The Little Mountain School

In 2015, Fr. Miguel Alvizures visited several rural communities near his family’s home in Palencia, Guatemala. He saw that many of the children did not have access to primary education, as the average schooling of adults there is just 3.5 years. Most of the families were poor and the children were malnourished. Fr. Miguel and an American friend, Forrest Day, created a nonprofit organization, Guatemalan Education Outreach, Inc. (GEO) that would fund a rural school in Guatemala. Their goal was to provide an education, both in Spanish and English, through high school, and to feed the children two meals a day.

In 2018, The Little Mountain School became a reality and opened for pre-primary children ages 5 and 6, with classes taught both in Spanish and English, and the children fed a breakfast and a lunch each school day. In 2019, a first grade was added; in 2020, a second grade; and in 2021, a third grade, and so on. Each year the school adds a grade to accommodate the children moving up to higher grades while maintaining the lower grades.

Today, The Little Mountain School is a success story with over 170 children in attendance. These children are receiving a quality, bilingual education along with physical nourishment in a loving, caring environment. But that success comes at a financial cost, and financing the school’s operations and growth is what GEO Coffee and Tours is really all about.