Guatemala Children's Project

Non profit organization

We have worked with families, communities and orphanages since 2005 to facilitates volunteer trips to serve for 1 week in Guatemala in the Solola area performing services for low income families & communities including building bunkbeds, playgrounds, homes & drilling wells.

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Target populations:

Women

Men

Girls

Boys

Indigenous peoples

Elderly

Focus areas:

Children at risk

Family

Water and sanitation

Construction

Development/Community infrastructure

Housing

Volunteer/Sustainable travel

Key service areas:

Sololá, Chimaltenango

Organizational contacts & locations

Contacts

Ken Mangum

President

(+1) 435 680-2323

kennymangum@gmail.com

Mike Mangum

Vice President

(+1) 435 680-5267

mang978@msn.com

Gordon Wade

VIce President Operations

(+1) 435 632-2979

dixiesal@gmail.com

Locations

Mission, vision & values

Mission

To help low income families on a path to become self sufficient by helping them to sustain themselves with basic necessities and to improve their self image and esteem in their communities and lives.

Vision

That the children in the area we serve can be nurtured in a home/family environment that affords them dignity, shelter and security

Values

We value security in the home

dignity

self worth

and wholesome relationships.

Products, services, and programs

Products

We offer bunkbeds, beds, playgrounds, housing and materials for family homes.

Services

The services we provide are to build bunkbeds and provide bedding for families without, build playgrounds for schools and communities so children's education can be well rounded and diversified and to build or improve homes for low to no income families. We also have the capacity to drill borehole water wells in remote areas.

Programs

We offer volunteer service trips to Guatemala so the volunteers can perform firsthand the services we provide.

Organizational detail

Founded

2005

Number of employees

0-10

Funding

Private donations

Fundraising

Primary issue(s) / need(s) addressed

Our work is in the highlands in the Solola & Chichicastenango districts with the indiginous population helping those with little to no income. We provide beds, mostly bunkbeds to families in need, build playgrounds for schools & communities, build basic homes or improve existing homes. We also help on a temporary basis to employ locals for specific projects. This came about as we were funding & helping an orphanage in the area & we got involved in their community outreach.

Impact, adaptations & objectives

Impact to date

We have been bringing volunteer groups to Guatemala for over 15 years typically twice per year and have helped over 300 families with multiple beds, several homes & over 20 playgrounds have been built in local schools, orphanages & communities. We also built a community center & built structures & fixtures for an orphanage.

Impact measuring

We are a small organization and our impact is measured by the smiles on the faces of those we help & our volunteers. Also the people that we help are required to contribute to the labor of construction if they are able. We've found that this helps them to feel productive & increases their self image as they help provide for themselves as opposed to a hand out.

Organizational adaptations

Key offerings

Location

Target population

Target issue

Mission

vision and/or values

Organizational adaptation details

Key offerings & Location

We started out organizing and funding an orphanage in Chimaltenango. After a couple years if was closed & we made a connection with the owners of another orphanage that was closed. They began a community outreach in the Lake Atitlan area & we began supporting them with construction & improvements of their property. Later they opened another orphanage there & we continued to do projects for them with our volunteer groups which evolved into doing the same thing for needy people in their community outreach program. Their orphanage was closed during the pandemic so now we are solely focused in the community.

We also imported a manual borehole drill rig for water wells recently & intend to help bring clean water to remote communities.

Short term objectives

Growth

We have 4 people on our board & bring groups of 15 to 30 people on service trips twice per year. We all work full time at home & are happy with the current capacity.

Quality

We build our furniture, homes & playgrounds from scratch & have no plans to change.

Impact

There is such a need for the bunkbeds we are able to provide as many families are sleeping as many as 10 to 12 in a bed & some have no bed at all. This is not healthy & leads to myriad problems. We realize that we can only help a limited number of families under the model we have of hands on construction including them & community members. The relationships & esteem of these individuals is part of our impact.

Long term objectives

We plan to continue as we are for the foreseeable future.

Profile updated: 01/05/23

Guatemala Children's Project