Salt of the Earth: Education was his mission in Guatemala

Salt shakers
February 2001

Education was his mission in Guatemala
For almost 30 years, Father Tom Moran, C.M.F. dedicated a great deal of his Claretian missionary effort in Guatemala to the education of Q'eqchi Indian children. He was instrumental in founding the first head-start school for Indian youngsters living in and around San Pedro parish in El Estor in 1972. Until his recent retirement from missionary duties in Guatemala, he always placed great emphasis on education for children in the Central American country.

In the early days, he struggled to get the first school started, so the children who spoke only Q'eqchi could learn Spanish, the national language of Guatemala.

"These children," he says, "are virtual outcasts in their own country. They know nothing of their own heritage. They cannot read. They cannot write."

From that modest beginning, Moran led the charge for more schools and teachers in the Izabal diocese. His efforts paid off as new schools were established, including three high schools in El Estor, Livingston, and Rio Dulce. Moran kept up the work of educating indigenous children at this Claretian mission site throughout the worst years of Guatemala's long and brutal civil war—a time when even such apparently nonpolitical efforts might be viewed as a radical challenge to the status quo.

In appreciation of his pioneering work in education, Moran has had a new facility—the Father Tom Moran Education Center—on the Rio Dulce River, named after him.

"When I first heard they named a school after me," Moran says, "I was overwhelmed.

"They usually name something like that for you after you're dead," he adds with a mischievous grin.

The center occupies 900 feet along the river front and is located on a parcel of 25 acres that will eventually house not only classrooms but workshops, a dormitory for resident students, a meeting hall, dining hall, kitchen, bathrooms and showers, and staff quarters.

The school is accessible for children from mountainside villages because they can come by canoe, cutting their travel time in half.

The center will offer courses in sustainable agriculture, infrastructure construction involving latrines and potable water systems, and health education. These courses will be taught in addition to regular core curriculum.

"Students will study in a formal classroom setting for three weeks of each month," Moran says, "and then conduct field work for one week to practice what they learn in the classroom.

"Guatemala's population includes approximately 700,000 Q'eqchi-speaking Indians. By learning Spanish and English, and acquiring vocational skills, the students will be qualified for employment opportunities in the villages, thus breaking the chain of poverty that their parents and grandparents have been subjected to."

Capacity of the center will be 400 students at the junior high school level, 200 of whom will board there.

More info:
The Claretians
The CIA World Factbook: Guatemala
Catholic Relief Services in Guatemala
A human rights history of Guatemala
Guatemala's recent history
About Rio Dulce region

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