Guatemala

Steaming volcanoes, lake-studded highlands, emerald green jungles—Guatemala is a country with a wide variety of natural beauty. The rural area of Senahu is nestled in the mountains that flank the Polochic Valley of Northeastern Guatemala. Its inhabitants live by Mayan tradition on a subsistence level, very much like their ancestors did five hundred years ago. They are an industrious, but impoverished people, mostly landless, working on cooperative farms in the area. Their lives are isolated from the Hispanic culture in the country around them. Education for the Mayans has been a great challenge because of linguistics and geography. These people also face some critical problems with regard to diminishing farm production, insufficient water supply, lack of economic development, and medical and nutritional inadequacies.

Focus

• Schoolhouse construction
• Health clinics
• Micro-credit
• Village water systems