Project 63: Hero Students Building Tomorrow - Guatemala

At the heart of Comalapa, Guatemala, stands the Hero School, a global award-winning institution recognized as a leader in sustainable education. Affectionately known as the "tire school" within its community, it has made a significant impact, and its student body is rapidly expanding. Enrollment requests are flooding in so quickly that the school is struggling to keep up. With its capacity quickly outgrowing the current campus, a new classroom is desperately needed. But this isn’t just any classroom—it will be constructed using the same innovative green building techniques that the students themselves are mastering.

Our second-time partner, Long Way Home, believes that sustainable and impactful change is only possible by educating the community itself on contextual solutions. That’s why they created the Hero School—a campus dedicated to equipping students with the skills and opportunities to become agents of change in their country. This new classroom will provide essential space for students to continue their unique, hands-on learning experience. Long Way Home’s curriculum goes beyond general education; it empowers students to lead real-world projects that make a tangible difference in their communities.

In the 7th grade, students learn how to build improved stoves, providing families with safer, more efficient cooking options that reduce smoke inhalation. In the 8th grade, they take on the challenge of constructing water tanks, ensuring families have reliable access to clean water. By the 9th grade, students are designing and building compost latrines, which improve sanitation and turn waste into valuable fertilizer. Finally, in the 10th grade, students focus on building retaining walls, essential structures that prevent soil erosion and protect homes from landslides in the mountainous highlands of Guatemala, especially during the rainy season.

For Project 63, we are supporting the Hero School’s newest green-build classroom and providing the materials and supplies needed to complete their 2024 student-led projects. These brilliant young minds will construct one retaining wall, two compost latrines, two water tanks, and seven improved stoves, all of which will directly benefit families and communities in need. Join us in building a space where education and sustainability go hand-in-hand, where students gain the skills to create a better world, and where communities receive the support they need to thrive.