In 1993, Douglas Rhodenbaugh, a Middle School teacher from Austin, Texas, was vacationing in the Guatemalan Highlands where he traveled regularly.
Douglas chatted at length with them and, as Douglas is a photographer as well as a teacher, he took their pictures.
When Douglas asked where they were from, the children answered, “Here.”
He took that to mean Chichicastenango.
Because the children were so friendly and endearing Douglas asked if he could bring them something the next time he returned and, much to his surprise, the children asked for pencils.
Puzzled by this request, Douglas questioned them further and found that in the Guatemalan Highlands the school year started in January and that each child had to provide their own pencil and other school supplies to attend school.
Without at least a pencil, the children could not go to school and, as he found out later, would instead be sent to pick coffee beans on the surrounding coffee plantations.
Later Douglas also was told that the “here” the children had mentioned was the cemetery. The children were orphans, most from the country's decades long civil war, who lived in the cemetery crypts.
Struck by that realization, when Douglas returned to Austin, he placed a donation box along with pictures of the orphans in his 6th grade classroom. The children in the class responded generously, filling the box with supplies for the children. From this simple beginning, The Pencil Project has had great success. In the United States, more than 50 schools in 3 states and a Girl Scout troop now donate supplies to the project. These supplies now encompass children in more than 50 Guatemalan villages.
All of the original cemetery orphans have now been placed in foster homes and all were able to attend school. Simple projects, such as small loans to help two of the now grown “cemetery orphans” set up a sewing business continue.
The ongoing mission of the Pencil Project is to continue to help the highland children obtain the supplies needed to attend school. The Pencil Project continues in its original purpose because many of the Guatemalan highland villages exist on a barter economy and any cash for school supplies, even for a pencil, is difficult to come by.
To date the project has been funded by Douglas and those friends who have become aware who have become aware of his efforts. The Pencil Project has recently been restructured as a tax-exempt charitable trust that you can contribute to. What began as a selfless act of one man now affords many of us the opportunity to reach beyond ourselves.
Because Douglas is a photographer as well as teacher, he is able to capture some of people and places the Pencil Project serves. The accompanying black and white photographs were taken by him. They represent but a small sampling of the many he has taken of the children of the Guatemalan Highlands.