Getting to know organizations

We´ve met with a lot of organizations this week to try to figure out just exactly what we want to achieve this summer. Since HELP only sends volunteers in the summer, and they really stress sustainability, we try our hardest to work with organizations that are already in place, but just need support and man power to help run things. Some of the ones we have met, include:

ADECACH: is an organization run by Eladio and is trying to improve the well-being of communities through gardens, medicinal plants and products, after school classes, and wants to start up a library for those in the community who can no longer afford to attend school and for the kids who don´t have access to the ones in the larger cities.

Guatemala Children´s Project: this is a quote, orphanage, that was started by Guillermo, who works with about 15-20 kids and in reuniting them with their family or close relatives. He does this by instilling family values and restoring a healthy home environment so that the child can return. He introduces them to the missionaries...or some, friends, that can help them do this. So far, 19 out of the 50 families have been baptized and reunited, and 32 out of the 50 have been reunited. This is going to be one of my main projects--formalizing exactly what Guillermo does, documenting it, finding ways to create formal lesson plans for the families, and increasing clarity and communication with the board and others about GCPs mission statement.

AMUPAZ: has been started by a woman named Leti, that supports the education of women in order to strengthen the family unit. She does everything from micro financing, to implementing growing mushrooms (a cheap and easy plant) and teaching marketable skills and lessons that can help them improve. Even though she has a very large, credible organization that works with around 50 communities and around 7,000 people, she is suffering from the lack of funds. She refuses to promise to vote for certain political parties in order to receive funding like many of the other organizations.

SHARE: is a large organization, with a lot of funding from the states, run by a man named Julio. They are working with building up nutrition in the schools around the impoverished parts of Guatemala. Particularly, they want to grow school gardens that help increase the child´s concentration by simple food. The size of kids around here, and even some certain discolorings on their face can tell you how malnourished they are.

ACIDICO: works with a lot of different areas of development. We are interested in working with the extremely rural schools out in Tec Pan - who speak indigenous languages as well as Spanish. One of them is named Xiquinjuyu which means = behind the ear. yes, it is really that far out.. for some of them, I think we were the first white people the kids had seen. Particularly we would teach sex ed. and English classes.

CEADEL: works with women´s rights, particularly with labor laws, and gang prevention. They do this with all different types of programs and classes. For example, for gang prevention, they call it, quote, leadership opportunities, and they do all sorts of activities with targeted teenagers if they agree to attend different seminars. The kids are given an hour on the radio per week, and the subject they are given to talk about is gang prevention and different subjects like that.

Madre Hogar Anna Vitiallo: an orphanage that is run by 13 nuns and has 50 kids that are HIV positive. Holy break your heart. These nuns do everything-- from nurse, distribute their medicine twice a day, teach them school, make them meals, put them to bed, and care for them at night. They could use help in any of these areas.

There are other projects like adobe stoves, and thousands of other schools we could help teach at, and various other options...how is one supposed to choose!? All of these organizations that we have met are so inspiring and innovative, and they certainly don´t do it for the money...they do it simply because they care about the people around them. They saw the potential and ideal version of what their country and people could be, and put it into realistic, localized action. That is something you could call greater vision...