Guatemala is a country with a limited public education system. Too many children drop out by middle school due to geographically distant schools and difficulty paying for the basic necessities of attending. Knowing this context, three of us went to Guatemala on a Pangea Giving site visit in November 2015. We went to a poor urban area in Chimaltenango, where we were privileged to meet Hilda Vasquez. Hilda had been an adult literacy instructor in the community. Many of her adult students begged Hilda to teach their children who were no longer in school. At the same time, Hilda recognized...[ Read More ]

In January 2018, five Pangea women landed in Antigua, Guatemala to the familiar textile rich AirBnb where we have stayed before, five rooms around a lovely garden which lent itself to gathering in the evening to debrief the day. The site visit, a mere seven days, seemed much longer as we dove deep into the culture. ~Betsy Hale This was a visit of deepening our knowledge about and connection with four grant partners that we have funded from 2 to 7 years. In addition to visits to known and trusted organizations, we learned about the ever-changing political, social, and economic...[ Read More ]

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...[ Read More ]