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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 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.
 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 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.
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.
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.
 …doing well while doing good
Climb for a Cause (CFAC) is a non-profit Foundation that combines the breathtaking beauty of the mountains with the desire to make a positive difference in peoples’ lives. Since 1998, they have been making positive and meaningful differences in the lives of needy children and deserving adults around the world. CFAC offers individuals and organizations a unique opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to “giving back”–that is, to share the fruits of their success with those less fortunate. Each year, dental professionals, staff, Industry participants, and Media from across the nation assemble at one of North America’s natural wonderlands to CFAC. While not technically difficult, the Events typically pose a formidable endurance challenge. Funds raised from this year’s events will support the CFAC dental education and treatment projects in Guatemala and Nepal. Part of CFAC’s proceeds may also be allocated to other domestic oral health causes.
By working with in-country partners, CFAC has been successful in making a positive and noticeable difference in the lives of needy children and deserving adults.
To learn more about CFAC, please visit their website. To read about CFAC’s 13th annual fundraising event on Sept. 5, 2010, in the Three Sisters Region near Bend, Oregon, please click here.
 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 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.
 Compassion Fruit Society, a Canadian based Non-Profit Organization is establishing the Project Somos Children’s Village in Guatemala. This village will be a safe and loving environment for orphaned and abandoned children. There will be homes with Guatemalan foster mothers each raising a household of children as a family. Education, leadership and arts will be integral to the Children’s Village. The Village will work hand in hand with the local Guatemalan community.
The most important facet of Project Somos is to nurture the children to become compassionate and creatively intelligent adults who will enter society as productive citizens. The hope of Guatemala lies in their young people and the Village will be raising Guatemala’s future leaders, parents, teachers and professionals.
As well as being designed to have an inherent beauty and harmony, the Village will be built to be eco-sustainable with alternative energy generation, rain water capture and grey water recycling. Organic agriculture will provide food for the moms and children.
The goal of Project Somos is to reach financial sustainability through Social Enterprises. Small businesses will be established to employ locals and to financially sustain the project in a real and concrete way. Ideas for potential businesses at this time include; volunteer tourism, special event hall rental and agricultural production. Project Somos is open and excited to partner with existing local and foreign businesses to establish Social Enterprises.
An ideal piece of land with existing structures has been found in Guatemala and at this time the Society is working on its Capital Campaign to secure the funding to purchase the property and to begin construction of the homes for the children.
To learn more about this group, please visit their website, blog, or Facebook page.
 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.
 The mission of the non-profit Range of Motion Project (ROMP) is to provide no-cost prosthetic limbs and orthotic devices in developing countries. ROMP recognizes the hardship of living in poverty without a prosthetic or orthotic device and understands how important these, often times simple devices, are to those who do not have access to them. In many cases, a prosthetic or orthotic device is a critical component in a disabled person’s rehabilitation. ROMP believes that with this “tool”, independence, mobility and involvement in community and the socio-economic structure can become more attainable. ROMP also believes that rehabilitation has the power to increase visibility of the disabled and awareness can change attitudes and help people see that “disability” is only as crippling as the barriers we let stand in our minds and in our world.
Since 2005, together with the help of trained prosthetists and orthotists, care givers, volunteers and generous donors, ROMP has provided 750 people with prosthetic limbs and more than 1,800 with orthotic devices. ROMP is involved in projects throughout Guatemala and Ecuador, with its flagship laboratory located at the Loren J. Mallon Centro de Rehabilitacion in Zacapa, Guatemala. The U.S. headquarters are in Chicago, IL.
To learn more about ROMP, please visit their website and their blog.
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.
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