Please consider donating to

Sueños y un Futuro ("Dreams and A Future") school in Antigua, Guatemala!

Many of you followed my recent trip on Facebook to Antigua, Guatemala with my 16-year-old daughter, Julia. We worked with an after-school program with kids ages 4-17. I have been on several international volunteer trips before, but it was an eye-opening experience for Julia. She and I absolutely loved our time working with this program, and the connections we have made with the kids and the teachers at this school. We will be going back at some point!

Over the last few weeks, I have been communicating directly with the program coordinator in Antigua, who has given me information regarding the current needs of the school, and where exactly our raised funds will go. Currently, there is an urgent need for a bigger space. The cost of renovating a new space is $3,350. This would include new flooring, a new roof, other amenities, and a working kitchen space. There is no kitchen space at the current location, therefore options to provide food and meals to the children are limited. The new space would be two full rooms, an improvement from the one small room in the current space. With the additional room, there would be space for the development of other programs, such as a school psychologist.

With the growing number of kids, there is also a need to increase hours of instruction. The current staff is only part-time, with the lead teacher receiving a salary of about $250/month. The program does not currently have the cash flow to pay a full-time salary, which would be $500/month— which is considered minimum wage in Guatemala. Full-time salary would allow for staff to receive social security and medical insurance. Full time hours of instruction would allow for more children to receive services, and with a kitchen space, breakfast could also be provided in addition to a meal before the children go home at the end of the day.

To summarize, your donations would be going towards the creation of a bigger and better instructional space, a kitchen area to allow for additional food and meals, additional instructional hours and increased pay for the teachers, so they can support their own families while continuing to support the needs of the children in the program.