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The following excerpt is from a July 1, 2010 article published by InsideCostaRica.com. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
GUATEMALA – Guatemalan health authorities issued a red alert and began a drive to reduce the rising number of dengue cases and growing Aedes Aegipty mosquito population reported in the first six months of the year.
As of June 19, official statistics recorded 4,391 confirmed cases, including 98 of the hemorrhagic strain, compared to 1,133 in a similar period in 2009.
Click here to read the rest of the article, or here to read more about health & safety.
 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.
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.
 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.
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