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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.
The mission of TEACH is to actively respond to the schooling needs of children in Mayan communities in Guatemala. The poor of Guatemala struggle every day to provide for their families. Education can bring hope where there now is little. TEACH is committed to equal education for both girls and boys in a country where literacy rates are extremely low, especially among women. The vision of TEACH is to help empower Mayan communities to achieve greater social and economic self-sufficiency through opportunities for education while respecting their cultural norms.
Among the Q’eqchi’ Maya people in northeast Guatemala, TEACH helps poor children go to school. TEACH projects in 2009 include 6 primary schools (grades 1 to 6), a middle school (grades 7 to 9; called a basico school in Guatemala), and 4 boarding facilities for students who must leave their villages to attend middle school. They are located in towns and small villages between Lake Izabal and the Gulf of Honduras.
Donations from sponsors and other supporters are applied in under-served Mayan communities to help establish new schools, maintain classroom facilities, pay the salaries of qualified teachers, and purchase essential instructional materials. Donations also help boarding students who are living and studying away from home. With this support, Guatemalan children who would otherwise lack educational opportunities are in school now.
To find out more about TEACH, please visit their website.
 UPDATE: Everyone should check out Transitions’ great new website at www.transitionsfoundation.org.
Mobilization, health, rehabilitation, education, leadership…
The Transitions Foundation is committed to making a difference in the lives of Guatemalans who may otherwise have few opportunities to grow, to learn, and to become literate and productive contributors to their Guatemalan culture. They provide rehabilitation, vocational, and educational training to disabled persons through the services offered at Transitions’ training centers.
Program Objectives:
- To provide life-skills training and mobility devices for physically disabled Guatemalans;
- To offer outreach support and medical product availability to disabled persons;
- To operate one special education classroom within a local school in a rural community for physically and mentally disabled children;
- To operate an offset printing and graphics design enterprise, with ongoing disabled student training and employment opportunities, offering printing service available to the public;
- To operate a wheelchair fabrication facility, providing highly individualized wheelchairs and other therapeutic equipment, providing ongoing leadership and technical training; and
- To operate a prosthetic/orthotic clinic with ongoing training and services available to Guatemalans with disabilities.
Workshop: Transitions operates a well-equipped workshop where they manufacture new wheelchairs and repair or modify existing ones. This operation employs 11 technicians, the majority of which have disabilities, who build rugged chairs well suited for the tough terrain of Guatemala. They employ modern MIG welding and other fabrication techniques, and maintain computerized records on each client so they can respond quickly to needed changes or repairs. Funding for much of their equipment, tools, and materials has come from Rotary International Foundation Grants, coordinated by the Portland, Oregon Rotary Club, and many other donors. During 2008, their workshop provided over 100 new and refurbished wheelchairs.
Prosthetic/Orthotic Clinic: Transitions operates a clinic to provide services to children and adults who are in need of a prosthetic limb or an orthotic leg brace. Due to the high number of birth defects and accidents in Guatemala, there is a large demand and need for these services. They work with local Guatemalan certified technicians to evaluate and manufacture the limbs and leg braces their patients need. Patients fitted with their limb or brace can achieve increased mobility and opportunities in their lives.
Since 2002, Transitions has provided care and treatment for over 200 prosthetic and orthotic patients. Many of the patients are children or youth and require ongoing treatment and adjustments to their equipment. Due to the high costs of providing these special devices, new patients can only be helped when defined funding is available.
Training for life: Transitions Foundation provided direct general educational scholarships for 53 disabled people during the 2008 school year. This includes educational costs such as tuition, materials and transportation to and from school.
Special Ed: They also assist low-income, physically and mentally disabled children through one rural special education classroom directed by a qualified teacher and therapist. Special education students receive multi-sensorial exposure, fine and gross motor skill stimulation and academic tutoring. Classrooms are wheelchair accessible, and parents and family members are encouraged to become involved.
Transitions will host the MIT Mobility Lab, as they test out 30, specially designed wheelchairs.
To learn more about Transitions, please visit their website.
 New Life with Education, a school for children with special abilities, it is located in the village of Santa Maria de Jesus, Guatemala.
In January 2000 the school, Nueva Vida, was founded for those with different abilities who were not allowed into public schools. It started in one room with one Guatemalan teacher and eight students. Three of those students had spina bifida, the others with muscular dystrophy, autism, Down syndrome, mental retardation and dwarfism. They were all studying on a kindergarten or first grade level.
The school’s vision is for the children to see themselves in God’s eyes, to know He loves them and has a purpose for their lives and to help them obtain that purpose. They want them to become productive adults who have a strong personal relationship with Jesus Christ as their foundation.
New Life is a licensed primary school and now has grades pre-kinder through sixth. The children are out in the street headed to school instead of hidden in their homes. Some reasons for their impaired learning are severe hearing or vision deficits, learning disabilities, or attention disorders. They are placed in classes of not more than ten students per teacher, some classes as few as four. Due to the students’ varied abilities, in 2010 there will be 1 kindergarten, 2 first grades and 2 second grade classes. Any child who cannot gain an education in public school may attend New Life. Most graduates of sixth grade are continuing to study.
To learn more about New Life, please visit their website.
one kinder, 2 first & 2 second grades
 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.
 The Friends of the Deaf, officially known as the Friends of People with Auditory Deficiencies, a non-profit 501(c) (3) tax exempt organization, founded in 2009, is dedicated to improving the lives of people with auditory deficiencies through their support of Las Voces del Silencio (LAVOSI).
LAVOSI is an educational project for the deaf in Guatemala; “where the voiceless have a voice and a choice!” Las Voces del Silencio (LAVOSI) is a new project in Guatemala dedicated to educating and training the deaf and their families. Their school is conveniently located in Antigua which has good access for the many deaf men, women and children in the surrounding area. They opened their doors for classes on January 25th and have enjoyed a steady growth of students as the word spreads through the community about this new school for the deaf.
- In Guatemala there are an estimated 100,000 to 500,000 men, women and children (out of a total population of about 14 million) with hearing deficiencies.
- The Guatemalan government does not have the resources to help fund organizations such as Las Voces del Silencio
- The public education system of Guatemala makes no provisions to address the needs of this group.
- The few private schools in the country cannot address the needs of a population this large.
LAVOSI has an outstanding staff of teachers all of whom communicate easily with the students using the Guatemalan Sign Language. From the moment their students enter their doors they find a beautiful, spacious facility and are greeted with the smiles and hugs that give them a sense of belonging that they don’t find in many other places. At LAVOSI the deaf and their families find a loving, caring and professional educational environment. Their services are free and open to all regardless of financial status, religious affiliation or social status. The sad fact is that the deaf are left out of society here. They are discriminated against and exploited. They find it almost impossible to find work, and when they do, they receive far less wages. The public schools make no provisions for deaf students. A typical class size in the public school system is 30 to 35 students, making it difficult for any student, much more so for a deaf child. They are left out and left behind! The few private schools for the deaf are mostly located in Guatemala City, which is too far away and too costly for the majority of people that need their services.
At LAVOSI they offer elementary classes (language, social studies, mathematics, sign language, etc.) to the deaf children Monday through Friday. They also offer vocational training in the basic and fine arts, Guatemalan crafts, manual arts, general homemaking, baking, culinary arts and basic and advanced computer training. Parents are encouraged to attend the Parent Information and Training classes on Saturdays. They are taught the Guatemalan Sign Language so that they can communicate more effectively. They are also taught that having a deaf child is a blessing and not something to grieve or something of which to be ashamed.
LAVOSI receives NO funding from the Guatemalan government, therefore only a few dollars a day can make a big difference in the services that they can provide. Learn more about opportunities to support LAVOSI.
You can learn more about the organization by visiting their website.
 The Rotary Club of Fort Collins teamed up with the Rotary Club of Cheyenne and the Rotary Club of Chiquimula de la Sierra, Guatemala to provide a computer lab for a school for deaf children in Zacapa, Guatemala. The Maria Teresa Ordonez School is the only school for deaf children in eastern Guatemala and serves over 75 children with impaired hearing and/or speech.
The facility was built largely on the efforts of Jorge and Reina Palma Zecena, members of the Rotary Club of Chiquimula, whose‘s son Jorgito is himself deaf. As there was no funding available to make modern learning tools available to these otherwise normal children, Anita, Jorgito’s sister and also a member of the RC of Chiquimula wondered if Rotary could help. In June of 2007, Anita met with Ft. Collins Rotarians Claude Piché, Chuck Rutenberg, Susie Ewing and Betty Brown and proposed a Matching Grant to equip the facility.
The opening ceremony for the computer lab took place in June of 2008 during the 2008 visit of Rotarians Ft. Collins.
The matching grant covered the purchase and installation of 12 computers and work stations, special software for teaching hearing-impaired children as well as an air conditioner for climate control in the lab.
This project will directly benefit the students of the school and indirectly benefit the families and communities of these youth. There is also potential to network these resources to other schools for deaf children in other parts of Guatemala.
For more information about this project, please click here.
 Mil Milagros (“A Thousand Miracles”) was founded in 2007 by Margaret Blood, a bilingual advocate for children who is the Founder and President of Strategies for Children, Inc., an award-winning child policy and advocacy organization based in Boston. Mil Milagros was inspired by Margaret’s volunteer work at Proyecto Semilla, a school for child workers in the tourist town of Panajachel, Guatemala, where she began an informal feeding program for children in 2006.
In 2008, Mil Milagros launched a full-fledged pilot program serving 200 children in two schools: Proyecto Semilla and a small public school in the rural mountain hamlet of Chutinamit. In just a year, Mil Milagros succeeded in nearly eliminating the dropout rate in the two schools: by providing the children with nourishing food, they came to school. This relatively small sample confirms research which overwhelmingly shows that nutrition and education are linked, and that improved nutrition leads to improved cognitive functioning.
After raising additional resources, in 2009 Mil Milagros expanded its reach, partnering with two additional schools in the rural community of Santa Lucia Utatlan – El Mesias, a private Christian school, and the public school in Chichimuch. They were able to change the lives of nearly 600 very poor Mayan children at an average cost of $.85 per day per child.
To learn more about Mil Milagros, please visit their website. To read a recent article about the organization, from Boston.com, click here.
 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.
 The University of Washington Guatemala Project (UWGP) is a group of University of Washington students and recent alumni working to provide scholarships and vocational training for their peers in Guatemala. Their project is jointly designed and supported by UW students/alumni and the Movimiento de Trabajadores Campesinos (MTC), a non-governmental organization based in San Marcos, Guatemala.
This project, organized entirely at the initiative of students in the UW’s 2005, 2006, and 2007 Exploration Seminars and Study Abroad trips to Guatemala, aims to support primary and secondary education in Guatemala’s coffee-growing communities through a sustained commitment to youth empowerment.
Ongoing and Past Projects:
- Vocational Training Center: In 2008, the MTC requested funding to support a Vocational Training Center, rather than the scholarships that were funded the previous year, so that they could reach more youth. The Vocational Center hired Professor Baudilio Israel Recinos de Leon to oversee the vocational training and activities. Between July and December of 2008, the vocational center ran four main workshops: Cutting and Sewing, Carpentry, Computer Classes, and Beauty Culture – all taught by certified professionals. The courses were designed to serve 120 children and youth, but due to a high interest in the programs, 164 children and youth were served – 88 young women and 76 young men.
- Youth Leader Scholarships: Students were chosen by the MTC in Guatemala. Each of six regional associations received an equal share of funds and selected one or more students from their region. Scholarships could be applied to formal schooling, as well as learning useful crafts like weaving. The primary selection criterion was how much leadership the youth had demonstrated within the MTC–for example, leadership of a regional Youth Council or Women’s Council.
To learn more about UWGP, please see their website.
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.
 Partnership in Women’s Ministries (PWM) is a partnership of ministries serving abused and abandoned women in Guatemala. This partnership comes to fill a huge void in Guatemala, where women lack total control of their lives, and are powerlessly subjected to lives of misery. These women, who are lacking resources and education, are desperately trying to survive and provide for their families. Tragically, they are all too often bound by violent relationships with abusive men.
PWM works with various ministries and organizations to provide multifaceted services to these women, including temporary shelter, counseling, legal services, discipleship, job training, and small business loans.
Their first shelter, El Refugio, (The Refuge) officially opened its doors for ministry on June 1, 2008, and their first client arrived two days later. Eunice and her three children, (Brian, Jasmine and Christian) were welcomed into the shelter with loving arms. Eunice had experienced abuse on almost every level for over the past six years. She shared that she felt isolated with nowhere to turn until her sister told her about PWM. Eunice and her children stayed with PWM for three weeks while restraining orders were processed by their director/attorney, Pamela, and plans were made for Eunice and the children to move to Solola with extended family. Pamela participated in this process as well, helping extended family understand that violence is not tolerable. She also met with local police to make them aware of the situation and the existence of the restraining order. Finally, she worked with Eunice to begin work baking ham and cheese croissants to earn an income.
PWM’s goal is to assist women and children in the physical, emotional, and spiritual healing necessary for them to re-enter society prepared to meet the needs of their families.
- COUNSELING is available for the women and children from a trained Guatemalan Christian counselor who meets weekly with each woman both individually and in a group setting.
- DISCIPLESHIP/MENTORING is provided by their in-house staff and discipleship teachers. The women and children receive optional classes and daily training in the areas of biblical teaching and Christian living, parenting, and healthy relationships.
- CHILDREN’S EDUCATION is provided. PWM pays expenses for the children to attend a nearby school and offer educational opportunities in the shelter.
- ADULT EDUCATION AND TRAINING is offered to the women. They offer assistance in job training, literacy training, and skill teaching, and seek to expand this area of service in the future.
- PHYSICAL CARE is provided to the women and children through shelter, food and clothing as well as meeting their basic medical and dental needs. Due to poverty, most of the women and children in their care have never been to a dentist and have had very limited medical care. Many have never owned a toothbrush and suffer from poor nutrition.
- FOLLOW UP AND SUPPORT is currently given to the families on a limited basis as they return to their communities. At this time PWM is able to maintain contact to make sure that the women are not falling back into abusive situations. PWM’s desire, with additional staffing is to provide more extensive follow up as they continue to encourage physical, emotional and spiritual development for these families, as well as additional training such as handling finances, encouraging children’s education, and goal setting.
To learn more about PWM, please visit their website.
From Houses to Homes (FHTH) aims to strengthen community harmony in highland Guatemala by building lasting, healthy homes, improving access to health care and education, and inspiring participation between the poor and civil society. From Houses to Homes is a New Jersey-based nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization founded in September 2004 to build homes and improve the lives of the rural poor in Guatemala. FHTH is currently funded through private donations, corporate giving, and contributions from private foundations. Nearly 100% of all donations go toward building homes and providing health and education to revitalize disadvantaged communities in Guatemala.
Home Building: In the poorest areas of highland Guatemala, improper building materials, a lack of appropriate resources, and unsustainable architectures turn houses to foul rubble in the blink of an eye. Many families live in makeshift homes that are constructed of nothing more than cornstalk or cardboard walls with dirt floors. Decrepit housing quashes hope, fuels health problems, and destroys family unity. From Houses to Homes-Guatemala, Inc., recognizes that flourishing homes and thriving communities begin with improving actual home structure. From Houses to Homes works with the poorest of Guatemalan families to build or rebuild houses making them strong, safe, culturally appropriate, and affordable to maintain. These homes become the foundation for a community building process.
Each home costs approximately $1,500. Their homes are 13 x 19 foot homes, made entirely of concrete block, with cement floor, corrugated metal roof, with skylight, a metal door with lock, and a metal-framed window with glass. The home is stuccoed and painted inside and out with colors chosen by the home owner. A plaque with your name will be placed on the home honoring your donation.
How They Select Their Families: There are over one million corn stalk shacks in Guatemala. Some communities consist entirely of these provisional houses which sometime include additional scavenged resources, like corrugated metal siding, scraps of wood, or even plastic bags as siding. All houses have dirt floors, occasionally a bed, and most with leaky roofs. Staff at FHTH try to visit every family three or more times over several months at unannounced times to see how the families are actually living. The only requirement to receive a home is that they are very poor and can prove ownership of the property. They then try to select the families with the largest number of members so there will be a benefit to the largest number of people. A single mother with five or more children will head the list. During their first five years of operation, they have averaged six members per home. This means that FHTH has provided a safe home to approximately 1,680 people.
Health and Education: While home building is their main focus, they recognize that houses just remain structures and communities remain collections of impoverished families without proper health and education. In addition to homes, they believe that providing poor families with better access to healthcare and education most effectively helps address community deterioration in highland Guatemala. From Houses to Homes makes health and education possible by subsidizing health care costs and school registration fees. While they can’t combat this problem in its entirety, they try to assist the neediest families in the highlands.
J. Brian Moran II Clinic in Pastores: FHTH has just purchased a piece of property to build a medical clinic in Pastores. Janeth de Reyes, the Director of the Cambiando Vidas School in Pastores, was kind enough to recruit her son, Emilio, to design the clinic. She also introduced them to her son, Edgar, who is a Doctor to guide us through this project with important information about the community and medical needs of the Guatemalan people. We are extremely grateful to Janeth for her support and guidance.
To learn more about FHTH, 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.
 Long Way Home’s (LWH) mission as a 501(c)(3) is to break the cycle of poverty among youth in developing communities by creating educational opportunities, cultivating civic interaction, and encouraging healthy lifestyles.
Education, Employment, and Breaking the Cycle of Poverty:
The intergenerational benefits of the opportunities provided by education have broken the cycle of dependency and poverty in many areas of the world, and have a tremendous opportunity to do so in rural Guatemala. Currently a majority of people in San Juan Comalapa subsistence farm for a living, which does not supply them with all of their basic needs. Long Way Home has dedicated itself to building a school in this town to bring education and job training to the people of this Mayan community. The education will in turn help them find employment.
San Juan Comalapa also has a garbage problem that can cause illness and disease. By using alternative construction techniques with materials that would otherwise be burned or enter the water supply, Long Way Home has created a solution for part of this dilemma. Through education, employment, and health the people of San Juan Comalapa have the power to increase the quality of life for generations to come.
To the community, they promise:
- To provide a safe environment for education and recreation;
- To bring and share innovative ideas in the areas of appropriate technology, education, and micro-enterprise;
- To train others to be development workers; and
- To be good stewards of the environment.
To the volunteers, they promise:
- To provide the opportunity to work hard, to learn, and to understand a unique culture.
To their supporters/contributors, they promise:
- To operate a lean organization that puts their contributions to the best possible uses in accordance with their mission; and
- To maintain accountability and transparency with all project financing.
To follow LWH’s construction progress, please visit this blog. To learn more about LWH, please visit their website, or Facebook fan page.
 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.
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