Mission Guatemala's clinic now has a cutting-edge electronic medical records database software, thanks to Dr. Rachelle Hippler and all of the wonderful faculty, staff and students at Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, Ohio!
We are excited to share images from this month’s "Club de Diabeticos" (Diabetes Club)! The Diabetes Club provides a special day when those dealing with diabetes and high blood pressure can come to Mission Guatemala's clinic for a checkup and needed treatment, along with social interaction and education about this disease.
In Guatemala, a new school year is beginning and Mission Guatemala’s “Becas Con Misión” (Scholarships with a Mission) program is once again supporting students in pursuing their dreams of continuing their education!
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas here in Guatemala, as this year we shared Christmas gifts with the 165 children in our “Niños Chispudos” early childhood nutrition program!
We are excited to share photos of this year's delivery of 190 "Canastas Navideñas" (Christmas Baskets) here in San Andrés Semetabaj!
Thanks to the incredible faculty, staff and students at Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, Ohio, Mission Guatemala Inc.'s dream of having an electronic database program for our clinic is becoming a reality!
At the end of February, we welcomed Indian Run United Methodist Church of Dublin, Ohio, as our first team of 2023! The team worked to stucco the walls of the 2 new classrooms that Mission Guatemala is building at the middle school in the community of Xequistel, as well as to apply a cement sealer to the walls of our renovated kitchen and dining room at the River House.
In Guatemala, a new school year is beginning and Mission Guatemala’s “Becas Con Misión” (Scholarships with a Mission) program is once again supporting students in pursuing their dreams of continuing their education!
The Diabetes Club provides a special day when those dealing with diabetes and high blood pressure can come to Mission Guatemala's clinic for their checkup and any needed treatment, as well as social interaction and education about this disease.
Marily Matzar, Mission Guatemala’s Community Outreach Supervisor, provides an update about our "Niños Chispudos" Early Childhood Nutrition Program.
It may seem like a small thing, but together we can make a HUGE difference in the lives of the people we serve!
We are excited to share about the grand opening of the soccer and basketball court built by Mission Guatemala at the Instituto Indigena “Nuestra Señora del Socorro” (the Indigenous Institute "Our Lady of Help"), an all-girls boarding school located in San Andrés Semetebaj!
We are excited to introduce the 57 middle school students in this year’s "Becas Con Misión" (Scholarships with a Mission) program!
We are excited to introduce the 28 high school students in this year’s "Becas Con Misión" (Scholarships with a Mission) program!
In recent years, Dr. Lídia, our clinic doctor, had voiced hope that at some point the clinic would be able to have a larger and more advanced machine that would allow her to provide the patients with an even higher level of service.
And, thanks to a newly refurbished ultrasound machine that was provided through a donation from Probo Medical in Fishers, Indiana, coordinated by Anthony and Lyle Brown of Zionsville UMC, we are excited to announce that this dream has come true!
As we reach the end of another school year—in Guatemala the school year runs from January through October—we are excited to share thank-you letters written by graduates of our "Becas Con Misión" (Scholarships with a Mission) program over the past 2 years!”
Today, we share an update with you on Mission Guatemala's computer training classes from Francisco Matzár, the course instructor and staff member of Mission Guatemala.
Hoy les compartimos una actualización acerca del curso de computación de Mission Guatemala, por el docente del curso y miembro del equipo de Mission Guatemala, Francisco Mátzar.
On October 17, Mission Guatemala staff came together to celebrate our 11th anniversary with our 5K "Caminata" in the beautiful hills of San Andrés Semetabaj! Over the past year, due to the social distancing requirements of the pandemic, our staff has not had many opportunities to be all together in one place, which is why we want to share some of our staff's favorite aspects of the event.
El 17 de octubre, el equipo de Mission Guatemala se reunió para celebrar nuestro 11º aniversario y recaudar fondos con una "Caminata" de 5 km en las hermosas colinas de San Andrés Semetabaj. Durante el año pasado, debido a los protocolos de distanciamiento social por la pandemia, nuestro personal no ha tenido muchas oportunidades de estar todos juntos en un solo lugar así que queremos compartir algunos de los aspectos favoritos de nuestro personal sobre el evento.
On October 17, Mission Guatemala’s staff hosted a 5K “Caminata” fundraiser event to celebrate our 11th anniversary! People from around the world joined us by doing their own walks, and inviting friends and family to participate as well. It was a great opportunity to tell about our mission to love and serve our brothers and sisters in Guatemala.
As we continue to celebrate Mission Guatemala's 11th Anniversary, we are excited today to share a video highlighting our "Becas Con Misión” (Scholarships with a Mission) program, in which you will get to meet some of our scholarship students and have the opportunity to hear from them how the scholarship program has impacted their lives and their education!
We are excited for the opportunity to share this video, shot earlier this year, that gives a glimpse into Mission Guatemala's clinic space and provides the opportunity for Dr. Lidia and our other clinic staff to share about the amazing work that is being done each day.
It's our anniversary! Because of you—and TOGETHER with you—Mission Guatemala has been a part of advancing health, education, and nutrition initiatives for our sisters and brothers in the San Andrés Semetabaj region and beyond for these past 11 years! We are so grateful for the opportunity to serve these communities, and for each one who has made it possible!
Today, we share with you a COVID-19 update from our clinic doctor, Dr. Lidia Balán. We are grateful to our medical and clinic support staff, who, over a year and a half since the start of the pandemic, continue to serve patients during this difficult and unprecedented time.
Hoy les compartimos una actualización del avance del COVID-19 en Guatemala, por la doctora de nuestra clínica, Dra. Lidia Balán. Estamos agradecidos con nuestro equipo médico y equipo de apoyo, quienes, por más de una año y media desde que inició la pandemia, han continuado sirviendo y atendiendo a los pacientes durante este tiempo difícil.
We continue the expansion of our “Niños Chispudos” early childhood nutrition program in the community of Caliaj!, where 29 children in the program received a physical examination and a panel of laboratory tests conducted on-site. Our staff also presented educational workshops for the mothers to promote healthy eating and basic hygiene practices, in addition to conducting basic socioeconomic interviews with each mother to help us learn how we can more effectively support them.
In February 2019, we broke ground on a soccer and basketball court at an all-girls boarding school located in San Andrés Semetebaj. Many teams worked on the combination soccer/basketball court over the next year, and the project was nearing completion last Spring, right as COVID-19 brought everything to a halt. During this past month, however, we have begun to make new strides in completing this project!
Continuing with the expansion of our “Niños Chispudos” program, we are excited to share photos from our second community clinic visit! In the community of Tocache, our clinic medical staff, alongside Mission Guatemala’s community development and social work staff, saw 29 children over two days!
We're excited to announce that Mission Guatemala has once again been awarded the Platinum Seal of Transparency by GuideStar, an organization that assesses and reports on the efficacy and transparency of U.S.-based nonprofit organizations!
In order to be able to provide medical care for the children in the "Niños Chispudos" program without the families needing to all travel to Mission Guatemala’s clinic, over the past months we worked together with our clinic and laboratory staff to develop a plan for organizing on-site “community clinics”, in order to amplify and expand the impact of our “Niños Chispudos” program in the 6 communities where it operates.
In the spring of 2015, Mission Guatemala began a partnership with INEBSAS, the public middle school in San Andrés Semetabaj, to provide computer training to the school's approximately 100 students. After five years of providing computer classes during each school year, in March of 2020 we were forced to suspend our computer classes, as all in-person classes were stopped due to the pandemic.
As we celebrate Earth Day and ask ourselves how we can "restore our earth", we look towards the example set by our Indigenous brothers and sisters here in Guatemala.
Today, we share with you a COVID-19 update from our clinic doctor, Dra. Lidia Balán. We are grateful to our medical and clinic support staff, who, over a year since the start of the pandemic, continue to serve patients during this unprecedented time.
Hoy les compartimos una actualización del avance del COVID-19 en Guatemala, por la doctora de nuestra clínica, Dra. Lidia Balán. Estamos agradecidos con nuestro equipo médico y equipo de apoyo, quienes, por más de una año desde que inició la pandemia, han continuado sirviendo y atendiendo a los pacientes durante este tiempo inusual.
Last month, we gathered our full staff together outdoors at the River House—with our 3 stateside staff members present via Zoom—to have lunch, share a devotional and to provide the staff with new information as well as general updates. This was actually only the second time our entire staff has been together since the pandemic began!
Our Mission Guatemala T-shirts are now available for order online!
On this International Women's Day, we celebrate each of the women who help lead Mission Guatemala, and who we are honored to serve alongside.
We are excited to introduce the 20 high school students in this year’s "Becas Con Misión" (Scholarships with a Mission) program!
Meet the 72 middle school students that are a part of this year’s "Becas Con Misión" (Scholarships with a Mission) program!
We are excited to announce that we have been awarded the "2021 Top-Rated" Award from GreatNonprofits!
The start of a new school year is exciting for students! And, to help the students in the “Becas Con Misión” (Scholarships with a Mission) program begin the new year well, we are excited to provide school supplies as part of these students' scholarships!
January brings the start of a new school year in Guatemala, and for Mission Guatemala, that means a new opportunity to help students continue their education at the middle and high school level through our “Becas Con Misión” (Scholarships with a Mission) program! This year, we welcome 23 new students to the scholarship program, for a total of 72 middle schoolers and 20 high schoolers from 15 different communities!
This year, we were able to share “Canastas Navideñas" (Christmas Baskets) with 217 families in Pacamaché, a community in the Boca Costa region of Sololá, and a four hour drive from San Andrés!
Packing Community Christmas Boxes!
Mission Guatemala got a first hand look at a scholarship students internship project.
Over the past week, our staff has once again delivered food boxes to families who are part of our “Niños Chispudos” (Kids With A Spark) early childhood nutrition program and our “Becas Con Misión” (Scholarships with a Mission) scholarship program!
Over the past few months, our staff have continued to produce and distribute a variety of personal protective equipment (PPE) throughout the department of Sololá!
We have enjoyed celebrating 10 years of "doing all the good we can together" over the past few months, and we have one last area to share! The final core area of Mission Guatemala's work that we want to highlight is our Community Outreach with Volunteer Mission Teams.
We continue our 10th Anniversary celebration by sharing highlights from our support of educational programs, another of the core areas of Mission Guatemala!
