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.
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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.
Common Hope is currently seeking five full-time, long-term volunteers to support our programs in Guatemala. The following positions are yearlong commitments:
For more information or to apply, visit their website.
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.
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.
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. 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. 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. Click here to read the rest of the article, or here to read more articles related to the Guatamalan economy.
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:
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:
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:
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:
To learn more about this group, please visit their website, Facebook page, or Twitter page.
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:
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.
To read more about the innovative projects that the MIT Mobility Lab is working on, please visit their website.
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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
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.
Lemonade International is devoted to being a physical presence of God’s love and the life of Jesus in La Limonada by:
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. 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. 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.
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:
To learn more about Caputo, please visit their website.
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. 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.
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:
To learn more about Iowa MOST, please visit their website or blog.
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. |
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