Education.Environment.Employment.Empowerment

Access to:  School - Counseling - Malnutrition Prevention - Healthcare

Medical and nutrition support for native Guatemalans

Urgent Help is Needed for Children & Families in Guatemala City & Rural Sololá Region

Donate to End Poverty All Programs including school support, family counseling, malnutrition prevention in rural San Jose Sololá and child protection services in Guatemala City are all desperately in need.  The all-family support that is earned by children with their efforts to stay in school are encouraging more parents to become involved as well as they engage in opportunities for employment and education that open doors for new future directions with dignity and work, not handouts that perpetuate existing conditions. There is a growing need to support these incredibly impactful education access programs! Please watch our little video showing the Fatima Home and the rural indigenous San Jose families and programs :) If you are able to help send a child or parent to school and support the many empowerment programs with any donation it will immediately change participant trajectories for participants towards independent self-sufficient confident futures, in their own communities! ​Monthly recurring donations are the most helpful Thank you and be well. Education is at the Core of all GAF supported programs. NO HANDOUTS: Support is earned with personal commitment and work.  For the malnutrition prevention & school drop-out prevention programs, the children that stay in school "Earn" nutritional, medical and dental support for their entire family! For adults the "Educational, Job Training, Health, and Child Protection Outreach Programs" result in family strengthening and self-sufficient futures with their own investment and dignity.  LIFE CHANGING Medical supplies and care are typically not available, and rarely affordable in this rural area even during good times. But thanks to the new community center clinic and professional service donations much needed help is now available. Donations for medical support are very welcome. We are currently looking to secure lower cost medications that can be purchased with work credits.

NEW - Interview with the Founder

Support Education that Changes Lives Permanently!

Creating Change! Not perpetuating existing problems!

They Get Things Done - Construction was done completely during COVID - Amazing for the Solola Community Center with medical clinic, library, school support program and visitor housing. SOLOLA PROJECTS

From a dream, to groundbreaking, to fully constructed in 2 years during COVID! Fast and efficient! 100% of your donations go to projects that get done... and programs that create incredible permanent change.

Thank you doTERRA!  It all started with you in 2019 and the center was completed in 2022! The children attending went from 45 to 250 since then and the community members served is over 500 now... the next step is this a clean water well!

​ In 2019, thanks to a doTERRA Healing Hands Matching Fundraiser we raised enough money to pour the concrete foundation for the Center! ​That truly was the foundation of beginning, and moving forward for the whole project! On behalf of the children and families who's futures will be changed, because of you....​We thank doTERRA and all of you who donated for your generosity!

Training Local residents with highly skilled construction jobs. Moving up and on to careers. Walking alongside to assist them with their own projects, in their own community. Honored to have the opportunity.

What, where, why Guatemala Aid Fund?

If you are like us at the 100% Volunteer GAF Organization, we feel that we have been blessed with a life that includes a home, access to school, clean water and opportunities for work and a self supporting future. We have seen firsthand in Guatemala that most if not all of these things are out of reach for much of the indigenous and general population in Guatemala. With severe malnutrition of greater than 50 percent of the indigenous children and minimal opportunities for education and employment, Guatemalans, out of desperation to support their families, continue to make the heartbreaking and dangerous attempts at migrating to the United States. Most do NOT want to leave their children, parents, communities and the land they love, They do not have free high school, or food stamps, or clean water, or access to any medical care or family support.  They want an education, they want jobs, they want to stay. ​We at GAF have chosen to support the Hogar de Ninos Fatima City Location,  as well as their Association to Eradicate Poverty rural location programs that provide for

child protection, education, job training,

family counseling and environmental protection programs. Their emergency child care not only provides a children's home for abused and abandoned children until they can be reunified with family or adopted, they are committed to supporting long term education for children in their care, and in rural schools. They invest in not only the child's basic needs, but also include psychological and medical support, extended family support and parental training courses. The rural Solola Community Center project includes a medical clinic, library, school support, plans for an organic farm, eco-cabins for sustainable income sources, as well as a plan to purchase and preserve land including two indigenous religious ceremonial sites, and native wildlife and forest habitat. We look at your donations as investments in futures for Guatemalans, as well as protection of their land, culture and people.... an incredible part of this world we live in. ​Just like a scholarship you are passing your great fortune on to others that need funding to help secure a future in their own country. See the multi-phase project here Solola Community Center Medical Clinic School Project . Thank you for considering these Guatemalan Run programs for your Charitable Giving!

Guatemalans creating futures in their own communities. ​

Based on the success of the Fatima Children's Family Style Protective Care Home in Guatemala City,  GAF Supports their education, nutrition, job training and child protection programs expansion to the rural indigenous Region of Solola through the Association to Eradicate Poverty. Recurring donations are the most helpful.

Rural Community Center Phase I - COMPLETE - 100% Exterior Construction - Interior construction for community salon, library and visitor accomodations - After school and tutoring programs - Malnuttiriton Prevention Program - WATER - can you help us finish it and provide a treated water supply? ​ PHASE II - IN PROGRESS - Need Funding ​ Organic Farm - Nutritional support, Sustainability & Economic, Employment Indigenous Women's Weaving Cooperative Indigenous Daycare Cooperative Mayan History Classes and Tour Guide Training Forestry Program and Habitat Protection Training This project is exactly aligned w/ GAF Goals ​ Education & Training Sustainability & Environmental Responsibility Guatemalan Work Force & Economic Development Indigenous Culture and Language Preservation Forest Preservation Child Protection & Family Counseling Love & Respect ​ ​ Read the Full Story Here

This is a community focused project, developed and managed by Guatemalans with an achievable goal to provide Education, Jobs, Aid that is earned and environmental and cultural preservation in the Rural Indigenous area of SOLOLA in Guatemala. Multi-faceted project goals include preservation of indigenous land and religious sites, organic farming, sustainable eco-tourism and environmental protection. ​ We hope you can also join us in our overriding Goal to Raise the $275,000 US dollars to purchase and protect the large native forest and ceremonial land around the Center in rural Solola.

​In the words of the Directors.... getting at the root causes of poverty so families can stay together safely and build productive lives."

About Fatimas:

"Whatever the reason for the infants, children and youth finding themselves without a home, food, education and care, it is clear that they all need consistent loving care, psychological support and life skill training in an environment they can consider home. They all need a continuum of safe care without the fear and consequences of being moved from place to place, or released without proper life skills and support and self worth.

Privately run family style homes for child protection services , such as ours, Hogar de Niños Fátima, in Guatemala City have proven highly successful in helping children in the worst of situations form a future. When adequately supported and staffed with loving trained professionals we can provide the full range of supports to not only keep abandoned, abused and at risk children alive, but to give them an opportunity for self sufficiency and future opportunities, and with the most important component of all.. knowing that they will always have an address and a place where they are loved and cared for. We are in the process of raising funds to build a NEW Community Center, in rural Guatemala to provide safety, education, health care, school support to local children and assistance to abused and abandoned children, and women with children that are victims of violence."

"In keeping with our proven model for the development of mental health, life skills, and a strong education with deep ties to the local Community, including language, traditions, and respect for the environment, we are excited to move forward with the multi-phased SOLOLA Project" ​​We hope you can join us!

READ the full story here

2018 Story to Share.........A Tale of Two Sisters Kept Together With Family and Loved A beautiful story of how two sisters  were kept together, provided full family counseling, and reunited with family in a safe loving process. All children at Fatimas are cared for, loved and respected as members of the family, whether permanently or temporarily. The goal and all the programs are focused at keeping children out of orphanages, but in safe loving homes with education, health and a future.. 2022  Thank you Cindy Lorenzo! Your photography is amazing! ​Cindy donated her photography to create the AEP/Fatima Calendar to help the children and natural Guatemala. We will send you the link to the video. Ask us about purchasing her photos, and supporting our local photography program and help preserve natural lands in Guatemala. Click on the PDF to read this touching story of love. Tale_of_two_sisters....love.pdf File Size: 8435 kb File Type: pdf Download File

Missed our Tamale Making Class? Email us for link: [email protected] ​ Feedback: "I cried with joy seeing those amazing kids speaking live to us from Guatemala" "I never knew so much went into Tamale making" "I can't wait to go to Guatemala with you all!" "My heart is lifted" "Wow just Wow" Tour Guatemala, See the People, Programs, Progress & Learn to make Tamales Too!  ​

Other Ways to Donate and Help Out Visit our Etsy Shop! See Guatemalan Textiles, Artisan Made Jewelry, Co-op products and more

Have the biggest impact - Make your donation $40 monthly! The programs create independence so more can come on board as others rise up.

Your generous donations will fund:

Loving Care : Hiring the amazing trained caregivers that teach, bath, feed, hold and love the wonderful kids! Each full time caregiver salary is $5,000/YR. Many more are needed! Education = Opportunity: Attending school is not obtainable for many children in Guatemala, and certainly out of reach for abandoned children, especially High School which typically requires a high tuition payment. GAF is dedicated to supporting not only early childhood care, but also long term school support. With a little more than $1/day we can contribute to school supplies, tuition, and a meal. School is approximately $200 a year per child. Counseling &  Family Support: As it should be, the programs we support aim to keep families together, and to find homes for kids in their care. With this comes their commitment to ongoing family support and counseling for caretakers and children. Their reach is far out to the community, resulting in support back in. They have support from Guatemalan businesses, healthcare providers, countless volunteers and families, and other community based programs in sharing fashion. They are PART of the community, not a stand alone entity. Job training and internships for youth and adults. Teachers. Construction Workers. Early Child Development Teachers. Psychologists. Nutritional support for malnourished children and families Forest Preservation - support is going to a forest management plan, native habitat protection, water quality management plan, purchase and protection of land Sustainable agriculture - support goes to education and resources to promote organic and sustainable agriculture. Much of Guatemala's natural land has been destroyed for crops for export utilizing chemicals and earth damaging practices.

Educate a Child with your unused items on Ebay sales!

You know that really nice jewelry you just never wear? Or that great designer sweater with the tags still on it that never fit right but you cant just give up?  Turn it into education for a child in Guatemala! Sell it on our Ebay charitable site - just choose Guatemala Aid Fund as the EBAY Charity you wish to Donate to. Tax deductible! 100% will go to support the kids! ​

Engaging the Next Generation Our Teen to Teen Programs for awarenes ​& s ervice ideas!        Link: Children and Teens GAF Focuses on engaging kids around the world to be inspired to do community service. Any kind... in their neighborhood, at their school, or with organizations they care about! When they start early it becomes a way of life. Parent - "After attending this fun interactive event, with its party like atmosphere my child was so inspired (on their own) to look for ways to do acts of service, Thank You!"

Bienvenido!  Welcome!  -      OUR MISSION ​

GAF Founder Featured in URI Alumni Magazine Special Feature on Giving GAF Founder Bethany Eisenberg Zeeb is recognized in an issue of the University of Rhode Island alum magazine Quandrangles for her commitment to improving lives of  children and families in Guatemala.  Read the full article here . News from Fatimas! Parent counseling continues by Phone! ​"teaching caregivers..and parents.... supporting healthy family systems We are so excited with the results of the sustainable parent training program at Fatima. Parents and caregivers of  receive parenting education and counseling. Focus is to build healthy family systems and keep families together. News from Feliz Corazones One of our amazing partners - Feliz Corazones (' Happy Hearts') , a family outreach program in Guatemala, is starting a new initiative that we're very excited about! They are making some beautiful pillow covers.. wait until you see! Stay tuned for sale.

Make a difference in the life of a child

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Thank You!

Want to help support these successfull  Guatemalan-run programs... creating futures in their own beloved country! DONATE HERE