MUTUAL AID INTERNATIONAL

Mutual Aid International (MAI) is dedicated to help improve emergency responses and resources within the fire service (Fire,EMS,MVA,HAZMAT,Technical Rescue) department in Guatemala by teaching sustainable skills with respect to local need and call volume resource management. Nobody at Mutual Aid takes a salary, on the contrary, many of us donate our own money to help keep the charity going. 100% of the proceeds is allocated to transportation, protective gear, uniforms, storage and administrative costs.

Our strategy includes weekly communication with the volunteer firefighters in Guatemala (“Bomberos") and ongoing maintenance of awareness campaigns to help raise the funds needed to send them supplies, educational materials and schedule onsite visits. A team of Certified Firefighter Instructors and Paramedics are continually working on developing appropriate curriculum to help educate and extend the knowledge of the Guatemalan volunteers. Our goal is to coordinate a minimum of two trips a year in order to bring fire gear, medical supplies, rescue equipment and educational curriculum to their department. When we are in Guatemala, we organize classroom presentations and teach hands-on skill training and responding for a variety of emergency calls. We also assist the “bomberos" by working alongside them in the field.

We are composed of a group of volunteers that include, firefighters, medical technicians, students, writers, videographers, and dedicated citizens who are invested in the cause because of our previous success with the MAI program. Because of the group of individuals we have involved in our organization, we are able to tell our story and raise awareness for the volunteer firefighters in Guatemala. Our story coupled with faith and passion help forge our mission to aid these brave firemen as they work to save lives inside their devastated community.

We have raised funds to bring education materials and onsite training, supplies and equipment for the Guatemalan firefighters. During the last 4 years, we have raised enough money to travel to Guatemala 11 times for critical onsite visits, as well as help drive a fire truck from the U.S. to a station in Guatemala. We have delivered 20 sets of firefighting gear, 35 bags of medical supplies totaling 1700 pounds of supplies. We know our goals are being accomplished from the positive feedback and communication from the bomberos. After visiting the same stations on every trip in order to document strategy and growth, we have been able to keep valuable training records of all the courses that we have conducted. We have conducted 200 hours of training as well as donating 20 Spanish Language Firefighting Textbooks. But with all that we have a storage unit full of 200 sets of firefighting gear that needs to be shipped to Guatemala. As well as the ongoing relationship development to ensure we best serve their community's needs.