Help School fight Climate Change w/ Green Building

It's always a pleasure to prepare a report for our Global Giving supporters. Correctly implemented development work is often slow, allowing time for skills transfer, confidence building, fundraising and the special...challenges that so frequently attend work in under-resourced communities. It can be hard to notice progress and keep energy levels high under these conditions. But with the quarterly deadline to share news with you, our generous friends, comes the opportunity to review, reflect and rejoice in the milestones of the previous three months. As always, we thank you for your part in our success.

Our last update told of our busy spring season. With five university groups in three weeks in March, we were able to make a lot of progress. The final week we hosted Hillel-YAD groups from University of California-Santa Cruz, University of Portland, and University of Oregon - 41 students in total for the week. It was a pleasure to see them working and playing together, their shared value to "heal the world" evident as they became a strong team despite their disparate collegiate affiliations.

In April we were able to catch our breath a bit and finish our giant rainwater cistern. Our Construction Manager calculates that we will be able to fill it six times over during the rainy season, ensuring a potable water supply not just for our students and staff, but also neighboring families who don't currently have a regular source of clean drinking water. We were proud to have it ready by May when Living Waters for the World (LWW) came back for their second annual visit since installing the micro-filtration system that will allow us to be of further service in our community.

Also in May, we received a service group from Florida International University (FIU). They have come each March since 2009 and it's become such a favorite destination that when they weren't able to arrange everything for their Spring Break, they decided to organize a trip after the end of the school year. As usual, they were full of energy and enthusiasm and we surely appreciate them going the extra mile to get down this year.

After hosting FIU and LWW, we welcomed a medical team from the Boston area. Two doctors and six assistants (not counting the eight month old baby that charmed all the students and their parents) provided basic physicals for 89 of our students, identifying issues that needed follow-up and checking vitals to see how our kiddos are doing. Thankfully most of the students were a-ok, other than being pretty hungry and not drinking enough water. We hope to get a breakfast or snack program started soon, and that, along with our abundance of clean water, should ensure our students meet with even greater success.

The other big news of the spring was the awarding of our first 15 scholarships for the Vanessa Morales Scholarship for Girls Education. After the tragic passing of one of our supporters last summer, our board member, Elizabeth Rose, together with Vanessa's twin sister, Yessenia, established this program to provide tuition and other support for our female students. As Yessenia was actually able to come to Guatemala and present the awards, it made the day even more special. She is also hosting a Rubbish to Runway ReFashion show, inspired by attending our similar annual event outside of Boston, in Houston on 12 July if anyone is in the area and wants to attend a fun event in support of Long Way Home and girls education.

All in all, we have not let the rain slow us down. We feel so blessed the momentum for this project has continued to grow and opened up increasing opportunity for us to support the community of San Juan Comalapa. We look forward to watching our students turn into thoughtful, conscientious leaders that will be able to use their ideas to transform Comalapa long after we have moved on to our next project. Thank you for sharing this dream with us!

Links:

• Rubbish to Runway Houston
• Long Way Home website
• Follow our progress on Facebook!