Guatemala Aid Fund

We aim to help Guatemalan-run, Guatemalan-employed, community-supported programs with a strong focus on education and sustainability that help Guatemalans live, learn, work, and realize futures in their own country. We look at your donations as investments in futures for Guatemalans, as well as protection of their land, culture and people. Just like a scholarship you are passing your great fortune on to others that need funding to help secure a future in their own country. See the multi-phase project and existing successful programs on our webpage www.guatemalaaidfund.org

If you are like us at the 100% Volunteer GAF Organization, we feel that we have been blessed with a life that includes a home, access to school, clean water and opportunities for work and a self supporting future. We have seen firsthand in Guatemala that most if not all of these things are out of reach for much of the indigenous and general population in Guatemala. Being the 4th poorest country in the world, with severe malnutrition of greater than 50 percent of the indigenous children and minimal opportunities for education and employment, Guatemalans are fleeing their country. Most do NOT want to leave their families, and the land they love, but they do not have free high school, or meal support or food stamps, and many cannot provide for themselves or their families. They want an education, they want jobs, they want to stay. We at GAF have chosen to support the Association to Eradicate Poverty and the Fatima Children's Home child protection, education, and family support and outreach programs. The not only run child protection programs for abused and abandoned children until they can be reunified with family or adopted, they are committed to supporting long term education for children in their rural schools program. They invest in not only the child's basic needs, but also include psychological and medical support, extended family support and parental training courses to permanently change root causes of child abandonment. The Solola projects include plans for an organic farm, eco-cabins for sustainable income sources, as well as the purchase and preservation of native lands including two indigenous ceremonial sites, and native wildlife and forest habitat.

Thank you for considering these Guatemalan Run programs for your Charitable Giving!

Our strategies are focused on supporting strong, financially sustainable, and environmentally conscious programs that result in better lives for children and families so they may stay and build self-sufficient lives in their own country of Guatemala. We partner with strong, organized and successful locally run and community supported programs that we know personally.

This includes sustainable programs and project management such as:
economic development
solar energy
skill building/job training
sustainable agriculture
product repurposing
matching fundraising
community engagement (in US and in Guatemala)
teen awareness of giving back (in US and in Guatemala - next generation of giving back)
strong project management and reporting for specific campaigns
constant updates and personal meetings and visits
changing scopes as needs change
indigenous land preservation
Forest Management education
consistent education with accountability
locally planned programs, run and staffed by locals
empowering children, volunteers, employees, parents and communities to change their lives, reinforcing that everyone has something to offer, no matter what your situation is, where you live, or what you do. We call it the circle of giving. Someone who may seem to have "nothing" really has something to give. Time, love, language, enthusiasm. It is so inspiring.

Guatemala Aid fund is 100% Volunteer Non-Profit dedicated to helping abandoned children in Guatemala by supporting Guatemalan run sustainable programs focused on long term EDUCATION, early childhood care, and continuing support for adolescents into adulthood to maximize the probability for self-sufficiency and productive lives. We support successful, in-country, local run programs that have shown consistent proven results. They are resourceful, organized and educated, and receive community support. We are in continual contact with the directors and are updated on budgets, projects, future plans, and are integral in planning. Our board members have backgrounds in engineering, environmental preservation, languages, marketing, international education, biomedical and native guatemalans. We take the lead from the Guatemalan Directors on what is the most beneficial way to support them in their programs. We are organized and dedicated. Program goals include job creation, skills creation, entrepreneurial and educational support for success.

All money raised is sent directly to the Programs via tracked wires, and we have direct and regular contact as well as in-country visits and stays. Integral goals of our partner programs include use of the Guatemalan Work Force, sustainable energy and environmental practices, preservation of indigenous languages and cultures, and psychological well being. The specific Programs we partner with as well as current or pending projects that we support are described on our website: www.guatemalaaidfund.org

Progress:
One of our biggest accomplishments is our ability to listen to our knowledgeable Guatemalan partners as to what is most helpful for them so we can support them to be successful in their goals to eradicate poverty and malnutrition. They know what is most needed and effective in terms of eradicating the root causes of poverty and improving the lives of indigenous Guatemalans. We listen, and decide how we can best respond to provide meaningful and direct assistance for permanent change.
In material terms, we funded education for abandoned children, secured routine and emergency medical care, provided vitamins and nutritional support, funded parenting programs and the construction of a parenting center to support keeping families together and breaking cycles of child neglect. We support delivery of medical equipment, supplies, and medication as well as emergency funds for operations and emergency shelter care. We continually raise money for the psychological counseling, therapy, education and skill building for abandoned and abused children.
Work as a partner in planning programs that promote local employment and financial sustainability such as farming, tourism, internships, school drop-out prevention and job training. We support solar energy construction.
Our 10-year plan includes expansion of the extremely successful practices at the Fatima Children's Home in Guatemala City via the Association to Eradicate Poverty in the Solola Region, San Jose Chacaya. The plan has 6 major components and include:
1) COMPLETED DURING COVID - Indifenous Community Center (library, clinic, classrooms, kitchen). Construction began in 2019, building completed 2021)
2) Drinking Water – Development of 2 safe drinking water wells including pumphouses, solar panels, and treatment. Planned
3) Construction of Eco-Cabins – Create jobs in the hospitality industry, related services in the area and to generate sustainable income for support of services at the community center
4.) Organic Farm – Including sustainable agriculture classes, preservation of indigenous farming techniques to protect the environment and culture,
5) Native Land Conservation and Preservation – Purchase & protection of 50 acres of threatened land. Sustainable silviculture management plan. Preservation of archaeological sites, and 3 active indigenous ceremonial sites.
6.) Job Skills Center - a cooperative approach for local indigenous women to develop their native skills (i.e. Backstrap weaving) to create a business.