Greetings from Guatemala.
In writing this, our last newsletter of 2021, I got to thinking… what is our purpose? what do we offer? what have we achieved? Not only over these last, rather trying two years, but since Integral Heart Family was first founded back in 2011.
Then, as if Facebook knew what I was mulling, up popped this memory. In the top photo above is my lovely wife Debora, and fellow IHF co-founder, standing with a family we met through an organization we had volunteered with in 2010.
Their situation was dire, just look at the expression on the mom’s face…
And the photo underneath this is one I asked this very same family to take it for me when they visited where they used to live for their Christmas celebrations. Mari is seen with her two sons and her daughter.
Mari, the mom, is now the director of our school. She started working for us in 2011 cleaning our house and over the years proved herself to be determined and tenacious. When we needed someone to guide us around the slums where she used live, we turned to Mari. When we needed someone to help us build our roster of families, it was Mari. She now has a personal relationship with each one of our 80 children and each of their families and caretakers.
Mari is a living example and vivid answer to my questions. Our purpose is to help people pull themselves out of generational poverty which we achieve through our educational programs at the school, with English, Spanish, Homework Help and Human Right classes. We offer support and love, and a safe place for their children to grow and develop.
And we can do all of this only with your help! So, thank you very, very much!!
Moving forward; We are looking forward to the re-opening of our school starting in February 2022 (considering all current health regulations). Everybody is super-excited! We are happy and looking forward to feeling our hearts and souls with the laughter and love that our kids deliver by their presence.
All our love and best wishes to you all your loved ones,
The Integral Heart Family in Guatemala
About us:
Mick Quinn and Debora Prieto founded Integral Heart back in 2011. They vacationed in Guatemala in 2009 and we drawn to its beauty but also felt compelled to respond directly to the potential they saw in the younger generations. They both live year-round in Guatemala.
The Integral Heart Family School is 100% crowdfunded. We currently have 235 individuals whose monthly and annual donations support our work. The core team of Sustaining Sponsors raises about one half of the total funds needed to operate our school and programs.
Education is the heart of our work. Our school is home to 80 children receiving classes in Spanish, English, Psychology, Human Rights, Homework Help, Art and serves 1,500 meals monthly. Since 2011, our programs have delivered classes and support to over 1,200 students and their families in Guatemala. We have also provided over 2,500 food baskets to our 40 sponsored families.
Photo updates of our work:
We update our photo albums twice per month here:
https://www.facebook.com/integralheartfamily
With love and respect,
Mick, Debora and all the students and staff
of Integral Heart School Guatemala
Good morning from Guatemala.
Our work continues at the Integral Heart Family School even though the schools here may not be allowed to open until the start of the school year in January of 2022.
Our homework delivery has been going smoothly to each of our students and depending on the day, our families can come to the school to pick up their food basket, or in some cases, we will deliver it with the homework.
We are planning to open to smaller groups, socially-distanced and following all health guidelines next year, news, which was very well received by our families and students.
We have also been using the school space for spaying and neutering clinics, available to our families, and the wider community in cooperation with a local reporter, and a local rescue clinic.
Last weekend we had 35 furry friends arrive for this treatment and now the owners no longer have to worry about having unwanted events! :-)
Another clinic is planned for December.
As always, we wish you the very best and offer our great thanks for your support over all the years.
With love and appreciation,
IHF School
Antigua Guatemala
When We All Work As One
The Integral Heart Family (IHF) is unique in many ways. One that really stands out is that we are 100% crowdfunded. Many charities rely on grants, endowments and major donors to keep the doors open and the lights lit.
Not at IHF. At the time of writing this we have 225 individual Sustaining Sponsors, whose monthly support, ranging from $5 per month to $200 per month, provides almost half of the annual budget. And, many of these kindred hearts have been sustaining our work for over 10 years! Imagine that for trust!
During the times of Covid all of you have come together to help our families in need. We are hoping that the schools will be allowed to open soon and that things will begin to get back to normal. In the meantime our food basket, and weekly homework deliveriers continue unabated!
To keep our work going and growing we have, on Wednesday July 14th, a Match Day on donations with our funding partner GlobalGiving based in Washington D.C. I will send you the link on the day so we can all continue this journey together.
Below you will find photos of our work, from just this past month, on all the achievements that your support allows.
With love and appreciation from The Integral Heart School in Antigua Guatemala,
Mick Quinn
Debora Prieto
Co-founders
Guatemala opened back up over 5 months ago. However, restaurants and clubs must stop serving alcohol at 9pm and all schools are still closed. In response to the latter we responded quickly last year and now we delivery food baskets to each of our families and weekly homework assignments to our students. Here are some examples. Our families are thrilled that we continue can continue to support them and we plan to do so until all of this is over.
About us:
The Integral Heart Family School is 100% crowdfunded. We currently have 200 individuals whose monthly and annual donations support our work. The core team of Sustaining Sponsors raises about one half of the total funds needed to operate our school and programs.
Education is the heart of our work. Our school is home to 80 children receiving classes in Spanish, English, Psychology, Human Rights, Homework Help, Art and serves 1,500 meals monthly. Since 2011, our programs have delivered classes and support to over 1,200 students and their families in Guatemala. We have also provided over 2,500 food baskets to our 40 sponsored families.
Photo updates of our work
We update our photo albums twice per month here:
https://www.facebook.com/integralheartfamily
Thanks so (so) much for your support!
Mick, Debora and all the Staff and Students
Of the Integral Heart School Guatemala
The biggest news first! GivingTuesday is less than 2 weeks away – On Tuesday December 1st we will be having a funding Match all day with a $1 Million pot (yes, 1million!). The more we raise, the more we get!! We will send the active link on the day.
In local news, the airport in Guatemala re-opened with health measures and local buses are running again so slowly but surely we are getting back to life. The President tested positive, yet despite his age and few underlying issues he is doing just fine.
And, despite all schools in Guatemala being closed we remain committed our children and their education.
With the food basket deliveries we also send them pages of homework and reading material to stimulate their growth and expand their knowledge. And with the expansion of our existing food basket program will keep our children nourished since they primarily only eat a full and balanced meal when they come to our school. These food baskets will include face masks and hand sanitizer which are being made from locally sourced materials, helping to slow the spread of the virus in our communities. We will also increase the frequency of our home-study program documents so that our students remain stimulated by and interested in our curriculum.
Our school is home base for coordination, storage and delivery of both food and knowledge.
Thank you all of you who continue supporting and believing in our efforts to make this a better world.
With all our love, appreciation and gratitude, we hope you enjoy these photos of the work that you enable us to do.
THANK YOU!
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