As of today, middle school and high school teachers in Guatemala will be able to use IWitness lessons in their classrooms. Five new mini lessons, which last about 30 minutes each, have been made available in commemoration of, February 25, the Day for the Dignification of the Victims of the Armed Conflict. These lessons also respond to the new Civic Education strategy which is being implemented at the high school level throughout the country starting this year.

These 5 mini lessons were created by the FAFG in collaboration with the International Institute of Learning for Social Reconciliation (IIARS) and  individual teachers from the public and private sector. USC Shoah Foundation’s IWitness platform, which brings the first-person stories of survivors and witnesses of genocide to students via multimedia-learning activities, already had some lessons and other material in Spanish. However, these are the first lessons that were specifically created for students in the Guatemalan education system.

The five new mini-lessons are:

1. Children and their rights during the Armed Conflict which explores the rights of children and how these are affected during times of war.

2. Forced Displacement looks into the causes and effects of forced displacement during the armed conflict and in the present day.

3. The consequences of fear and silence allows students to understand why fear was such a powerful weapon used during the armed conflict and its impacts in present day society.

4. The mechanisms of violence used during the Armed Conflict explores the different mechanisms of violence that were used against civilian population.

5. What did we learn from the war? Allows students to explore lessons learned from the Guatemalan armed conflict, the European Holocaust and the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

These five mini lessons in IWitness mark FAFG's entrance and dedication to integrate education into our mission, building on the 489 interviews collected with survivors from the armed conflict. Students in Guatemala and around the world will learn from the testimonies of these Guatemalan survivors.

Your gift to FAFG supports the creation of more educational lessons for students in Guatemala and around the world. Consider giving a gift for education today.