Our History

In 2001…

three women created both the learning center Asociación Ventanas Abiertas and the US-registered 501(c)(3) organization, Open Windows Foundation.  The learning center was housed in the childhood home of co-founder and director, Teresa Quiñonez, in San Miguel Dueñas, and initially had only 20 primary school children assembling in a small room where they had access to 300 books donated from a library which had recently closed.  The foundation was designed to raise the funds necessary to support the center

During the past two decades the center has expanded both physically and programmatically.  First came a more formal after-school program where children in grades one through six could come to get help with homework.   Ongoing purchases and donations of books required more space, leading to the construction of a library, now housing 13,000 volumes.  Two donations of computers by the Rotary Club motivated the building of a computer lab on top of the library.  In a move designed to extend educational support beyond the primary years, the president of the US board, Tom Sullivan, initiated a scholarship program which continues to support youth through middle school, high school and university. 

Spurred by the Canadian organization, Developing World Connections, which wanted to send construction volunteers to the community, the learning center began a program of building houses for some of the families who lived in homes made of cornstalks or tin with dirt floors. Since then, using volunteers both from DWC and other sources, Open Windows has delivered eco-stoves to more than 1000 families who otherwise would spend much of their income on firewood for cooking on open fires which filled the houses with smoke and threatened the health of all the family members.

The most recent expansions occurred in 2020 and 2021.  In response to the pandemic and subsequent temporary closure of both the schools and the learning center, in July of 2020 the teachers at Open Windows created a YouTube channel, Aprende con Ventanas Abiertas, to which they uploaded video lessons following the national curriculum.  Primary school students all across Guatemala now have the ability to study at home, whether or not the schools are open, and the videos also serve as both refresher courses and reference works.

 In 2021 the learning center added a typing school.  Typing classes are extremely important in Guatemala because no youth can graduate from middle school and move on to high school without having passed a typing class.  The one typing school in Dueñas closed permanently at the end of 2020 and offered the learning center all the machines, all the furniture and a certified teacher.  The classes are now held in one of the two new classrooms which were built just a few months earlier.

 The history of Open Windows continues.  As new needs arise in the community we look for ways to ensure that those needs get addressed.  We never forget, however, that educating Guatemala’s youth is our primary task, our mission and our reason for existing.