“In the past, children were killed because they had education. But if everything goes well these children will be the future leaders in Guatemala,” said Steven Dudenhoefer, founder of Ak’ Tenamit, a voluntary organisation pioneering a new educational approach for Mayans.

Sitting by the gently flowing River Dulce in east Guatemala surrounded by dense jungle, it is hard to believe the country is just emerging from over 30 years of civil war which cost 200,000 lives - 87 per cent of them indigenous Mayan people. At the time paramilitaries equated education and progress among Mayans with communism.

The 1996 peace accord recognises the rights of the Mayan majority but inequality persists and the peace is fragile.

The project works mainly with the Q’eqchi, the majority Mayan people, who used to produce coffee but were forced off their former land by war. They sought safety in the mountains and rainforests by the Dulce. The money that flowed in for rebuilding Guatemala by-passed this part of the country.

Despite official lip-service to native people’s rights, Ak’ Tenamit is forced to survive on voluntary donations from America.

At first, it tried to work with adults but found too many had been conditioned into apathy by years of conflict and fear that their land could be taken away at any moment.

“The kids have not lived through those times and so are much more open,” Mr Dudenhoefer said.

Ak’ Tenamit has grown from nothing in 1992 to an organisation with 80 staff and 20 international volunteers serving 9,000 people from 50 villages. Its school has 230 day pupils and 40 boarders.

The project works on healthcare, sustainable development and gender issues as well as education.

To make teaching more relevant it has introduced a radically different type of schooling developed by professors in Columbia.

The philosophy is that children learn about issues central to improving their lives, such as basic sanitation, healthcare and agricultural methods which include ways to save rainforests. They then have to take back what they learn to their community. Boarders spend one week a month back in their village practising the techniques they have learned on the school allotment.

This is vital because the pupils’ parents have continued to use environmentally damaging farming methods. They overexploit the growing of corn, for example, causing soil deterioration.

The classrooms are enormous and round, so that they can cater for either a normal class of 25 or meetings of up to 100 villagers. “The circular classroom aids the teamwork philosophy,” said Manuel Xo Cu, head of the teaching programme. “The teacher is more of a guide in the class, and the students work for the most part in groups.”

Villagers have built the school themselves, getting a credit of 20 quetzales (pound;2) per day which they can use to pay for items from the local clinic, such as antibiotics.

The result is that barefoot Q’eqchi children are able to study to masters level in their village, while helping their community.

“In the future they will be able to work in their village or with non- governmental organisations and have more rewarding employment,” said Dudenhoefer. “We want them to be rewarded financially and spiritually.”

Analysis, 24, 25 Further information at www.aktenamit.org or email info@guatfund.org