Yes. Global Shore connects one student with one sponsor only in the amount of $38/month. Teacher partners are part of a team of individuals supporting and praying for that teacher, to the amount of $300/month.

Yes! We encourage you to write to your sponsored student or teacher, but we ask that you only communicate with them via Global Shore Opportunities. Electronic communication is the most effective and will certainly make it to your sponsor student or partner teacher within the week! You can either write sponsorships@globalshore.org or fill out the online form above. Your note will be translated and passed along.

There is no mail system in Guatemala, so physical letters only reach our ministry location when we’re able to send them with a group from North America. It could be several months between mailing an item to our offices and its arrival in Guatemala, so we would encourage electronic communication through this form.

By signing up as a sponsor with us, please know that you are also agreeing to our policy that you will not communicate with your sponsor student outside of GSO. This includes, but is not limited to emailing, phone calls and social media. Please do not add your student (or any other student under the age of 18 in our school) on Facebook or Instagram or accept a request from them. It’s our responsibility to protect our students and we want to ensure that communication is done well, done right, and done with the best interests of the student in mind. Thank you for understanding.

We encourage sponsors to give gifts as appropriate. You can contact our Sponsorship Coordinator for culturally-appropriate gift ideas. We may also have ideas for specific family needs which could be met. In most cases, an online donation will allow us to purchase a gift in-country which can then be wrapped and given.

If you sponsor a student, you may give a gift to the student’s entire class instead of individual gifts. Not all of our students are sponsored and sometimes a whole-class party allows every student to celebrate. Depending on the donation amount, class gifts could range from a pizza party to a class set of books or a field trip.

We do not permit direct monetary gifts of any kind.

Yes! Sponsors and teacher partners are welcome to join us on a short-term trip. Some students regularly ask when their sponsor will come and visit, so it is very exciting for them when a sponsor can come! If you’re visiting Guatemala on your own, please feel free to contact us and we will gladly receive you at the school to introduce you to your student or teacher and give you a tour of the school and ministry.

Global Shore Opportunities works to provide quality, Christian education for students from kindergarten through to Grade 12. When your student graduates, you will be invited to attend their graduation and celebrate with them. Once a student graduates, though, they are no longer part of our sponsorship program. At that time, you will be offered another sponsorship opportunity either with another student, or with a teacher.

Since our sponsorship program is school-based rather than community-based (as other programs are), we see more students come and go as families move, students encounter difficulties or parents elect to move their child to another school. Sometimes, parents will not meet the requirements necessary for their student to remain enrolled at our school. When students are no longer registered in the program of CCAF, they are outside of the ministry scope of GSO and are no longer sponsored by our program.

When a sponsor student leaves our school program, you will be informed right away and offered another student sponsorship. (Only if we don’t hear from you will we automatically re-assign you to another student.)

When a sponsor student graduates, sponsors are invited to sponsor another student’s education, or to partner with a teacher. If we don’t hear from you by the start of the next academic year, a new sponsorship is automatically assigned.

Global Shore currently works in Guatemala and has offices in Canada and the United States.

Yes. Global Shore is a registered charity in Canada and the United States, and issues tax receipts for all donations within those countries. Tax receipts are mailed out February of the following year. We are not able to provide tax receipts for other countries.

GSO is not directly under a particular local church or under the umbrella of a denomination. The founders of GSO are committed Christians in their local faith communities. In Guatemala, we work closely with a local, apostolic church network called La Gloria Que Impacta, which is pastored by Jacobo & Julianna Pelaez.

Donations do not go directly to sponsor students. Instead, monthly donations combine with the support of other sponsors and donors to fund the operational costs of the school. We believe this is the most sustainable way to provide long-lasting educational support to our students. Students are enrolled through a scholarship system that your contribution makes possible. Parents pay a very small tuition that is adjusted according to their economic means.