled with Light

On graduation day, people began arriving at the school at six in the morning. Mothers, sisters, aunts, and grandmothers gathered in the kitchen to cook chicken and rice soup, with tamalitos for everyone. Community members swept classroom walkways, set up chairs, and finished decorating the stage.

The Fabretto team had slept at the school the night before so we wouldn’t miss a thing. This day carried special weight. This was the first CaTec graduating class in Guatemala, proof of what is possible when rural youth have dedicated support, strong local educators, and learning that connects directly with life in their communities. It marked a new chapter in our work in Guatemala: one where collaboration, leadership, and opportunity are growing alongside our long-term impact partners.

Parents met their children with hugs and flowers, whispering words we didn’t need to hear to understand: “estoy orgullosa de ti” (I’m proud of you). Their pride filled the room like light. As the first CaTec graduating class in Guatemala, it felt like the beginning of something much bigger than a single ceremony.

Light Across Borders

Our end-of-year campaign, Light Across Borders, is about this kind of quiet, steady light. It’s about what happens when people across countries, Maya Q’eqchi’ leaders, rural teachers, youth, and supporters from all over, refuse to give up on children’s right to learn.

In Nimlah’akok, that light looked like flashlights on a dark mountain road, the glow of a computer lab in a rural school, and the bright smile of a student holding their diploma. In other places, it looks like a candle on a kitchen table, lit by someone who believes that global cooperation and rural education still matter.

CaTec is one way that light travels across borders: from a donor’s decision to give, to a partner like Xch’ool Ixim, to a classroom where a child finally feels that their dreams are possible.

This season, as lights go up on trees and candles are lit inside warm homes, we invite you to help keep that light burning– in Nimlah’akok, in Guatemala, and in rural communities across Central America.

Give the gift of light today.