Who we are!

Hello again everyone!
We thought it'd be nice to post an entry about who we are and why we care, so that we're no longer random people asking for donations over the internet =)

Erin is a Special Education teacher in New York.  She went to Guatemala because she wanted to be immersed in a culture while giving back to the community.  The children at Escuela Pacaja have touched her heart in so many ways, it proved to be an amazing and life-changing experience.  Erin enjoyed  getting to know the kids so much that she had to continue to help the school once she got home.  She also served as the unofficial Spanish-English translator in Guatemala, since she lived in Spain for a few months during college.

Liz is a graduate student and an underwriter who lives in Philadelphia. Giving back to Pacaja is important to Liz because it not only benefits the school, it also supports the progress of Guatemala.  You can tell she had an amazing time with the kids in this picture.  Liz is also an award-winning photographer -- she won a photo contest sponsored by our volunteer program!

Stephane is a marketing analyst who lives in Washington state, by way of Paris, France.  He brought two of his very quiet and shy* children, Matthieu and Alex, along with him to Guatemala.  The three of them had a wonderful time, and it was amazing how many friends the two boys made over the short week!  After seeing the conditions at Pacaja, and reading about the depressing education statistics in Guatemala, Stephane knew that he had to give more to the school and its children.

*Not at all shy or quiet =)

Zhitong is a financial analyst in Baltimore.  Volunteering at Pacaja was one of the most rewarding experiences of her life, and she absolutely fell in love with the adorable students.  Zhitong would wake up at the crack of dawn every day during her week in Pacaja because she was so excited to see the children -- that's quite an accomplishment for a person who thinks 11am is "early."  She really hopes that she'll be able to make a difference in the lives of Pacaja's students!

Angelica was the wonderful director of the international volunteering program in which Erin, Liz, Stephane, and Zhitong participated.  She is such a warm and caring woman, and anyone can tell that she loves organizing projects to help her native Guatemala.  Angelica was the principal of a Guatemalan high school before she became involved in international volunteer exchanges.  Prior to the directing the Xela program we enrolled in, Angelica served as a coordinator for AFS Intercultural Programs and worked with a local organization to help at-risk children.  Angelica recently started her own volunteer organization, Kindred Volunteer.  If you are interested in visiting the beautiful Mayan city of Quetzaltenango while helping the local community, please visit her website!

Orlando was an administrator in our volunteer program, and recently joined Angelica to work on Kindred Volunteer.  He knows so much about Guatemalan history and culture, and really enjoys sharing stories about his country.  Orlando was a very knowledgeable tour guide whenever we went on trips around Xela, and everyone benefited from his information!

So that's us in a nutshell!  Hopefully we are now more than just anonymous bots behind your computer screen.  Also, thank you so much for your contributions!  We have raised over $400 in just a few days!

We're making great progress!!!

To everyone who has donated, thank you so much for your generosity!  We are making great progress, especially considering we've just started fundraising a few days ago!

We're already well over halfway there to new library supplies, and I definitely think that we can get the funds necessary for that new computer lab!  Right now the school has 9 computers for 600 children, let's try to double that number (at least) and connect the students to the rest of the world.

Thanks again, and we'll keep with the progress reports as more donations roll in!











The kids at Pacaja thank you too!!!!  Look at those silly little boys =)

Small Addendum

Hi again everyone!

We just had a conference call with our wonderful KindredVolunteer contact Angelica, and she gave us more details on the types of materials that your donations will help purchase for this first project!

Angelica is looking into buying story books, maps, and atlases for the library at La Escuela Pacaja.  Most of the children at the school have never left their city, much less Guatemala, so bringing maps to the library will open their eyes to so many possibilities!  Hopefully the kids will be inspired to finish their educations and see the world.

When I volunteered at Pacaja, I brought along a Spanish-English guide with maps of different Latin American countries.  I remember the little children being so excited to point at all the places!

So please give what you can today to help us get these materials to the children!  Once again, no amount is too little!

Thanks for reading!

-Z

Please Donate Today!

Hello Friends, and welcome back to our blog!   After talking with our KindredVolunteer contact and the principal of Pacaja, we are in agreement that the the first step for La Escuela Pacaja should be materials for the library and classrooms. Though this, all of the children will benefit from your contributions. 


The Guatemala school year runs from February though October. Since the school year is ending shortly, your donation will be given to school in the first days of February 2011. 


We have set up a Paypal account; the link is below. We also have a Facebook page that links to the account. Should you have any questions regarding the administrators of the account, feel free to contact us.


Presently, only $500.00 will be enough to give the school a good selection of books and materials!  We are hoping to surpass that figure so that we can work on further projects, like more (much-needed) computers. 

So please give what you can, and remember that no amount is too small.  Note that 100% of your contribution will be going to the school, we have no overhead expenses or fees.


Please give today! Click the link below, and thank you!!!

-Liz

Devastation in Guatemala

CNN reports on Guatemalan mudslides

BBC reports on Guatemalan mudslides

Guatemala has been hit with the horrible effects of torrential rains and mudslides. As many as 37 people have died, and the numbers are expected to rise.

CNN reports that "thousands of homes, in addition to infrastructure and fields of crops, also were damaged by the heavy rains." In Xela, "a family of four died when their home was buried by a mudslide" (BBC World).

Many roads were also destroyed by the mudslides. The children of La Escuela Pacaja will be affected with limited supplies being brought into their already deprived school.

Please keep these images in your mind when we ask for donations towards La Escuela Pacaja. We are very grateful for your thoughts and prayers and we will keep you posted.

- Liz

We can make a difference.

We were a group of 14 volunteers with different background coming from different states, sometime speaking different languages and some of us also came with their children.
We knew we wanted to make a difference, we knew we wanted to help others but one thing we did not know is that the week we all spent together in helping la escuela Pacaja in sanding and painting desks and chairs and sharing some of the life of the students will change so much our lives.

When we came back on August 21st, we knew we could not stop here. So, that same day some of us were already sending emails to the principal but also to someone in Xela who will help us make sure the right investments are made with the donations doing an onsite follow up with the school.
Few hours after landing and several emails later we were a little more organized and we decided to start a fundraiser for la escuela pacaja.

As we are working with the principal and local representatives to better understand what their urgent needs are, so we can fundraise wisely making sure the money we collect is effectively going where the needs are, we share our experience volunteering at the school with you so, like us, you’ll want to make a difference in helping students a la escuela pacaja.

In Guatemala and in that school about 60% of the children won’t go to the end of high school; in Guatemala, literacy is around 70% and only 63% among women. Even if our action is a drop in the ocean, we want to make this world a better place to live for these children with the support we will bring. Shortly we’ll share with you about things that will contribute to improve literacy and the number of students in la escuela pacaja able to finish high school.

if you want to learn more about our recent action a la escuela pacaja, and share the personal experience of one of the volunteers, click here to read the blog posts.

Yes we are passionate, yes we believe in what we do and YES we need your help to make it happen.

Stay tuned!

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Office of the principal and main entrance of school.

Computer lab for la escuela pacaja (600 students and 9 PC in operation)

Children during recess

  

Small update

Hey everyone!
Things might be a bit slow for the next week or so, because our lovely Guatemala contact is wrapping up some business things before transitioning to her new organization (www.kindredvolunteer.org).  She should be able to visit the school soon and develop a plan to utilize our future donations!

While we wait, allow us to introduce ourselves!  We are a group of people from all over the US that met on a week-long volunteering trip to Guatemala.  Our volunteer project was to fix up classroom furniture for kindergarten classes at La Escuela Pacaja.  At Pacaja, we got to play with the students every day during their hour-long recess. We fell in love instantly with the wonderful children, but were also saddened by how little they had.  Guatemala is a very poor country with depressing statistics (70% literacy rate, $1200 per capita GDP, 60-yr life expectancy for males), and we don't want the children at La Escuela Pacaja to be trapped by these dreary numbers.  That's why this website was created, because every little bit DOES matter, and differences can be made in those innocent lives!

And now ... more lovely pictures!

We brought sidewalk chalk for the kids one day, and they loved it so much that we had to break each small stick into > 5 pieces!  It's so nice that such a small thing could bring so much joy (to them and to us!).

The kids are very creative when it comes to fun.  Fact: we learned 539 new clapping games per day during our stay in Guatemala.

The kids do have a beautiful view of the Santa Maria volcano -- it wouldn't be so bad to go to school under its majestic shadow!