Guatemala 2018 Site Visits In Progress

Pangea Giving site visits are taking place this week in Guatemala, January 14-21. To start, the group of five Pangea members are basing out of Antigua, for day trips to three Pangea Giving grantees: Asociación Comunidad La Esperanza, Women’s Justice Initiative, and ASOGEN (Asociación Generando Equidad, Liderazgo y Oportunidades).

The team kicked off the week yesterday with a day of context meetings and presentations by various English-speaking expats who are well versed in the Guatemala non-profit world, as well as the history of political and other violence which have restricted human rights.

Pangea’s grant to AC Esperanza, now in its second year, supports teacher salaries in a small indigenous middle school in Chimaltenango. The new kids are arriving this week so some joyful chaos is expected, per the director. During the visit to WJI in Patzún, now in it’s fifth year of support, the group will take a field trip to see an indigenous women’s rights workshop in action.

The group will also visit ASOGEN’s one-year-old CAIMU (women’s shelter) in Chimaltenango, which Pangea helped to fund. In its fifth year of Pangea grants, ASOGEN will also organize a roundtable discussion with local Mayan women leaders.

They will also meet with leaders from our fourth Guatemala grantee, FNE (Fundación Nueva Esperanza), now in its 7^th year of Pangea funding. FNE runs an indigenous school a day’s drive north of Antigua and is a huge success story.

The Pangea team will also meet with two to three potential new grantees for 2019 and beyond. Areas of interest are women’s rights, youth education, and food sovereignty.

Besides visiting our current grantee partners, and looking for new ones, the group’s goals are: to learn by listening and participating with special interest in personal stories of project success for the individuals who have benefited from Pangea grants. ~ Patti Kilpatrick, Pangea Latin America pod chair