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Only A Child maintains a shelter and a carpentry shop for former street youth in Guatemala City, but the shelter is far more than just a place to sleep. The shelter provides its residents with a genuine home and a surrogate family in which the kids are taught accountability and responsibility. They must contribute time and effort daily toward meeting the needs of the family. In return, it gives them something to belong to, a place where they are respected and cared for, a place where they can grow and develop an identity complete with confidence and self-esteem.
The project houses 10-12 young adults. All of them work, and many of them work in Only A Child’s carpentry shop, where program participants produce finely crafted cedar boxes. Like the shelter, the shop serves a higher purpose. The youngsters who work in the shop produce objects of real beauty, helping to support the program that nurtures them. By working to develop a skill, they learn that they are capable of succeeding in life, once given the opportunity. With time they are able to see themselves in a different light, as valued and productive members of their society.
To further complete their preparation, and maximize their chances to leave the streets once and for all, Only A Child sends its program participants to high-quality independent schools. This represents for many, the chance to realize a life-long dream “to fill a desk at school,” better themselves and one day become someone.
To learn more about Only A Child, please visit their website.
 There is an estimated 60,000 – 100,000 people living in La Limonada, and urban slum community built into a ravine that runs through Guatemala City. It was established in the late 1950’s by people who fled other areas of the country for various reasons. People settled there and built homes in the ravine because they had nowhere else to live. Many of the families live with no running water or electricity. The geographic location of the community and the sub-culture of extreme poverty have produced a lack of education and job opportunities, spiritual darkness and unsustainable living conditions.
Lemonade International is devoted to being a physical presence of God’s love and the life of Jesus in La Limonada by:
- Providing children with hope for a better future through child sponsorship;
- Equipping and sending international workers for short-term and long-term missions;
- Providing humanitarian relief in situations where food, clothing and shelter are needed to restore people’s lives; and
- Transforming neighborhoods through community development, micro-lending and church planting.
Since 2001, Tita Evertsz, Lemonade International’s Guatemalan Director, along with more than 20 teachers have devoted their lives to the children at two schools in La Limonada. Escuelita Limón was the first school established in La Limonada with a small group of young children. More recently, a building was purchased to begin a second school, Escuelita Mandarina in a neighboring barrio in La Limonada. Both schools have morning and afternoon sessions to accommodate the growing number of children being reached and to create a schedule where they are able to attend formal public schools in Guatemala City.
To learn more about Lemonade International, and how you can help them achieve their goals, please visit their website.
 Dr. Salvatore Caputo, Executive Director of Caputo Children´s Fund, traveled to Central & South America, Africa, Brazil and Philippines for work duties in 1968 to 2002. While there, he and his wife helped at residential facilities for adults with physical challenges, homeless elderly people and street children. In 1968, the first time he visited Guatemala, he was astonished to see so many street children besieged to survive, and sleeping on sidewalks. To reduce their desperation and hunger, they become inhalant addicts, sniffing industrial solvents.
So touched by such conditions, he and his wife created a Non Profit Organization, the CAPUTO CHILDREN´S FUND, that is committed to improve the lives of the poorest of the poor, the marginalized and the oppressed in Africa and Guatemala. Their mandate is building better communities through compassion, love and assistance. They assist individuals, especially street children, and families to empower themselves to become self-sufficient by providing education, health care and financial assistance when they can.
CAPUTO CHILDREN´S FUND Is an International Charitable and Social Welfare Entity, nonprofit, apolitical, non-religious and independent Non Governmental Organization (NGO), dedicated to provide humanitarian assistance to people with extreme poverty and where inevitability necessity of food, education, literacy, health and sanitation, human development, and all sorts of needs without regard to race, religion or national origin. The primary objective is to aid starving children. They operate from Guatemala City.
CAPUTO CHILDREN´S FUND is not affiliated with or associated with any other health or human service agency. Its goals and objectives are to help people in the following distinctions:
- Neglected children known as the street children;
- Abandoned seniors;
- People with low incomes or in poverty;
- All kinds of people who suffer from the effects left by the armed conflict in Guatemala;
- People who suffer from interdiction of alkaloids, drugs and alcohol;
- Promote a culture of continuous evaluation of education programs within and outside the Republic of Guatemala;
- Giving certainty to the distribution of aid all people in extreme need;
- Promoting systematic process of education at all educational levels; and
- Establish cooperative relationships with related international organizations to receive contributions, gifts in kind and cash, collaboration, cooperation and assistance necessary for the proper functioning of the association, to integrate a system of accreditation and recognition of these activities.
To learn more about Caputo, please visit their website.
 Life of Hope Ministries exists to rescue the street children of Latin America. They partner with existing ministry organizations that provide for the educational, emotional, physical, and spiritual welfare of street children and high risk families. They seek partnerships with other organizations with similar goals in an effort to expand the scope of their mission activities. Life of Hope Ministries provides financial support, materials that aid their partners in their work, and co-ordinates internships and short term mission groups who invest in the ministry activities of their field partners.
Life of Hope Ministries currently has four field partners. Their partners are administratively independent. They meet regularly with all of their partners so they can continue to know how they can support and expand their ministries.
El Castillo: El Castillo was their original field partner. They have a comprehensive program of outreach to the street children of Guatemala City. Their street teams go to the streets to and build relationships and trust with the kids. The kids are offered an opportunity to change the direction of their lives. Their organization has 5 group homes, a faith-based school serving their children and children from the neighboring community, and programs to prepare the children for life and to be reintegrated into Guatemalan society.
Tita Evertsz-La Limonada: Tita operates two Christian based schools in the ghetto of La Limonada. Over three hundred (300) children attend the schools and Tita has served the children and families since the mid 1990’s. This ghetto area is a “red zone” and off limits to most Guatemalans. Through her consistent servanthood Tita has earned the trust of the gangs that control the neighborhoods. Her and her staff have daily opportunities to extend the love of Jesus to La Limonada.
The Rice Family Ministry: Richard and Chris Rice came to Guatemala as volunteers for El Castillo. They served as house parents, teachers, and in construction projects.
In 2004 the Rice’s answered Gods call give the balance of their lives in service to the people of Guatemala who they had come to love. They work in the north part of Guatemala City in the ghetto of Santa Faz. They have established a community center and native church. Their efforts have lead to many changed lives and activities that are changing to neighborhood with Christian principles.
Mama Carmen: For over 30 years Mama Carmen has been keeping a promise to God to care for children in need. Her family operate a traditional orphanage home in the area of the city dump. She typically has 40-60 children living in the home and accepts additional children on a day care basis.
To learn more about Life of Hope, please visit their website.
 Quality education, healthcare, and family development for the region’s poorest children
Known for its beauty, culture, and history, the Panchoy Valley also has its marginal zones where homeless families and street children live. In these areas the unemployment rate is high, adolescents lack education, crime is prevalent, alcoholism is rampant, and familial violence is widespread. Taking these problems into mind, the idea of opening a specialized technical school amidst the Victorias, Bella Vista, and Papalillo neighborhoods of Jocotenango, Guatemala, may have seemed like a risk, but it was also the long-standing dream of Patrick Atkinson, Founder and Executive Director of the GOD’S CHILD Project (GCP). In his own words, “It is the PERFECT place for the GOD’S CHILD Project to be.”
Construction of the school was completed December 6, 2007, and classes began in January of 2008. The Scheel Center’s goal is to be a catalyst for community change on a large scale by giving hope to impoverished families, abused or abandoned children. Hope is given in three forms: Standard Education, Specialized Technical Training and Healthcare.
Standard Education: For much of the modern world, formal education starts around the ages of 4, 5 or 6. By the time a child enters first grade they have often had several years of academic enrichment to better prepare them to learn. Students at the Scheel Center come from a very different world. Many of the students who study at the Center have been robbed of their childhood in various ways. They have not had time to play and learn. Many have not had access basic necessities such as adequate food, clean water, shelter or medical care. For these and other reasons, the Scheel Center students have grown up without an opportunity to learn.
Before a student is in a position to successfully learn any subject, their basic needs must be met. Scheel Center students are provided with two filling and nutritious meals a day. For many of them this is the only food they will receive.
Specialized Technical Training: Because of the unique background of the students at the Scheel Center some of them will not be able to continue their academic pursuits after the 8th or 9th grade level, or they will at least need to secure a part time job in order to do so. In an effort to equip all their students for life after school the following technical courses are currently being offered to students when they start their “basico” year. Each course’s objective is to prepare a student with the prerequisite knowledge and skill required to get a job in that field.
- Carpentry: The carpentry program at the Scheel center began in 2009 and is off to a great start. During the first few months of the program both boys and girls were taught theory and took part in hands on training. First, students built their own workbenches; they then moved on to coat racks, frames for paintings and most recently: study desks, which they will later be able to take home and use for their other studies. (Many of their students do not have any hard surface to do homework on.)
- Culinary Arts: The cooking class is a favorite amongst many of the students of the Scheel Center. The cooking class focuses on:
- Sanitary cooking practices
- Use and care of commercial grade cooking equipment
- Preparation of both basic and advanced entrees and desserts
- Promoting a love for the culinary arts
- Computer Skills: Starting in October of 2009, students of the Scheel Center have access to a computer lab to begin acquiring the computer skills to prepare them to succeed in a high tech world. Computer courses will cover:
- Basic Computer Skills: typing, navigation of Windows, use of a word processor, use of a spreadsheet, accessing the Internet, using email.
- Research skills: performing Internet searches, criteria for a reputable Internet source.
Healthcare:
- Dunnigan Family Medical Clinic: Made possible by a generous donation from the Dunnigan Family in honor of Dr. Ralph J. Dunnigan & Mrs. Bernadette Dunnigan. The Dunnigan Family Clinic will soon be serving the medical needs of families and children throughout the Vista Hermosa area.
- Dental Clinic: The Scheel Center Dental Clinic will begin by serving the needs of the children and families enrolled at the Scheel Center. The dental clinic is a community education center where The God’s Child project gives dental hygiene education to families from the surrounding areas. The group expects for the clinic to become operational in March, 2010.
- Psychology Clinic: In operation since February 2009 the Psychology Clinic provides counseling and support for the children of the Scheel Center and their families. Currently run by their on-campus psychologist Leonel Almira, the clinic gives Scheel Students an ear to listen and Christ-focused counsel on how to deal with the challenges of growing up in the slums of Guatemala.
To learn more about The Scheel Center, please visit their website.
 Street children stay alive by their wits – stealing and scavenging, begging and sleeping rough in parks, shop doorways and on dumps. These children have little or no access to education, care, food, shelter and their other rights. Many are drawn into a world of drugs or the sex trade. In some areas, they are known as the ‘disponibles’ – the disposable ones. Statistics vary widely but the United Nations estimates there could be as many as 40 million children living and working on the streets of Latin America.
Toybox is a Christian charity committed to helping street living and street working children and those at risk of becoming so, principally in Latin America. Their vision is of a world where there are no street children, where families are restored, those who are disadvantaged have choices and hope and all children have a voice. Toybox currently works in Guatemala, Bolivia, and Peru; but they are actively seeking out new opportunities to help the street children in other Latin American countries.
Toybox is based on caring Christian principles but they help all children who need their support, regardless of their faith, gender, ability or background. They partner only with projects that are carried out to the highest standards of care and child protection. They facilitate the sharing of good practice and help their Latin American partner organizations to become sustainable.
Every day, Toybox reaches out to over 5,000 of these children with practical help, friendship, training, education, and homes, as appropriate. They support teams helping children at high risk and their communities – with education, training and social action. This helps prevent children becoming street children by tackling root causes.
In Guatemala City, Toybox works with the following groups:
- Niños Y Jovenes Con Futuro: working with children in high risk situations, providing educational and holistic support.
- Libre Infancia: working with children who collect rubbish and often live around the rubbish tip.
- Amor del Nino: working with children who have been abandoned and/or physically abused.
- Fundación Vida Ilimitada: working with children who have been abandoned and some that are HIV positive
- La Gran Comisión: working with abandoned babies
- Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos: working with children at risk – often from very poor families
- Asociación Rosa de Amor: working with children who have been abandoned, sexually abused and ex-street children
- Fundación Esperanza de los Niños: working with children who work on the streets
- Fundación Protectora del Niño, Casa Bernabé: working with children who have suffered from domestic violence, children from very poor families and ex-street children
- Hogar del Niño, Liga de Vida Nueva: working with children at high risk and those living in extreme poverty
- Ministerio Cristiano Mi Especial Tesoro: working with teenagers at high risk and those who have experienced domestic violence
- Ministerios Tabitha: working with children and families who work on the rubbish tip and those involved in prostitution
- Fundación Samuelito un Reto para Vivir: working with children who work on the streets and those at high risk
- El Castillo:
- Boys Homes: Jireh – Maranatha – Emmanuel
- Girls Homes: Shalom – Torre Fuerte – Salem
- El Castillo School
To learn more about Toybox, please visit their website, blog, Twitter page, or Facebook page.
 Orphan Outreach is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to glorifying the Lord through reaching out to the millions of at risk children throughout the world. Since their founding in 2007, they have acted as instruments of Christ impacting the lives of those they serve. Ministering primarily in Guatemala, Honduras, India, and Russia, they support a variety of programs designed to offer a better chance to children in dire living conditions.
The Mission of Orphan Outreach is to improve the lives of orphans and at-risk children primarily in Guatemala, Honduras, India, and Russia through early intervention, education and evangelism, thus meeting the physical, emotional, educational, and spiritual needs of the children.
The children they work with experience unimaginable tragedies and are often victims of violence, extreme poverty, sexual abuse, physical and psychological trauma, trafficking, malnutrition, impaired development, and other harms.
By sponsoring mission trips, programs, funding, and partnerships, they prevent these children from becoming another of the many victims throughout the world. As stewards of Christ:
- They serve them to meet their physical, emotional, educational, and spiritual needs.
- They provide guidance, inspiration, and hope to children in seemingly hopeless situations.
- They are witnesses to the gospel aimed at instilling Christian love in the hearts of these children.
- They believe the uniqueness of each child should always take precedence as that is how God loves us – as unique individuals created by Him for His glory.
In Guatemala, Orphan Outreach works with the following organizations:
Good Shepherd Christian Academy, [Panabaj]: Panabaj is a small village on Lake Atitlan just outside the city of Santiago. On October 4, 2005, torrential rains from hurricane Stan caused massive mud slides down the face of the volcano next to the village. Over 1,000 people died and the village was buried under volcanic mud, rock and debris. Most of the people live in temporary housing in a field adjacent to the village as it is slowly being rebuilt. The hospital, school and police station were destroyed. The families are still struggling even after almost three years and many children are not going to school.
Mama Carmen Orphanage, [Guatemala City]: In 2009, Orphan Outreach learned about Mama Carmen, a devoted Christian woman who runs a private Christian orphanage near the city dump. For over 30 years Mama Carmen has been keeping a promise to God to care for children in need. Mama Carmen cares for 60 children on a full time basis and an additional 40 daily for day care. Many of the children she serves are “special needs” and she is committed to not turn away any children. She provides for the children with full faith that God will lead people to become involved in meeting all their needs.
Niños Rescatados, [Guatemala City] — Mrs. Arzu’s Schools: Serving approximately 550 children in education through sixth grade, early intervention support, health and nutrition and evangelism. The children in these programs are all children who live on the street. Some live with a parent or relative but all are extremely poor and in desperate situations. Mrs. Patty Arzu, wife of the mayor of Guatemala City runs and supports the schools through her foundation. There are three schools: one for preschoolers (Los Patitos), school age girls (Las Rosas), and school age boys (Los Cedros.) Orphan Outreach is partnering with Mrs. Arzu and her foundation to provide humanitarian aid, curriculum and teacher training, school support and supplies.
To learn more about Orphan Outreach, please visit their website.
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