A few things have happened since our last update of Fabiola’s situation with work and school (if you missed it, you can read it here).  Fabiola needed to make a choice: work or go to school.  While most children her age go to school once a week and work the rest of the time to support their family, Fabiola’s day of school coincided with her work hours.  The work was draining her and taking the place of school.  Since she is the oldest of two children and her mother struggles with finding and keeping work as a result of her lack of education, Fabiola needs to be the main bread winner of the family.  This is a common struggle amongst families in Guatemala.

Fabiola had made the decision to talk to her employers and ask for the time off she needed every week to go to school and she also accepted the offer from her teachers and school director to come back to school so she could keep up with where she left off.  As she was preparing for her exams, the company laid her off.  She was working for a Korean textile factory and we have discovered that it is very common for them to lay off employees after 2 months of work in order to avoid taxes and employee benefits.  While it seemed to be the perfect timing to affirm Fabiola’s decision, she is also now stuck trying to find a new job to help support her family.

Fabiola wants to continue her schooling and she is finding this recent occurrence with her job as confirmation that God wants her to stay focused on school and trust Him to provide for her family.  She is continuing to look for work but making sure that she still will have time for her studies as she understands the importance of pushing forward and completing her schooling so she can better support her family and be an example to her younger brother who will be attempting school again next year.

Keep this family in your prayers in regards to their provision, protection, and for the two children to move forward in their education so they can break the cycle of poverty in their family.