Education Guatemala Project #10274

Build a Brighter Future for 80 Kids in Guatemala

by Integral Heart Foundation

Project Report | Jul 11, 2019
Giving back by volunteering

By Debora Prieto and Mick Quinn | Co-founders

We believe that learning is important but also of significance for us is that the student of The Integral Heart School also develop their moral standards. As Theodore Roosevelt once said “To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.”

[NEWSFLASH - Thursday July 18th is our 50% Match and $5,000 Bonus Day here on GlobalGiving - Stay Tuned]

Therefore, we encourage them to serve in their own community. Our students and staff were very involved last year in the months after the volcano emergency and many of our kids jumped at the chance to help those affected by the tragedy. They also help in other ways with our local families, such as with their transportation, cleaning, bringing groceries they need to their homes when they are sick or too old and so on.

But, this month our students and staff decided to spend a day volunteer at a nearby dog shelter that is home to 65 abandoned/street dogs. This a huge issue in Guatemala, even a short drive to our local town you can count 20-30 of them roaming the streets, uncared for and unloved.

The shelter is called Amor Animal and here you can see some pictures of the work they did on this full day out. The students, under the direction of the shelter caretaker (1) swept and bathed and brushed, cleaned ears and eyes, played with the loneliest and the most needy ones and most of all, gave love and hugs and pats all around.

As Immanuel Kant said: “He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.”

We want to truly appreciate the hearts of all of you who make this possible. Because of you, love is expanding in all directions and to all sentient beings. Thank you very much.

The Integral Heart Family

Permalink

Apr 1, 2019
Our Dear Library

By Debora Prieto | Co-Founder

Education is the core of our work. Yet, one of the biggest challenges for educators is the fact that not all children have a love of learning. When you work the children of parents who are forced to eke out a living on less than five dollars per day, who in many cases, never went to school as children themselves, there are rarely books or other educational challenges at home.

The children of the Integral Heart Family School are mostly growing up in this kind of environment and even if many parents understand the importance of their education, they don´t have the tools nor the means to empower or inspire a love to learning in their children.

Here is where we do our magic with the children, sharing with them how fun learning can be through reading.

The library is one of our favorite projects. Being ourselves, voracious readers, we love to see our children picking up a book and reading it just for fun. We understand that all the worlds of adventure, imaginary places, stories of other people, countries, and cultures can open into a creative and fresh desire to learn. In an era in which technology, video games, cell phones and all kinds of other diversions are all over the place, seeing a child reading a book becomes even more heart-warming.

We love to sit with them, read all together, laugh, enjoy, pretend we are the characters and always, the kids just want more and bring more books to continue.

The older ones prefer to pick their own book and enter privately in a world of fantasy and wonders.

The impact this project is creating in our children is visible and tangible. They dream bigger, believe in themselves and are more open to new possibilities and opportunities.

Thank you all who made this project possible. Without you many worlds will be vanishing for our children

With best wishes,

All 80 children of the Integral Heart Family School

Permalink

Jan 3, 2019
Blessed 2019

By Debora Prieto & Mick Quinn | Co-Founders (2010)

‹ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ... 11 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.