Newsletter #28: A Festive Season

Newsletter #28 - Nov 7, 2025

The end of the year is approaching, but we're not slowing down yet! Read on to hear updates from Guatemala and what's coming up here in Vancouver.

Save the date! The 8th Annual EDUPAVI Craft Fair, presented by Justin's No Frills, will make its festive return on Sunday, December 7th, 2025. 

With 36 local makers, a raffle, and too many goodies to count, this year's event is our biggest yet and you don't want to miss it! As always, each of our vendors is donating a portion of their proceeds toward our students, which means your purchases support local makers AND make our school possible.

Click the image below to learn more about the Fair, and spread the word!

We are also super proud of our group of young activists from Fraser Lands Church Youth, who are launching their 3rd annual fundraising campaign today to raise $6,700 by December 12th. We're cheering them on as they hit the streets and share their passion for our work in Guatemala!

Check out EDUPAVI.ca/flcyouth to learn more about their campaign!

UPDATES FROM GUATEMALA

On October 23rd and 24th, we celebrated not one, not two, but THREE graduating classes at our school!

The first were our adorable friends completing pre-primary, who proudly received their certificates and are looking forward to starting Grade 1 in January! They performed songs, received graduation rings from their parents, and shared a celebration lunch with all their teachers and families.

The second were our 6th Grade graduates, who have been working so hard to achieve this very significant milestone. Knowing that less than 40% of children in Guatemala reach this point, we could not be more proud of their perseverance in the midst of all the barriers that have stood in their way. Some of these students have been part of our program since they were little (before we became an official school), and we are so excited to be able to continue walking alongside them into middle school.

Lastly and perhaps most significantly, we celebrated our first ever middle school graduating class since becoming an official school! In Guatemala, middle school reaches Grade 9, which is the last year of standardized schooling (similar to Grade 12 in Canada). As such, this is a huge milestone for our students, a few of whom are the first in their families to reach it. Many tears were shared between students and their proud parents, and yes, us too. After middle school, the students can choose to continue their education by picking a major to study for the next 3-5 years before applying to university, and all of our students have expressed plans to do so! 

We have fought to expand our program year by year so that this 9th grade graduating class could stay with us for the duration of their standardized education. If you've been with us long enough, you'll remember our updates requesting additional funding to add 7th grade...and then 8th the next year...and then 9th the next! Your continued support made this graduation for these amazing students possible, and we could not be more grateful for your heart for this community, and your belief in the power of education to break cycles of hopelessness and vulnerability.

Many of them experienced incredible challenge along the way, including family brokenness and deaths of family members, pressure to support their families through extreme poverty, and personal/familial barriers to learning, but our team in Guatemala gave all of themselves this past year to ensure that every child in our program had a safe place to land, to grow, and to feel valued. We congratulate them, as well as the parents of the students for their dedication to their children's education. We feel honoured to have participated in this work, and we hope you do too.

If you can, please consider joining in our work as a monthly donor (or with a one-time gift) so that we can continue to provide hope to students in the coming year. As a crucial part of this story of restoration, monthly donors receive stories and updates from the families and children they are supporting.

Thank you for your support,
Team EDUPAVI Canada