Programs

Education: The next step to a better life.

 

Since its inception, Foundation Escalera has changed the lives of Mexico’s rising generation through education programs for rural, indigenous and impoverished students in Mexico.

In Spanish escalera means ladder and the name is a symbol of our mission to give children the tools they need to rise out of the debilitating and vicious cycle of ignorance and poverty. An education is a child’s greatest hope for a better life, but it is often out of reach.

Poverty drives children out of school and into the streets and farming fields to make a meager living, but as little as $25 is enough to keep a child in school. With your help, Escalera can reach these children to make education their next step to a better life.

Escalera does this by providing scholarships, building schools, and improving learning.

Provide Scholarships

Scholarships to students with great ambition and great financial need make it possible for them to attend excellent schools where they will receive an education that will transform their future. Currently, Escalera sponsors students at a private elementary school in Oaxaca, a private high school in Mexico City (scholarship students come from all over the country), and various universities in Chiapas, Mexico.

Build Schools

Escalera pioneered a pre-fabricated classroom model that takes two weeks to build, costs half of what a traditional cement block structure costs, and is perfectly insulated against extreme temperature fluctuations. After the inauguration of Escalera’s first 5-classroom school in the village of Pajalton Bajo in 2007, the government of Chiapas used the Escalera model to launch a state-wide school building campaign that has resulted in the construction of over 4,000 new classrooms.

Improve Learning

In Mexico’s poorest villages, many students finish middle school without being able to read. Because their mother tongue is an indigenous dialect, their inability to read and speak Spanish inhibits them from ever obtaining a decent job. Escalera is designing, implementing and evaluating programs that give students incentives to excel in school despite that severe lack of resources.