Build a school from recycled materials for Maya

Three weeks that I have joined the Long Way Home team, what a wonderful experience! I am an intern from Belgium, I am going to stay in San Juan Comalapa for three months, and day after day I can see how the staff and the volunteers are motivated. In three weeks I saw the landscape changed, the building goes very...

It has been a great year for Long Way Home here at the Técnico Maya school construction site. Our organization was named Small Charity of the Year by StayClassy, host of the largest philanthropic awards event in the United States. We have also made significant strides on the construction site. Most notably, we have...

In February, six GlobalGiving donors traveled to Guatemala for a week of exploration, cultural submersion, and welcomed visits to four GlobalGiving projects. One of these projects was a school built by Long Way Home. The interesting detail about this visit was that the school was made out of recycled materials. Prior to...

Dear Long Way Home donors, The school site has made much progress since I last visited in November 2008. Today, February 26, 2010 we made significant progress because we hired a backhoe to move dirt around. From January 2009 until today ALL work on the Tecnico Maya School has been done by hand, without any...

Before heading to Long Way Home’s project in the Mayan highlands of Guatemala this summer, I decided get a feel for the organization by reading their website. I ran into this mission statement: “Long Way Home’s mission is to break the cycle of poverty among youth in developing communities by creating educational...

Marc Maxson is GlobalGiving's Manager of Performance Analysis. This summer he traveled throughout Guatemala and visited a number of GlobalGiving projects. On May 29th he visited "Build a school from recycled materials for 50 Maya." When asked what he would tell his friends about this project, Marc said: "Incredible: You...

As of June the progress continues on the Tecnico Maya School. Below you will see some pictures of the latrine, the retaining wall and the walls of three classrooms. Exciting new opportunities have come to Long Way Home. As a direct result of the news coverage recieved from the national newspaper, La Prinsa, a government...

A NOTE FROM GLOBALGIVING: This is the second in a series of snapshots about project leader Matt Paneitz and his organization Long Way Home. Thank you for your continued support of Matt and his tireless dedication to providing education beyond 8th grade to 50 Maya children in rural Guatemala. We ask you to contribute...

Jauary 2009 ushered in the new year and a ground breaking for the Tecnico Maya School being built on two acres of land in the aldea of Paxan. 38 volunteers showed up for digging bringing shovels, azidones and wheel barrows. Among this group we welcomed two groups of returning students from North American...

A NOTE FROM GLOBAL GIVING: Please welcome Matt Paneitz. He is a new project leader here at GlobalGiving and over the past few weeks we have had the opportunity to get to know Matt and the great work he does for his organization Long Way Home. Periodically over the next two months we will be sending you snapshots about...

Quick update on the Tecnico Maya school building project... Comalapa is doing a water project to bring running water to the village of Paxan (pah-SHAHN), where the land is that we purchased to build the new school. Each family with land in Paxan was asked to dig a 25-meter section for the new water line. Everyone...

A big thank you to all our generous and wonderful donors. We ended the Glogal Giving Challenge today in 4th place, securing a total donation of $7,930 from 121 donors. We are thrilled to receive such a tremendous show of support for our project and we promise to continue to work hard in order to demonstrate ourselves worthy...

From the ground up.....The day before we departed from Comalapa we went to visit and walk the land. In order to get to the land we took a 15 minute walk through corn field paths outside the city of Comalapa. We met a farmer driving his set of cows home. We saw the sun's rays protruding from behind some clouds far to the...

On Wednesday, the Parque Chimya staff and volunteers, consisting of intern Kari Ramsey from Oregon State University, volunteer Cali Olds from Wisconsin, Adam Howland, Matt Paneitz, Cat Brandon and myself, worked straight through on the documentation for the upcoming North American tour that Matt will be taking in November....

I arrived in Comalapa yesterday to view the completion of the tire house and begin work for our GlobalGiving Challenge. I was greeted at Parque Chimya by a mother and a group of 6 children happily enjoying the well cultivated gardens and the beautiful fields. They were eager to pose for a picture and I have included it...