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 Mayan Hope is a non-profit corporation dedicated to providing educational, nutritional, medical, ecological, and other needed services to indigenous families, villages, and abandoned or abused children of Guatemala and other Latin American nations. They are a direct and hands-on charitable organization meaning that, as such, they work in close cooperation and side-by-side with the people in the communities where projects are located.
Education: Education is the foundation and primary purpose of Mayan Hope. They believe that education holds the key to the future for all. At present Mayan Hope is working with these educational projects:
- Special Education
- Central Education Center
- Student Exchange and College Scholarships
Environment: Mayan Hope is currently working to develop several projects to help in the preservation of the environment and the betterment of the communities in the Guatemalan highlands:
- Paper Firebricks
- Solar Ovens
- Composting Toilets
Health: Mobile Medical Unit and Training – Through some local contacts with an American medical team – Bryan and Riechelle Buchanan, Mayan Hope brings a mobile medical and dental unit into the local villages to perform minor medical and dental care. More complex cases than what they are equipped to handle from the mobile unit are referred to the hospital or doctors in Nebaj for follow-up.
Nutrition: Estimates are as high as 60 percent of the Mayan population here in Guatemala suffers from anemia or lack of protein in their diets. As much as 65 percent of the typical diet is corn based. To keep them from crying, mothers often feed their children nothing but sugar water for lack of any other food in the house. Proper nutrition and improperly balanced diets are a major problem. One of the goals at Mayan Hope is to improve this situation as much as possible. The immediate project that they are working on is the establishment of a soy milk production facility using a device called a SoyCow or VitaCow. They hope to provide each of the children in their schools with a daily quantity of soy milk as well as the pregnant and lactating women in the villages. Any excess product would be packaged and sold as a low cost and nutritional substitute for traditional milk and would be especially beneficial for those who are lactose intolerant. The sale of excess milk and other products produced from this facility could not only provide funding for the free milk provided to school children and pregnant mothers but could also help fund the overall project.
Economic Development: Nearly everything that Mayan Hope does in some way relates to economic development of the area. All of their projects require the employment of teachers or various local staff to work on the project. However there are some projects that they are trying to develop that specifically relate to economic development. These include:
- Development of New Farm Crops
- Solar Bakery
To learn more about Mayan Hope, please visit their website.
Enfoque Ixcán, founded by Dr. Scott Pike, is a non-profit organization which provides eye care to a remote jungle region of Guatemala. Dr. Pike is a professor at Pacific University College of Optometry. Their program is unique in that they train, equip and otherwise enable local eye health promoters to provide eye care so that they can serve their communities on a year around basis. They provide basic eye exams, eye glasses, eye health education and access to surgical care.
The mission of Enfoque Ixcán (EI) is to make vision and eye heath care and eye health education available to the people of the Ixcán region of Guatemala. Enfoque Ixcán believes that the most effective method of providing eye health and vision care is to maximize the use of local and regional resources by educating and training local residents. To accomplish this mission, goals have been set to make access to affordable eye health and vision care for all the people of the Ixcán region of Guatemala a reality.
Since 1997, Dr. Pike has methodically developed the project to bring primary eye care to this extraordinarily underserved population. Every year he spends 2 weeks in Santa Maria Tzeja and Playa Grande teaching his local eye health promoters the basics of eye care including anatomy, optics, refraction, eye glasses dispensing, and disease recognition. Each time he visits, Dr. Pike takes the three eye health promoters additional equipment and over time their skills and abilities have developed. To date they have examined over 550 people from more than 25 different villages. Glasses are dispensed from an inventory which Dr. Pike re-stocks on his twice yearly visits.
The next Enfoque Ixcán training trip will be in August , 2010, their 8th annual trip with Amigo Eye Care. The Amigos are a student group from Pacific University College of Optometry in Forest Grove, Oregon. They will have clinics in 3 different villages and if the past is any gauge, over 700 people will be seen and nearly 400 pairs of glasses will be dispensed.
To learn more about EI, please visit their website, or Facebook page (click ‘Like’ to follow along).
VOSH is hosting an eye clinic in Ixcan, El Quiche from June 12-22. They will provide an eye examination for the treatment of refractive error and certain eye diseases. Patients receive eyeglasses, sunglasses, medication and are referred for consultation and eye surgery. For questions or patient referrals, please contact Ann at annedmonds@comcast.net.
 VOSH is a non-governmental, non-sectarian, non-profit organization made up of optometrists, ophthalmologists, opticians, and other persons who have donated their time, talent, and money to help those in need to by building self-supporting eye clinics in the countries they serve. The VOSH mission is to empower local eye care specialists in developing countries by building sustainable eye clinics, funding essential ophthalmic infrastructure, and establishing partnerships with like-minded organizations.
VOSH recognizes the importance of sustainability, and has helped establish permanent eye clinics in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Haiti, Mexico and Peru. The three eye clinics in Guatemala include:
- Visualiza, Guatemala City
- Vincent Pescatore Eye Clinic, San Benito, El Petén
- St. John the Baptist Hospital, Jutiapa
The three clinics are staffed by 80 Guatemalans, including 6 ophthalmologists and 2 optometrists, treat in excess of 50,000 patients, and are self-supporting for operating expenses for adult care. VOSH funds the treatment of all indigent children under the age of 14 years old. The clinics are funding the training of 4 employees to become optometrists.
VOSH mission trips provide short term optical and medical eye support as a means to strengthen new eye clinics that are in the early stages of development. The next trip will be to Ixcan on June 12-22.
For more information about VOSH, please visit their website.
Save the Children and the Ad Council are working together to mobilize citizen action in the U.S. to help local health workers help save more children worldwide.
 Eye on the Future by Felix Aguilar Ramírez (local health worker in Xachmochán Village, Guatemala): This week I visited several children with diarrhea. Among them, a few already had dehydration issues from persistent diarrhea. Without oral rehydration treatment, children can get very sick from diarrhea, and in some cases, they can die. I immediately got busy showing the parents and other members of the community how to mix and use oral rehydration solution. By the end of the week, the children were running around and playing again.
I feel confident that in the future, the families will know what to do if this type of illness happens again. My job is not just about helping children immediately, but it is also teaching families and communities how to help the children of their villages when they become sick in the future. I would love to see all the children have the opportunity to grow up and become anything they want…
Save the Children’s programs in Guatemala are focused on developing programs for rural, poor, and indigenous populations in three departments of the western highlands of Guatemala – Quiché, Huehuetenango, and Sololá. Save the Children’s health and nutrition programs are making strides each day towards increasing the access of rural households to quality health and nutrition services and information. With the Ministry of Health, they have worked to help manage childhood illnesses such as malaria, diarrhea, and pneumonia – all a considerable danger to Guatemala’s vulnerable toddlers and newborns. They have health workers who visit women during pregnancy to maintain their health and who also visit all the newborns in the area to make sure they are healthy and breastfeeding well. Now that more children are surviving those risky first years, they are also helping them thrive through preschool classes that aid their transition from local, indigenous languages to Spanish in order to ready them for formal education.
If you want to learn more about Save the Children’s newborn and child survival campaign, please visit their website. To read more about Felix, and other local health workers, please click here.
 Project HANDS is a group of people whose goal is to provide healthcare, education and other support to those who, by chance of birth, have lives less fortunate than their own. Their projects are aimed at improving the quality of rural Mayan life by providing healthcare and education.
Healthcare: Because the Maya have little or no access to medical care, the group sends medical teams to run outreach clinics, and surgical teams to perform elective surgery. As an extension to their idea of bringing surgery to the patients, they are working on a long term project to build a small surgical facility or hospitalito in a rural area.
Their trips usually go to rural northern Guatemala, to the departments of Alta Verapaz, Baja Verapaz and Quiche. On these trips they work closely with their affiliate Partner for Surgery (PfS), a US based NGO. PfS does all the local ground logistics for the trips and Project HANDS provides a small group of about 5-6 people to run the clinics. These clinics are set up in outlying rural areas where the focus is to find patients who need surgery. However, they also bring a small pharmacy with them and try to help all patients who come to the clinics. The patients who require surgery are then scheduled to have their procedures done either by the next Project HANDS surgical team or other volunteer surgical teams.
The group’s next trips to Guatemala will be:
- October, 2010 – Triage trip to El Quiche
- November, 2010 – Surgery trip to El Quiche
Education: The majority of Mayan women are homemakers, wives and mothers. However, many have much more to offer their families and communities and wish they could. With the Guatemalan healthcare system desperately sagging and in need of everything from equipment, supplies, medications and professionals (throughout the whole country but especially within the indigenous population), it seems a perfect fit to marry these women with careers in the healthcare sector. When twenty one year old Carmen worked with the group as a Q’eqchi translator in one of their outreach clinics, they saw her potential. Upon asking her if she would like to be a nurse she smiled shyly and said “If only…” implying it was something completely out of her reach. But why should it be? That was enough to start the group thinking, and led to Project HANDS funding young women to continue their education and go on to nursing school.
To find out more about Project HANDS, please visit their website.
Agape in Action is currently accepting patient referrals for OB/Gyn surgery, and Plastic Surgery (clefts). The team will be in Quiche from June 13-17. Please click here for more details.
 Dubbed the “Blueprint Brigade,” by Time Magazine, Engineers Without Borders-USA (EWB-USA) grew from little more than a handful of members in 2002 to over 12,000 today.
EWB-USA has over 350 projects in over 45 developing countries around the world including water, renewable energy, sanitation and more. These projects are completed in partnership with local communities and NGOs. EWB-USA helps create a more stable and prosperous world by addressing people’s basic human needs by providing necessities such as clean water, power, sanitation and education. EWB-USA’s strength comes from its over 250 dedicated chapters, including university chapters on 180 campuses in the United States. Because of its strong university presence, EWB-USA is the catalyst for a new movement to educate the next generation of socially conscious engineers deeply aware of the needs of the rest of the world.
EWB-USA partners with developing communities in over 45 countries across the world. Their membership consists of professionals and students from a variety of professions including engineering, health, anthropology and business. EWB-USA members make up over 250 chapters located throughout the USA. Through its projects, EWB-USA provides innovative professional educational opportunities that provide a global perspective. Each EWB-USA chapter makes at least a five-year commitment to a partnering community. With the community’s input, the chapter designs and implements low-cost, small-scale, replicable and sustainable engineering solutions to problems identified by the community. This includes water, sanitation, and renewable energy. EWB-USA members train local community members and local NGO’s to successfully monitor and maintain the projects.
To view a representative list of EWB projects in Guatemala, please click here. To learn how to submit a project application, click here for English, or here for Spanish.
To learn more about EWB, please visit their website.
 Last September, we published a profile of a great organization called Water Charity. Now, we would like to update you with Water Charity’s most current projects in Guatemala:
Coxjac School Latrine Project: This is a project to construct three latrines for a school system in rural Guatemala. The process will also incorporate lessons involving the environment and waste management, hygiene and sanitation, and construction techniques and teamwork. The project is being carried out in Coxjac, Totonicapan, Guatemala, under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteer Casey Kittredge.
The latrines will be used by three groups of students who use the school (elementary, middle school and a weekend middle school program) for a total of 240 students and 12 teachers. The current bathrooms have been deemed unsanitary by the Department of Health due to their proximity to the area where the atol, the morning snack, is prepared for the elementary students.
La Cruz Water Project: This project is to build a 1200 liter rainwater catchment tank, with an accompanying hand washing station, at an elementary school in La Cruz, Cajola, Quetzaltenango. The tank will hold a 2-week supply of water for the 285 students that attend the school. The Escuela Oficial Rural Mixta has little access to water, consisting of a small chorro that receives water once a week for an hour. The young students currently bring water in 2-liter bottles from their homes or the local stream to school in order to sustain the water supply.
Water Charity is pleased to be participating with other NGOs in this project, and their funds will go for skilled labor and materials. The community and parents from the school are contributing additional labor, and will maintain the tank and pipes upon completion.
Santa Apolonia Composting Latrines Project: This is a project to build composting latrines in Santa Apolonia, Chimaltenango. It is being carried out under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteer Ellen Ostrow. In the municipality of Santa Apolonia, Ellen works with two rural agricultural communities, Chuaparal—an indigenous population—and Cojulya—a primarily Ladino population. Over half of the 47 families in the two groups do not have latrines. For those that do, the latrines, which often serve for more than one family, are in poor condition and do little to aid fecal control.
The communities are plagued by chronic diarrhea and other gastrointestinal diseases. The groups have requested a community latrine project, which will benefit a combined 300 men, women, and children.
Ellen is part of the Rural Home Preventive Health project, Peace Corps Guatemala. Volunteers are partnered with local health centers in various municipalities. Each health center reports to departmental level health centers which then report to the ministry of health.
Julio Verne School Project of Melanie Reda: Melanie Reda is a Peace Corps Volunteer, working in Aldea Saquiya, Municipio of Patzún, Chimaltenango. She is undertaking a project to construct a water deposit, and install eight faucets and three flushable toilets at the Julio Verne Elementary School.
Kristen Petros’s Water Tank Project: Kristen Petros is a Peace Corps Volunteer living near Patulup, El Quiche’. The local elementary school has 65 students, from pre-primary through sixth grade. The school receives no water during daytime hours. Water is needed for drinking, food preparation, hand washing, and cleaning.
Katie Bovitz, Volunteer in Paraje El Zapote: Katie Bovitz is a Peace Corps Volunteer, serving in Paraje El Zapote, Pachilip in the Municipality of Joyabaj, Department of Quiche. She is serving under a 9 month extension to her original Peace Corps commitment of two years. Katie will be leaving Guatemala in April, and asked if Water Charity could fund a last project she wanted to do before she left. After reviewing her proposal, they committed to the project, within her timetable. They told her to start acquiring the materials, as the funds are on their way.
In 2008, Katie raised money to build a two-room elementary schoolhouse in the village of El Zapote. The school is currently under construction and is scheduled to be finished by the end of April. She needed the funds for the latrines and hand washing station for the school.
Lenny’s “Pilas” Project: Peace Corps Volunteer Lenny Van Boven, serving in Chicocox, Quiche Guatemala is leading a project, involving extensive community participation, to provide sinks for use by 86 people.
Ventilated Latrines for the Village Of Chuisac: Katie McKenna, a Peace Corp volunteer, contacted Water Charity with a wonderful project in which she would work together with the villagers themselves and a local NGO with which she had previously partnered. In short, Water Charity decided to fund the building of latrines for the entire village of Chuisac in Chimaltenango. The project will be done in stages, with the first 20% already in motion.
Sonte School Project: The community of Sonte is located next to the major road running north through Alta Verapaz. It is easily accessible, and close to a major city. It is very poor and consists mostly of peasant farmers. A hand washing station will be built at the elementary school of the community. This project will be carried out by the teachers of the school and Peace Corps volunteer Dave Bowker, working together with community and local government. The school has recently received electricity, which will be used to power the pump.
Corozal School Project: Corozal is a small rural village in Alta Verapaz that is surrounded by tropical jungle. There is no electricity available, but the community does have a system of pipes that delivers water to about 50% of the houses and the school from a nearby spring. The project is to build a hand washing station for the school. It will consist of 8 faucets, sufficient to support the school’s growing population. All pipes inside the cement and running to the faucets will be galvanized steel and the cement itself will be reinforced with rebar, making the project very durable.
To learn more about Water Charity, 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.
Bridges to Prosperity…changing lives one bridge at a time
Bridges to Prosperity is a volunteer based charity that seeks to empower poor African, Asian and Latin American rural communities through footbridge building – thereby advancing personal responsibility, community public works, economic prosperity; and access to schools, clinics, jobs and markets.
The most powerful thing we share with others less fortunate is knowledge. Bridges to Prosperity does so by delivering practical knowledge that encourages the poor to lift themselves from poverty on their own. This empowerment of the poor is accomplished through their Community Bridge Building programs, which demonstrate how knowledge and training can fuel positive change in people’s lives.
Community Bridge Building is an incredibly successful way to teach this lesson. For bridges allow people to cross geographical barriers like rivers/gorges/mountains, thereby allowing access to schools, hospitals and markets. It is no wonder that the poor consider bridges “miracles”. But the true miracle is not the bridge itself, but rather the fundamental change in the hopes and dreams of those that they teach to build it.
Guatemala Footbridges The Guatemala program will begin in January 2010, concentrating on the highland department of Quiché, in particular rural communities in the municipality of Uspantán. Quiché is the homeland of the K’iche and Uspanteko indigenous peoples, direct descendants of the Mayans.
The Quiché department, and in particular the very remote Zona Reyna region of Uspantán, is one of the poorest, most underdeveloped, and least accessible areas of Central America, with some villages within the municipality of Uspantán lying up to eight hours away from the town itself. Uspantán was the site of much violence committed during the war, and the emotional, economic, and cultural scars still remain. The town has been experiencing a revival in recent years, with a progressive and well-respected mayor in office who is actively encouraging and facilitating development work in Uspantán’s poorest areas. The K’iche people continue to hold on to their Mayan traditions and their language, which vary subtly from village to village. The Uspanteko population is fast diminishing with an increasing number of young people leaving the area to find work, neglecting to wear the traditional dress and learn the Uspanteko language.
The geographic boundaries of mountains and rivers further isolate communities, and access to medical care, normally a full day’s trip from the furthest villages, can become impossible during the heaviest rains. With the introduction of safe and reliable bridges, the K’iche and Uspantekos will gain the security of being able to overcome their geographic boundaries during times of emergency, and the confidence of having uninterrupted access to their crops and schools.
Bridges to Prosperity is also exploring a series of prototype suspension bridge projects, sponsored by Flatiron Construction Corporation. The first pilot bridge will most likely be constructed outside of the city of Antigua, in the suburb of San Juan del Obispo, and will serve a community of 8000 people.
Click on any project link below to view more details and see photos of the project and people involved.
Project #062 – San Juan del Obispo Suspension Pedestrian Footbridge
Project #065 – La Taña Suspension Pedestrian Footbridge
Project #066 – Salcaja Suspended Pedestrian Footbridge
Project #067 – San Lucas Suspended Pedestrian Footbridge
Project #068 – Palqui Suspended Pedestrian Footbridge
To learn more about Bridges To Prosperity, please visit their website.
 The Guatemala Literacy Project (GLP) is a partnership between North American & Guatemalan Rotary clubs and the non-profit organization Cooperative for Education (CoEd). This initiative provides badly-needed textbooks, library materials, and computer labs to underprivileged children in Guatemala.
The Project has been supported by over 300 Rotary Clubs. Since 1996, the textbook program has been brought to many impoverished rural communities. There are over 31,990 students using textbooks at 170 schools. The GLP has also founded 30 self-funding computer centers and 39 school libraries. The project already serves 10% of the country’s neediest secondary schools and is working with the goal of ensuring that no child in Guatemala grows up without the gift of both traditional and technological literacy.
The Guatemala Literacy Project matches Rotary clubs in North America with needy schools in Guatemala. These clubs raise funds to purchase textbooks, library materials and/or computers. Contributions typically range from $1,000 to $5,000. 100% of funds collected go to the hard costs of the project. Not a cent goes to administration or fundraising.
The project is implemented jointly by North American and Guatemalan Rotary clubs & districts and the Cooperative for Education (CoEd).
Textbooks
This program brings vital textbooks to impoverished Guatemalan middle school children. Studies show that the use of books in the classroom improves grades by up to 30% and comprehension, retention, and interest in subject matter by over 70%. These books, printed in Spanish, are in the core subjects of math, science, Spanish and social studies.
Computer Centers
Guatemala has a 25% unemployment rate for unskilled labor. There are simply too many unskilled people and not enough land or jobs to support them. Yet, on the other hand, there are significant opportunities for those who have skills, especially computer skills. According to a study by the Interamerican Development Bank, computer technology imported into Guatemala in recent years has grown by over 500%. In addition, 80% of mid-level jobs require computer skills.
Most schoolchildren in the impoverished rural areas of Guatemala have never had access to technology. Thus they continue to fall behind their urban peers. Their program seeks to bridge this divide by creating computer centers within underprivileged schools.
Mini-Libraries
One of the contributing factors to the low literacy rate in Guatemala is the lack of available reading materials. Most rural children have never read a book. By setting up mini-libraries within schools, books that capture children’s imagination and encourage reading are made available, as well as reference and teaching materials that enhance classroom learning. This is a highly collaborative program: Teachers at each recipient school work with library experts to form a list of needed materials along with a concrete plan of how they’ll be used. This ensures that all library materials will directly improve the education level at the school.
Self-Sufficiency Component
The most innovative aspect of these projects is that they are financially self-sufficient. Rental programs are set up in each school in which students pay the school a small fee to use a set of textbooks and/or the computer centers. This creates a fund for replacing the books and computers as they wear out.
To learn more about this program, please visit the website. To view a list of Guatemalan schools currently served by GLP, please click here.
 Agape in Action, Inc. is a tax exempt, nonprofit 501(c)(3) public charity organization with headquarters located just outside of Houston, Texas. They conduct rural medical clinics in impoverished areas of the Quiché region. Clinics are held in churches, schools, and on occasion, in an actual medical facility, or where the need arises. Their mission is to care for physical ailments and to go beyond the stethoscope to minister to the spiritual and emotional needs of the indigenous Maya in the mountainous Quiché province of the Central Highlands of Guatemala.
They accomplish this by working in close cooperation with local medical officials and hospital facilities. They support pastors in rural areas with medical clinics in their churches, as well as join with other missionaries to reach deep into remote areas to hold medical clinics and show the Jesus Film. Their dorm serves as a facility where they host visiting medical missionary teams that provide surgical care to those who would otherwise go without treatment. They provide training and experience for visiting medical students from the United States and financially support deserving Guatemalan students in medical and nursing schools.
Agape in Action hosts medical and surgery teams from the U. S. who volunteer their time and expertise to perform surgeries at Santa Elena National Hospital, as well as help conduct rural clinics in surrounding towns.
Agape in Action has grown to be accepted as a vital part of the local Santa Cruz community. To a large degree this is because they are closely identified with their partners who are local pastors, educators, medical professionals and other missionaries all working together. Mission teams from the United States have returned over many years and forged relationships that remain strong. They invest and work hard in the community because they are most effective when they combine their talents with those of others who deeply care.
Work has been completed on the expansion of the Agape in Action dorm facility which added over 1,600 square feet of living space, comprised of 4 additional bedrooms, 2 living room areas and 4 new bathrooms. This addition is designed as dual purpose, as it can be used as either 2 separate apartment units or as additional dorm rooms for teams. The current facility can accommodate 24 individuals which will increase to 40 after the expansion is complete. A covered carport has also been added.
They ship medical supplies to their Quiché facility for their mission needs as well as donate supplies and equipment to the Santa Elena National Hospital and other health care providers.
To learn more about Agape in Action, please visit their website.
The Wisconsin Professional Partners Chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB-WPP) has approximately 175 members and is currently working on Guatemalan projects independently, and with four universities in the area: The Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE), Marquette University (MU), University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), and Michigan Technological University (MTU).
EWP-WPP is currently working on bridge projects in the Departments of Chimaltenango and Quiche. These projects are completed in partnership with local communities and NGOs.
- El Aguacate: EWB-WPP is partnering with the community of El Aguacate (in the Joyabaj municipality, Guatemala), to rebuild a bridge. The previous bridge was built in 1987 to provide El Aguacate and the four surrounding communities access to the surrounding area where they had been previously cut off by a river. The bridge lasted until about four years ago when it began to fail. For a few years the village used tree trunks to provide additional structural support, although the trunks usually washed away during the rainy season. Now, however, the bridge is in such disrepair that it is unsafe to cross, even with the additional support. This bridge is of particular concern because it is the only way in or out for five communities during the rainy season. During the dry season, the communities are able to put in a temporary bridge further upstream. For the other five months, however, the community is cut off from larger markets, medical care and education.
- Rio Chiquito: EWB-WPP has been solicited by the communities of Rio Chiquito and Joyabaj (Guatemala) to provide a bridge design that will replace the existing structure connecting the City of Joyabaj to the northern regions of the Joyabaj municipality. The existing bridge is inadequate to safely carry any loads greater than that of automobile and pedestrian traffic. The new bridge will span the Rio Chiquito between the Village of Rio Chiquito and the City of Joyabaj and will be designed to safely carry automobile, truck, bus and pedestrian traffic. As a result, the new bridge will better connect the northern regions of the municipality with the city of Joyabaj and also allow for the development of a bus route. The bus route will provide increased access to medical care and education for the villagers of the northern region.
EWP-WPP is working with the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) on the following projects in Quiché:
- Tres Cruses I: MSOE and WPP will cooperate on the Tres Cruces I bridge project in eastern Joyabaj municipality in early 2010. EWB-WPP is planning to do excavation and foundation work during their January 2010 trip (while also constructing the bridge at El Aguacate). EWB-MSOE will then complete the structure during late February and early March 2010. The cast-in-place, reinforced concrete T-beam bridge will have a single span of approximately 25 feet, with a clear height of approximately 10 feet. The student group and their mentors from WPP are now completing the hydro design so the structural design can be done during September and October. The municipality of Joyabaj, with which EWB-WPP and EWB-MSOE have completed several bridge projects, identified the Tres Cruces I bridge as one of their top priorities. It will eliminate a two-hour detour between villages at the east end of the municipality and the city of Joyabaj during the rainy season.
- Electrical System: An elementary school in Quiche, Guatemala has been surveyed and MSOE students and professional mentors are working together to design a solar system that will provide electrical power for the school. The electricity will power lights, a refrigerator, and appliances. The system is scheduled to be implemented in March 2010.
The chapter is working with Marquette University (MU) on the following projects in Chimaltenango and Quiché:
- La Garrucha, Guatemala: A 26km water (spring fed) supply project, designed with a 2000 person capacity for the village of La Garrucha with a current population of approximately 1200. Funding for this project is complete and construction is nearing completion. This project was a 2008 Marquette University Civil Engineering Senior Design project.
- La Nueva Providencia, San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala: Electrification project with elements of solar and hydroelectric power. Currently, the most active MU project, the solar system to power the school and community center for the village of La Nueva Providencia has been completed. The hydroelectric system has been started, and will be completed over the next implementations trips. Fund raising for the hydroelectric element of this project is in progress, but not all the necessary funds have been secured. The greatest challenge with this project is the extreme poverty of the community, which has lead to difficulty determining a source of funds for the long-term maintenance and operation of the hydroelectric project.
The chapter is working with University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee (UWM) on the following project in El Quiché:
The potable water distribution and sanitation project in Quejchip, Guatemala, Phase II was finished in July. The project team built a chlorinator at the distribution tank and ran approximately 4 kilometers of buried PVC pipe to 48 houses. Tap stands were built for each household. A village teacher along with the UWM team presented a Health and Hygiene education program for both kids and adults. A Latrine and Hand Washing Station was also built for the elementary school.
The chapter is planning a corn grinder and cane press project with Michigan Technological University (MTU) in Fronterizo/Nueva Libertad, Huehuetenango.
To learn more about the Wisconsin Chapter of EWB, please visit their website, LinkedIn page, or Facebook page. To read about EWB-USA, please click here.
Pura Vida is a 501(c)(3), nonprofit organization working to promote health and education in the Quiché department of Guatemala. They are currently focusing on rural villages in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. “Travel with a purpose” is a good way to describe what an international work trip is all about. The emphasis of these trips is on developing relationships with local communities and sharing time and resources with those who are in need.
Long Term Projects
Pura Vida allows the local indigenous communities to identify the needs. And once projects are started, Pura Vida sees them through to the end. They are deeply involved in the local community as well, and always hire local labor to teach and work alongside their teams. Teams typically work on church and community related construction projects. Their teams interact with the local population in ways that tourists simply cannot, taking advantage of relationships with local leadership built over the last few years.
Guatemala Surgical Mission – September 2009
(St. Luke’s UMC, Highlands Ranch, CO)
There is a huge need for basic surgery in rural Guatemala. Especially needed are hysterectomies, hernia, and cleft palate repairs. Many local residents have no access to surgical care whatsoever, and teams such as these are the only opportunity they may have. They will be based in the village of Camanchaj the Quiche department in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. They will be working with the Guatemalan Methodist Church and a local missionary organization, Salud y Paz.
Guatemala Dental Mission – May 2010
(Rocky Mountain Conference Volunteers in Mission)
Access to dental care in the rural areas of Guatemala is almost non-existent. The need is great – Pura Vida noticed that during their previous medical missions, their dentists were always the busiest members of the team. In May, 2010 they are sending a group focused solely on dental care. Their goal is to remove as much pain and infection as possible during their 5-day work week. Each dentist expects to see between 15 and 30 patients per day.
They will be based in the village of Chichicastenango in the Quiche department in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. They will be working with the Guatemalan Methodist Church and Salud y Paz.
To learn more about this group, please visit their website.
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