The Chosavic Schoolhouse team has worked relentlessly all summer to come up with an architectural layout that best suits the needs of the community. In our previous trip to Guatemala (in February of 2020), our chapter was able to meet with Chosavic students and teachers, interview other community members, and collect site data. All of this information was compiled for review in the Post Assessment Report, which must be approved by EWB-USA before the project can move forward. There were some delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but this report has just been approved! Finally, we can begin the structural, plumbing, and electrical design of the Schoolhouse. As always, we appreciate the support of our donors in making this project a reality!

The Chiaj Vehicular Bridge is a 20-foot reinforced concrete bridge located in the community of Chiaj within the municipality of Joyabaj, Guatemala. The bridge crosses a river that regularly floods during the wet season between the months of April and October making crossing difficult on foot or by vehicle. The bridge is a more reliable and safer means of crossing the river than the previous footbridge, which has seen one to two feet of water above the bridge during the wet season.The bridge provides reliable, year-round access to education, healthcare, and markets.

The Los Cerritos school project included a single-story confined masonry schoolhouse with three classrooms, kitchen, bathrooms, and a handwashing station.  The project also included an onsite wastewater system. The primary school, located in the community of Los Cerritos on the outskirts of Joyabaj, had 48 students at the time of construction. The previous bamboo famed schoolhouse had failed, and they were meeting in the local community center nearby.

The Aguacate II vehicular bridge is a 60-foot reinforced concrete bridge over a river that floods regularly during the wet season. This separated a few rural communities both from each other and from the larger regional center of Joyabaj. Now this project provides these communities safe year-round access to larger regional hospitals and markets as well as removing a barrier to schools on either side of the river.

The El Temal Tuk-Tuk bridge is a 165-foot cable suspended bridge which was specifically designed to allow passage of tuk-tuks, the local taxi which is a small motorized vehicle as shown in the photos below.  The purpose of this project was to provide the community with a more practical and affordable connection to the main highway for access to markets, healthcare, and education facilities.