Guatemalan Mission 2025

My name is Eoin Byrne, I am 27 years old and I am from Carlow, Ireland.

This is my first year fundraising for an international project and taking on a challenge of this capacity, but I have plenty of experience in fundraising for local projects during my time studying in St. Patricks College Carlow and challenging my physical limits. I am a Corporal in the Irish Army Reserve and I work full time in a supporting role for Permanent Defence Forces (PDF), where I have developed great skills in personnal management and mountaineering. I was the elected Students Union representative for Welfare in my 3rd and 4th years of college and I often ran small student fundraisers for homeless charities. I hope to expand on my skillset by further challenging myself to bigger projects in the future.

My current mission is to fundraise for La Mision Encontrándome con Cristo, by taking on the challenge of completing the Camino Francés in Northern Spain. The journey is around 800km long and takes an average of 30 - 35 days.

This challenge will be broken down into 7 day long sections and at the end of each section, I will pause and review my progress and my own physical, mental and financial status and whether it is possible to continue onto the next section or not. Each week, I will set a new target for myself and I will be required to walk a breakdown average of 160kms, which is averaged out at around 22.8kms per day.

Founded in 2006 by Father Robert Joel Cruz, La Mision Encontrándome con Cristo is a Catholic nonprofit organisation which aspires to help rural populations Guatemala, who apply for the aid provided by the organisation through a village development scheme. The organisation annually travels to Guatemala every June and operates on a three year programme in the selected villages which are in the mountain regions, far from the main cities. The selected volunteers travel to the remote regions to provide aid on a pre-established plan which works as shown below:

• Year 1 – Provide filters for clean drinking water.

• Year 2 – Provide solar panels to provide electricity.

• Year 3 – Provide cookers to help establish healthier kitchens (We are currently operating on year 3 in the village of Chisip).

In the last ten years, La Mision Encontrándome con Cristo has helped over 260 families. It is the vision of this organisation to continue to serving the 190 villages in the Alta Verapaz region of Guatemala, where they will aim to improve the quality of life by providing self-sustainable energy sources and educational opportunities that will increase the chances of the local people to overcome poverty and improve their own nation.