Rotary Club of Buffalo Grove Foundation

May 2023 - Humanity In Motion

Rotary volunteers just completed another humanitarian trip to support the Educación Ak Tenamit school in eastern Guatemala! It is astounding how much is accomplished in such a short time.

-The student dormitory, roughly 60’ wide and 180’ long was nearly completed, allowing for @90 boys to have a bed/home while they are at school. Imagine the logistical challenges of getting supplies to a work site about a half mile’s hike from a boat dock that sits a half hour+ boat ride from the nearest “lumber yard”. That’s a logistical nightmare even before you think about “simple” things like keeping everyone hydrated in 95-degree heat and 98% humidity.

-Built over 75 bunkbeds for the boy's dorm

-Completed roughly 20 recycle bins to allow the students to start a recycling program.

-Built safety rails for another boy's dorm

-Taught English… the talents of @Laura McDaniel provided English classes like none other. The kids you touched will be changed forever. What a priceless gift!!

-Constructed multiple clotheslines so the kid's clothes can dry

-Delivered over 35 water filters to a student’s village. The cost of a water filter is @$50 and last for 5 years and will likely save several lives.

We always walk away never feeling ready to leave as there are so many opportunities to support additional projects.

What a gift to spend these memory-making moments with such a talented, intelligent group of selfless people and students. As my friend @Jeannette Legge said… “The whole is truly greater than the sum of the parts". #Liveagreatstory

April 2023

For over twenty years, the Rotary has worked hand-in-hand with the directors and students of Ak’Tenamit to improve the functionality, sanitation and well-being of their campus environment. Upkeep of the school is unending due to the school being located in the middle of the rain forest. As in past years, projects are identified as immediate needs for the school.

This year a team of 28 will head up the following extensive projects continuing on the mission of education and improvement:

ROTARY CLUB OF BUFFALO GROVE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION

PO BOX 5062, Buffalo Grove, IL 60089-5062 | | EIN: 36-3653525

Check out the progress made in 2022. Another girl's dormitory was completed:)

https://fb.watch/jgNyNcLuqs/

History of Ak’Tenamit

Prior to founding Ak’Tenamit in 1992, Steve Dudenhoefer owned a successful interior-scaping business in South Florida. In 1990, he decided to visit Guatemala to discover why many of his employees, Mayans from Guatemala, had immigrated to the US to work and sent every penny they earned back home. He met people who lived on $1 a day, children without schools, and mothers without vital medicine for their babies among many other challenges. Deeply affected by this experience, he returned home, sold his businesses and started Asociación Ak’Tenamit in 1992 with the help of local village leaders.

Ak'Tenamit began with 6 students and has since grown to over 800, from over 200 remote villages. The students that are accepted to the school come from a variety of remote villages and most of the girls in attendance will be the first girls in their families to study past the 6th grade and graduate from school. Besides providing secondary education, Ak’Tenamit provides most of the students their first experience of sleeping in a bed, three meals a day, medical and dental care, the opportunity to learn about their cultural history and to share knowledge and experiences with the other students.

Ak'Tenamit, which means "New Village" in the Q'eqchi' language, is an indigenous community development promoting long-term solutions to poverty in the rainforests of eastern Guatemala through education, healthcare, income generation, and cultural programs run by and for Q’eqchi Mayans.

Indigenous Mayans make up half the population of Guatemala. Most live in rural villages without roads, electricity or running water. In Guatemala alone, only 5% of Indigenous girls finish the 6th grade. When a girl turns 12 and lives in poverty, her future is out of her control. In many eyes, she is considered a woman now. By the age of 13 or 14, she will marry and could have anywhere from 4 to 6 children by the time she is 20 years old and sadly continuing the cycle of poverty. Not the life you imagined for a 12-year-old girl.

About Ak’Tenamit:

Ak’Tenamit is a rural, secondary boarding school that includes a middle school and a three-year vocational high school.

The mission of Ak’Tenamit is to enable the indigenous people of Guatemala to become self-sustaining by supporting projects that:

• Improve healthcare

• Reduce illiteracy

• Promote environmentally sound agriculture

• Promote enterprise development to raise income levels

• Increase awareness and participation in civic affairs

• Help at-risk youth secure gainful employment and self-employment

The school is nationally and internationally recognized by the United Nations for its innovative program. The curriculum is adapted to the needs, interests and culture of students learning in a rural context, and complemented by classroom learning with practical work experience. Together, the curriculum and work-study programs prepare students to succeed in today’s job market and enable the students to make headway toward reducing poverty in their communities. Graduates represent a new generation of indigenous youth who think critically, are computer literate, bilingual, trained in practical skills and committed to preserving their culture.

CREATING A CLEANER & BETTER WORLD...

As in past years, we will visit a student’s remote village to assemble and distribute water filters to each family. It is exciting to see the faces of a family receiving something that we all take for granted. One water filter will provide clean water for up to 5 years for (1) family at a cost of $35 per filter. The cost to save (1) life is @$15.

Thousands have lived without love… not one has lived without water - W.H. Auden

Over 780 million people do not have access to clean water. That is more than 1 out of every 10 people worldwide… or more than twice the population of the United States. The majority of these individuals live in isolated rural areas and spend hours every day walking to collect water from a stream or river for their families. Not only does this keep kids out of school but also consumes many income-earning hours. In addition, the water collected often carries many waterborne viruses and diseases.

-Unsafe drinking water, inadequate availability of water for hygiene, and lack of access to sanitation together contribute to about 88% of deaths from diarrheal diseases.

-Clean water reduces diarrhea morbidity by 21%, and the simple act of washing hands at critical times can reduce the number of diarrhea cases by as much as 35%. Improvement in drinking water quality would lead to a 45% reduction in diarrhea episodes.