Mayan Partners: Mayan Partners Guatemala Trip Reunion: BBQ at Orinda Pool

Mayan Partners

Mayan Partners is a 501c(3) non-profit organization with its roots in a group of alumni from Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship at UC Davis. Our vision is to partner with Quiche and Tzutuhil communities in the western Guatemalan highlands in the development of schools, the introduction of efficient woodburning stoves, and medical clinics that have strong local support. Part of our mission is to attempt to rigorously evaluate the impact of these efforts whenever possible, for possible reproduction in other communities. The home base for our work is San Pedro La Laguna (shown above) located on the shore of Lake Atitlan.

Currently our focus is the development and ongoing support of the Panyebar Middle School, a non-denominational Christian school with approximately 60 students from the local area. In this community, located in the mountains above Lake Atitlan, there is poor access to middle school. Dropout rates after grade six are extremely high in the area, and we endeavor to reverse this trend.

A group of lead supporters that form the core of our network help to support the school, with a number of other friends (and friends of friends) who also contribute through sponsoring individual students at the school, participating in trips to Guatemala, and other practical ways.

We desire to begin with involving others in our respective social networks in this partnership with the local Guatemalans, taking work groups to the area regularly, and taking on additional projects as more individuals become involved. Our goal is to work through friendships with one another and with the local Guatemalans, with long-term relationship building a key aspect of our vision.

We are a network of Christian friends who attend different churches, and we partner with local Guatemalan churches, but we welcome involvement from anyone interested in providing opportunities and an escape from poverty for the rural poor in western Guatemala.

Mayan Partners Trip to Guatemala June 2008

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Mayan Partners Guatemala Trip Reunion: BBQ at Orinda Pool

Thanks to everyone who was able to come to the Guatemala trip reunion in Orinda last Sunday. Superior time of quality barbaque (thank you for entrusting me with your meat), kids splashing us in the pool, and great conversation & memories from the summer. I posted a picture from the reunion (Adrienne, Elise, and Keith were also there, but left before we thought about taking a group picture.)

A few exciting new Mayan Partners developments:

1) The new transfer system from our contributions to teacher salaries is going very, very well. No more delayed salaries for the teachers. The now get paid regularly at the end of every month, and Francisco (the head teacher) sends a pdf of their signed salary receipt form every month to Proyecto Fe, myself, Jim, and our new Treasurer, Peter. We also gave all of the teachers and the principal a raise, and they are really happy about that.

2) Peter and Jim are talking about buying the URL www.mayanpartners.org, which will forward anyone using that URL to our blogspot website. Our own .org. Wow, sounds almost like something important.

3) Several people have talked about taking groups of their own friends down to Guatemala either next January or next June or July. This is great, and we encourage people to do it. Let's build up a stronger base of supporters so we can get the second story finished on the school and maybe even allow Colegio Bethel Panyebar to add a high school (let's dream big!). That way the graduates wouldn't have to travel to Quetzaltenango to go to high school.

Great summer, everyone. Thanks so much for the support. We currently have a surplus of about one month of teacher salaries in our Proyecto Fe account, so if we all keep consistent with our pledges to the school, the payments to the teachers should be in good shape.

Yours in Him,

Bruce

1 comments:

Bose said...: A hundred hearts would be too few. To carry all my love for you.beautiful and evocative post
Salary Receipt Form; January 6, 2012 8:52 AM

Latest News Updates:

● Mayan Partners is now its own 501c(3) non-profit organization! We are now based at the public accounting firm of Parodi & de Laveaga (Peter's accounting practice in Lafayette, CA.)

● The Woodstove project was completed in Paneybar with about 40 high-tech Onil woodstoves installed in the village through a randomized controlled trial.

Kent Moriarty and Bruce Wydick co-wrote an academic paper with Daniel Ludwinski (an entering Ph.D. student at U. of Wisconsin) entitled "Environmental and Health Impacts from the Introduction of Improved Wood Stoves: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment in Guatemala" which is under review at the Journal of Environmental Management. Here is the abstract from the paper--the results of the woodstove program are quite stunning:

Abstract: Improved wood-burning stoves offer a possible solution that can simultaneously impact both problems of deforestation and problems of respiratory health in developing countries. We carry out a randomized experiment in which new fuel-efficient woodstoves were allocated primarily via lottery in a Guatemalan village. A 2008 baseline survey was carried out on 2,148 individuals in 351 households, and then a follow-up survey was carried out in 2009, four months after households received the stoves. We find that households with the new stoves reduced wood consumption by an average of 59.1%. Among these households, we also find indications of reductions in indoor air related health problems, where point estimates indicate a significant reduction in reported respiratory symptoms by 48.6% among women and 63.3% among children.

● There will be a trip to Guatemala this November. Contact Kent and Ann if you are interested.

Group of Lead Supporters