Travel - Guatemala

Cheers for Global Do-Gooders

On my recent ten-day trip with a women’s institute to Guatemala, I was stunned and delighted to meet many Americans and Europeans working on projects to help the poorest and most disadvantaged of the Guatemalan people. I had previously learned the evil side of U.S. involvement in Guatemala by studying the U.S.-engineered coup in 1954 against a progressive Guatemalan government. Then followed decades of U.S. support for right-wing Guatemalan leaders and military oppressors as well as use of Guatemalan soil and personnel to train "anti-insurgent" CIA fighters and mercenaries.

In contrast, this month I encountered non-profit groups, churches, and committed foreigners seeking to turn Guatemala around. I write about a few of these groups in this column, recognizing that there are many more.

Safe Passage (www.safepassage.org)

Many Guatemalan children spend their days scavenging garbage dumps in Guatemala City for food for their families or objects to sell. These kids cannot go to school because their families cannot afford to pay for school fees, uniforms and books. Safe Passage has sent close to 600 of these garbage dump children to school and has contributed rice and beans to their families to make up for the money the families lose from the children’s garbage collections. After school, the children go to a center where they get a healthy meal, help with schoolwork, medical exams and vocational training.

Safe Passage supports its activities from contributions, child sponsorships and the profits from a lovely posada, Posada Lazos Fuertes, in Antigua where my group stayed. If you are going to Antigua, please consider staying at a "hotel for good”– it is simple but delightful (www.posadalazosfuertes.com).

Mayan Families (www.mayanfamilies.org)

Originated by an Australian woman who first came to Panajachel on Lake Atitlan in the 1970s when the town was a hippie haven, Sharon Smart Poage eventually settled in “Pana”, married an American, and adoped Mayan daughters. Her organization in Pana, Mayan Families, supports 660 girls from destitute families by helping them to attend school. Helping the girls also means helping their families, often headed by unmarried women or widows. Mayan families provides stoves that exemplify appropriate technology by using less wood, water filters, basic furniture, clothes and medical exams.

I visited several homes of people being helped by Mayan Families. These homes were wooden shacks with tin roofs, mud floors, one overhead lightbulb, a toilet and stove outside. Often 4 to 6 people were living in one room. I was moved by visiting one shack which had several plants nailed to outside wooden planks for decoration.

Luna Kakchiquel (www.comitatoluna.org)

My women’s institute was based in San Marcos La Laguna, a Mayan town on the shore of Lake Atitlan, where we encountered an impressive women’s cooperative of indigenous women called Luna Kakchiquel. (Kakchiquel or kakchikel is the name of local indigenous group and also its language.) The women’s cooperative, assisted by an Italian woman and her committee, is engaged in many activities to aid local women: language education, sewing, weaving and natural dye courses, and recreational activities for the women’s children. The women operate a local tienda (shop) to sell their products and perform other activities in the village such as catering meals for visitors. The goal of Luna Kakchiquel is to “motivate women to rise socially so they can be equal with men” and “create in them a social awareness that will bring them to hold relevant roles within the community.”

In meeting with the members of the cooperative, we learned that their goals were to generate income to help their families and increase their power with men. When we asked the women if men supported them, they laughed and said, “Fifty percent.” Why not completely, we asked. They replied that men were afraid that the women might take over!

Clinica Naturista (www.clinicasmaya.com)

San Marcos La Laguna is proud to house the Clinicas Naturista, a naturopathic clinic that serves the local community. Founded by a Swiss doctor and an American nurse/midwife, the clinic has a staff of 8 indigenous workers who treat pregnant women and other members, male and female, of the community. The clinic, headed by an indigenous male naturopath, is clean and attractive. While it carries a heavy caseload, not all local community members utilize it since some still turn to local shamans for medical help.

Our group interviewed the American nurse about her work. She told us that few indigenous women have any sex education before marriage, few receive any family planning information, and few have any experience of sexual pleasure given their crowded living conditions and lack of information about sex. While women receive help for gynecological problems from the clinic, little change has occurred over the years in the village. Sexual information is still condemned by the Catholic church and male chauvinism.

Pura Vida (www.puravidaatitlan.org)

The most original project I came across in Guatemala was launched by a German woman, Susana Heisse, in San Marcos. Susana, who has lived in Guatemala for 15 years, felt compelled to start a recycling project to clean the town of its trash.  She wanted to utilize the trash in a productive way, a big task for a country in which an estimated 95 percent of the local rural population has no garbage collection. Susana makes house visits to talk to residents about recycling trash, urging them not to burn plastic because of the health risks.

Susana came up with an ingenious solution for half-liter plastic water and soda bottles. She has taught local kids to collect them and stuff them with plastic bags and wrappers, with a reward of a marble for each bottle. She then uses the bottles to build walls, eventually covering the bottles with plaster. An environmental group observed that plastic bottle walls are “cheaper than those built with cement blocks...Their plastic core also makes them more flexible– and thus less dangerous– than block walls in the event of an earthquake. And the plastic provides insulation to keep out the cold of the Guatemala highlands.”

Not only does Pura Vida help maintain the beautiful lake environment, but it also protects the Mayan people from their worst natural disasters – floods and earthquakes.

I would urge my readers to visit the websites listed above and read more. One way of making up for past American exploitation of Guatemala is to support today’s rebuilding efforts with a financial contribution.