Welcome

Welcome to the Clinic Link blog.  Clinic Link is a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization (IRS Determination Letter), whose central activity is to create a free website devoted to improving the health potential of the Guatemalan people.  The site will contain tools to help traveling medical missions, Guatemalan NGO’s, and development groups to work better, together.

While the site is being designed and built, feel free to browse the tags to the right, or the categories to the left, and explore topics that relate to the Guatemalan way of life.

Volunteer Opportunity: Common Hope

Common Hope 50 50Long-Term Volunteers Needed

Common Hope is currently seeking five full-time, long-term volunteers to support our programs in Guatemala. The following positions are yearlong commitments:

  • Vision Team Coordinator (2 positions, March start date)
  • Speech Therapist (March start date)
  • Housing Volunteer (March start date)
  • Volunteer Physician (June start date)

For more information or to apply, visit their website.

Urgent Need: A Family in Crisis

MF LogoOur friends at Mayan Families are trying to help a hard-working family in the Panajachel area get back on its feet.  Please read on about the family’s needs, and either click on the “Contact Us” button above, or use the email address below if you have any ideas.

Leonel Culan is 37 years old. On December 3rd while he was working as a builder’s assistant he fell 3 meters off a rock wall. His life changed forever and he became a parapalegic. Leonel is in the hospital in Solola. He is depressed about his own situation and terribly worried about how his family will survive. He lives in San Lucas Toliman and has seven children. His wife is Marta Elisa, 33yrs old. She did not have the chance to go to school and does not know how to read or write. She washes clothes by hand in private houses and earns $8 US per week when she can get the work. The money that the family is now earning is not enough for them to cover their costs. Often they have to go into the mountains and find herbs to eat. Their main diet now is tortillas with salt.

They own the house they live in. It is in very bad shape. They have one room made of cement block. They have one dilapidated kitchen made of tin. They pay $7 US per month for electricity.  They do not have water connected and have to go to the lake to bring drinking water and wash their clothes. The lake is now suffering pollution and people are advised not to drink from it but this family cannot afford to buy drinking water. They do not have an onil stove. They cook over a wood burning stove. They have two chairs. They have one table. They have two beds but it is a hard plank bed that does not have a mattress. The other bed is a wire base but they do not have any mattress. They do not have drainage. They have not been able to afford to connect the water or to buy a pila, which is a 2 sided sink and an essential part of a Guatemalan household.

The father will be released from the hospital shortly and his situation is very desperate. The family does not have enough to eat. The living conditions are very unsanitary. They need beds, food, clothing, the floor needs cementing, they need the water connected and they need to have a water filter. The father will need medical support if he is going to be able to survive with the care that he will receive at home. This family was living very hand to mouth before this accident but now their situation is very, very difficult. If anyone can help with any of these needs for this family, it would be a huge blessing for them.

If you have any suggestions for this family, please contact Sharon Smart-Poage at Sharon@MayanFamilies.org.

Newsletter: Common Hope

Common Hope black_heartOur friends at Common Hope have issued their February newsletter.  In addition to the excerpts below, you can click here to read the current and past newsletters.

Students begin 2010 school year:  The 2010 school year has begun in Guatemala, and more than 2,700 affiliated students were ready to go with all of the necessary supplies on their first day, thanks to your support.  In one day alone, nearly 1,400 students and their families visited the Antigua site to pick up their school supplies…

Future electrician needs a Sponsor:  Sponsoring an older student can be a nice way to support a student with a shorter time commitment. Sixteen-year- old César Martínez has three years left of high school, where he is studying to become an electrician. César lives near Antigua with his mother, father, and two older sisters…

Target visits Antigua site:  Staff from Target Sourcing Services in Guatemala City visited the Antigua preschool last Thursday to put on a day of fun with the children.  The group brought two piñatas, snacks, and backpacks for all the kids…

Vision Team members in their own words:  Several Vision Team members who recently traveled to Guatemala have posted reflections about their experience on Common Hope’s blog…

Hats, mittens, and scarves needed:  Our February need of the month is hats, mittens, and scarves. Living in the highlands of Guatemala in homes made of cornstalk and scrap metal, families can get very cold at night…

To read more about Common Hope, please visit their website.

Profile: Student Association for International Water Issues

saiwiThe Student Association for International Water Issues, or SAIWI is a student organization at the University of Nevada, Reno, whose mission is to develop an understanding of global water issues and promote community empowerment through education and water resources development in developing countries.

SAIWI’s mission is to develop an understanding of global water issues and promote community empowerment through education and water resources development in developing countries. SAIWI seeks to provide a forum that fosters communication, enhances the dissemination of related information, and encourages the proper development of water resources primarily in underprivileged, developing nations where a great need exists for potable water supplies.

With members coming from a variety of disciplines, including a nationally recognized Graduate program of Hydrologic Sciences, at the University of Nevada, Reno, SAIWI students have outstanding skills in the exploration for and development of water resources. SAIWI partners with on-going projects in developing countries, providing skilled, motivated students to help accomplish project objectives and to gain valuable experience and knowledge of water-related issues. A tremendous amount of energy and enthusiasm supports SAIWIs continued involvement in on-going, mutually beneficial water development projects. To accomplish these goals, SAIWI is continuously fundraising (grants, benefits, donations) to support student travel and equipment expenses.

SAIWI’s Objectives: Organize, sponsor, and maintain an active colloquia related to water resource issues in developing countries. Offer a networking environment for students, scientists, and professionals that share an interest in international water issues. Provide members with a hands-on, overseas experience working with local communities on water-related projects. Encourage students to share and discuss overseas experiences with SAIWI members and the surrounding community.

Latest trip – Guatemala: A group of 8 students and 2 faculty advisors traveled to 4 villages throughout their 18 day stay. In Liquidambo, San Antonio, and El Morrito the group worked with Strong Tower Ministries to deepen a well for the clinic and volunteer group housing facility, lay a foundation for a rain catchment tank, and install a rain water catchment system on a school. In the last village, Lupina, the group installed rainwater catchment systems on 7 houses for families who were determined by the community to be the most in need, 4 churches, and 2 schools. The group also held a workshop for 80-100 villagers to teach them how to install their own rainwater catchment systems. Donations from Reno residents funded the purchase of 28 rainwater catchment tanks and installation kits.  To read more details about their trip to Guatemala, please view this trip report.

To learn more about SAIWI, please visit their website.

Article: Honduras Women Murders Rise, Worrying

The following excerpt is from a March 9, 2010 article published by Inside Costa Rica.  To read the article in its entirety, please click here.  (Emphasis Added)

TEGUCIGALPA – Increase of violence is nowadays women’s main worry in Honduras, where more than 400 were killed in 2009 and most of those responsible remain unpunished.

That figure places this country as second, regarding the number of homicides in that social sector, following Guatemala, with 700 cases, according to data published on Monday on the occasion of the International Women’s Day.

We think that the situation of violence is serious, and we have started this year really bad in that reference, Visitacion Padilla Women for Peace Movement National Coordinator Gladys Lanza told press…

Click here to read the rest of the article, or here to read more articles about Health & Safety in Guatemala.

Article: Guatemala’s Sugar Exports to Mexico Surges

The following excerpt is from a March 9, 2010 article published by Commodity Online.  Click here to read the article in its entirety.

GUATEMALA CITY (Commodity Online) : Central American republic of Guatemala said its sugar exports to neighbor Mexico surged to close to 200,000 metric tons this fiscal.

According to Guatemalan Sugar Growers Association, this compares to last year where Guatemala didn’t export one single ton of sugar to Mexico from the 2008-09 harvest.

The surge in Guatemalan sugar shipments to Mexico comes as Mexico’s 2009-10 harvest has fallen behind the year-ago pace by more than 15%, widening the local supply shortage created by Mexico’s harvest last year that also ended sharply below expectations…

Click here to read the rest of the article, or here to read more articles related to the Guatamalan economy.

Profile: Thirteen Threads (Oxlajuj B’atz)

oxlajuj batzThirteen Threads (Oxlajuj B’atz’) provides training and educational opportunities to Maya women’s groups throughout rural areas of Guatemala. More than 400 women in 22 groups currently participate in the project.  They organize workshops, classes, and community follow-ups, as well as host two interns per year through their Young Mayan Women Internship Program

What does the name, Oxlajuj B’atz’, stand for?  Oxlajuj means thirteen in K’achikel, and is symbolized by three dots above two horizontal bars.  The number 13 is very significant to the Mayas.  The ancient Mayan Calendar system has 13 moons (or months) and is divided into 13-year cycles.  B’atz’ is the first day of the Mayan Calendar.  It is the day of the beginning of life, of mother earth, of women and all of nature.  Batz is the weaver of history. It represents the umbilical cord between Humanity and Earth. B’atz also symbolizes the life of a human being until the thread is cut.  Thus, it is the thread of life.  Together Oxlajuj B’atz’ means Thirteen Threads.

Their programs are concentrated in the following four areas:

Artisan Skills: Thirteen Threads provides opportunities for women to learn new skills and improve upon those that they already possess with the goal of developing more work opportunities, better income-earning potential and greater access to local and global market.

Examples of workshops:

  • Sewing classes and machine embroidery
  • Natural dying of threads
  • Soap-making
  • Pine needle basketry
  • Rug-hooking using recycled materials
  • Candle-making

Health and Well-Being: Thirteen Threads offers workshops and resources on preventative health measures so that members can improve their own health and that of their families.

Examples of workshops and projects include:

  • Nutrition
  • Potable water project using Eco-filters
  • Women’s reproductive and general health (e.g. cervical exams, eye exams)
  • Ergonomic bench project for weavers
  • First aid and natural disaster preparedness
  • Medicinal plant and herb gardens
  • Production of natural soaps & shampoos

Democracy and Group Organization: Thirteen Threads promotes participatory processes and team-building, empowering women to become more active in their groups, as well as in their families and communities.

Examples of workshops include:

  • Self-esteem and leadership
  • Conflict resolution and peace-building
  • Gender issues and women’s rights
  • Group agreements and working in groups
  • Forming & strengthening Boards of Directors

Small Business Skills: Courses provide basic business and administration skills to oversee personal finances and to promote the sustainability and self-management of the groups.

Examples of workshops include:

  • Marketing and production processes
  • Accounting and price calculations
  • The buying process
  • Group administration and funding
  • Micro-credit lending

To learn more about this group, please visit their website, Facebook page, or Twitter page.

Profile: Asturias Academy

asturiasThe mis­sion of Miguel Angel Astu­rias Aca­demy is to improve living stan­dards in Gua­te­mala by crea­ting infor­med, cri­ti­cally thin­king, socially cons­cious citi­zens, empo­we­red to live lives of their choo­sing and enga­ged as lea­ders in their com­mu­ni­ties. In a country where schoo­ling means rote lear­ning, overcrowding, and lack of access to relia­ble infor­ma­tion, the Astu­rias Aca­demy is dedi­ca­ted to making edu­ca­tion a vehicle for per­so­nal free­dom and social jus­tice. They strive to bring their trans­for­ma­tive model first and fore­most to chil­dren from the most vul­ne­ra­ble sec­tors of society, pla­cing spe­cial empha­sis upon poor, female, and indi­ge­nous children.

It is the vision of Astu­rias Aca­demy to be the model and the vehicle through which Guatemala’s edu­ca­tion sys­tem is trans­for­med so that all children:

  • have access to a qua­lity, cul­tu­rally rele­vant education;
  • lead dig­ni­fied lives; and
  • engage the social, eco­no­mic, and poli­ti­cal pro­blems con­fron­ting their com­mu­ni­ties and country.

Miguel Angel Astu­rias Aca­demy is not just a school—it is a social move­ment that is trans­for­ming Gua­te­mala.  Aca­demy foun­ders, teachers, stu­dents and parents are acti­vely wor­king to build a bet­ter world—one where human rights are res­pec­ted, fami­lies are finan­cially secure, and chil­dren look for­ward to a hope­ful future. They are a non-profit school that ope­ned in 1994 to address Guatemala’s edu­ca­tio­nal cri­sis. Loca­ted in Que­tzal­te­nango, Gua­te­mala, the Aca­demy ser­ves more than 250 stu­dents from preschool to 12th grade, pla­cing spe­cial empha­sis on crea­ting options for poor, female, and indi­ge­nous chil­dren.  Roughly 300 Preschool-12th grade stu­dents study at the Aca­demy.  Their stu­dents are boys and girls, indi­ge­nous and non-indigenous, poor, wor­king class and middle class.  Appro­xi­ma­tely one-third receive a full or par­tial scholarship—a num­ber that they would like to inc­rease as time goes on.

His­to­ri­cally, indi­ge­nous peo­ple within Gua­te­mala have been deeply disc­ri­mi­na­ted against.  This disc­ri­mi­na­tion has ran­ged from bias against Mayan lan­gua­ges, to unfair hiring prac­ti­ces, to mas­sac­res in indi­ge­nous villages. The Astu­rias Aca­demy is a school com­mit­ted to jus­tice, where all stu­dents can come to learn whether they are indi­ge­nous or not. They are one of few schools that acti­vely pro­mo­tes equa­lity amongst their indi­ge­nous and non-indigenous stu­dents.  They give their stu­dents the option of wea­ring tra­di­tio­nal Mayan clothing as their uni­form.  They teach K’iche, an indi­ge­nous lan­guage, as part of their curri­cu­lum.  They have cul­tu­ral exchange days where stu­dents can share their cul­ture with each other. In addi­tion, they incor­po­rate prac­ti­ces into their school day that pro­mote equa­lity.  The daily class­room gree­ting their stu­dents use is in three lan­gua­ges: Spa­nish, K’iche and English. Through these dif­fe­rent stra­te­gies they work towards a society where all Gua­te­ma­lans are able to live in harmony.

To learn more about Asturias Academy, please visit their website.

Profile: The MIT Mobility Lab

mit mobilityThe mission of the MIT Mobility Lab (M-Lab) is to fill a niche in the mobility aid community; NGOs and manufacturers in developing countries often do not have the time, resources, and skills to develop high-risk/high-payoff projects that would make drastic improvements to mobility products and the lives of disabled people. By collaborating with local manufacturers and experts from the developed world, M-Lab students use their ingenuity and science/engineering skills to produce technology that can mobilize millions of disabled persons worldwide. Furthermore, M-Lab programs teach MIT students how their technological abilities can be used to improve the lives of others.
 
Leveraged Freedom Chair:  The purpose of the Leveraged Freedom Chair (LFC) project is to create a mobility aid specifically for developing countries. Conventional western-styled wheelchairs are nearly impossible to propel on the sandy roads and muddy walking paths frequently encountered in the developing world. The LFC has a variable mechanical advantage lever drive train that enables its user to travel 10-20% faster on tarmac than a conventional wheelchair, and off road like no other mobility aid available. The user effectively changes gears by simply moving his hands on the levers; grasping high increases torque while grasping low increases angular velocity. Human upper body force and power outputs were used to optimize the drive train geometry for optimal performance on a wide range of terrains. All moving parts on the LFC are made from bicycle components, making the chair manufacturable and repairable anywhere in the developing world.
 
Amos Winter, the chair’s chief designer, hopes to get his lever-powered wheelchair patented and produced in substantial numbers – priced at about $200 each – within two years. He plans to test 30 more in Guatemala this summer, thanks to a $50,000 grant from the Inter-American Development Bank, and then conduct wider tests in India.  To read more about this project, please click here for a March 8, 2010 article published by The Boston Globe online edition.
 
Other Projects Being Developed by the Mobility Lab:

  • Worldwide Mobility: Currently led by Danielle DeLatte, this donation network was inspired by the great need for funding. There are excellent wheelchair workshops in East Africa with long lists of people on their waiting lists. These wheelchair workshops lack funding, but provide better quality wheelchairs to their clients than the wheelchairs currently being imported and donated. The local wheelchair workshops have modified their chairs in response to the rougher terrain. By using locally made parts, these workshops’ products have replaceable components and can be fixed locally. If you are interested in donating to this project, please contact Danielle at mlab-web <at> mit <dot> edu.
  • Business Wheelchair:  Tish Scolnik originated the project, even taking the project abroad, working with partners at the Kilimanjaro Association for the Spinally Injured (KASI).  In spring 2009, a new team led by Tish and made up of Bina Choi, Leah Hokanson, Chris Mills, Vicky Thomas, and Joseph Wallins continued her earlier work. They focused on three aspects of the multifaceted problem: an attachable stool to increase business opportunities, improving the attachable table model, and detailing the logistics of microfinance.  The team worked with a community partner from Uganda, Fatuma Acan, to improve the design and feasibility.
  • Tricycle Attachment:  Wheelchairs are an excellent mobility device for within buildings. Unfortunately, it is difficult to travel over long distances using just a wheelchair. Because of this drawback, the tricycle is the wheelchair of choice in developing countries, where the ability to work is paramount. The creation of a tricycle attachment allows for travel over both short and long distances.
  • Power Tricycle:  This Powertrike group is working with the Association of the Physically Disabled of Kenya (APDK) to modify their tricycle wheelchair to be able to have a power assist.  This is a design that APDK is very excited about having. It has the potential to be useful to trike users in Kenya and other countries as it would allow users who need to travel long distances a means of having the ability to move more quickly and not have to rely solely upon their body power.  Having the ability to use a power assist on their trike could also allow users to be able to operate a small business with their trike such as a delivery service.
  • The Figure-Eight Drive is an implementation of a Retro-direct bicycle drive train on a hand-powered tricycle. It provides tricycle users with a reliable two geared system. Users can switch between the two gears by changing the direction of their pedaling, with both directions resulting in forward propulsion. Pedaling in the standard forwards direction provides users with an approximately 1:2.25 cruising gear, while pedaling in the reverse direction allows users to climb and maneuver easily with a 1:1 gear ratio. The tricycle can freewheel in the forwards direction, though no backwards movement is allowed. The steering column can be rotated 180 degrees, allowing one to ambulate and freewheel in reverse.

To read more about the innovative projects that the MIT Mobility Lab is working on, please visit their website.

Newsletter: As Green As It Gets

agaigOur friends at As Green As It Gets published some great articles in its February newsletter.  See the excerpts below, and click here to read the entire thing!

Our Lendees Are Now Lenders: The coffee farmers have historically been the biggest recipient of our small business loans. Some of the more established farmers have reached a point where they are financially stable enough to be lenders. The farmers’ collective loaned cash to the community to create 18 new home stays in San Miguel Escobar. This started with seed money from As Green As It Gets, but is now managed and financed entirely by the community…

Effort Beyond Charity:  Two of our girls were exhausted—the desperate screaming of chickens being plucked had awoken them at 5 a.m. Another had biting ants swarm up her pant leg. The blisters I got from the machetes and hoes were bleeding freely. All in all, we found out very quickly that life at Columbia had not necessarily prepared us for the hard existence of the coffee farmers of Guatemala. However, according to Timoteo Minas, one of our host farmers from our eight-day trip this winter break, coffee farmers are far better off now than they were five years ago, when they began working with As Green As It Gets…

Addressing the Link Between Poverty and Deforestation:  Deep in the middle of the Guatemalan jungle is the Ixcan community – displaced by the army during the civil war, neglected by the government and forgotten by society. Taming the forest is the only way that they have been able to survive. They have already lost 1,200 hectares of rainforest to slash and burn agriculture. Without your help they will lose the remaining part of their rainforest in 10 years…

Click here to read the rest of the February newsletter.

Article: Top Central American Climber to Scale Yushan

The following excerpt is from a March 6, 2010 article published by The China Post.  To read the article in its entirety, please click here.

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Jaime Vinals Massanet, the first Central American mountaineer to have reached the world’s seven summits, is in Taiwan to scale the island’s highest peak, Yushan (Jade Mountain), a national park source said yesterday.

Vinals, 49, a Guatemalan national, is scheduled to scale 3,952-meter Yushan on March 7-8, said Chen Lung-sheng, head of the Yushan National Park Administration (YNPA).

Vinals, the first Central American ever to climb the world’s highest peak, Mt. Everest, was invited by Taiwan to drum up publicity for Yushan, which has been nominated as one of 28 candidates in a worldwide contest to choose the Seven Wonders of Nature on the planet…

Click here to read the rest of the article, or here to read more articles related to Guatemalan culture.

Article: UN and Partners Seek $34 Million to Assist Drought-Stricken Guatemalans

The following excerpt is from a March 5, 2010 article published by the UN News Centre.  Click here to read the article in its entirety.

5 March 2010 – The United Nations, together with the Guatemalan Government and aid partners, today launched a $34 million appeal to counter food shortages affecting 2.7 million people living in the Central American country’s so-called ‘dry corridor,’ which even before last year’s drought had one of the highest rates of chronic malnutrition in the world.The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said today’s appeal will complement national relief efforts and provide support for food, health, nutrition, agriculture and early recovery, as well as water, sanitation and hygiene projects for six months for some 680,000 people living in departments in the eastern section of the country, including the dry corridor – Jutiapa, Santa Rosa, Zacapa, Chiquimula, El Progreso and Baja Verapaz – and the neighbouring Izabal and Quiché.

Global acute malnutrition among children under the age of five in the dry corridor and the two neighbouring provinces is at 11 per cent, and at 13 per cent among women of child-bearing age. Both figures are above the emergency threshold of 10 per cent.

Click here to read the rest of the article, or here to read more articles related to the Food Crisis.

Article: Pappa’s Goal Helps Guatemala Beat El Salvador 2-1

The following excerpt is from a March 4, 2010 article published by SF Gate.  To read the article in its entirety, please click here.

Marco Pappa scored to help Guatemala beat El Salvador 2-1 Wednesday night in an exhibition.  Jhony Brown also scored for Guatemala, which hasn’t lost to its neighbor in nine years.

Pappa, who plays for the Chicago Fire in MLS, scored from 31 yards out in the 45th minute after El Salvador struggled to clear the ball off its back line…

Click here to read the rest of the article, or here to read more articles about Guatemalan culture.

Article: Off Track for Millennium Development Goals

This article has been excerpted from the Inter Press Service News Agency (IPS) on March 3, 2010.  To read the full piece, please click here.

GUATEMALA CITY, Mar 3, 2010 (IPS) – Guatemala knows that when it comes time to demonstrate compliance with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of global anti-poverty and development target to be met by 2015, it will make a poor showing.

Along with the rest of the world’s governments, authorities in this impoverished Central American nation committed themselves at the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000 to halve the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015, from 1990 levels.

In 1989, 20 percent of the Guatemalan population was living in extreme poverty. At the start of this century, the MDG poverty goal appeared to be within reach, because by 2000 absolute poverty had been reduced to 16 percent of the population, which currently stands at 13 million people.

But by 2004, the extreme poverty rate had risen again, to an even higher level than in 1989: 21.5 percent, according to the Secretariat of Planning and Programming’s latest report on progress towards the MDGs, drawn up in 2006.

And things have only gotten worse since then, with the knock-on effects of the global economic crisis that originated in the United States in 2008.

A 2009 report by the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) reported the drop in remittances sent home by migrant workers abroad and the rise in unemployment and of Guatemalans deported from the United States, among the impacts of the crisis in this country.

To read the rest of this article, please follow this link.

To read other education articles on Clinic Link, click here.

Project Updates: Water Charity

Water CharityLast September, we published a profile of a great organization called Water Charity.  Now, we would like to update you with Water Charity’s most current projects in Guatemala:

Coxjac School Latrine Project: This is a project to construct three latrines for a school system in rural Guatemala. The process will also incorporate lessons involving the environment and waste management, hygiene and sanitation, and construction techniques and teamwork.   The project is being carried out in Coxjac, Totonicapan, Guatemala, under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteer Casey Kittredge.

The latrines will be used by three groups of students who use the school (elementary, middle school and a weekend middle school program) for a total of 240 students and 12 teachers. The current bathrooms have been deemed unsanitary by the Department of Health due to their proximity to the area where the atol, the morning snack, is prepared for the elementary students.

La Cruz Water Project: This project is to build a 1200 liter rainwater catchment tank, with an accompanying hand washing station, at an elementary school in La Cruz, Cajola, Quetzaltenango. The tank will hold a 2-week supply of water for the 285 students that attend the school.  The Escuela Oficial Rural Mixta has little access to water, consisting of a small chorro that receives water once a week for an hour. The young students currently bring water in 2-liter bottles from their homes or the local stream to school in order to sustain the water supply.

Water Charity is pleased to be participating with other NGOs in this project, and their funds will go for skilled labor and materials. The community and parents from the school are contributing additional labor, and will maintain the tank and pipes upon completion.

Santa Apolonia Composting Latrines Project: This is a project to build composting latrines in Santa Apolonia, Chimaltenango. It is being carried out under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteer Ellen Ostrow.   In the municipality of Santa Apolonia, Ellen works with two rural agricultural communities, Chuaparal—an indigenous population—and Cojulya—a primarily Ladino population. Over half of the 47 families in the two groups do not have latrines. For those that do, the latrines, which often serve for more than one family, are in poor condition and do little to aid fecal control.

The communities are plagued by chronic diarrhea and other gastrointestinal diseases. The groups have requested a community latrine project, which will benefit a combined 300 men, women, and children.

Ellen is part of the Rural Home Preventive Health project, Peace Corps Guatemala. Volunteers are partnered with local health centers in various municipalities. Each health center reports to departmental level health centers which then report to the ministry of health.

Julio Verne School Project of Melanie Reda: Melanie Reda is a Peace Corps Volunteer, working in Aldea Saquiya, Municipio of Patzún, Chimaltenango. She is undertaking a project to construct a water deposit, and install eight faucets and three flushable toilets at the Julio Verne Elementary School.

Kristen Petros’s Water Tank Project: Kristen Petros is a Peace Corps Volunteer living near Patulup, El Quiche’. The local elementary school has 65 students, from pre-primary through sixth grade.  The school receives no water during daytime hours. Water is needed for drinking, food preparation, hand washing, and cleaning.

Katie Bovitz, Volunteer in Paraje El Zapote: Katie Bovitz is a Peace Corps Volunteer, serving in Paraje El Zapote, Pachilip in the Municipality of Joyabaj, Department of Quiche. She is serving under a 9 month extension to her original Peace Corps commitment of two years.   Katie will be leaving Guatemala in April, and asked if Water Charity could fund a last project she wanted to do before she left. After reviewing her proposal, they committed to the project, within her timetable. They told her to start acquiring the materials, as the funds are on their way.

In 2008, Katie raised money to build a two-room elementary schoolhouse in the village of El Zapote. The school is currently under construction and is scheduled to be finished by the end of April. She needed the funds for the latrines and hand washing station for the school.

Lenny’s “Pilas” Project: Peace Corps Volunteer Lenny Van Boven, serving in Chicocox, Quiche Guatemala is leading a project, involving extensive community participation, to provide sinks for use by 86 people.

Ventilated Latrines for the Village Of Chuisac: Katie McKenna, a Peace Corp volunteer, contacted Water Charity with a wonderful project in which she would work together with the villagers themselves and a local NGO with which she had previously partnered. In short, Water Charity decided to fund the building of latrines for the entire village of Chuisac in Chimaltenango.   The project will be done in stages, with the first 20% already in motion.

Sonte School Project:  The community of Sonte is located next to the major road running north through Alta Verapaz. It is easily accessible, and close to a major city. It is very poor and consists mostly of peasant farmers.   A hand washing station will be built at the elementary school of the community.   This project will be carried out by the teachers of the school and Peace Corps volunteer Dave Bowker, working together with community and local government.  The school has recently received electricity, which will be used to power the pump.

Corozal School Project:  Corozal is a small rural village in Alta Verapaz that is surrounded by tropical jungle. There is no electricity available, but the community does have a system of pipes that delivers water to about 50% of the houses and the school from a nearby spring.   The project is to build a hand washing station for the school. It will consist of 8 faucets, sufficient to support the school’s growing population. All pipes inside the cement and running to the faucets will be galvanized steel and the cement itself will be reinforced with rebar, making the project very durable.

To learn more about Water Charity, please visit their website.

Profile: Lemonade International

lemonade internationalThere is an estimated 60,000 – 100,000 people living in La Limonada, and urban slum community built into a ravine that runs through Guatemala City.  It was established in the late 1950’s by people who fled other areas of the country for various reasons.  People settled there and built homes in the ravine because they had nowhere else to live.  Many of the families live with no running water or electricity.  The geographic location of the community and the sub-culture of extreme poverty have produced a lack of education and job opportunities, spiritual darkness and unsustainable living conditions.

Lemonade International is devoted to being a physical presence of God’s love and the life of Jesus in La Limonada by:

  • Providing children with hope for a better future through child sponsorship;
  • Equipping and sending international workers for short-term and long-term missions;
  • Providing humanitarian relief in situations where food, clothing and shelter are needed to restore people’s lives; and
  • Transforming neighborhoods through community development, micro-lending and church planting.

Since 2001, Tita Evertsz, Lemonade International’s Guatemalan Director, along with more than 20 teachers have devoted their lives to the children at two schools in La Limonada.  Escuelita Limón was the first school established in La Limonada with a small group of young children.  More recently, a building was purchased to begin a second school, Escuelita Mandarina in a neighboring barrio in La Limonada.  Both schools have morning and afternoon sessions to accommodate the growing number of children being reached and to create a schedule where they are able to attend formal public schools in Guatemala City.

To learn more about Lemonade International, and how you can help them achieve their goals, please visit their website.

Article: The Tipping Point in Guatemala

The following excerpt is from a March 3, 2010 article published by Relief Web.  To read the article in its entirety, click here.

Siriaco Mejia is an optimist. His friend Gloria Gonzalez says he is always smiling, even when he is in trouble. He just has a positive outlook.

But even Mejia was unable to put a favorable spin on his situation at harvest time in late 2009: after he’d planted his corn and beans in his field high above the languid Chixoy River, now flowing at a very low level, his crops had failed, owing to lack of rain. Most years he can grow 22 quintales (about 2,200 pounds) of corn. This year, Mejia says he got about a tenth of that.

“We could see the corn cobs, but when we opened them up, many were totally empty,” Mejia says, standing in his field. “We got almost nothing this year.”

This food shortage is occurring in a country of luxurious green that exports millions in sugar cane, pineapples, bananas, and coffee. Despite this abundance, poor Guatemalans, who are mostly indigenous Maya people, regularly face chronic food shortages. There is plenty of food in stores, but poor people can’t afford it.

Since the Spanish colonization of Central America, indigenous Maya people have been systematically moved off the most productive farmlands to arid areas and steep hillsides. In Mejia’s case, his community and several others were originally in the Chixoy River valley but were involuntarily relocated in the 1980s to make way for a hydroelectric dam. Most of the flattest, best land is used to grow export crops like coffee and sugar cane and, more recently, biofuel crops…

Click here to read the rest of the article, or here to read more articles about the Food Crisis.

Article: 6,000 Plastic Bottles + Some Dedicated Villagers = New Schoolhouse in Guatemala

The following excerpt is from a January 28, 2010 article published by Planet Green.  To read the article in its entirety, please click here.

You’d never know it just from looking, but the new bright orange schoolhouse in Granados, Guatemala has walls built with used plastic bottles—and so much other plastic waste that the team who built it had to go to neighboring villages to collect waste because they used up all the trash in their own.

Peace Corps volunteer Laura Kutner was inspired to start the project because of the plastic trash that she noticed everywhere in Guatemala, and because schools had classrooms with no walls. So she borrowed the idea of using bottles as a construction material from Pura Vida, and with materials and labor from local businesses as well as help from Hug it Forward, they set to work…

Click here to read the rest of the article, or here to read more articles related to the environment, or here to read more articles related to education.

Profile: Caputo Children’s Fund

caputoDr. Salvatore Caputo, Executive Director of Caputo Children´s Fund, traveled to Central & South America, Africa, Brazil and Philippines for work duties in 1968 to 2002. While there, he and his wife helped at residential facilities for adults with physical challenges, homeless elderly people and street children. In 1968, the first time he visited Guatemala, he was astonished to see so many street children besieged to survive, and sleeping on sidewalks.  To reduce their desperation and hunger, they become inhalant addicts, sniffing industrial solvents.

So touched by such conditions, he and his wife created a Non Profit Organization, the CAPUTO CHILDREN´S FUND, that is committed to improve the lives of the poorest of the poor, the marginalized and the oppressed in Africa and Guatemala. Their mandate is building better communities through compassion, love and assistance. They assist individuals, especially street children, and families to empower themselves to become self-sufficient by providing education, health care and financial assistance when they can.

CAPUTO CHILDREN´S FUND Is an International Charitable and Social Welfare Entity, nonprofit, apolitical, non-religious and independent Non Governmental Organization (NGO), dedicated to provide humanitarian assistance to people with extreme poverty and where inevitability necessity of food, education, literacy, health and sanitation, human development, and all sorts of needs without regard to race, religion or national origin. The primary objective is to aid starving children. They operate from Guatemala City.

CAPUTO CHILDREN´S FUND is not affiliated with or associated with any other health or human service agency.  Its goals and objectives are to help people in the following distinctions:

  • Neglected children known as the street children;
  • Abandoned seniors;
  • People with low incomes or in poverty;
  • All kinds of people who suffer from the effects left by the armed conflict in Guatemala;
  • People who suffer from interdiction of alkaloids, drugs and alcohol;
  • Promote a culture of continuous evaluation of education programs within and outside the Republic of Guatemala;
  • Giving certainty to the distribution of aid all people in extreme need;
  • Promoting systematic process of education at all educational levels; and
  • Establish cooperative relationships with related international organizations to receive contributions, gifts in kind and cash, collaboration, cooperation and assistance necessary for the proper functioning of the association, to integrate a system of accreditation and recognition of these activities.

To learn more about Caputo, please visit their website.

Volunteer Opportunity: Life of Hope

lifeofhopeLife of Hope Ministries regularly organizes and hosts short term mission groups to Guatemala.  Their organization has several field partners who serve in and around Guatemala City, Guatemala.  Because the mission statement of Life of Hope Ministries identifies their focus to be on street children and children at high risk, their efforts are located in the poorest areas of the city and surrounding communities.  The children they serve do not have access to preventative or basic health care except through the efforts of our field partners.  Life of Hope has exposure to 600-700 children on a weekly basis and hundreds of families.
 
Life of Hope Ministries is seeking medical teams and general service teams to serve in Guatemala on 7-10 day trips.  They will assist in logistical planning and scheduling of the trips. They will host the groups while on the ground to increase the effectiveness and safety of the trip.
 
For additional information you may view their website: www.lifeofhope.org, email:info@lifeofhope.org, or phone toll free-1-888-745-4705.

Profile: Life of Hope

lifeofhopeLife of Hope Ministries exists to rescue the street children of Latin America.  They partner with existing ministry organizations that provide for the educational, emotional, physical, and spiritual welfare of street children and high risk families.  They seek partnerships with other organizations with similar goals in an effort to expand the scope of their mission activities.  Life of Hope Ministries provides financial support, materials that aid their partners in their work, and co-ordinates internships and short term mission groups who invest in the ministry activities of their field partners.

Life of Hope Ministries currently has four field partners.  Their partners are administratively independent.  They meet regularly with all of their partners so they can continue to know how they can support and expand their ministries.

El Castillo:  El Castillo was their original field partner.  They have a comprehensive program of outreach to the street children of Guatemala City.  Their street teams go to the streets to and build relationships and trust with the kids.  The kids are offered an opportunity to change the direction of their lives.  Their organization has 5 group homes, a faith-based school serving their children and children from the neighboring community, and programs to prepare the children for life and to be reintegrated into Guatemalan society.   

Tita Evertsz-La Limonada:  Tita operates two Christian based schools in the ghetto of La Limonada.  Over three hundred (300) children attend the schools and Tita has served the children and families since the mid 1990’s.  This ghetto area is a “red zone” and off limits to most Guatemalans.  Through her consistent servanthood Tita has earned the trust of the gangs that control the neighborhoods.  Her and her staff have daily opportunities to extend the love of Jesus to La Limonada.

The Rice Family Ministry:  Richard and Chris Rice came to Guatemala as volunteers for El Castillo.  They served as house parents, teachers, and in construction projects.

In 2004 the Rice’s answered Gods call give the balance of their lives in service to the people of Guatemala who they had come to love.  They work in the north part of Guatemala City in the ghetto of Santa Faz.  They have established a community center and native church.  Their efforts have lead to many changed lives and activities that are changing to neighborhood with Christian principles. 

Mama Carmen:  For over 30 years Mama Carmen has been keeping a promise to God to care for children in need.  Her family operate a traditional orphanage home in the area of the city dump.  She typically has 40-60 children living in the home and accepts additional children on a day care basis.

To learn more about Life of Hope, please visit their website.

Article: Coffee Supplies Hit by Rising Demand, Climate Change

The following excerpt is from a March 1, 2010 article published by Reuters.  Click here to read the article in its entirety.

More coffee drinking coupled with climate change have reduced supplies of beans, producers said at an international conference over the weekend.

“There is already evidence of important changes,” said Nestor Osorio, the head of the International Coffee Organization, which represents 77 countries that export or import beans. “In the last 25 years the temperature has risen half a degree in coffee producing countries…

Click here to read the rest of the article, here to read more articles related to the Guatemalan economy, or here to read articles related to the Guatemalan environment.

Profile: Iowa M.O.S.T.

MOST

 

Iowa MOST is a Rotary District 6000 initiative, which provides surgical repair for cleft lip and palate to individuals living in the western highlands of Guatemala. Without Iowa MOST, they would not be given this opportunity.  District 6000 Rotarians have cultivated a strong collaborative partnership with their friends in the Rotary Club of Huehuetenango, Guatemala to carry out the mission.

IOWA MOST FACTS: 

  • The first surgical mission took place in February/March of 2006.
  • The mission team consisted of 26 medical and non-medical personnel from the U.S. and 2 Guatemalan doctors.
  • The MOST team performed cleft lip repairs, myringotomies, ear tube placements, fistula repairs, a frenulectomy, and tooth extractions, and began a database of patients for the next mission.
  • Equipment and supplies were generously donated for the mission from many sources and with the help of FAMSCO.
  • Mission equipment and supplies valued at $20,000 were donated to the Hospital Nacional in Huehuetenango.
  • Iowa MOST now serves two communities in Guatemala–Huehuetenango and Quetzaltenango.
  • In 2010, Iowa MOST performed its 5th mission in Guatemala with its Rotary parners in Quetzaltenango, also known as Xela.

To learn more about Iowa MOST, please visit their website or blog.

Profile: Seeds of Help

seeds of helpSeeds of Help Foundation is a private not-for-profit organization that provides grassroots-level assistance to improve the lives of people in developing nations through educational programs and construction projects. Currently, Seeds of Help Foundation serves 30 remote communities in a department (region) known as Huehuetenango, located in the western highlands of Guatemala where families survive by subsistence farming. 

Here in the department of Huehuetenango, their organization concentrates its efforts on working with women’s groups. They believe that women – the central-binding force of the family unit – possess the greatest potential to make positive changes for future generations. Through these women’s groups and their custom-designed development programs, they teach about family planning, health and nutrition, medicinal herbs; hold cooking classes to introduce alternative cooking methods and recipes; and help in coordinating school development and community organization. 

When funding is available, Seeds of Help also undertakes construction projects such as the building of the appropriate technology shower, the appropriate technology stove, small ovens, water tanks, irrigation tanks, latrines and water pumps.  

To learn more about Seeds of Help, please visit their website.