The Guatemalan Tomorrow Fund, Inc.

The Q'eqchí Maya of Seacacar, Guatemala have endured injustice, discrimination and violence. The worldwide pandemic is just the most recent challenge.

We've had to close our school and the community's long-term educational funding source, an ecolodge overlooking the Sauce River and the Seacacar Cañon Natural Reserve. 

Eighty percent of Guatemala's rural Mayan population live in extreme poverty. While the government shutdown of the economy was necessary for public safety, this action made chronic malnutrition a desperate situation.  Hungry and desperate people will cut down rainforest trees and sell the timber. They will poach howler monkeys, toucans and other wildlife to feed their families. 

If we can't reopen the school, our students will have no option but to do just as their parents and ancestors have done, slash and burn the rainforest to plant corn and beans. Yet another generation will continue the cycle of extreme poverty and environmental destruction. Your help is needed and it's needed now.

I've given a good part of my life to helping the Q'eqchí Maya help themselves. I've donated thousands of hours and well over six figures in financial resources.  Apart from a ten percent administrative fee from our non profit affiliate, the Guatemala Tomorrow Fund, all donations go directly to project efforts. I am not paid. My travel expenses for frequent trips to Guatemala are not covered. 90 cents on the dollar goes to educate kids living in extreme poverty. 

You can trust my resolve and commitment to expand opportunity and to protect and restore one of the world's most inspirational river environments.  Even so, I need your help to carry on. 

Your ongoing monthly donation of $20, $50, $100, $200 or more gives these good people a fighting chance to build a better life and protect their Mother Earth.

Furthermore, I will match the first sum total of $1,000 in monthly donations.  For example, if you donate $100 per month, I will match that $100 per month donation. The first $1000 in donations is thus matched by my donations of $1000, creating a $2000 monthly budget, a sufficient fund to provide educational opportunity to 50 Q'eqchí Mayan students, including at least 16 boarding students from other villages along the Sauce River. 

Your first monthly donation (or one time donation) will be used for an emergency food buy. This is not how we usually operate. Our vision is to create opportunity, not dependency. However, the February harvest was poor, and because the government declared a state of emergency, men and their sons cannot leave home to work on distant plantations. The next planting won't happen until the dry season ends and rains come in late May or early June.  Malnourishment stunts brain development and stands to make our efforts to provide educational opportunity futile. 

Your one time donation can be made via this Gofundme page.

The fund that supports our work in Seacacar is called the Rios Fund.  Private message me when you make this donation so that I can clarify the purpose of your donation with our non-profit affiliate, the Guatemala Tomorrow Fund. You can make your monthly or yearly donation at The Rios Fund Guatemala 

If you're only able to make a one time donation, I understand. This Pandemic has affected all of us, but some have lost their jobs while others stand to lose their businesses, homes and hopes for the future. If you're among the lucky few who haven't been seriously affected, then this is your opportunity to change the world. The day will come when we all look in the mirror and ask the question, "What did I do when the entire world faced a crisis?" 

Once the food emergency is addressed, we return to our guiding vision and empower youth with life changing knowledge, skills and mindsets. They won't just help themselves, but will also lift their families and communities. They become leaders who bring about change in harmony with the natural world.  

When we opened our school in 2014, we enacted practices aligned with the educational philosophy of Ak' Tenamit,  our affiliate vocational boarding school. 

- We ensured equal access for girls, an effort to overcome indigenous girl's appalling graduation rate of just five percent. 

- In addition to academic subjects such as math and science, students planted trees by the tens of thousands and practiced sustainable agriculture.

- They've worked with international travelers at our riverside lodge, guided on jungle trails and led awestruck visitors on inner tube floats through a stunning river gorge. 

- There is no free ride. Students contribute labor to maintain facilities, plant gardens, reforest, build trails and prepare and clean up after meals. 

- Students graduate from our intermediate school, then pursue career paths  in Rural Community Development or Sustainable Tourism at Ak' Tenamit.

- They acquire 3,000 hours of experience by rotating through positions in restaurants, administrative offices, as tour guides and in non-governmental organizations.

In October 2019, we saw our first students graduate from Ak' Tenamit. The impact on Seacacar and the Sauce River valley is incalculable, especially when one considers that most of the local population is illiterate and work their fields as subsistence farmers.

All of our graduates secured employment and began sending money home to help their families. Unfortunately, all have now lost their jobs due to the state of emergency. They are now home in Seacacar, but we can put them to work assisting teachers at our school until the economy opens again. 

The vision has always been to create opportunity, not dependency. We will continue that focus and provide a base level wage for local people working at the lodge, assisting in education or managing the nature reserve.

Their base level wages will be supplemented by tourism incomes when the economy recovers, empowering the local Q'eqchí with their own business.  If the school is to expand beyond serving 50 students, then it will depend upon donations, but also their efforts. They understand that owning a tourism business, growing employment and funding education will depend upon their efforts, not solely on donations. They also understand the need to protect and restore their "green gold mine," a stunning natural environment that draws travelers. 

We will reopen our school when the quarantine is lifted, when the threat of the pandemic passes and when we have a $2000 baseline monthly operating budget.  Every additional $50 monthly donation beyond $2000 allows us to accept another boarding student. 

Keep in mind that salaries in Guatemala are a fraction of those in the United States and that their living expenses are much lower as well. This is especially true for Mayan people, who live completely off the grid, build their homes with forest resources and subsist primarily on a diet of corn tortillas and black beans. Our base level assistance with local salaries doesn't put them in the "middle class," but it does lift them from extreme poverty. 

In addition, keep in mind that two full time professional employees will be hired from outside of the community. Their living expenses include electric bills, rent, transport costs to and from work and other expenses associated with something much closer to our own monthly expenses in this country.

The budget is broken down as follows: 

1 full time teacher / operations and marketing manager
This position will be developed as a private travel agency and include a base level salary plus sales commissions.  
$450 monthly plus sales commission / $5400 per year

1 full time agriculture specialist, assist operations manager
$400 monthly / $4800 per year

Financial assistance to pay four local Q'eqchi a base salary, with the long term expectation that tourism incomes (profit sharing) supplement salaries. Keep in mind that the local people own the tourism business and that their income growth will depend on profits. 

1) Project general manager:
$200 monthly / $2400 per year

2) Lodge & hospitality manager, supervise students working in tourism: $150 monthly / $1800 per year

3) Teacher assistant, boys boarding student supervision:
$150 monthly / $1800 per year

4) Teacher assistant, lodge assistant, girls boarding student supervision: $150 monthly / $1800 per year

Total budget for all other expenses including debt payments, infrastructure improvements, learning supplies, boarding students meal assistance: $500 monthly / $6000 per year 

Total monthly budget: $2000   

Total yearly budget: $24,000


Many thanks in advance for your contribution. You are changing lives and protecting the natural world for our children and future generations. 

On behalf of the Q'eqchí Maya people, Muchas gracias!

Paul Heesaker
Project founder

Make your ongoing monthly donation with the Rios Fund, Guatemala. 
You can also view a 30 minute film "A Trail to Seacacar" for a more 
complete history of our work among the Q'eqchí Maya. 

The Rios Fund Guatemala 
The Rios Fund Guatemala - This project is affiliated with the Florida based non-profit, the Guatemala Tomorrow Fund.  Our mission is to empower Guatemala's indigenous communities to improve their quality of life and become self-sustaining.