A Discussion with Osmar Velasco, Scholarship Program Implementation Coordinator, Rafael Landívar University, Guatemala City, Guatemala
With: Osmar Velasco Berkley Center Profile
May 28, 2015
Background: As part of the Education and Social Justice
Project, in May 2015 student Nicolas Lake interviewed Osmar Velasco, scholarship
program implementation coordinator at Rafael Landívar University. In this interview, Velasco talks about
the origin and funding of the Development with Justice program.
How did the program start?
The German government wanted to help Guatemala in different ways: education, environment, others. In education they sought to build primary schools. The major problem is that the population doesn’t have access to higher education. Many can receive primary education but not university education. The cost of attending the national, public university is only 15 dollars a year, but the problem is transporting yourself from a rural area to here, as well as food and lodging. The Germans said, “We want to help the poor people. How can we do that?” They first thought about going through the national university, but they didn’t have the transparent channels to help, and if the Germans gave them the money it wouldn’t have made it to the poor people. So Rafael Landívar University talked with them and said that we have access to the indigenous population, but we don’t have buildings. We have a lot of scholarships where the student only pays half their costs, and the scholarship covers the rest, but not many full scholarships. So, we agreed to try this experiment with the Germans, and it’s something that doesn’t exist anywhere else in Latin America.
How does “justice” factor into the project?
The first phase of the project was called “Support for Regional Development,” and it didn’t have a justice component. With the second phase, the Germans said we have to support education and justice. There are a lot of problems with access to justice for the poor; for instance, many don’t have a lawyer. We want justice to be accessible for the poor, and there are multiple ways to make it accessible. You can support programs that will reach the poor, and poor students can enter areas of service, like law, that they can use later in their careers.
Where does the money for the Development with Justice scholarship program come from, and how has it been spent over the years?
The German bank, KfW [development bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau]. They have a fund, and we ask for money as we spend it. For the first phase of the program, from 2006 to 2011, we spent 6 million euros. For the second phase, from 2011 to 2016, we’ll spend 4 million euros. The third phase is going to be about 12 million. The first phase had so many costs because of all the infrastructure—the campuses, buildings, and classrooms—that we built.
How much does it cost for one scholarship recipient to attend the university?
There’s the cost of matriculation, of the studies, and then all the costs related to transport, like the housing, food, and transportation itself. The cost is not the same for every student, because they all have to go different distances. Transportation usually happens by bus or even boat, so it can vary a lot.
How do the scholarship students, living in rural areas, learn about the program?
That’s the biggest challenge we face: how to get the word out about our program. In some places we spread the word on the radio in the indigenous [people’s] native languages. Other times it’s up to the tutors in each location, and they use churches, or town centers, or other locations.
How do you have a dialogue between the leaders of the program, like you, and the scholarship recipients?
Once, monthly, we have meetings with the directors of all the regionals campuses, but we also go and talk to the scholarship recipients periodically. Also, at the start when the student enters the program, we talk to him or her.
What are the challenges for the future of the program?
The current scholarship recipients are communicators for the future. We’re going to see more students from the interior needing help, so the costs will rise. But also there’s a theme of charity; we’re not just looking at socioeconomic studies. For example, we went to visit a scholarship student who was very poor. We don’t want to just give that student more money. We don’t want him to have shame in being a scholarship recipient. We want to change the way he sees himself, so he doesn’t view himself as useless.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
This project is unique in Guatemala. While there are many studies that can tell you where the poverty is and how much access to education there is, there aren’t mechanisms to access higher education. The third stage of this program isn’t going to only be in Guatemala, KfW is also expanding to Honduras and El Salvador, so there will be three micro-regions in Latin America that are financed by the program.
The German government wanted to help Guatemala in different ways: education, environment, others. In education they sought to build primary schools. The major problem is that the population doesn’t have access to higher education. Many can receive primary education but not university education. The cost of attending the national, public university is only 15 dollars a year, but the problem is transporting yourself from a rural area to here, as well as food and lodging. The Germans said, “We want to help the poor people. How can we do that?” They first thought about going through the national university, but they didn’t have the transparent channels to help, and if the Germans gave them the money it wouldn’t have made it to the poor people. So Rafael Landívar University talked with them and said that we have access to the indigenous population, but we don’t have buildings. We have a lot of scholarships where the student only pays half their costs, and the scholarship covers the rest, but not many full scholarships. So, we agreed to try this experiment with the Germans, and it’s something that doesn’t exist anywhere else in Latin America.
How does “justice” factor into the project?
The first phase of the project was called “Support for Regional Development,” and it didn’t have a justice component. With the second phase, the Germans said we have to support education and justice. There are a lot of problems with access to justice for the poor; for instance, many don’t have a lawyer. We want justice to be accessible for the poor, and there are multiple ways to make it accessible. You can support programs that will reach the poor, and poor students can enter areas of service, like law, that they can use later in their careers.
Where does the money for the Development with Justice scholarship program come from, and how has it been spent over the years?
The German bank, KfW [development bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau]. They have a fund, and we ask for money as we spend it. For the first phase of the program, from 2006 to 2011, we spent 6 million euros. For the second phase, from 2011 to 2016, we’ll spend 4 million euros. The third phase is going to be about 12 million. The first phase had so many costs because of all the infrastructure—the campuses, buildings, and classrooms—that we built.
How much does it cost for one scholarship recipient to attend the university?
There’s the cost of matriculation, of the studies, and then all the costs related to transport, like the housing, food, and transportation itself. The cost is not the same for every student, because they all have to go different distances. Transportation usually happens by bus or even boat, so it can vary a lot.
How do the scholarship students, living in rural areas, learn about the program?
That’s the biggest challenge we face: how to get the word out about our program. In some places we spread the word on the radio in the indigenous [people’s] native languages. Other times it’s up to the tutors in each location, and they use churches, or town centers, or other locations.
How do you have a dialogue between the leaders of the program, like you, and the scholarship recipients?
Once, monthly, we have meetings with the directors of all the regionals campuses, but we also go and talk to the scholarship recipients periodically. Also, at the start when the student enters the program, we talk to him or her.
What are the challenges for the future of the program?
The current scholarship recipients are communicators for the future. We’re going to see more students from the interior needing help, so the costs will rise. But also there’s a theme of charity; we’re not just looking at socioeconomic studies. For example, we went to visit a scholarship student who was very poor. We don’t want to just give that student more money. We don’t want him to have shame in being a scholarship recipient. We want to change the way he sees himself, so he doesn’t view himself as useless.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
This project is unique in Guatemala. While there are many studies that can tell you where the poverty is and how much access to education there is, there aren’t mechanisms to access higher education. The third stage of this program isn’t going to only be in Guatemala, KfW is also expanding to Honduras and El Salvador, so there will be three micro-regions in Latin America that are financed by the program.
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