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 The 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.
 The 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.
 The 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.
 There 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.
 Dr. 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.
 Life 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.
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.
 Adopt-a-Village (AAV) in Guatemala is a small, grassroots non-profit that works with remote villages in the rugged Northwestern Highlands region. This is an area of extreme poverty with few public services or other forms of assistance. AAV partners with leaders of these Mayan villages to build a more promising and sustainable future for their children by providing education and other critical support. The goal of Adopt-a-Village in Guatemala is to empower through education. Less than half of all children in Guatemala make it through sixth grade, and more than 2 million children–mostly Mayan girls living in rural areas like those where they work–don’t attend school at all.
Adopt-a-Village in Guatemala works closely with two dozen villages in the isolated northwestern region of the Department of Huehuetenango in western Guatemala and provides education opportunities that extend to some 250 villages in the region. The villages, scattered in the rainforest in the Cuchumatan Mountains, are accessible only by rugged dirt roads or walking paths winding up through the mountains. Many of the villages have been settled over the last 20 years by Mayan people who were displaced during Guatemala’s 36-year civil war and came to this region in search of affordable land. Families from different Mayan language groups that had until the war lived separately came together to form villages to work toward the common goal of a better future for their children. This is one of the poorest regions of Guatemala, with few public services or other sources of support. Employment and education opportunities are extremely limited and chronic malnutrition is pervasive; some children routinely go a day or more without eating.
AAV partners with village leaders to develop practical and relevant educational opportunities to give children and their parents the skills they need to build a better future. With support from their Child Sponsorship program, they began by building nine elementary schools in villages that previously had little or no access to primary education. As children have progressed through these schools, they have built on that foundation, supporting middle school programs, and providing scholarships for students to travel to attend high schools in distant towns. Their Mayan Center, a residential high school for students selected from 250 area villages, opened for fulltime students in January 2010. AAV also provides vocational programs for adults at the Mayan Center in areas such as carpentry, agriculture and forestry.
In addition to education, their Widows and Orphans program provides extra assistance to some of the poorest families in the region, including food, clothing and housing. All of AAV’s work is accomplished with the help and direction of the people and villages that benefit and who will ultimately assume the ongoing management and operation of the projects. To date, AAV has completed more than 60 major projects since they began in 1991.
To learn more about AAV, please visit their website.
The Guatemala Healing Hands Foundation (GHHF) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality and availability of health care in Guatemala through education, surgery, and therapy. Specializing in the treatment of congenital and hand injuries, they aim to reach Guatemalan children and adults through medical missions led by a team of specialized and skilled surgeons, therapists, and volunteers.
GHHF offers physicians, therapists, nurses, students, and volunteers the opportunity to take part in a cross cultural educational experience. GHHF aims to both educate the local medical providers and supply specialized care for the needed hands of this poor country. They hold a two day, bilingual conference; the purpose of which is to provide education that will, overtime, help the Guatemalan people to be able to care for their own with the latest medical techniques.
GHHF sends qualified professionals to Guatemala to train the local healthcare providers in hand surgery and hand therapy. These highly skilled volunteers come from across the globe to participate in GHHF. GHHF also welcomes volunteers of all ages and backgrounds who are looking for a multicultural educational experience and wish to lend a hand in a country that greatly needs their help.
On their 2009 trip, GHHF screened 174 patients, operated on 68, evaluated 190 therapy patients, fabricated 168 splints, and followed up on past patients.
Since the establishment of GHHF in 2004, their teams of dedicated volunteers have successfully:
- Evaluated 597 patients for hand surgery and therapy (at screening day);
- Completed surgery on 263 patients;
- Fabricated 622 splints;
- Brought one child to New Mexico to receive extensive hand surgery;
- Brought one child to Shriners for microsurgery; and
- Conducted workshops and conferences for over 1,875 people (doctors, therapists, and students).
To learn more about this group, please visit their website.
 Quality education, healthcare, and family development for the region’s poorest children
Known for its beauty, culture, and history, the Panchoy Valley also has its marginal zones where homeless families and street children live. In these areas the unemployment rate is high, adolescents lack education, crime is prevalent, alcoholism is rampant, and familial violence is widespread. Taking these problems into mind, the idea of opening a specialized technical school amidst the Victorias, Bella Vista, and Papalillo neighborhoods of Jocotenango, Guatemala, may have seemed like a risk, but it was also the long-standing dream of Patrick Atkinson, Founder and Executive Director of the GOD’S CHILD Project (GCP). In his own words, “It is the PERFECT place for the GOD’S CHILD Project to be.”
Construction of the school was completed December 6, 2007, and classes began in January of 2008. The Scheel Center’s goal is to be a catalyst for community change on a large scale by giving hope to impoverished families, abused or abandoned children. Hope is given in three forms: Standard Education, Specialized Technical Training and Healthcare.
Standard Education: For much of the modern world, formal education starts around the ages of 4, 5 or 6. By the time a child enters first grade they have often had several years of academic enrichment to better prepare them to learn. Students at the Scheel Center come from a very different world. Many of the students who study at the Center have been robbed of their childhood in various ways. They have not had time to play and learn. Many have not had access basic necessities such as adequate food, clean water, shelter or medical care. For these and other reasons, the Scheel Center students have grown up without an opportunity to learn.
Before a student is in a position to successfully learn any subject, their basic needs must be met. Scheel Center students are provided with two filling and nutritious meals a day. For many of them this is the only food they will receive.
Specialized Technical Training: Because of the unique background of the students at the Scheel Center some of them will not be able to continue their academic pursuits after the 8th or 9th grade level, or they will at least need to secure a part time job in order to do so. In an effort to equip all their students for life after school the following technical courses are currently being offered to students when they start their “basico” year. Each course’s objective is to prepare a student with the prerequisite knowledge and skill required to get a job in that field.
- Carpentry: The carpentry program at the Scheel center began in 2009 and is off to a great start. During the first few months of the program both boys and girls were taught theory and took part in hands on training. First, students built their own workbenches; they then moved on to coat racks, frames for paintings and most recently: study desks, which they will later be able to take home and use for their other studies. (Many of their students do not have any hard surface to do homework on.)
- Culinary Arts: The cooking class is a favorite amongst many of the students of the Scheel Center. The cooking class focuses on:
- Sanitary cooking practices
- Use and care of commercial grade cooking equipment
- Preparation of both basic and advanced entrees and desserts
- Promoting a love for the culinary arts
- Computer Skills: Starting in October of 2009, students of the Scheel Center have access to a computer lab to begin acquiring the computer skills to prepare them to succeed in a high tech world. Computer courses will cover:
- Basic Computer Skills: typing, navigation of Windows, use of a word processor, use of a spreadsheet, accessing the Internet, using email.
- Research skills: performing Internet searches, criteria for a reputable Internet source.
Healthcare:
- Dunnigan Family Medical Clinic: Made possible by a generous donation from the Dunnigan Family in honor of Dr. Ralph J. Dunnigan & Mrs. Bernadette Dunnigan. The Dunnigan Family Clinic will soon be serving the medical needs of families and children throughout the Vista Hermosa area.
- Dental Clinic: The Scheel Center Dental Clinic will begin by serving the needs of the children and families enrolled at the Scheel Center. The dental clinic is a community education center where The God’s Child project gives dental hygiene education to families from the surrounding areas. The group expects for the clinic to become operational in March, 2010.
- Psychology Clinic: In operation since February 2009 the Psychology Clinic provides counseling and support for the children of the Scheel Center and their families. Currently run by their on-campus psychologist Leonel Almira, the clinic gives Scheel Students an ear to listen and Christ-focused counsel on how to deal with the challenges of growing up in the slums of Guatemala.
To learn more about The Scheel Center, please visit their website.
The Valhalla Project is a Guatemala based organization that seeks to reverse global warming, assist indigenous people in developing self-sustaining agriculture, and educate the public about the environment. They accomplish this mission by planting trees. The Valhalla project introduces ungrafted Macadamia seedlings to indigenous people as an alternative to slash and burn agriculture, which contributes to global warming.
The mission of the Valhalla Project includes:
- Global reforestation of open genetic macadamia nut trees;
- Marketing and sales of natural foods and natural skin care products;
- Promotion of sustainable agriculture for farmers worldwide;
- Job creation through local production and processing; and
- Green investment opportunities in eco-entrepreneurship.
1972, Lawrence Gottschamer was retired in the line of duty as a Fireman in Redwood City, CA, prior to serving in the army during the Viet Nam war. In 1975 he was asked to go to Costa Rica to farm 100 acres of macadamia nut trees. His mentor at that time, Mr. Edelberto Camacho, from the Instituto Interamericano de Ciencias Agricolas in Turrialba, Costa Rica, was and is still well known in the industry. He spent countless hours in private consultation with Mr. Camacho and numerous other professors discussing all phases of agriculture particularly the macadamia tree. While in Costa Rica, Lawrence started the first private nursery in Turrialba. In Costa Rica, he had the chance to meet with experts coming from Hawaii, as the Costa Rican macadamia industry was modeled using Hawaiian methods. As it turned out, the macadamia agro-industry in Costa Rica fell short of commercial expectations because conventional Hawaiian clones were used in the plantations. It was always apparent to Lawrence Gottschamer that locally developed varieties adapted to local climate work much better.
When Lawrence Gottschamer finished his work in Costa Rica he decided to go to Guatemala, where he met his future wife, Emilia Aguirre, a Guatemalan lady with a deep passion for mother nature, with a strong desire to do anything to protect the environment; since that time they have been working together, side by side, for their sustainable agriculture project. He continued his work with macadamia. He built several small macadamia-processing plants for the private sector, and was one of the founders of “Voit, Juarez, and Gottschamer, Consultants” an agro-industrial consulting company.
In 1985 Lawrence and Emilia founded the Experimental Station Valhalla. Its pursuits were and continue to be ecological. With the gene bank in hand they pursued a genetically diverse high carbon dioxide and water exchange capacity tree which is competitive and superior to the grafted or cloned trees available at that time. Their purpose was to use the technology to provide the indigenous communities with a substitute for their current practices of slash and burn agriculture. Finally there was proof that there is a tremendous future for the private sector in the eco-development industry. At Valhalla, they have developed seedling trees whose economic performance is considered at least as good as the best of today’s grafted material.
To learn more about Valhalla, please visit their website.
 Teaching children to dream is the first step in their believing in a future.
Fotokids was founded by ex-Reuters photographer, Nancy McGirr in 1991, with 6 children from the City’s vast garbage dump. Over the years, the organization has grown to include both rural poor and urban gang areas. Fotokids, including an environmental photo project in Honduras, now serves130 children from 6 distinct communities. Students are given educational scholarships covering primary school through university.
Although documentary photography remains the focus of the project, our Fotokids graduates teach the younger students digital imaging, graphic design, and video.
Besides empowering children to learn a unique set of job skills, self-esteem, leadership and the opportunity to continue their education, many have traveled the world to attend Fotokids exhibitions or give workshops in over a dozen countries.
The student design studio and individual students have worked for the United Nations, director George Lucas, Hispanic TV, designed books and teach for the Guatemalan Ministry of education and published Out of the Dump, Writing and Photography by Children of Guatemala.
Their photography has been exhibited in London, Tokyo, Amsterdam, Medellin, Seville, New York, Washington DC, Houston, Sao Paolo, Caracas, and Paris.
To learn more about Fotokids, please visit their website.
 The mission of The Aid & Education Project is to promote education in indigenous communities in Guatemala. Their primary program for promoting education in Guatemala is to offer scholarships to deserving students. They also have programs to promote computer literacy, to teach English, and to preserve the local culture. Additionally, there are special programs for women and girls.
The mission of the Scholarship Program is to help students get in school, stay in school, and succeed in school. This starts with giving a poor student material aid: paying for most of their school fees, school supplies, school uniforms and other basic school clothing. Secondly, and often just as important, they help create an environment that leads to success. They offer classes during the school vacation. They provide access to computers and the internet. And when volunteers are available, they offer English Classes. Through their Health Program, they provide free medical visits for routine childhood health problems. As deemed necessary by local directors, they make sure that students get eye and ear exams.
They are investors in the future of the children in their program. Like any good investor, they only make investments that are likely to yield a good return. For them, a good return is a literate adult who can attain financial self-sufficiency. A good return is a skilled worker or professional who without their program could never have developed their talents.
They are not in the business of giving money to poor people. In order to stay in their program a student must make concrete steps toward self-sufficiency and toward developing their own future; otherwise, they can be dropped from the program.
To learn more about this group, please visit their website.
 Street children stay alive by their wits – stealing and scavenging, begging and sleeping rough in parks, shop doorways and on dumps. These children have little or no access to education, care, food, shelter and their other rights. Many are drawn into a world of drugs or the sex trade. In some areas, they are known as the ‘disponibles’ – the disposable ones. Statistics vary widely but the United Nations estimates there could be as many as 40 million children living and working on the streets of Latin America.
Toybox is a Christian charity committed to helping street living and street working children and those at risk of becoming so, principally in Latin America. Their vision is of a world where there are no street children, where families are restored, those who are disadvantaged have choices and hope and all children have a voice. Toybox currently works in Guatemala, Bolivia, and Peru; but they are actively seeking out new opportunities to help the street children in other Latin American countries.
Toybox is based on caring Christian principles but they help all children who need their support, regardless of their faith, gender, ability or background. They partner only with projects that are carried out to the highest standards of care and child protection. They facilitate the sharing of good practice and help their Latin American partner organizations to become sustainable.
Every day, Toybox reaches out to over 5,000 of these children with practical help, friendship, training, education, and homes, as appropriate. They support teams helping children at high risk and their communities – with education, training and social action. This helps prevent children becoming street children by tackling root causes.
In Guatemala City, Toybox works with the following groups:
- Niños Y Jovenes Con Futuro: working with children in high risk situations, providing educational and holistic support.
- Libre Infancia: working with children who collect rubbish and often live around the rubbish tip.
- Amor del Nino: working with children who have been abandoned and/or physically abused.
- Fundación Vida Ilimitada: working with children who have been abandoned and some that are HIV positive
- La Gran Comisión: working with abandoned babies
- Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos: working with children at risk – often from very poor families
- Asociación Rosa de Amor: working with children who have been abandoned, sexually abused and ex-street children
- Fundación Esperanza de los Niños: working with children who work on the streets
- Fundación Protectora del Niño, Casa Bernabé: working with children who have suffered from domestic violence, children from very poor families and ex-street children
- Hogar del Niño, Liga de Vida Nueva: working with children at high risk and those living in extreme poverty
- Ministerio Cristiano Mi Especial Tesoro: working with teenagers at high risk and those who have experienced domestic violence
- Ministerios Tabitha: working with children and families who work on the rubbish tip and those involved in prostitution
- Fundación Samuelito un Reto para Vivir: working with children who work on the streets and those at high risk
- El Castillo:
- Boys Homes: Jireh – Maranatha – Emmanuel
- Girls Homes: Shalom – Torre Fuerte – Salem
- El Castillo School
To learn more about Toybox, please visit their website, blog, Twitter page, or Facebook page.
Niños del Lago is a unique children’s project designed to transform the lives of Guatemala’s most impoverished children. Their goal is to help at-risk children stay in school, and succeed in school. After extensive research, Niños del Lago was founded in 2004 to support and extend the work of privately-funded, not-for-profit educational programs created for children who are too poor or have too many special needs to attend/afford government-run schools.
Ninos del Lago is an educational camp experience offering healing and hope for children whose daily struggle for survival has robbed them of the ability to imagine a better future. Niños del Lago takes children out of their stressful and bleak surroundings and transports them to a safe, serene and creative environment for an intensive week of one-on-one mentoring, creative recreational activities and self-esteem building.
Children who stay in their school and in their home program are invited to return year after year, and are given additional incentives to stay in school and off the streets. Ninos del Lago children who demonstrate potential can become Camp Counselors and have an opportunity to earn a University Scholarship.
Niño del Lago is located in an inspirational setting in a natural forest overlooking Lake Atitlan in the Guatemalan Highlands.
To learn more about this group, please visit their website.
 Orphan Outreach is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to glorifying the Lord through reaching out to the millions of at risk children throughout the world. Since their founding in 2007, they have acted as instruments of Christ impacting the lives of those they serve. Ministering primarily in Guatemala, Honduras, India, and Russia, they support a variety of programs designed to offer a better chance to children in dire living conditions.
The Mission of Orphan Outreach is to improve the lives of orphans and at-risk children primarily in Guatemala, Honduras, India, and Russia through early intervention, education and evangelism, thus meeting the physical, emotional, educational, and spiritual needs of the children.
The children they work with experience unimaginable tragedies and are often victims of violence, extreme poverty, sexual abuse, physical and psychological trauma, trafficking, malnutrition, impaired development, and other harms.
By sponsoring mission trips, programs, funding, and partnerships, they prevent these children from becoming another of the many victims throughout the world. As stewards of Christ:
- They serve them to meet their physical, emotional, educational, and spiritual needs.
- They provide guidance, inspiration, and hope to children in seemingly hopeless situations.
- They are witnesses to the gospel aimed at instilling Christian love in the hearts of these children.
- They believe the uniqueness of each child should always take precedence as that is how God loves us – as unique individuals created by Him for His glory.
In Guatemala, Orphan Outreach works with the following organizations:
Good Shepherd Christian Academy, [Panabaj]: Panabaj is a small village on Lake Atitlan just outside the city of Santiago. On October 4, 2005, torrential rains from hurricane Stan caused massive mud slides down the face of the volcano next to the village. Over 1,000 people died and the village was buried under volcanic mud, rock and debris. Most of the people live in temporary housing in a field adjacent to the village as it is slowly being rebuilt. The hospital, school and police station were destroyed. The families are still struggling even after almost three years and many children are not going to school.
Mama Carmen Orphanage, [Guatemala City]: In 2009, Orphan Outreach learned about Mama Carmen, a devoted Christian woman who runs a private Christian orphanage near the city dump. For over 30 years Mama Carmen has been keeping a promise to God to care for children in need. Mama Carmen cares for 60 children on a full time basis and an additional 40 daily for day care. Many of the children she serves are “special needs” and she is committed to not turn away any children. She provides for the children with full faith that God will lead people to become involved in meeting all their needs.
Niños Rescatados, [Guatemala City] — Mrs. Arzu’s Schools: Serving approximately 550 children in education through sixth grade, early intervention support, health and nutrition and evangelism. The children in these programs are all children who live on the street. Some live with a parent or relative but all are extremely poor and in desperate situations. Mrs. Patty Arzu, wife of the mayor of Guatemala City runs and supports the schools through her foundation. There are three schools: one for preschoolers (Los Patitos), school age girls (Las Rosas), and school age boys (Los Cedros.) Orphan Outreach is partnering with Mrs. Arzu and her foundation to provide humanitarian aid, curriculum and teacher training, school support and supplies.
To learn more about Orphan Outreach, please visit their website.
“THOUGH THE PROBLEMS OF THE WORLD ARE INCREASINGLY MORE COMPLEX, THE SOLUTIONS REMAIN EMBARRASSINGLY SIMPLE…” – Bill Mollison, co-founder of the world-wide permaculture movement
The mission of Project Seres is to help at-risk groups in developing countries build resistance to climate change threats using knowledge, tools and resources that are environmentally ethical, ecologically sustainable, and economically affordable. Project Seres is a project fighting the injustices of climate change, and working to create social and environmental equality for all. They work by empowering people through education, providing the tools and knowledge to help them make sustainable, positive changes.
A Centre for Climate Change Education & Sustainable Development: Around the world, climate change is starting to touch people’s lives. The magnitude and seriousness of its impacts varies greatly, but without a doubt it is the poor and vulnerable – primarily in developing countries – that are being affected first and hardest. One of the sad realties of climate change is that the majority of these people are not even aware that climate change exists: while their future is being hotly debated on the world’s political stage, they continue on with the struggle of their day-to-day lives – a struggle which is becoming increasingly more difficult every day. Climate change is not just an environmental issue, it is a social injustice. Project Seres fights against this injustice, working at a grass-roots level with at-risk groups where need is greatest to create social and environmental equality for all.
Seres College: Project Seres will carry out its mission through the Seres College – a centre for climate change education and sustainable development based in Guatemala and serving communities throughout Central America. The college itself will be a working example of sustainable living, showcasing a range of technologies, techniques and alternative agricultural practices that are being used around the world to help people in developing countries adapt and build resistance to climate change. Included among these will be appropriate and affordable renewable energy technology (such as micro-hydro, solar and wind), natural building techniques, and alternative agriculture methods such as permaculture, organic agriculture and agro-forestry.
The college will also provide much needed education and information about climate change and global warming, focusing on the impact that it will have on the communities, lives and futures of people living in the region.
Students: The students of the college (all of which will be full-scholarship students) will be farmers, workers, laborers, mothers and fathers from poor and vulnerable communities across Central America. The material taught in the college will not require any previous education or literacy levels. It will be taught using a hands-on, practical approach that is sensitive to cultural differences and incorporates traditional methods of learning. Training will be provided in intensive three month periods, during which time students will live on-site, participating in the daily running and up-keep of the college grounds and by doing so developing an appreciation of the technologies and methodologies used.
Education and Sustainable Development: During their three months at the Seres College students will learn about climate change and global warming, focusing on the particular threats in their region and identifying associated at-risk areas for their community. Using the sustainable development tools and methods demonstrated in the college, students will be encouraged (and assisted) to develop a Climate Change Adaptation plan for their community, which will be designed to build resilience and reduce the community’s risk in the at-risk areas.
Climate Change Adaptation: Projects will be implemented as a joint effort between the community, Project Seres, and a partner NGO/organization. As a Centre for Sustainable Development, the Seres College will maintain strong networks with other groups working in the field, helping to connect those groups looking to implement specific projects, solutions or technologies with communities that are ready for them. Acting as a networking hub between the community and other philanthropic/aid organizations, the Seres College will help improve communications and information sharing, and also help the existing resources working in the field to be more efficient and effective in their work. Equally as importantly, by implementing projects in which the community (rather than the organization) has identified the need ensures a greater level of community engagement, buy-in, commitment and long-term viability for the project.
International Outreach: The college will run three 3-month sessions each year. During the time when students are not in attendance, the college will be opened up for short-term courses for international, paying participants (such as Permaculture, Climate Change Education and Awareness and Straw-bale Building workshops). Income generated from these courses will be used to help finance the scholarships for the local students studying at the college.
To learn more about Project Seres, please visit their website.
Mobilization, health, rehabilitation, education, leadership…
The Transitions Foundation is committed to making a difference in the lives of Guatemalans who may otherwise have few opportunities to grow, to learn, and to become literate and productive contributors to their Guatemalan culture. They provide rehabilitation, vocational, and educational training to disabled persons through the services offered at Transitions’ training centers.
Program Objectives:
- To provide life-skills training and mobility devices for physically disabled Guatemalans;
- To offer outreach support and medical product availability to disabled persons;
- To operate one special education classroom within a local school in a rural community for physically and mentally disabled children;
- To operate an offset printing and graphics design enterprise, with ongoing disabled student training and employment opportunities, offering printing service available to the public;
- To operate a wheelchair fabrication facility, providing highly individualized wheelchairs and other therapeutic equipment, providing ongoing leadership and technical training; and
- To operate a prosthetic/orthotic clinic with ongoing training and services available to Guatemalans with disabilities.
Workshop: Transitions operates a well-equipped workshop where they manufacture new wheelchairs and repair or modify existing ones. This operation employs 11 technicians, the majority of which have disabilities, who build rugged chairs well suited for the tough terrain of Guatemala. They employ modern MIG welding and other fabrication techniques, and maintain computerized records on each client so they can respond quickly to needed changes or repairs. Funding for much of their equipment, tools, and materials has come from Rotary International Foundation Grants, coordinated by the Portland, Oregon Rotary Club, and many other donors. During 2008, their workshop provided over 100 new and refurbished wheelchairs.
Prosthetic/Orthotic Clinic: Transitions operates a clinic to provide services to children and adults who are in need of a prosthetic limb or an orthotic leg brace. Due to the high number of birth defects and accidents in Guatemala, there is a large demand and need for these services. They work with local Guatemalan certified technicians to evaluate and manufacture the limbs and leg braces their patients need. Patients fitted with their limb or brace can achieve increased mobility and opportunities in their lives.
Since 2002, Transitions has provided care and treatment for over 200 prosthetic and orthotic patients. Many of the patients are children or youth and require ongoing treatment and adjustments to their equipment. Due to the high costs of providing these special devices, new patients can only be helped when defined funding is available.
Training for life: Transitions Foundation provided direct general educational scholarships for 53 disabled people during the 2008 school year. This includes educational costs such as tuition, materials and transportation to and from school.
Special Ed: They also assist low-income, physically and mentally disabled children through one rural special education classroom directed by a qualified teacher and therapist. Special education students receive multi-sensorial exposure, fine and gross motor skill stimulation and academic tutoring. Classrooms are wheelchair accessible, and parents and family members are encouraged to become involved.
To learn more about Transitions, please visit their website.
 The Children’s Malnutrition Center of San Juan, Guatemala provides temporary care to infants and young children who are severely malnourished. The children range in age from infancy to 10 years of age. The children come from homes where they did not receive proper nutrition, primarily due to their parents’ lack of means to provide the necessary food and care. Some children are even near death by the time they are brought to the Center.
The children receive housing, daily bathing, medicine, and three meals a day. There is also a doctor who works 2-3 hours of time every day at the facility. A child is discharged from the facility once the doctor determines that that they have regained proper health and that there are proper assurances that the child will receive proper nutrition on a regular basis once they leave the facility.
There are approximately 35-40 children living at the Center. However, they will have the capacity to house and serve up to 200 children once the many repairs and improvements have been made, and additional resources are acquired to hire additional staff to care for the children. Unfortunately, there are only about three staff members available to care for the nearly 40 children during the day, which doesn’t give them much time to provide individual attention to the kids.
The Malnutrition Center was built in the 1950s as a tuberculosis hospital, but was converted to a care center for children in the 1970s. In the 1970s, under the direction and funding of the Lion’s Club of Guatemala, it flourished as it housed almost 200 children. However, since that time, funding from the Lion’s Club has been decreasing and the facility has fallen into disrepair. The facility is in need of significant work in order to improve the living environment and quality of care that is provided to the children.
The Florida Baptist Children’s Homes identified the Children’s Malnutrition Center of San Juan, Guatemala as one of its first international ministry locations because of the extreme needs and because of the potential to improve the quality of services at the Center. The goal is to elevate the quality of care as well as expand the capacity of the Center in order to serve more children. Mission teams mobilized by the Florida Baptist Children’s Homes will work to make improvements to the facility and spend time interacting with the many children.
To learn more about this group, and their project, visit their website.
 Global Dental Relief brings free dental care to impoverished children of Nepal, northern India, Vietnam and Guatemala in partnership with local organizations. Volunteer dentists, hygienists, assistants and non-medical volunteers deliver treatment and preventive care in dental clinics that serve children in schools, orphanages and remote villages.
Travel and logistics for volunteers are coordinated by Global Dental Expeditions, dedicated to humanitarian journeys to serve children in need.
Since 2001, Global Dental has hosted over 600 dedicated dentists, hygienists, dental assistants and non-medical volunteers. Volunteers have treated over 44,000 children with first time and ongoing dental care. Global Dental recalls each population of children every two years to deliver continuous care. After ten years, they see children returning for their third or fourth visits. The results are clear –extractions are rare, restorations small, and children are aware of the importance of diet and consistent oral hygiene. This is the sustainable legacy they strive to leave with every child they treat.
In Guatemala, the group works in conjunction with Behrhorst Partners for Development in Chimaltenango.
This year, the group will host clinics beginning July 23 and November 19. To learn more about Global Dental, please visit their website.
Semilla Nueva is an organization unified around a shared vision for an equitable and environmentally responsible society where people live in peace with dignity. Their mission is to help empower agricultural communities in Guatemala by jointly developing and implementing strategies that facilitate the achievement of community-defined objectives for natural resource conservation, economic prosperity, and social equality. They begin with agricultural and environmental management techniques that are easy to incorporate, and serve as a strong entry point for education about sustainable growing and environmental management. Through the process of rebuilding the health of agroecosystems and working with communities to understand and collectively manage their environmental resources, they hope to provide the resources to ensure long-term livelihood and food security while also fostering informed and democratic decision-making. Semilla Nueva will work closely with promotores (local volunteers who act as leaders in a given area of development such as health, education, or agriculture) in order to increase the capacity of rural communities to practice sustainable farming.
In September 2009, Guatemala’s President declared a “state of public calamity” due to severe droughts, soil degradation, and an attendant famine that has claimed the lives of nearly 500 people and put over 400,000 families at risk of “food insecurity”. Rural residents are intimately dependent on their surrounding ecosystems, and are thus particularly affected by environmental degradation. With 77% of rural subsistence farmers existing on areas smaller than 7 hectares, the need for resilient, productive, and efficient agroecosystems is clear. In response to these challenges, they have developed a plan to cultivate sustainable agricultural practices in rural communities that emphasize longevity. Semilla Nueva’s programs attempt to enable on-going community collaboration, organization, and mobilization. Inspiring these actions from communities closely correlates with successful implementation of sustainable agricultural systems, which in turn could sequester up to 9% of Guatemala’s CO2 emissions, rejuvenate agroecosystems, and provide safe non-toxic alternatives to agrochemicals.
The scope of agricultural development is vast, and as a result, a single organization cannot effectively address all relevant issues. Semilla Nueva is currently collaborating with three organizations (Intervida, Rainforest Alliance, and Alternativas Sostenibles y Orgánicas Sociedad Anónima (ASOSA)) to ensure that their work is addressing the major aspects of agricultural development in a coordinated and robust manner. Intervida, an international non-profit, empowers disadvantaged communities by establishing development committees and supporting community organization and education. Rainforest Alliance, also an international non-profit, strengthens sustainable markets through certification and marketing assistance. Lastly, ASOSA, a social enterprise, provides economic alternatives to chemical agriculture. Semilla Nueva interfaces with these three organizations to leverage resources, engage rural communities, and contribute to a holistic transition towards sustainable agriculture.
Semilla Nueva’s work hinges on community participation, mobilization, and collaboration. Their past experience living, working, and learning within Central America has created long lasting relationships with the communities where they’ve worked. This connection with Central American culture has not only been a source of inspiration; it also enables them to effectively relate and maintain a positive community presence. Promotores will serve as both hosts to their volunteers as well as the primary interface to the community. They will work collaboratively with promotores to develop and implement projects to enable sustainable farming and encourage greater community participation and awareness. By developing robust communication, supporting local innovation, and invigorating active leadership they will help to install the infrastructure needed to secure the longevity of sustainable systems. Ultimately, it is the communities that are responsible for the continuation of any projects or methods that they help implement.
To learn more about Semilla Nueva, please visit their website.
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