By Michael Ashcraft –
At-risk youth from some of the poorest neighborhoods in Guatemala are building robots, doing 3D printing projects and learning STEM – thanks to some laboratories set up by a missionaries’ kid.
“I have no doubt that some of these kids are going to do incredible things,” says Alexander Martiny, of his labs in Santa Fe and San Jose Pinula. “Before the program, some of the kids were failing their grades. Now they’re graduating at the top of the class; they’re studying at the best universities in the country. The impact is very evident.”
Born in Guatemala, Alexander, 16, is himself a student. His missionary parents transitioned from helping “orphans” to strengthening families so that parents would NOT dump their kids off at the orphanage. They set up tutoring and Bible lessons after school. Alexander helped them.
From his childhood, Alexander was fascinated with technology. He was a tinkerer who learned by watching YouTube videos. The logic of coding was intuitive to him.
When his parents set up a computer lab at their after-school program, called “Cada Nino” (Every Child), it occurred to Alexander that he could help. Why not set up a lab for STEM (an acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics).
Alexander launched a tentative fundraiser online with the goal of raising $5,000. With the first two weeks, he had raised $13,000 among his parents friends and relatives in America.
Evidently, God wanted something bigger.
Alexander was as pleased as he was surprised.
He purchased a bottom-of-the-line 3D printer, some robotics kits, motors and sensors. The kits included assembly instructions but not a word about programming – which left the Cada Nino kids to fend for themselves and to find out for themselves by trial and error how to program. This develops the technologically savvy mind, Alexander says.
“The thing about these kids is not just poverty or the resources they lack, one of the greatest things is to change their mindset from I can’t do anything to I can figure it out. I can do things,” he observes. The program instills “problem solving skills and I can do it” outlook.
The turnaround is notable. These are kids whose parents might have dumped their kids off at an orphanage. Now, the kids are showing promise for future careers, a break in the grindingly merciless cycle of poverty.
Alexander’s parents have been missionaries in Guatemala for 20 years. Alexander is a junior in the international Manos a la Obra school in Guatemala.
One of his students developed a sensor-activated radar system. Alexander can’t wait to see what works of genius emerge from the slums of Guatemala.
“I’m excited to see what kinds of projects they’ll be pulling off,” he says.
