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 Ties to the World (“TTTW”) is a 501 (c)(3) not for profit organization founded in Northern California, by Ibis Schlesinger in November 2006. Their goal is to promote self-sustainable orphanages in Latin America and worldwide thus breaking the cycle of their dependence on charity.
Ties to the World wants abandoned children to have the tools they need to succeed as adults. They want to help orphaned and disadvantaged youth develop the academic, business, and interpersonal skills necessary to support themselves and their future families in their home countries.
TTTW’s strategy is bring together business and community leaders, service groups and philanthropic individuals, university students and young adults, foundations and investors from both the US and the host countries to work in partnership to discover and launch social-entrepreneurial ventures large enough to enable the orphanages to become self-sustaining.
To learn how they will achieve self sustainability for the orphanages they work with, click here to visit their website.
 Curamericas Global partners with underserved communities to make measurable and sustainable improvements in their health and wellbeing. Since 1983, they have been working to reduce infant, child, and maternal mortality rates in regions that lack basic health services. They also organize short-term volunteer trips to their project sites in Guatemala, Bolivia, Haiti and Liberia, where their local partners are in need of both medical and non-medical volunteers.
Since 2003, Curamericas Global has been working with their local partner organization, Curamericas-Guatemala, to reduce infant and child mortality rates, along with maternal deaths, in rural Mayan communities in the country’s northwest region.
Curamericas-Guatemala’s program is located in the Department of Huehuetenango, a remote area in the mountains frequently called the “Triangle of Death” because it has the highest infant mortality and malnutrition rates in the country. Within their project area, 68% of children under the age of 3 are malnourished and 1 in 250 pregnancies result in death. (In the US the rate is 1 in 12,500).
Curamericas Global’s National Program Director, Dr. Mario Valdez, is the only medical doctor for the more than 66,000 people living this area. Their nurses and community health workers provide basic care, health education and outreach, vaccinations, vitamins, and other vital services to mothers and families, mostly through home visits.
Through Dr. Mario and his staff’s dedication, today almost 90% of the children have received lifesaving vaccinations.
One dream that has become a reality in this region is the Calhuitz Maternity Center (La Casa Materna). The Calhuitz Maternity Center was constructed under the combined efforts of Curamericas international volunteers and local community members. It is a center for childbirth, pre-natal care, and women’s health.
The local traditional birth attendants (called comadronas) are spreading the word about the Center to encourage mothers to utilize the facility. The comadronas will attend births at the Center under the supervision of a medical professional, and both mothers and comadronas will have access to education and support. After only one year in operation, the number of women giving birth in the facility is 30% and all obstetric emergencies have been promptly responded to, with no deaths among mothers or children.
To learn more about Curamericas work in Guatemala, please visit their website.
 The Guatemalan Scholarship/Loan Program was founded by members of Guatemala’s small un-programmed Quaker meeting in 1973. Their mission is to provide access to in-country educational and community development opportunities in order to bring choice into the lives of poor Guatemalans and enable them to participate in their country’s growth and development.
Over the decades the program has grown from supporting one student in 1973 to supporting 114 university and secondary school students in 2008. At present, the program has helped over 1,000 students in different careers. Several of the students have become important functionaries in the government and development organizations. The program is jointly sponsored by the Guatemala Friends Monthly Meeting and the Redwood Forest Friends Meeting in Santa Rosa, California. They receive financial support from a small number of Quaker meetings and a large number of Quaker and non-Quaker friends.
All of their students come from very poor families. Over 90% are Maya and the majority grew up in very rural areas of the country. The Friends support the students’ higher education at public and private institutions within Guatemala. Very few of their students are able to obtain a higher education in their home communities. Some travel long distances in order to attend special “weekend programs”. Others must leave their families and pay for room and board closer to the university.
Guatemala Friends will host their Teaching English Tour on January 4 – 11 2011. This is a one week (8 night) work tour in which English speaking volunteers come to Guatemala in order to teach English to our students. The teachers work one-on-one with our highly motivated students and thus have the opportunity of making deep personal connections and sharing cultural perspectives as well as providing English lessons.
The group also offers a Regular Tour of Guatemala in which the visitors have a unique opportunity to visit this incredibly beautiful country and to meet Guatemalans in a non-tourist atmosphere. The dates for this tour are pending but it is usually held in March.
To learn more about Guatemala Friends, please visit their website.
 Kids Alive International is a Christian faith mission dedicated to rescuing orphans and vulnerable children – meeting their spiritual, physical, educational and emotional needs. Kids Alive provides children with the love and care every child deserves, and raises them to be contributing members of their society and witnesses to their family and community.
The Oasis: This residential care facility began in 1999 and has grown into a campus that currently has five completed homes, with one more home being built. The Oasis campus, located west of Guatemala City, includes a school, computer lab, offices, a library, a great hall, the children’s homes, two Independence Homes (for girls over 18, transitioning out of their care and into the community), and some staff housing including a guest house for Service Teams.
Eight to ten girls reside in each home with Guatemalan house parents. The majority of the 40 girls have been rescued by Guatemalan authorities out of abusive home-life situations. At The Oasis, these girls receive the spiritual, emotional and physical healing necessary to recover.
Source of Hope Care Center: The Source of Hope Care Center opened its doors in July, 2006, in the town of Zapote – a remote area where food, work, and education are scarce. This ministry is a partnership between Kids Alive and Iglesia Galilea, a local church. It began with forty preschoolers and has since grown to 100 children from preschool to fourth grade. Here they receive a solid education, health services and a nutrition program – often the only meals they receive each day. A new building has just been completed where they plan to expand to sixth grade and develop community outreach programs. Kids Alive and Iglesia Galilea are working to develop nutrition, education and discipleship programs for the children and their parents as they believe that the Gospel can transform this village.
To learn more about Kids Alive, please visit their website. Or click here for more information about forming a Medical Mission Team to help children. Latest news and updates can be followed on their Facebook page.
Las Manos de Christine works within impoverished communities to broaden opportunities for local children by providing English language instruction .
It is in its fourth year of operation and building new relationships with individuals and other charitable organizations. Currently, its primary relationship is with Camino Seguro, which both has helped Las Manos enormously in its developing years and seen great benefit from Las Manos’s involvement with it. In addition, this year sees Las Manos branching out on its first autonomous project in the rural village school of El Hato.
Charitable organizations running schools in developing countries face a wide range of obstacles when creating and maintaining an English program. For example, programs must be carefully designed to maximize student progress and teacher retention. It can be difficult to find qualified and experienced educators. Essential resources such as books, workbooks, and audio materials are expensive. Overcoming these problems and creating a sustainable program requires time, money, and experience.
Further, many organizations utilize volunteers as a significant part of their teaching staff. Volunteers, because of their passion and selfless efforts, are an excellent resource. Unfortunately, they are often untrained and normally stay for only a short period. The student-teacher relationship takes time and effort to build and constant rotation of teachers may result in a lack of consistency and progress in the classroom.
Las Manos provides English programs, resources, and trained teachers to non-profits and other groups who work with underprivileged children in an educational capacity. Tailored English programs are designed by education professionals, each class is assigned a permanent and experienced instructor, volunteers are integrated into the program to give direct assistance to individuals and the classes are taught with the latest teaching methods and using the most effective resources available.
To learn more about Las Manos, please visit their website.
Books and Wings is an IRS approved 501(c)(3) non-profit, whose mission is to support community libraries and education in Guatemala. Books and Wings works in several under-served communities in the Departments of Esquintla and Suchitepéquez; including Tiquisate, Rio Bravo, and Chicacao.
Community Libraries: They work with municipal authorities and library committees to strengthen their public libraries and schools. Through their programs, they help bring about meaningful change and a better future for young Guatemalans.
- Tiquisate: The Biblioteca Popular de Tiquisate (Popular or Public of Tiquisate) was founded on April 6, 2001. Initially housed in the Principal’s office of the Tecun Uman elementary school, this library was more of a book museum for the first several months, with less than 50 users between April and October, 2001. There was no librarian, and people were terrified that if the collection was freely accessible, books would be stolen. So, they were locked up in display cases. All this changed when Clariza Contreras was hired to be the librarian. Clariza began work in January, 2002, and by April there were more than 1,000 users a month! This posed its own set of problems – the school office was simply too small to accommodate so many people! So, the corridor outside was set up as a study area, with chairs and several large tables. As library usage continued to grow, the community made plans to build a new building with more adequate facilities to serve as library. Fundraising began in July, 2002, and construction started in August. The alcalde (mayor) agreed to pay for the labor, and the library committee took on the task of raising money to buy the materials. A beautiful new library was opened on February 21, 2003. In 2007, there were 25,000 visitors to the library!
- Rio Bravo: Rio Bravo is about 15 km. from Tiquisate. The old library was about the size of a walk-in closet with space for about 10 users at a time. A civic library committee had raised money to build a larger structure, but the effort was abandoned before completion, and the shell sat for a long, long time. In July, 2004, Books and Wings agreed to buy books if the municipality could finish building the new library by February, 2005. A reconstituted library committee worked hand in hand with the alcalde, Juan Francisco Lopez Diaz. The inauguration was held Thanksgiving Day, 2004 – 3 months ahead of the deadline! So, off they went to buy books in the capital.
- San Antonio: When they first visited the library in San Antonio, Suchitepéquez in Feb., 2004, they noticed lots of users, an enthusiastic librarian, and many inadequacies. Books were stacked on the floor and packed in boxes for lack of shelf space. There weren’t enough tables and chairs, and there were no windows or fans. The municipal authorities agreed to remedy these and other problems by the end of 2004, and Books and Wings agreed to buy books to enlarge the collection.
Scholarship Program: Most Guatemalan families struggle to afford the cost of registration fees, school uniforms, books and school supplies. Because of this, only small percentages of children are able to study in Basico (Jr HS), and even fewer make it to Diversificado (High School). Their scholarship program addresses this problem, as well as encouraging strong study habits and community service. Scholarship students are recommended by their 6th grade teachers and principals, and must meet the following criteria:
- Good grades
- Financial need
- May not be related to teachers or administrators
In addition to maintaining their grades, scholarship students must work in the library as aides a half day a week (twice a week for students entering 1st year Basico), and must write their sponsors periodically. They try to maintain gender balance in the scholarship program. In return, the students receive a beginning of the school year stipend to pay for their school fees, a monthly stipend, a reference book or textbook each year, access to an after-school English class with a university-trained teacher (Tiquisate), occasional field trips, and supplementary help as needed. This may take the form of food-baskets, tutoring, medical services, etc. Students living out of town receive extra money to pay for their transportation.
Special Projects: Books and Wings serves rural schools in the Esquintla area through loans of mini-libraries, librarian visits and teacher training.
- Story hours in classrooms: Librarians bring large bins of books to a rural school for one day. After one or more story hours, the books are displayed in an empty classroom or other open space and classes take turns visiting the temporary “library” to read books. The idea is to have a mobile library to provide service to outlying areas.
- Book Loans: Most Guatemalan libraries do not loan books for fear of losing their collection. Two of the libraries they work with are exceptions to that rule. Tiquisate and Chicacao are each loaning hundreds of books a month. Loans are pending in Rio Bravo.
- Mini-Libraries – Rural Schools: One or more large bins of books are loaned to a rural school for the school year. The students pay a small fee (typically one Quetzal per student – $.15 US) for this privilege. At the end of the school year, the books come back to the library. As long as the books are in good shape (used, but not abused), half the “loan fee” is returned to the school to buy a book of its own. The other half goes to the library petty cash fund.
- Mini-Libraries – Public Buildings: A set of 30 or so high quality hard back books is loaned to a government or private entity, and is placed in the lobby for public access. Children’s books make up most of the collections, but they also include some adult material. The purpose is to encourage parents to read (or look at) books with their children, and for adults to have access to printed material. It is also a way to encourage people to visit the library – where there are more books! (Municipal buildings – Tiquisate, Rio Bravo and pending in Chicacao; Christian Children’s Fund – Chicacao; Cope Jr. Children’s Credit Union – Tiquisate).
- Trainings for librarians, teachers, and school administrators: Working in tandem with the Reicken Foundation, Child Aid, PROBIGUA (Guatemalan Libraries Project), Consejo de Lectura de Guatemala, and the National Library, Books and Wings has offered trainings to hundreds of teachers, librarians and administrators on themes such as teaching reading and writing, and critical thinking skills. Books and Wings also sponsors the attendance of a dozen or so educators at the semi-annual International Reading Conference in Guatemala City.
- Meetings for librarians throughout the region: Librarians from communities throughout the Costa Sur have taken turns hosting meetings to exchange ideas and visit other libraries to see what their colleagues are doing. This allows them to share information and concerns, to problem solve and support each other (Previously monthly, now occasional).
To read more about this group, please visit their website.
Let’s Be Ready’s mission is to prepare at-risk Guatemalan children for the first-grade by establishing preschools and training preschool and first-grade teachers. Their vision is to break the cycle of poverty in Guatemala by reducing the high rate of drop-out and repetition of children in the first-grade. Their goal is to have 80% of their students successfully complete 6th grade—current national average is 20%. Their schools provide the students with a safe, clean place to play and learn. Parents are involved in the school so as to ensure both the support of their program and the commitment to their child’s on-going education.
Their methodology:
- They identify unemployed teachers who have been trained in the National Curriculum and who have the determination to start their own preschool.
- The teacher forms a partnership with a community who needs and wants a preschool.
- The community is required to provide the building for the school and the teacher must recruit parents willing to participate and volunteer.
- The teacher must also agree to be a demonstration school (i.e., they must share ideas and resources with other nearby schools) and they must agree to be accredited by the Department of Education.
- They find a sponsor to provide the teacher with financial support to cover their salary, training, equipment, materials and the cost of operating the school room.
- The teacher must attend their annual teacher-training program before opening their school.
- They require student attendance of 90%.
- They require 100% parent participation in school meetings and functions.
- The students’ readiness for the first-grade is assessed at the end of the year and the students are tracked through the completion of the 3rd grade.
Their teaching training program:
- They invite preschool and first-grade teachers from public and private schools in the communities in which they have established preschools to observe their classrooms.
- They require all of their preschool teachers to undertake a three-week teacher-training program before the beginning of each school year
- They also provide their teachers with mentoring throughout the school year.
Currently, Let’s Be Ready runs preschools in the following communities:
- San Pedro Las Huertas
- Colonia Hermano Pedro de Santa Ana
- San Juan del Obispo
- San Miguel Escobar
- San Juan Alotenango
- Santa Maria de Jesus
- Santo Domingo Xenacoj
- Aldea San Antonio de Santo Domingo Xenacoj
- Aldea El Rosario de Santo Domingo Xenacoj
- San Pablo La Laguna
- Chuisec
- Pacoj
- Tierra Colorado
- La Pila
Volunteers: They accept bilingual preschool teachers for assignments of at least 3 weeks and help them set up their lodging.
To learn more about Let’s Be Ready, please visit their website.
CasaSito increases educational opportunities in rural areas of Guatemala so that indigenous people living in poverty can attend school, receive quality instruction, and obtain the skills they need to improve their lives.
CasaSito has two approaches for addressing educational needs, depending on location. In the Department of Sacatepéquez, they offer scholarships and work closely with local learning centers to provide in-depth and extensive support for students and families. In more remote areas, they work with community leaders to provide support for more short-term projects, such as school construction, education material grants, and training workshops.
- Scholarship: The CasaSito scholarship program focuses on indigenous junior high and high school students of the Sacatepéquez area who have good grades, but are unable to continue their studies due to their economic circumstances. With this program, students may choose their school career as long as their choices are within their budget and their family financial situation.
- School materials and facilities: CasaSito assists six communities in developing the basic resources that they need to provide a solid education. CasaSito provides support for school buildings, teachers’ salaries, furniture and technical equipment that is needed for “Telesecundaria” (a form of long-distance education where students learn from videos). CasaSito also offers school materials such as books, notebooks, and writing utensils. In very rural communities, CasaSito is assisting to build and furnish dorm rooms for students who travel long distances to attend school.
- Food Programs: Students cannot focus in school if they are always hungry. Therefore, CasaSito supports cafeterias in four of its partner programs. These cafeterias not only help children to focus in school, they also provide at least one nutritious meal each day. (And provide employment for community members, usually women.)
- Adult Skill Training: Adhering to their belief that empowering women is one of the effective ways in development, CasaSito provides three communities with skill development programs. CasaSito has trained women in baking, sewing, jewelry making, farming and literacy.
- Library and Computer Labs: CasaSito supports library and computer labs in four of its partner programs. These labs allow students and community members access to a wide variety of knowledge. They also foster a love of learning and reading that students will hopefully carry with them even after they finish their schooling.
- Festivals: CasaSito believes that a well-rounded education includes a variety of extracurricular activities. Therefore, CasaSito holds small festivals for organizations who wish to improve their programs in art, music, athletics, and debate.
As a part of educational mission, CasaSito strives to improve the living condition of the families of rural areas of Guatemala to a level from which they can build their own future and better lives.
- Rainwater Catchment Tanks Construction Program: This program improves domestic water supplies for rural villagers in Guatemala, where besides the lack of clean drinking water, water for bathing is greatly restricted, especially in the dry season, causing skin and other health problems. Each tank can hold up to 6,000 liters of water, which if used properly will last 2-3 months of the dry season and offer clean water during the rainy season.
- Community health posts: They raise funds to help community health posts with equipment and medicine. They also look for associations and university volunteer programs to partner with local communities to improve the quality of health services and special projects such water quality control, medicinal herbal garden, workshops and intensive courses for health promoters.
- Emergency relief: They provide medical help and food supplies to communities and individuals who suffer from the lack of medical services or natural disasters. In 2005, CasaSito offered emergency food supplies to villages around the Tacaná area, which was very affected by Hurricane Stan. They often assist children and their families with medicine, hospital visits and emergency transport fees.
- Microfinance projects: They help associations to apply micro loans to equip their education centers and support mothers who are related to their partner associations to start small business in order to improve their income. One of the most important ingredients of social development in developing countries is the participation of volunteers. Every year, thousands of volunteers arrive in Guatemala and look for ways to help. However, not all of them have strong financial support and for those who stay in the Antigua area, the cost of living can be expensive.
Volunteers’ Program
- Volunteers: The Volunteer Program is very important to CasaSito. CasaSito relies on their volunteers for supporting their general education program. They teach classes, distribute materials, building tanks and centers. They contribute a great deal to the success of CasaSito and its partner communities.
- Volunteers’ House: The goal of the “Volunteers’ House Project” is to provide a comfortable and economical housing option for volunteers working in the Antigua area. The house is 7 blocks from Parque Central, near Parque San Sebastian. The minimum stay is two weeks and prices start at Q1000/month and depend on length of stay and whether you take a single or double room. The prices include use of a full kitchen, filtered water, coffee and tea, and unlimited access to a computer and high speed (wireless) internet.
For more information about CasaSito, please visit their website.
 Safe Homes for Children is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation set up to support Casa de Sion, an orphanage in Los Robles near Panajachel. On 17 acres of farmland, they have a 2500 sq. ft. building that is used for their orphanage. They take street children as well as children whose parents cannot afford to feed or clothe them. Their goal is to nurse these wounded children to physical, psychological and spiritual health. They attend church and are enrolled in school. They would like to give these children an opportunity to succeed in life.
In addition to the orphanage, they work with individuals in the community. They offer a lunch program three days a week to the 75 elementary school children next door. After lunch, those children study with a teacher provided by Safe Homes for 3 hours. The group also offers student scholarships for children in the community who would not be able to go to school otherwise.
They have a formula program for 30 infants and an Incaparina program for 275 children. They have many more children that want and need to be on their feeding program, but they had to limit it because of finances. Recently, they broke ground on a medical clinic with birthing rooms, which will serve the resident children, and the community. Safe Homes partners with an American NGO, Pan en la Boca.
To learn more about this group, please visit their website.
 Comunidad Nueva Alianza is an organic coffee and macadamia plantation owned and operated by a cooperative of forty Guatemalan families, located in a sub-tropical area 1000 meters above sea level 45 minutes north of the coastal town of Retalhuleu. The community is nestled amongst a 300 acre plantation of organic coffee and macadamia trees where large tracts of natural tropical forest have been preserved as well.
Their cooperative works according to the principles of Direct Democracy and currently boasts within its organizational structure a Women’s Committee, an Education Committee, and a Board of Directors dedicated to ensuring that all workers have equal rights.
Since receiving legal title in late 2004, they have initiated many projects to generate income to pay off the outstanding debt for their land and to improve the health, education, and living conditions within the community.
- Organic Coffee and Macadamia Plantation: They are currently growing, maintaining, and processing certified organic coffee and macadamia nuts. Although their processes meet the strict requirements for fair trade, they do not yet have official certification. They are currently pursuing certification and hope to be certified this year.
- Ecotourism: The community offers many attractions for tourists such as: a hike to two beautiful waterfalls, a tour of their community projects, including the biodiesel and coffee processing plants, and information about their edible and medicinal plants. Also, from the hotel, there are spectacular views of the active volcano Santiaguito and sunsets over the Pacific Ocean.
- Micro Hydroelectric Plant and Biodiesel Project: Isolated from the main electricity grid, they have been forced to find creative solutions for their energy needs. They have opted for environmentally sustainable projects to provide their office, homes, and various processing plants with power. Their micro hydroelectric plant utilizes the natural springs on the property and provides the entire community with electricity.
- Agua Pura Alianza: Taking advantage of natural springs within the community, they are selling purified water in towns and cities nearby. Their process is environmentally friendly and they are competing with other large, national producers based on the high quality of their water source and purification standards.
- Bamboo Furniture and Arts and Crafts Workshop: In-line with rest of their projects, construction with bamboo is environmentally friendly because bamboo regenerates very quickly and does not require much land to grow. The workshop produces items such as: bookshelves, dinner tables, reclining chairs, large and small mirrors, and custom-made requests as well.
Volunteering: Volunteers are welcomed and appreciated at Nueva Alianza. There is no minimum time period to volunteer or minimum level of Spanish, though some Spanish ability is helpful. Volunteering in Nueva Alianza gives you the opportunity to learn about the everyday life of Guatemalan agricultural workers.
To learn more about Nueva Alianza, please visit their website.
 Open Windows is a dynamic children’s educational center (library, computer center, and more) in the town of San Miguel Dueñas, ten miles (15km) from Antigua, Guatemala’s famous Spanish colonial city.
Open Windows Foundation is a US non-governmental organization (NGO) that currently provides 1,000 children in the community with important educational services and programs to help improve their life options and to increase their self-sufficiency. It is a US-registered, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
Dueñas is an agricultural town of 12,000 people, of which 4,000 are school-aged children and yet only 2,000 attend school. The rest do not go for various financial and cultural reasons: a lack of resources for the bus fare to school or to purchase pens and paper; or, the child being the sixth or seventh sibling or younger daughter, where no need is seen for them to be literate.
There are NO other libraries or computer centers in San Miguel Dueñas (not even the four local schools have either of these facilities). Open Windows, therefore, aims to improve the living conditions of the economically deprived children from in and around the town, by providing access to important educational resources through its services, which the community has come to depend on. These include:
- Loaning books to individuals and local schools;
- Tutoring and homework support;
- Introducing motor skills to teach children dexterity with scissors, crayons, stitching etc.;
- Basic reading and writing skills for children and adults;
- Higher critical thinking skills through educational games and creative problem solving activities;
- Encouraging creativity through art projects and manipulatives;
- Learning to use computers for educational purposes;
- The Tom Sullivan Scholarship, which enables deserving students to go to high school; and
- A bi-monthly medical center.
To learn more about Open Windows, please visit their website.
 The mission of Miguel Angel Asturias Academy is to improve living standards in Guatemala by creating informed, critically thinking, socially conscious citizens, empowered to live lives of their choosing and engaged as leaders in their communities. In a country where schooling means rote learning, overcrowding, and lack of access to reliable information, the Asturias Academy is dedicated to making education a vehicle for personal freedom and social justice. They strive to bring their transformative model first and foremost to children from the most vulnerable sectors of society, placing special emphasis upon poor, female, and indigenous children.
It is the vision of Asturias Academy to be the model and the vehicle through which Guatemala’s education system is transformed so that all children:
- have access to a quality, culturally relevant education;
- lead dignified lives; and
- engage the social, economic, and political problems confronting their communities and country.
Miguel Angel Asturias Academy is not just a school—it is a social movement that is transforming Guatemala. Academy founders, teachers, students and parents are actively working to build a better world—one where human rights are respected, families are financially secure, and children look forward to a hopeful future. They are a non-profit school that opened in 1994 to address Guatemala’s educational crisis. Located in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, the Academy serves more than 250 students from preschool to 12th grade, placing special emphasis on creating options for poor, female, and indigenous children. Roughly 300 Preschool-12th grade students study at the Academy. Their students are boys and girls, indigenous and non-indigenous, poor, working class and middle class. Approximately one-third receive a full or partial scholarship—a number that they would like to increase as time goes on.
Historically, indigenous people within Guatemala have been deeply discriminated against. This discrimination has ranged from bias against Mayan languages, to unfair hiring practices, to massacres in indigenous villages. The Asturias Academy is a school committed to justice, where all students can come to learn whether they are indigenous or not. They are one of few schools that actively promotes equality amongst their indigenous and non-indigenous students. They give their students the option of wearing traditional Mayan clothing as their uniform. They teach K’iche, an indigenous language, as part of their curriculum. They have cultural exchange days where students can share their culture with each other. In addition, they incorporate practices into their school day that promote equality. The daily classroom greeting their students use is in three languages: Spanish, K’iche and English. Through these different strategies they work towards a society where all Guatemalans are able to live in harmony.
To learn more about Asturias Academy, please visit their website.
 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.
Iowa MOST is a Rotary District 6000 initiative, which provides surgical repair for cleft lip and palate to individuals living in the western highlands of Guatemala. Without Iowa MOST, they would not be given this opportunity. District 6000 Rotarians have cultivated a strong collaborative partnership with their friends in the Rotary Club of Huehuetenango, Guatemala to carry out the mission.
IOWA MOST FACTS:
- The first surgical mission took place in February/March of 2006.
- The mission team consisted of 26 medical and non-medical personnel from the U.S. and 2 Guatemalan doctors.
- The MOST team performed cleft lip repairs, myringotomies, ear tube placements, fistula repairs, a frenulectomy, and tooth extractions, and began a database of patients for the next mission.
- Equipment and supplies were generously donated for the mission from many sources and with the help of FAMSCO.
- Mission equipment and supplies valued at $20,000 were donated to the Hospital Nacional in Huehuetenango.
- Iowa MOST now serves two communities in Guatemala–Huehuetenango and Quetzaltenango.
- In 2010, Iowa MOST performed its 5th mission in Guatemala with its Rotary parners in Quetzaltenango, also known as Xela.
To learn more about Iowa MOST, please visit their website or blog.
 Adopt-a-Village (AAV) in Guatemala is a small, grassroots non-profit that works with remote villages in the rugged Northwestern Highlands region. This is an area of extreme poverty with few public services or other forms of assistance. AAV partners with leaders of these Mayan villages to build a more promising and sustainable future for their children by providing education and other critical support. The goal of Adopt-a-Village in Guatemala is to empower through education. Less than half of all children in Guatemala make it through sixth grade, and more than 2 million children–mostly Mayan girls living in rural areas like those where they work–don’t attend school at all.
Adopt-a-Village in Guatemala works closely with two dozen villages in the isolated northwestern region of the Department of Huehuetenango in western Guatemala and provides education opportunities that extend to some 250 villages in the region. The villages, scattered in the rainforest in the Cuchumatan Mountains, are accessible only by rugged dirt roads or walking paths winding up through the mountains. Many of the villages have been settled over the last 20 years by Mayan people who were displaced during Guatemala’s 36-year civil war and came to this region in search of affordable land. Families from different Mayan language groups that had until the war lived separately came together to form villages to work toward the common goal of a better future for their children. This is one of the poorest regions of Guatemala, with few public services or other sources of support. Employment and education opportunities are extremely limited and chronic malnutrition is pervasive; some children routinely go a day or more without eating.
AAV partners with village leaders to develop practical and relevant educational opportunities to give children and their parents the skills they need to build a better future. With support from their Child Sponsorship program, they began by building nine elementary schools in villages that previously had little or no access to primary education. As children have progressed through these schools, they have built on that foundation, supporting middle school programs, and providing scholarships for students to travel to attend high schools in distant towns. Their Mayan Center, a residential high school for students selected from 250 area villages, opened for fulltime students in January 2010. AAV also provides vocational programs for adults at the Mayan Center in areas such as carpentry, agriculture and forestry.
In addition to education, their Widows and Orphans program provides extra assistance to some of the poorest families in the region, including food, clothing and housing. All of AAV’s work is accomplished with the help and direction of the people and villages that benefit and who will ultimately assume the ongoing management and operation of the projects. To date, AAV has completed more than 60 major projects since they began in 1991.
To learn more about AAV, please visit their website.
 Quality education, healthcare, and family development for the region’s poorest children
Known for its beauty, culture, and history, the Panchoy Valley also has its marginal zones where homeless families and street children live. In these areas the unemployment rate is high, adolescents lack education, crime is prevalent, alcoholism is rampant, and familial violence is widespread. Taking these problems into mind, the idea of opening a specialized technical school amidst the Victorias, Bella Vista, and Papalillo neighborhoods of Jocotenango, Guatemala, may have seemed like a risk, but it was also the long-standing dream of Patrick Atkinson, Founder and Executive Director of the GOD’S CHILD Project (GCP). In his own words, “It is the PERFECT place for the GOD’S CHILD Project to be.”
Construction of the school was completed December 6, 2007, and classes began in January of 2008. The Scheel Center’s goal is to be a catalyst for community change on a large scale by giving hope to impoverished families, abused or abandoned children. Hope is given in three forms: Standard Education, Specialized Technical Training and Healthcare.
Standard Education: For much of the modern world, formal education starts around the ages of 4, 5 or 6. By the time a child enters first grade they have often had several years of academic enrichment to better prepare them to learn. Students at the Scheel Center come from a very different world. Many of the students who study at the Center have been robbed of their childhood in various ways. They have not had time to play and learn. Many have not had access basic necessities such as adequate food, clean water, shelter or medical care. For these and other reasons, the Scheel Center students have grown up without an opportunity to learn.
Before a student is in a position to successfully learn any subject, their basic needs must be met. Scheel Center students are provided with two filling and nutritious meals a day. For many of them this is the only food they will receive.
Specialized Technical Training: Because of the unique background of the students at the Scheel Center some of them will not be able to continue their academic pursuits after the 8th or 9th grade level, or they will at least need to secure a part time job in order to do so. In an effort to equip all their students for life after school the following technical courses are currently being offered to students when they start their “basico” year. Each course’s objective is to prepare a student with the prerequisite knowledge and skill required to get a job in that field.
- Carpentry: The carpentry program at the Scheel center began in 2009 and is off to a great start. During the first few months of the program both boys and girls were taught theory and took part in hands on training. First, students built their own workbenches; they then moved on to coat racks, frames for paintings and most recently: study desks, which they will later be able to take home and use for their other studies. (Many of their students do not have any hard surface to do homework on.)
- Culinary Arts: The cooking class is a favorite amongst many of the students of the Scheel Center. The cooking class focuses on:
- Sanitary cooking practices
- Use and care of commercial grade cooking equipment
- Preparation of both basic and advanced entrees and desserts
- Promoting a love for the culinary arts
- Computer Skills: Starting in October of 2009, students of the Scheel Center have access to a computer lab to begin acquiring the computer skills to prepare them to succeed in a high tech world. Computer courses will cover:
- Basic Computer Skills: typing, navigation of Windows, use of a word processor, use of a spreadsheet, accessing the Internet, using email.
- Research skills: performing Internet searches, criteria for a reputable Internet source.
Healthcare:
- Dunnigan Family Medical Clinic: Made possible by a generous donation from the Dunnigan Family in honor of Dr. Ralph J. Dunnigan & Mrs. Bernadette Dunnigan. The Dunnigan Family Clinic will soon be serving the medical needs of families and children throughout the Vista Hermosa area.
- Dental Clinic: The Scheel Center Dental Clinic will begin by serving the needs of the children and families enrolled at the Scheel Center. The dental clinic is a community education center where The God’s Child project gives dental hygiene education to families from the surrounding areas. The group expects for the clinic to become operational in March, 2010.
- Psychology Clinic: In operation since February 2009 the Psychology Clinic provides counseling and support for the children of the Scheel Center and their families. Currently run by their on-campus psychologist Leonel Almira, the clinic gives Scheel Students an ear to listen and Christ-focused counsel on how to deal with the challenges of growing up in the slums of Guatemala.
To learn more about The Scheel Center, please visit their website.
 Teaching children to dream is the first step in their believing in a future.
Fotokids was founded by ex-Reuters photographer, Nancy McGirr in 1991, with 6 children from the City’s vast garbage dump. Over the years, the organization has grown to include both rural poor and urban gang areas. Fotokids, including an environmental photo project in Honduras, now serves130 children from 6 distinct communities. Students are given educational scholarships covering primary school through university.
Although documentary photography remains the focus of the project, our Fotokids graduates teach the younger students digital imaging, graphic design, and video.
Besides empowering children to learn a unique set of job skills, self-esteem, leadership and the opportunity to continue their education, many have traveled the world to attend Fotokids exhibitions or give workshops in over a dozen countries.
The student design studio and individual students have worked for the United Nations, director George Lucas, Hispanic TV, designed books and teach for the Guatemalan Ministry of education and published Out of the Dump, Writing and Photography by Children of Guatemala.
Their photography has been exhibited in London, Tokyo, Amsterdam, Medellin, Seville, New York, Washington DC, Houston, Sao Paolo, Caracas, and Paris.
To learn more about Fotokids, please visit their website.
 The mission of The Aid & Education Project is to promote education in indigenous communities in Guatemala. Their primary program for promoting education in Guatemala is to offer scholarships to deserving students. They also have programs to promote computer literacy, to teach English, and to preserve the local culture. Additionally, there are special programs for women and girls.
The mission of the Scholarship Program is to help students get in school, stay in school, and succeed in school. This starts with giving a poor student material aid: paying for most of their school fees, school supplies, school uniforms and other basic school clothing. Secondly, and often just as important, they help create an environment that leads to success. They offer classes during the school vacation. They provide access to computers and the internet. And when volunteers are available, they offer English Classes. Through their Health Program, they provide free medical visits for routine childhood health problems. As deemed necessary by local directors, they make sure that students get eye and ear exams.
They are investors in the future of the children in their program. Like any good investor, they only make investments that are likely to yield a good return. For them, a good return is a literate adult who can attain financial self-sufficiency. A good return is a skilled worker or professional who without their program could never have developed their talents.
They are not in the business of giving money to poor people. In order to stay in their program a student must make concrete steps toward self-sufficiency and toward developing their own future; otherwise, they can be dropped from the program.
To learn more about this group, please visit their website.
 Street children stay alive by their wits – stealing and scavenging, begging and sleeping rough in parks, shop doorways and on dumps. These children have little or no access to education, care, food, shelter and their other rights. Many are drawn into a world of drugs or the sex trade. In some areas, they are known as the ‘disponibles’ – the disposable ones. Statistics vary widely but the United Nations estimates there could be as many as 40 million children living and working on the streets of Latin America.
Toybox is a Christian charity committed to helping street living and street working children and those at risk of becoming so, principally in Latin America. Their vision is of a world where there are no street children, where families are restored, those who are disadvantaged have choices and hope and all children have a voice. Toybox currently works in Guatemala, Bolivia, and Peru; but they are actively seeking out new opportunities to help the street children in other Latin American countries.
Toybox is based on caring Christian principles but they help all children who need their support, regardless of their faith, gender, ability or background. They partner only with projects that are carried out to the highest standards of care and child protection. They facilitate the sharing of good practice and help their Latin American partner organizations to become sustainable.
Every day, Toybox reaches out to over 5,000 of these children with practical help, friendship, training, education, and homes, as appropriate. They support teams helping children at high risk and their communities – with education, training and social action. This helps prevent children becoming street children by tackling root causes.
In Guatemala City, Toybox works with the following groups:
- Niños Y Jovenes Con Futuro: working with children in high risk situations, providing educational and holistic support.
- Libre Infancia: working with children who collect rubbish and often live around the rubbish tip.
- Amor del Nino: working with children who have been abandoned and/or physically abused.
- Fundación Vida Ilimitada: working with children who have been abandoned and some that are HIV positive
- La Gran Comisión: working with abandoned babies
- Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos: working with children at risk – often from very poor families
- Asociación Rosa de Amor: working with children who have been abandoned, sexually abused and ex-street children
- Fundación Esperanza de los Niños: working with children who work on the streets
- Fundación Protectora del Niño, Casa Bernabé: working with children who have suffered from domestic violence, children from very poor families and ex-street children
- Hogar del Niño, Liga de Vida Nueva: working with children at high risk and those living in extreme poverty
- Ministerio Cristiano Mi Especial Tesoro: working with teenagers at high risk and those who have experienced domestic violence
- Ministerios Tabitha: working with children and families who work on the rubbish tip and those involved in prostitution
- Fundación Samuelito un Reto para Vivir: working with children who work on the streets and those at high risk
- El Castillo:
- Boys Homes: Jireh – Maranatha – Emmanuel
- Girls Homes: Shalom – Torre Fuerte – Salem
- El Castillo School
To learn more about Toybox, please visit their website, blog, Twitter page, or Facebook page.
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