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Read moreCategory: Projects
A Quest for Education
Open Windows Foundation creates an opportunity to learn in San Miguel Dueñas San Miguel Dueñas looks like any other pueblo bordering La Antigua Guatemala. Camionetas come in and out at a regular clip, bypassing an antiquated church alluding to a Guatemala of old. There are a handful of tiendas staffed by abuelitas selling acid orange carrots and flowers. Dueñas is […]
Read moreThe EcoLeña Project
An innovative, sustainable alternative to wood as fuel by Joyce Stanley When most people walk down a road and see useless dry leaves on the ground, an EcoLeña producer sees gold. EcoLeña is an innovative, sustainable fuel-wood alternative made from grass, leaves, straw and other renewable resources to replace fire wood. Also called biomass briquettes, EcoLeña is being produced and used in […]
Read moreNiños de Guatemala
Profit for Non-Profit: Working toward a financially sustainable future For those who struggle financially, charitable giving is usually the first thing that gets cut from the budget, often leaving non-profits and those they help in a predicament. For non-profits, there are good years and bad years; however, the unpredictability is as debilitating as the lack of funds. Niños de Guatemala—a […]
Read moreGallery of Los Patojos Gigantes Project
El Proyecto Socialeducativo y Cultural “Los Patojos” se integro a la tradición del Baile de los Gigantes con sus propios gigantes que son bailados por niños y jóvenes del proyecto. De esta forma están preservando esta tradición tan antigüeña al involucrar a todos estos pequeños patojos gigantes. Para más información y noticias de Los Patojos visitar: [Facebook] Fanpage del Proyecto […]
Read moreITEMP Offers Fresh Start for Entrapped Women & Children
María, 21, mother of four, fled dire poverty to come to La Antigua Guatemala hoping for a better future. But she didn’t find the tranquil, colonial paradise that makes Antigua so appealing to travelers worldwide. Instead, she and her older daughter were forced to work long hours for the owner of the house she lived in and barely got anything […]
Read moreIlegal Mezcal
Potent spirit opens new chapter for Antigua outpost by Brendan Byrne Not unlike its original customers, or more honestly its booze-filled reprobates turned employees, Café No Sé in La Antigua Guatemala has truly grown up over the last years. This change is fourfold. Firstly and ironically, some of the infantile antics and genuine boyish bonhomie that epitomized this legendary watering […]
Read moreEmpowerment Through Education
The Integral Heart Foundation provides a safe place to learn and grow In the 1990s, Mick Quinn was an Irish immigrant living in New York City. Founder and CEO of several multimillion dollar companies, Quinn left New York after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Now at the top of his game, he began to realize that there was more […]
Read moreAlterna
Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship in Guatemala written by Reid Lustig To fry an egg is no simple task. One must tromp through the forest harvesting wood with a machete, haul a hefty bundle back to the house on foot, arrange the sticks in a fire pit and nurse the flame to life. There are more than 8 million people in […]
Read moreFotokids Anniversary
Twenty years of tackling poverty through photography Surrounded by 40 acres of toxic garbage, in the middle of Central America’s largest and most dangerous landfill, isn’t exactly where most people gain inspiration. However, for ex-Reuters photojournalist Nancy McGirr, the smell of burning plastic, combined with the sight of cardboard houses and gardens of sewage, is where Fotokids first began. Originally […]
Read moreGod’s Child Project
20 years of improving lives by Hannah Wallace Bowman Malnourished kids are among the many who benefit Guatemala has one of the highest rates of malnutrition in Latin America, with 45 percent of children under the age of 5 suffering from this chronic and life-threatening illness. When Jose Alberto arrived at Casa Jackson, an emergency recovery center for infants suffering […]
Read moreCompañero en Salud
Changing lives through surgery by Astrid Barrios Since 2004 the NGO Compañero en Salud (CENS) has been providing surgical and health services to needy villagers in rural Guatemala. Our mission includes acting as a bridge between foreign surgeons and the Guatemalan patients. National and international doctors, nurses and medical personnel have helped more than 40,000 patients (75% of them women […]
Read moreMake Your World A Home
Habitat for Humanity conference in honor of Guatemala success by Anna-Claire Bevan It’s not often that Guatemala is described as a global leader, but in the world of Habitat for Humanity, that’s exactly how it’s known. The NGO´s international president Ken Klein recently visited the country to celebrate the success of Habitat Guatemala and learn from its effective disaster-response program. […]
Read moreAsociación Manos Abiertas
written by Hannah Freiwald Asociación Manos Abiertas (AMA) was founded in March 2008 in response to the urgent need for reproductive health services in Ciudad Vieja. Our mission is to offer a safe and welcoming place where health services are provided for women by women, in a respectful and confidential manner without discrimination. We strive to treat the woman as […]
Read moreSafe Passage
One volunteer’s overwhelming experience serving in the city dump written by Hannah Wallace Bowman Every day at 7:15 a.m., a bleary-eyed group of Westerners gathers on the pavement outside La Antigua Guatemala’s San Francisco Church. Clutching banana bread and paper cups of steaming coffee, they soak up the early morning sun. Preparing to make their way into one of the […]
Read moreTime Is Short and the Water May Rise
Can Panajachel gird up in time for the next flooding? From space, Panajachel resembles a fan on a long, broken rod. This fan abuts Central America’s deepest waters—Lake Atitlán. It looks as though the city, in mortal fear of the lake, wants to escape up the skinny gorge that forms the broken rod. In fact, the lake is the most […]
Read moreFrom Houses to Homes
by Joe Collins From Houses to Homes was founded in September 2004, and we began operations in Guatemala in January 2005 under Asociación De Casas A Hogares. From Houses to Homes 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. […]
Read moreNiños de Guatemala
by Lidia Climent Martínez Niños de Guatemala (NDG) is an NGO that was founded in 2006 by Dutch students and Guatemalan residents to contribute to a better future for Guatemala through education. It tries to achieve this goal by starting or supporting small-scale community projects, with a focus on education and other youth-related projects. Our vision We approach our projects […]
Read more150 attend WINGS’ 10th anniversary celebration
Serving over 30,000 people in seven departments, WINGS recently celebrated over a decade of achievements in the fields of family planning, reproductive health and improving the lives of Guatemalan families. With the theme “It All Begins With Family Planning …,” WINGS’ 10th anniversary launch party on March 17 brought 150 guests to Mesón Panza Verde in La Antigua, where they […]
Read moreAction Speaks Louder
Asociación Hombres y Mujeres en Acción (Men and Women in Action) was founded in 2009 to address the most basic needs of people and to improve their quality of life. In just two years it has built 34 houses, installed over 250 vented stoves and treated over 2,000 patients in its remote medical clinics. Working mostly in San Martín Jilotepeque, […]
Read moreConcerted Effort
With transatlantic support, new school opens in Jocotenango Built with an outpouring of support from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, a modern new school recently opened in Jocotenango for over 500 children, many of whom might not get an education otherwise. The spacious Escuela Proyecto La Esperanza has 20 classrooms, a computer lab, an audio-visual room, library, kitchen, psychology […]
Read moreY’abal Handicrafts
by Erol Reyal In the first few week of October 2005, the Pacific Coast of Central America was affected by severe winds and rains of Hurricane Stan. The heavy rains took the communities of Guatemala completely by surprise and created massive landslides and floods. This catastrophe not only caused material damage but it also took the lives of hundreds of […]
Read moreNiños con Bendición
Children dance to raise scholarship funds by Nancy Hoffman Niños con Bendición is a group of 16 children ages 6-13 who perform folk dances before various audiences to raise money for scholarships for their schooling and to help cover daily living expenses. The group was founded in 2004 to give children in the village of San Antonio Aguas Calientes a […]
Read moreBuild a stove — affect the future
by Liz Ballantyne-Jackson Exposure to smoke from cooking fire kills approximately two million people worldwide every year. Globally, nearly three billion people use polluting, inefficient stoves or open flames to cook their food. The result is deforestation, carbon emissions and often-fatal illness. Inhaling the toxic fumes while preparing tortillas and frijoles puts rural Guatemalan women and children at risk of […]
Read moreKarate Kids in Church
People go to church for many reasons: to worship, to study scripture, to sing hymns, to seek healing, to earn a black belt in karate. Wait a minute—to earn a black belt? Now you have heard it all. Churches do some unchurchy things to help bring in money, like holding aerobics classes, bake sales and bingo nights. But karate? First […]
Read moreGuatemala NGO Network: Formerly known as La Antigua Network
The intention of the Guatemala NGO Network is to make the site a resource that the world can use to better serve Guatemala and its people. At a recent meeting held at La Peña de Sol Latino in La Antigua, attendees had the opportunity to hear about the work of, among others, the Reicken Foundation, Children International, Friends of the […]
Read moreT.E.S.S. Unlimited
Making a difference Tessa de Goede is a 27-year-old Dutch woman who came to Guatemala three years ago. After doing volunteer work in several countries she found out that helping children with cleft lips was the work that touched her the most. “It’s just a feeling I have inside when I see a baby with a cleft lip. I just […]
Read moreA Cure for Cobblestones
Transitions creates 10 years of mobility in Antigua Transitions Foundation, an Antigua-based organization dedicated to supporting and empowering Guatemalans with disabilities, is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its wheelchair workshop. The workshop offers employment opportunities, currently to nine people with disabilities, and produces affordable and custom-tailored wheelchairs and mobility devices for those in need. History The workshop was rented from […]
Read moreThe Art of the Gourd
Mayan Hands is a small, fair-trade organization that has been working with Mayan artists since 1989. It works with approximately 200 weavers, organized in groups of 12 to 50 women in 11 western and northern Guatemalan highland communities. Its mission is to assist these women by providing the skills and markets necessary to earn a regular income, enabling them to provide for their families and gain control over their lives.
Read moreCONSTRU CASA
Building new lives in Guatemala written by Brian Kirkup Constru Casa was founded in 2004, and by the end of 2010 we hope to have built our 400th home. The houses are basic but effective, consisting of three rooms, concrete walls, a metal roof, a concrete floor, a shower and a toilet. The cost of the house to the family […]
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