Scholarships & Education
Since 1995, Rights Action has been funding community-based schools (pre-school, primary, middle) and scholarship programs for high school and university. The community schools and scholarship recipients are, for the most part, in communities where Rights Action supports Truth, Memory and Justice struggles, and Mining Resistance struggles.
Rio Negro Primary School
Primary school in the remote Maya Achi village of Rio Negro, Baja Verapaz. Rio Negro was razed to the ground in the 1980s, and over 440 community members killed, to make way for the Chixoy hydro-electric project of the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank.
High School & University Scholarships
Annually, Rights Action provides approximately 10 scholarships to students in high school (basico), pre-college (diversificado) and university. The students are children of Mayan land, human rights, and environmental defenders, or the community defenders themselves.
In each case, Rights Action also supports the community defense struggles that they or their parents and communities are involved with. As courageous Mayan leaders work for community well-being, they want their children to have access to education.
Carmen Mejia (lright) with Diodora Hernández, land, human rights, and environmental defender in San Miguel Ixtahuacan, Guatemala. Diodora was a victim of an attempted assassination in 2010 for not selling her land to Goldcorp. She was shot in the eye, survived, and continues fighting against Canadian Mining Company Goldcorp today.
Carmen Mejia (in photo above) is a Maya Mam land, human rights environmental defender, leading resistance against Goldcorp's 14 years of mining violence, corruption and environmental degradation, 2004-2018. Carmen is in her 7th year of law school in Guatemala, with Rights Action support.
For information on all all recipients of scholarships and education funds, please contact us.
