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 Sharing the Dream in Guatemala is a non-profit organization that promotes fair trade with cooperatives and small businesses in Guatemala. Sharing the Dream is working very hard so that through their work, families can afford to educate their children, provide health care, and promote healthy living in their own families.
In late June 2010, Sharing the Dream hosted a group that spent 10 days in Sololá studying fair trade and sustainability. The group visited numerous artisan cooperatives including the women of Flor de Campo who create beautiful weavings, and ARTESA, craftsmen that make three dimensional wooden carvings with small drawers hidden inside. To read more about their trip, read the group’s travel journals at Sharing the Dream’s website.
 CHOICE Humanitarian is ending poverty by focusing on sustainable village development. Our goal is to connect motivated villages to resources and tools to change their lives. By building skills, capacities and leadership of the villagers – the entire community brings itself out of the cycle of poverty.CHOICE, which stands for Center for Humanitarian Outreach and Inter-Cultural Exchange, was started in 1982 by Dr. Tim Evans. Having returned from living in the Altiplano of Bolivia for 2 years, Dr. Evans had made a personal commitment to go back and help the Andean people. What started as the Children’s Andean Foundation, has grown, expanded and matured into the organization it is today – serving Kenya, Nepal, Guatemala, Bolivia and Mexico.
To follow CHOICE’s projects in Guatemala, please visit their blog. To read about the addition of two ambulances, headed to Alta Verapaz, please see this article. To find more information about CHOICE, please visit their website.
 UPDATE: Everyone should check out Transitions’ great new website at www.transitionsfoundation.org.
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.
Transitions will host the MIT Mobility Lab, as they test out 30, specially designed wheelchairs.
To learn more about Transitions, please visit their website.
 Nest is a nonprofit organization that empowers female artists and artisans around the world. Using a unique combination of interest-free microfinance loans, mentoring from established designers, as well as a market in which to sell their crafts, Nest helps its loan recipients create successful small businesses. Nest instills pride of ownership, preserves ancient artistic traditions and successfully moves women from poverty to self-sufficiency.
To address some limitations to microfinance, Nest has developed a new way to assist women; they call it “microbarter.” They provide women, or cooperatives of women, with loans that allow them to purchase the supplies, training, bazaar space or raw materials needed to make their crafts. However, rather than requiring repayment in cash, they encourage women to repay their loans in product, which they would market and sell in the United States. These beautifully crafted pieces are available on their website under “Shop Loan Recipients” and at selected retail outlets.
Nest microbartering has many benefits. One, it encourages women to develop businesses using skills they already possess. Two, it supports ancient artistic traditions. Three, Nest does much more than lend money. Through their mentoring by established designers, their financial and business curriculum, their western marketplace and their wrap-around services, they fully support women as they move from poverty to self-sufficiency. Fourth, they provide you, the consumer, with expertly handcrafted merchandise from around the world.
According to a May 17, 2010 press release, “Lord & Taylor, together with UNICEF and FEED Projects, is selling an exclusive “FEED 1 Guatemala” pouch and “FEED 3 Guatemala” tote. Purchase a FEED bag from Lord & Taylor and FEED will provide nutrients for one or three children for a year respectively through UNICEF’s nutrition programs in Guatemala. Look great and feel great by getting your bag today either online or at a Lord & Taylor store!
The FEED Guatemala bags are handmade by Nest, a nonprofit organization that empowers female artists and artisans around the world. The Guatemalan Nest artisans used their traditional Ikat fabrics to make the fun and handy “FEED 1 Guatemala” zippered pouch and the sturdy and sizable “FEED 3 Guatemala” tote bag. The variety of colors and woven patterns reflects the vibrant Guatemalan culture and gives each customer an array of colors and patterns to choose from. Purchase of the bags celebrates the traditional crafts of Guatemala and supports women artisans, while also generating funding to help UNICEF provide micronutrient supplements to children so they grow up stronger, healthier and better equipped to move beyond extreme poverty.”
To learn more about Nest, please visit their website. To read the press release in its entirety, please click here.
A Thread of Hope is a fair trade web store featuring items from Guatemala. Eliza Strode, the owner, is a clinical social worker who went to Guatemala in 1997 to learn Spanish. Previously a food co-op manager in Cambridge, MA, she visited a number of artisans’ cooperatives in Guatemala. Eliza started selling Fairly-Traded products from Guatemala in 2001. She has spent three to four months per year since 2007 in Guatemala working on a volunteer basis providing technical assistance to Asociacion Maya de Desarrollo in Solola and other groups, and networking with other cooperatives, groups, and Fair Traders.
A Thread of Hope’s partners include the following groups:
Asociacion Maya de Dessarrollo, Sololá is a worker cooperative of 180 women backstrap-loom weavers located in the highlands of Solola Guatemala.
Cooperativa San Antonio Palopo Co-op: A Thread of Hope buys some of its cotton scarves from this cooperative of men and women weavers on Lake Atitlan. The men weave using foot looms, and the women weave using backstrap looms and foot looms.
Creaciones Chonita employs a group of widows and young women in Santiago Atitlan to make beautiful beaded jewelry. When the group makes a profit, they save part of the money in a scholarship fund for the education of theirchildren. They also give basic living supplies to the elderly widows, and support the medical expenses of all members as needed.
Dunitz: Nancy Dunitz works with women around Lake Atitlan to create innovative designs in beaded and macramé jewelry. The beaders are treated with respect and work in a safe and clean environment. In addition, women with children to care for can work in their homes. Nancy supports and contributes to “Pueblo a Pueblo”, a community based charity that funds the local hospital and aids in other grass root projects. This organization has been instrumental in helping many people after the devastation caused by Hurricane Stan in October 2005.
La Casa Guatemala: Since 1995, La Casa Guatemala has been exporting Guatemalan handcrafted products. Working with artisan communities around the country, their goal is to generate sustainable, optimum-income-producing crafts production, including new opportunities for existing artisan groups and training for incipient groups.
Mayan Hands: Mayan Hands is a Fair Trade organization founded in 1989. They work with ten groups (about 230 women) who live in rural communities in the highlands of Guatemala. Mayan Hands works with the women on designing products that are marketable in the US. They also offer opportunities to the weavers in many areas, including scholarships and school supplies for their children, home improvements, micro-lending, training in new skills and techniques, as well as classes in gender awareness, domestic violence, conflict resolution, and herbal medicine. To learn more about Mayan hands click here.
Ruth and Noemi: This group began as a widows and orphans group. They started with a grant to buy 100 chickens. With the surplus money from selling eggs, they bought thread and started to weave. A local minister was a part-time tailor and he taught the boys to sew after school and the project grew out of this. UPAVIM and now A Thread of Hope help them to get their products to the US where they can get a fair wage for what they make.
Senovia began a beaded jewelry business to employ 22 women in Santiago Atitlan. She has a knack for creating beautiful designs.
UPAVIM (Unidas Para Vivir Mejor – United for a Better Life) is a cooperative of about 80 women who live in marginalized communities on the outskirts of Guatemala City. UPAVIM began making simple crafts to help pay for the Healthy Babies program in 1991. Since then, the craft program has developed into a successful export business that won a national prize in 2001 for non-traditional textile exporting. The profits from craft sales finance daycare, Montessori preschool, the K-6 school, and partially subsidize the pharmacy and medical clinic, including a prenatal clinic and healthy babies program. UPAVIM also provides about 435 scholarships and a tutoring center. With the goals of making all of their community programs sustainable from additional income generating projects, UPAVIM is in the process of constructing the “Annex,” a second-four story building that houses various projects, including a soy milk production facility, a bakery, store, and an internet/computer/typewriting school.
Women of Panabaj: This is a cooperative of weavers, embroiderers, and beaded jewelry makers affected by the mudslide that covered the town of Panabaj after Hurricane Stan in October 2005. The women weave thick material on small foot looms, and then make them into wallets, bags, guitar straps, and clerical stoles.
To learn more about A Thread of Hope and its Guatemalan partners click here.
 The University of Washington Guatemala Project (UWGP) is a group of University of Washington students and recent alumni working to provide scholarships and vocational training for their peers in Guatemala. Their project is jointly designed and supported by UW students/alumni and the Movimiento de Trabajadores Campesinos (MTC), a non-governmental organization based in San Marcos, Guatemala.
This project, organized entirely at the initiative of students in the UW’s 2005, 2006, and 2007 Exploration Seminars and Study Abroad trips to Guatemala, aims to support primary and secondary education in Guatemala’s coffee-growing communities through a sustained commitment to youth empowerment.
Ongoing and Past Projects:
- Vocational Training Center: In 2008, the MTC requested funding to support a Vocational Training Center, rather than the scholarships that were funded the previous year, so that they could reach more youth. The Vocational Center hired Professor Baudilio Israel Recinos de Leon to oversee the vocational training and activities. Between July and December of 2008, the vocational center ran four main workshops: Cutting and Sewing, Carpentry, Computer Classes, and Beauty Culture – all taught by certified professionals. The courses were designed to serve 120 children and youth, but due to a high interest in the programs, 164 children and youth were served – 88 young women and 76 young men.
- Youth Leader Scholarships: Students were chosen by the MTC in Guatemala. Each of six regional associations received an equal share of funds and selected one or more students from their region. Scholarships could be applied to formal schooling, as well as learning useful crafts like weaving. The primary selection criterion was how much leadership the youth had demonstrated within the MTC–for example, leadership of a regional Youth Council or Women’s Council.
To learn more about UWGP, please see their website.
 The Borlaug Institute provides the global outreach of Texas A&M Agriculture. Their faculty, scientists, and students are involved in over 100 countries around the world to better international agriculture. Funded by the USDA, the Borlaug has implemented a three-year agricultural extension program to benefit the indigenous Mayan communities in Guatemala.
Agriculture in Guatemala: Technology, Education, and Commercialization (AGTEC) will increase access to new markets, technology, and knowledge for high-value agricultural products in Guatemala, including bioenergy crops and non-traditional fruits, vegetables, and flowers.
Improve Agricultural Systems and Management Techniques: The AGTEC program will introduce scientific advances and transfer technology from research centers to the field. The agricultural and sound environmental techniques gained from these programs will improve yields and increase income. Through extension outreach programs in rural communities, technical-assistance programs include:
- water conservation and management;
- crop rotation and diversification;
- soil retention to reduce erosion and demonstrate alternative crops and alternative land uses;
- harvesting and post-harvesting techniques to improve harvest efficiency;
- food processing capabilities to add value to products; and
- bioenergy technology to produce biofuel crops.
Enhance Agricultural Training: Partnering with local institutions, AGTEC has created an innovative series of technical and interactive training programs to help improve farmers’ knowledge of food production, safety, processing, and marketing. Many of these programs will be delivered by Texas A&M AgriLife experts in the field and translated into Mayan languages. These initiatives will cover such important topics as:
- food safety and quality for fruits, vegetables, and meat products; and
- sanitary and phytosanitary standards for agricultural products.
To learn more about this program, 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.
“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.
 Inteligencia Móvil Internacional de Guatemala or “IMI Guatemala” is a non-profit association that seeks to help people with disabilities in Guatemala by providing low cost and locally assembled wheelchairs.
HISTORY: IMI Guatemala is the pilot project of the U.S. non-profit Intelligent Mobility International, or “IMI. The idea started from a collaboration with students from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and students from Rafael Landivar University in Guatemala City. After a great first 10 weeks, the group grew to include students from another California based university, the Art Center College of Design, and soon after launched IMI.
As the first in-country subsidiary of IMI, IMI Guatemala creates a local presence, allowing for the best possible manufacturing, user feedback and appropriate design in the creation of low cost mobility devices including their first product, an award winning appropriate wheelchair. IMI and IMI Guatemala work together to create and develop an affordable, ergonomic, durable and low cost wheelchair, designed and assembled with wheelchair users from partner Transitions of Guatemala.
VISION: IMI believes that supplying mobility can change lives. With the help of low cost, appropriate mobility devices, those with limited resources can regain mobility and live an active and productive life. Their task is to empower people with disabilities who are living in both urban and isolated rural areas to have the tools to become reintegrated with their communities.
MISSION: To partner with local designers and in-country disability NGOs throughout the world to produce low cost mobility devices, supply training, and offer job opportunities. Every detail of their wheelchair design accounts for the developing world environment for which it was made.
To effect any lasting change in the developing world your product must integrate the following elements: Cost, Quality, and Sustainability. Their wheelchair accounts for all of them:
- X-brace: The function of the X-brace is to collapse the wheelchair so that it takes up less volume for storage and travel. Functionally, the X-brace supports and aligns the two sides of the wheelchair and distributes the forces to its structural members. Their unique design collapses the chair over 1/3rd of its width without compromising strength and at a minimal added cost.
- Footrest: The footrests have been designed to support the users’ legs and lower body while using the chair. In order to fully accommodate the needs of multiple disabilities the footrest position can be easily adjusted to maximize support. This design allows for the frame to collapse using an inexpensive and highly durable system.
- Tires: The terrain in the developing world is rugged and the infrastructure is not accommodating for conventional wheelchair tires. Mountain bike tires are ideal for this environment. Conventional wheelchair wheels have significantly less contact area than mountain bike tires and often little or no tread. Conventional wheels are more likely to get stuck, prematurely wear, and can even endanger the user. In addition to the improved safety and functionality benefits, the tires allow for an air filled ride by absorbing significantly more shock than conventional tires.
- Casters: The caster assemblies are an integral component of the wheelchair and serve multiple functions. The primary function of the casters is to distribute the force exerted on the front of the chair to the ground without compromising the wheelchair’s ability to turn. Their casters are capable of rotating 360 degrees in a smooth, uniform fashion under all user environments- while the chair is moving, stationary, and under considerable force. Furthermore their casters are unique in that their height can be adjusted to customize the angle of inclination of the seat. Integrating this angle adjustment feature allows IMI to further customize the wheelchair for specific end user needs.
To learn more about the work of IMI, please visit their website.
 Hope Haven International Ministries (HHIM) reaches beyond the borders of our nation by extending mercy to people with disabilities around the world. This is accomplished by working closely with relief and development organizations, mission groups and individuals in various countries.
In the early 1990’s, Hope Haven, headquartered out of Rock Valley, Iowa (USA), had an opportunity to get a first-hand look at the living conditions that persons with disabilities experience in foreign countries. Through this experience, a formal proposal regarding Hope Haven developing an international ministry was approved by Hope Haven’s Board of Trustees in 1993 and thus was the beginning of HHIM. Since then, we have expanded our Iowa based ministry to 9 other satellite shops located in Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota, as well as two international shops located in Guatemala and Romania. HHIM rebuilds donated wheelchairs, as well as manufactures the Hope Haven KidChair in both Iowa and Guatemala, and delivers them to people in need around the world.
Mission of Hope Haven International Ministries: The mission of Hope Haven International Ministries is to assist persons with disabilities to reach their potential. This purpose is accomplished by providing support for the development of opportunities for improving the economic and social welfare and independence of people with disabilities within countries and cultures throughout the world. This ministry, as with all of Hope Haven’s services, is “a ministry of Christian mercy based on the conviction that God’s Word speaks to and directs all of life.”
Hope Haven Guatemala: In the summer of 2008, Hope Haven’s Director of Operations moved to Guatemala to live full time and operate a new wheelchair manufacturing facility. Hope Haven is now employing wheelchair users and caretakers in this new shop. People are learning new job skills and making a standard wage, so that they are now able to provide for their families and learn new trade skills.
This shop is specializing in manufacturing the KidChair. After challenging the students of Dordt College, located in NW Iowa, to design a pediatric wheelchair to meet the specific needs of a disabled child living in a Third World country, the Hope Haven KidChair was born. With ongoing modifications and additions, as a result of continuous input from Engineers, Rehab Technicians, Therapists and families, The Hope Haven KidChair has evolved into a system which meets the needs of almost any child who requires wheelchair mobility while living in a demanding Third World environment.
Now manufactured in La Antigua, Guatemala the Hope Haven KidChair is being build by Guatemalans with disabilities. These wheelchairs from the Hope Haven Guatemala factory are given free of charge to children with disabilities in Guatemala, Mexico and Central America thanks to foundations, service clubs, churches and individuals that cover the $180 sponsorship per wheelchair.
To learn more about this group, please visit its general website, Guatemalan website (in Spanish), or view a video of the workers in Guatemala.
 The Wells of Hope Group is a non-denominational group founded on Christian principles. They are committed to responding to the cry of the poor and to help them attain for themselves, the basic necessities of clean water, education, and basic healthcare. They live this commitment through various projects that the Wells of Hope Group has embraced in the mountainous region of Santa Maria, Jalapa, Guatemala. A permanent, year round base to support volunteers, maximize services and manage all projects more effectively was created. The camp has been lovingly dubbed “Campo Esperanza”, the Camp of Hope.
Here are a few of the many projects this group is committed to:
Drilling Wells: A person dies every seven seconds due to water related diseases. This staggering statistic emphasizes the urgency for mobilization. Overcoming many roadblocks, hurdles and frustrations, the Wells of Hope Group has successfully transported its own drilling equipment to Jalapa, one of the poorest regions of Guatemala, Central America. As a result, there are now tens of thousands of Guatemalans receiving reliable, clean water directly to their homes. Where there was once no hope, people’s lives have changed dramatically.
Medical Care: Odillia was in need of a hip replacement. The pain would not allow her to sleep at night or walk during the day. She needed $3,000 for the operation, but her financial situation was similar to most people who make up the communities in the mountains of Santa Maria, Jalapa. Her children had all grown up and moved away. Her husband had passed away many years ago. She barely had enough food to survive on. So Odillia gave up the only resource that she had. She sold her three-room adobe dwelling to pay for the operation. Three months later, the pin that had been placed as a joint to secure her hip snapped. She was now in even greater pain than before and she had absolutely nothing left to finance another operation.
Wells of Hope has become an avenue for many doctors from Southern Ontario to come to Guatemala on a volunteer basis and minister to those who cannot otherwise afford medical attention. The Wells of Hope team organizes medical clinics in the rural mountain communities and the visiting doctors spend long days relieving the nightmare of pain that many have been forced to endure. The doctors donate their time, and bring medicine with them. However, there is still a need for funds to pay for operations like those needed by Odillia.
Stoves: The average Guatemalan family relies on wood to cook their meals. Cooking with homemade wood burning stoves presents numerous challenges. The stoves are not efficient, so the women of the household must spend many hours each week searching for wood. The rudimentary design of the stoves causes the adobe huts of the Guatemalans to fill with dense smoke whenever they are put into use. The women who use the stoves for cooking, as well as the young children in their care, spend the better part of the day inhaling the smoke filled air. As a result, a large percentage of these women and children are afflicted with severe respiratory problems.
Using simple designs proven in successful trials, the Wells of Hope Group has begun to subsidize the construction of wood efficient, smokeless stoves. The stoves are constructed using local materials that are readily available. Under the direction of Wells of Hope, local masons have been taught to build the stoves. These masons are then hired by the Wells of Hope Group to construct stoves for families who have been sponsored through the generosity of Wells of Hope supporters.
To learn more about this group, please visit their website. To read about a group of volunteers preparing to visit Wells of Hope, click here.
 Miracles in Action is a Florida based, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that serves poor indigenous communities in Guatemala. Their team of volunteers seeks out underserved pockets of need in rural Guatemala and they research projects that focus on education, vocational training, and sustainable development. “Miracles” board then selects those projects that achieve long-term results, improve quality of life, and allow truly impoverished people to help themselves.
Supporting Guatemalan Cottage Industry: Because they are a volunteer organization, 100% of all donations go directly to their projects. Administrative expenses are funded by the sale of handicrafts produced in Guatemala’s cottage industry. Additionally, the sale of handicrafts provides the Mayan women an opportunity to earn an income from their home while taking care of their children. If not for the handicraft industry, these women would need to work hard labor in the fields picking coffee and corn for 12 hour shifts away from home.
Projects: Their goal is to make a lasting impact on the lives of the poorest of the poor. Here are some of the ways they strive to make a difference:
- Schools and Libraries: Education is the answer to poverty, but it is often out of reach for the poor. “Miracles” buys the building materials and partners with villagers who provide the construction labor to build their own school.
- Offering Vocational Training: “Miracles” has funded sewing, carpentry, and handicraft training programs where poor people learn trades for better futures.
- Student Scholarships: The group sponsors scholarships to primary, basico, and diversicado schools for poor students from rural, mountain areas. Schools are not free in Guatemala — sponsorship pays for tuition, uniform, books, supplies, student follow-up , and sometimes transportation or housing.
- Bringing Water to Villages, Changing Lives: Clean, safe drinking water is a basic human right. Miracles In Action sponsors water systems that bring a water pipe to each home, improving hygiene and quality of life.
- Water Filters: One of the leading causes of death in young children is dehydration and diarrhea from drinking dirty water with parasites and bacteria. Water filters save the lives of children.
- Sponsoring Stoves – Saving Trees, Lungs and Lives: Most Guatemalan Mayan families cook on open fires inside their homes. New safe, vented stoves are designed to use less wood, resulting in less clear cutting of the rainforest. Smoke gets ventilated out of the house and the design prevents children from being seriously burned.
- Teacher Training Program: Miracles in Action has developed a teacher resource center in Patzun area, and plans to use the center as a model for other areas. Teachers can check out educational materials like flash cards, puzzles, story books, transparencies and overhead projectors, CDs with children’s music and stories, etc. Training workshops are offered live over the internet from US teachers to rural Guatemalan teachers using the center.
To learn more about this group, please visit their website.
 Amigos de Patzún (ADP) is a 501 3(c) non–profit which creates educational opportunities for impoverished students in rural Guatemala. They offer competitive scholarships to middle and high school students who would not be able to continue their education past sixth grade. In 2008, ADP also added a teacher training program focused on improving literacy skills in rural primary schools.
Amigos de Patzún is predicated on the belief that education is a basic human right, and can be a catalyst of systemic change and development. ADP was founded in 2001 by three Peace Corps Volunteers teaching in rural Patzún: Karen Towers, Paul Butki, and Jessica Daly. All three were struck by the lack of opportunity for rural students and worked with a local teacher, Anacleto Catu, to start ADP. Amigos de Patzun’s programs now include:
Middle School and High School Scholarships
In Guatemala, less than 5% of rural students will complete primary school and less than 5% of those that do graduate will continue onto middle school or high school. Consequently, ADP provides scholarships for middle and high school students from the rural areas of Patzún, Guatemala who would like to continue their studies beyond the 6th grade. Students are selected through a competitive process that weighs academic achievement, demonstrated financial needs, and teacher recommendations.
ADP scholarships include:
- Full tuition and fees
- Transportation – the bulk of a student’s cost
- Uniforms
- Books and supplies
- Medical Exams
Scholars also receive special tutoring from Peace Corps Volunteers, and participate in an internship program in which they shadow professionals working in their fields of interest. In addition, as part of the terms of the scholarship, Amigos de Patzún scholars give back to their communities. All scholars elect service projects they feel would most benefit their communities. ADP scholars plant trees in deforested areas, plant and cultivate school gardens, and tutor students in their local elementary schools. ADP strives to go beyond the academic needs of the scholars and helps address hardships faced by the families and the larger community. They are making a difference in many rural communities and they are growing every year.
Teacher Training Program
We at ADP recognize that the ability to recruit competitive students from rural communities into a scholarship program operating in highly demanding urban settings is fundamentally dependent on the quality of education rural students receive. Only 2.6% of Guatemala’s GDP is spent on education and rural schools are hurting for materials and support1. Teachers in rural areas receive very little in-service training and often do not receive quality materials or text books for their classrooms. In addition, teachers working in these rural communities almost exclusively live in urban Patzún.
To help address this disparity, ADP is working with a partner NGO, Miracles in Action, on a teacher training project that will equip rural teachers with skills and materials to improve didactic practices, including literacy, and provide certification to improve their professional development. The training includes a rigorous design with input from local teachers recognized for excellence by the Ministry of Education; instructional tool kits; continuous follow-up; and monitoring and evaluation. In addition, in January 2010, Miracles in Action and ADP helped teachers in Patzún launch a teacher resource center which will allow teachers to check out teaching materials to use in the classroom.
The first pilot training took place in July 2008 in two rural communities, El Cojobal and La Pila, and has since expanded to cover more than fifteen rural villages. The program has been a great success and the Ministry of Education has asked ADP and Miracles in Action to expand this program to cover all of Patzún’s rural primary schools.
1 World Bank Education Statistics, Guatemala, 2008.
To learn more about this group, please visit its website. Click here to read about one of this group’s partner organizations, Miracles in Action.
To visit the Reading village website, please click here.
Belief Statement: Every child should be able to grow up free to express their fullest self, give what they have to contribute to their families, their communities, their countries and the world. Access to books, the ability to read, and to think critically and imaginatively are fundamental to the full development of individuals and society.
Vision: Their vision is of a proud and thriving Guatemala that loves to read, where children grow up able to realize their full potential.
Mission: With a focus on children, they work collaboratively with the residents of impoverished villages to create programs that develop a culture of reading.
To read further about some of the children helped by Reading Village, check out their blog.
Scholarships
Public school is not free in Guatemala. In the communities where Reading Village works only 25% of the children study beyond the sixth grade. Reading Village has a scholarship fund you can donate to which has a double impact. It keeps a student in school, and that student gives time in return running reading activities with younger children in the community. Their scholars not only receive funding for school, they also provide leadership training, including field trips outside their community and opportunities to meet other student leaders in other communities. It is their desire to develop these young people into community leaders who will take ownership of creating a new future for themselves and their community.
To visit the Reading Village website, please click the following link.
Farmer to Farmer, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, envisions agriculture that is sustainable and respectful of the earth, that remains in the hands of the people who live and work the land. They support grassroots agricultural projects that are democratically initiated and managed. They affirm the sacredness of the earth and work for and respect the rights of all peoples and cultures to self-determination.
There are currently two work trips in progress, one in the Honduras and one in Guatemala. To read further about the trips, check out the trip’s blog.
WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW
Currently, their focus is on scholarship support in Guatemala, coffee marketing, and work trips for cross-cultural exchange. See their programs page for more.
They’ve spent a lot of time on the ground in Guatemala, which gives them a clearer picture of what’s going on down there. They’ve had the opportunity to work with many inspiring individuals and groups, such as:
To go to the Farmer to Farmer website, please click here.
 On the shores of Lake Atitlan in the southern highlands of Guatemala, surrounded by volcanoes is nestled Santiago Atitlan, a small indigenous T’zutujil Mayan community. This village of 43,000 residents represents one of the largest Mayan indigenous communities in the Americas. In past five years, devastating natural disasters compounded the bleak pre-existing educational and economic realities of the community and threaten its viability. In 2005, mudslides following Hurricane Stan buried the pillars of this community –the school and hospital—along with scores of homes and residents, parents and children. Four years later, nearly one third of the families still live in plastic tent shelters without clean water, proper nutrition, adequate healthcare or educational opportunities for their children. Nearly half of Santiago Atitlan’s women remain illiterate.
Pueblo a Pueblo was formed to respond to the situation in Santiago Atitlan and other villages like it. Their aim is to contribute to building sustainable, viable and healthy indigenous communities in Guatemala. Their projects are developed in close collaboration with the local partners to respond to their most pressing needs.
Each project is designed to build the capacity of the community to thrive on its own while achieving health, nutrition, and educational opportunities for the children and their families. They help provide the tools so that rather than being forced into a life of poverty, illiteracy and malnutrition, the children and their families can choose how to live their lives. They acknowledge that they cannot solve problems of poverty alone but only through teamwork and mutual partnerships.
Pueblo a Pueblo supports the following key programs:
Child Education Sponsorship Program
The majority of indigenous Guatemalan families cannot afford to send their children to school or to provide them with healthcare. Sponsorship of a child who is attending the Escuela Oficial Rural Mixta Cantón Panabaj in Santiago Atitlan ensures that she/he will receive an education, have the school supplies and books she/he needs and receive proper healthcare — routine care, immunizations and emergency care. Both education and good health will greatly improve your sponsored child’s chance of breaking the cycle of poverty and enjoying a successful future. Cost: $25/month or $300/year.
Mother-Infant Sponsorship Program
In Santiago Atitlán, 190 of every 100,000 pregnancies result in the mother’s death due to complications and 37 of every 1,000 children die at birth. When you sponsor a pregnant Mayan woman and her unborn child, you will ensure that she will receive life-saving medical care throughout her pregnancy and for three months postpartum. When your sponsored child is born she/he will begin life with an advantage that most Guatemalan infants do not have – comprehensive prenatal and postnatal care. In addition, the mother you sponsor will receive training in first aid, nutrition, infant resuscitation, and preventative care. Cost: $25/month or $300/year.
Elementary School Libraries
School libraries are virtually nonexistent in rural Guatemala. Children’s books are luxury items and there is no way for children to explore independent learning, to fill their intellectual curiosity, and develop a passion for reading. Teachers lack the expertise and resources to establish libraries. As a result, even if children have acquired reading skills, they have nothing to read. Pueblo a Pueblo’s most recent project involves developing and furnishing a library for the Panabaj and Chuk Muk Elementary School s. This project is being supported by a partnership between Pueblo a Pueblo , the Panabaj and Chuk Muk Municipal Elementary School s of Santiago Atitlan, the community, and its families. They all work together to ensure greater local responsibility for education and literacy.
Panabaj School Lunch Program
Guatemala has one of the worst nutritional conditions in Latin America (UNICEF 2008) 67% of indigenous Guatemalan children suffer from chronic malnutrition. Chronic malnutrition in mothers results in low birth weight children putting them at an early disadvantage. For three years Pueblo a Pueblo has provided a school lunch program for the 500 primary school children attending the Panabaj School — often times their only nutritious meal of the day. Better nutrition has resulted in improved health and a better attitude towards learning. It has kept the children in school, reduced their visits to the hospital and increased their well being.
Widows Housing Program
Due to the generous support of the Cole Family Foundation, they are able to facilitate the purchase of land and construction of permanent homes for widows in the Panabaj neighborhood. These women lost their husbands in the 2005 mudslides. Children from these families attend the Panabaj Municipal Elementary School and take part in their education sponsorship program.
To learn more about Pueblo a Pueblo, please visit their website.
Sharing the Dream in Guatemala is a non-profit organization that promotes fair trade with cooperatives and small businesses in Guatemala. They are committed to providing fair wages and employment opportunities to low-income artisans, which will result in creating sustainable markets for their products. Their craft products are handmade by Mayan artisans using many traditional techniques. Purchasing these crafts not only provides work for these artisans, but the profits go to support community development projects in Guatemala.
Friends of Sharing the Dream is a 501(c)3 organization which accepts donations to be used for projects helping the artisans and their families.
A purchase of a beautiful work of art not only provides work for the artisan who made it, but the profits from the sale will go to community projects like the following:
- Providing financial help to the orphanage Casa Guatemala located in the jungle
- Providing educational scholarships for Guatemalan women and children
- Buying school supplies for Mayan children in the mountains
- Sponsoring over 65 elders in Santiago Atitlan with meals and medical care
- Building weaving centers and providing clean water for areas in Comotancillo
- Helping sustain several rural schools
- Establishing workshops and help for over 50 cooperatives/small businesses
Most of the people involved with Sharing the Dream are volunteers.
For more information about Sharing the Dream, please visit their website. For information on a great way to volunteer without ever leaving your hometown, click here.
Bridges to Prosperity…changing lives one bridge at a time
Bridges to Prosperity is a volunteer based charity that seeks to empower poor African, Asian and Latin American rural communities through footbridge building – thereby advancing personal responsibility, community public works, economic prosperity; and access to schools, clinics, jobs and markets.
The most powerful thing we share with others less fortunate is knowledge. Bridges to Prosperity does so by delivering practical knowledge that encourages the poor to lift themselves from poverty on their own. This empowerment of the poor is accomplished through their Community Bridge Building programs, which demonstrate how knowledge and training can fuel positive change in people’s lives.
Community Bridge Building is an incredibly successful way to teach this lesson. For bridges allow people to cross geographical barriers like rivers/gorges/mountains, thereby allowing access to schools, hospitals and markets. It is no wonder that the poor consider bridges “miracles”. But the true miracle is not the bridge itself, but rather the fundamental change in the hopes and dreams of those that they teach to build it.
Guatemala Footbridges The Guatemala program will begin in January 2010, concentrating on the highland department of Quiché, in particular rural communities in the municipality of Uspantán. Quiché is the homeland of the K’iche and Uspanteko indigenous peoples, direct descendants of the Mayans.
The Quiché department, and in particular the very remote Zona Reyna region of Uspantán, is one of the poorest, most underdeveloped, and least accessible areas of Central America, with some villages within the municipality of Uspantán lying up to eight hours away from the town itself. Uspantán was the site of much violence committed during the war, and the emotional, economic, and cultural scars still remain. The town has been experiencing a revival in recent years, with a progressive and well-respected mayor in office who is actively encouraging and facilitating development work in Uspantán’s poorest areas. The K’iche people continue to hold on to their Mayan traditions and their language, which vary subtly from village to village. The Uspanteko population is fast diminishing with an increasing number of young people leaving the area to find work, neglecting to wear the traditional dress and learn the Uspanteko language.
The geographic boundaries of mountains and rivers further isolate communities, and access to medical care, normally a full day’s trip from the furthest villages, can become impossible during the heaviest rains. With the introduction of safe and reliable bridges, the K’iche and Uspantekos will gain the security of being able to overcome their geographic boundaries during times of emergency, and the confidence of having uninterrupted access to their crops and schools.
Bridges to Prosperity is also exploring a series of prototype suspension bridge projects, sponsored by Flatiron Construction Corporation. The first pilot bridge will most likely be constructed outside of the city of Antigua, in the suburb of San Juan del Obispo, and will serve a community of 8000 people.
Click on any project link below to view more details and see photos of the project and people involved.
Project #062 – San Juan del Obispo Suspension Pedestrian Footbridge
Project #065 – La Taña Suspension Pedestrian Footbridge
Project #066 – Salcaja Suspended Pedestrian Footbridge
Project #067 – San Lucas Suspended Pedestrian Footbridge
Project #068 – Palqui Suspended Pedestrian Footbridge
To learn more about Bridges To Prosperity, please visit their website.
 The Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group (AIDG) helps individuals and communities get affordable and environmentally sound access to electricity, sanitation and clean water. Through a combination of business incubation, education, and outreach, they help people get technology that will better their health and improve their lives.
Many rural communities and urban shantytowns in developing countries do not have public services, such as energy, sanitation and clean water. The residents of these communities also tend to lack access to the capital and training that would let them solve these problems themselves. Due to scarce government resources, they often must rely on help from aid organizations or resort to poorly constructed stop gaps.
AIDG believes that in order to develop affordable services for underserved communities, local enterprises need to be fostered and supported. Small renewable energy, sanitation, water, and other innovative firms need financing and training to build the power systems, schools, toilets, water systems, biomass, agricultural processing, communications and other forms of infrastructure that can change the basic standard of living for people currently living in poverty.
The goal of AIDG’s Business Incubation Program is to create independent locally-owned enterprises that can serve the needs of impoverished communities using appropriate technology. Currently the program focuses on business creation in the following arenas: Energy, Water and Sanitation. Future arenas under consideration include Communications, Housing, Transportation and Agricultural Processing.
The AIDG provides each incubated business with:
- Training
- Seed Capital
- Technical and logical support
- Equipment and material procurement
- Aid in business planning
- A 2-year incubation commitment
- Access to a talented base of international volunteers and interns
- Program Model
They operate the Business Incubation Program through five steps: Talent and Opportunity Identification, Investment Lending, Tools and Equipment Provision, Training and Research and Contracted Services.
Talent and Opportunity Identification Starting in 2008, AIDG began conducting business plan competitions in Guatemala and Haiti to identify entrepreneurs for the Business Incubation program. Teams with the most promising business ideas receive 2 to 3 years’ worth of training, in-kind equipment and material donations, an initial start-up grant to help them incorporate their enterprise and begin early operations, and access to low-interest loans ranging in size from $10,000 to $100,000 (median $50,000).
Investment Lending AIDG’s business financing takes the form of grants and low-interest loans. Loan amounts which can range from $10,000 to $100,000, depend on the enterprise’s scale and scope. They offer a very favorable fixed interest rate ranging from 0% to 5% for most of their loans. The loans have very generous repayment terms and schedules to accommodate the enterprises they support, which operate in difficult market environments. Since their goal is enterprise success and not fund return, loans made by AIDG are intentionally below market rate.
Tools and Equipment Provision Most of the enterprises that they aim to incubate require some level of specialized equipment (e.g. foundries, milling machines, computer aided circuit design software). Depending on an enterprises needs, AIDG may provide an additional equipment donation of $2,000 to $25,000 of either purchased or donated equipment to help the enterprise get itself on its feet.
Training and Research Their training involves direct mentor pairing between members of their internship program and member of the enterprise. To date this has revolved around skills assessment and skill building exercises in both technical and business realms, ranging anywhere from electronics to accounting. They are in the process of developing a standardized training curriculum for each skill set. Additionally, they are working with teams of experienced professionals who can come to the field for shorter terms and give very specific skills based training to augment the intern mentorships. AIDG also acts as a research and development arm for their incubated enterprises working to solve individual technical challenges based on customer feedback and ideas about product improvement.
Contracted Services Much of AIDG’s outreach work is done by contracting their incubated enterprises to perform infrastructure projects in local communities. This provides real world environments to train the business team as the enterprise is getting started. It also builds awareness of AIDG’s work and programs in the region and serves direct charitable purposes for schools, daycares, orphanages and other community organizations. During the 2 to 3 year incubation period, their incubated businesses are responsible for implementation and product delivery while AIDG acts as project manager and monitors project quality on contracted work. Outside of this period, the businesses do both project management and execution.
To learn more about AIDG’s work, please visit their website, or blog.
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