Tel. +44 (0)1273 600030 (UK)
1of4
Living with local families you make a real difference in so many ways during this trip. Education, both primary and secondary, as well as daily food are basic human rights and we are attempting to combat the imbalances of these rights through volunteers and our Charitable Trust. First and foremost you change for evermore the lives of the poverty stricken indigenous children you are teaching. Without your help they wouldn't get the education that every child deserves and they would miss out on so many things we take for granted as children such as friendships and the chance to play, instead many of them would be working in the fields from an early age.
Your efforts go towards teaching and your money goes towards food for the children (providing local farmers with an income), your host family accommodation (providing them with an income), scholarships into main stream schooling, $100 of what you pay goes towards a project or item of your choice in-country and there are many other projects funded by your help that you will be able to see in the villages. 50 trees will be planted on each volunteer’s behalf during the planting season, usually June, July and August, in the surrounding areas of San Andrés Itzapa and Santa María de Jésus – regions which are desperately in need of some reforestation.
The exam results from the National School that we pay for our children to attend, as well as our own school, and the results in language (Spanish), Maths and the Sciences are outstanding, with some in the top bracket of the country with high 90s and some 100s. To think that none of these children would actually be able to go to school, let alone achieve the high marks they have done, is testament entirely to the volunteers and quantifies clearly their work each day - 60 and above is a pass. Most indigenous children can't actually go to school, and when they do, they only attend less than 2 years for failing the grades, these results quantify the excellent long-term work volunteers do in Guatemala.
A substantial part of the fee goes towards the day-to-day running costs of the projects themselves throughout the year, which includes rent, electricity, local salaries, fruit and other food for the children, educational materials for classes, monthly birthday and other celebrations, painting and maintenance. We currently pay for over 400 children to attend National School, as well as our own schools. Of these, almost 50 children entered Secondary School and 8 entered College. Included in your fee is one scholarship per child, per year.
A hungry child cannot learn effectively, so volunteers and our Charitable Trust aim to provide the following each year:
- First time education or educational reinforcement to over 1,550 children.
- Scholarships for primary education in Guatemala exceed 500 children.
- Over 100 children and adults will receive secondary education.
- Over 130 local people employed directly or indirectly.
- Daily fixed community journeys will almost touch 100,000km.
- Over 40,000 hours of teaching
- 15,000 hours of lesson planning
- 1000’s of pens, pencils, pencil sharpeners, colouring pencils, work-books provided
- Over 400,000 pieces of fruit provided
- Over 350,000 whole or subsidized meals provided
- Almost 500 “elderly” members of the community will be fed under the Plan Ancianos.
- 100 families will benefit from the Plan Semilla (Seeds), Plan Fertilizante and the
- Plan Pollo (live chickens).
- 10,000 trees will be planted
- 100 energy saving wood-burning stoves will be constructed.
We are dedicated to responsible tourism, and all of the projects that we support directly benefit the environment, the local community, or both. All projects are carefully chosen to offer our volunteers sustainable and responsible travel, with specific attention being paid to their involvement in the sustainability of all their practices / project goals. All of our projects and expeditions issue the participants with clear guidelines on responsible tourism and ecotourism, all specific to the particular environment / region. These cover a number of issues, ranging from waste disposal in remote areas, recycling materials and buying from local businesses to not exploiting the area’s wildlife or harming the environment.
The owner of this company did a gap year trip in the early 90s which involved building a bandstand for a small village in Patagonia. While he was there, he realised the project was only helpful in developing the Western traveller as the village didn’t want a bandstand and only argued about who owned it. And so he set up a volunteer organisation which is useful to communities and provides them with resources and help with funding. Today, his projects offer travellers an opportunity to fully integrate into communities and to make a real long-term difference to the local people’s lifestyles.
We invite every traveller who books a holiday via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the holidays they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same holiday can have different views!
