Our friends at Avivará have issued their March 2010 newsletter. You can read excerpts below. To read other Avivará newsletters, or to sign up to receive them each month, please click here.
Do you know the way to San Jose (Pacul): One day last year Ann was walking in the street outside our home in San Pedro Las Huertas and ran into a young North American woman looking for another project located in our village. They struck up a conversation and found out that the other woman, Molly O’Connor, was a middle-school teacher at the Berkeley-Carroll School in Brooklyn, NY. This spring, we received word from Molly that her students would like to set up a “pen-pal” connection with students in Guatemala. This then led to an exchange of letters between the students at Berkeley-Carroll School and the sixth grade students at the school in San Jose Pacul. In the letters they have exchanged so far, they have shared basic information about their interests, life-styles and families…
Building Connections in El Yalu: Ironically, “El Yalu” in the Mayan dialect of Kaqchikel means “place of many waters,” yet it is a village that has a difficult time accessing water for its fields, homes and school. One of the problems faced by the school was that for children to go to the bathroom during the school day, they would often times need to walk the equivalent of several blocks to gather water in plastic buckets needed to flush the toilets. (There is no running water or indoor plumbing in El Yalu.) In addition to taking away from their time in the classroom, this also meant that the children were not likely to wash their hands, thus leading to increased illness among the students. To help alleviate this problem, Avivara, in partnership with St. Monica School in Mercer Island, Washington, agreed to jointly fund the installation of a gravity fed water system for the school…
Give a Little: Occasionally, the staff of Avivara would like to recommend a book that they have recently read and found interesting or meaningful. “Give a Little: How Your Small Donations Can Transform Our World” by Wendy Smith is just such a book. The following is one of the more interesting reviews of that book.
“When it comes to philanthropy, I am as cynical as you can get. I did not support the victims of the Tsunami or Katerina. Why? I was sure most of my contribution would be diluted by overhead and/or misuse of funds. Yet, I’m not a piker. Historically, I have given generously. I support my alma mater, any friend or relative who hits me up, and charities that support causes/research for subjects that have personally effected me. Do I really do my due diligence? No. Do I really believe my donations make a difference? Not sure. Why do I give then? Because no one can say I don’t. Like I said I’m a cynic. GIVE A LITTLE by Wendy Smith was a game-changer for me…
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