When our Rotary team visited Guatemala in October of last year, we went to a small village in the far north of the country. The village is Uaxactun’, (pronounced WASH-AC-TUN’). The people there are hard working and industrious. They have been taught sustainable agricultural methods and are employing those techniques to earn livelihoods through exported products that are grown in the jungle/forest around their village. Their children are beautiful. We had the privilege to represent our District in helping with a health clinic for the children, organized by our longstanding friends in the Tikal’ Rotary Club in San Benito, Peten’, Guatemala. We helped with general health screening, an eye clinic, and a dental clinic for the children there. We also are helping to refurbish their fire-watch tower through which they protect the forest/jungle around them, the source of livelihood for most of the village families.
What we found through our visit is what you see in the One-Pager. Their Pre-School building for their small children is literally a dilapidated shack. We wouldn’t even consider putting our livestock in there for fear it would fall in on them. We asked, “What would it take to build a new Pre-School for the children in their village?” They estimated the cost would be $15,000 for the materials. The Tikal’ Club architects would design it and the village children’s fathers would construct it. DG Carolyn Franks has asked me to share this opportunity with you, as it is something we can easily accomplish. Sharing together even small amounts from individuals and contributions from our Clubs in District 5830, I am confident that we can raise the money needed for the school. If funds are raised in excess of the $15,000 needed, they would be used to place solar panels on their existing school building and possibly the new pre-school, to purchase laptops, and to install software to teach the children in subjects we’ve enjoyed learning: math, science, language, history, geography, life-skills, etc.
Please contact me if your would like to be a part of this wonderful project. Your tax-deductible checks can be made out to the Longview Rotary Endowment Fund, a 501c-3 entity, through which we will accumulate your contributions and then will wire them directly to the Tikal’ Rotary Club’s bank account. On the memo line of your checks, write, “Guatemala Preschool.” You can mail your checks to me at the address provided, and I will get them to Gary Taylor, a Rotarian and Senior VP with Texas Bank and Trust in Longview. He will carefully account for the funds collected and will wire them for us.
If you’d like for me to come and share more about this project and what we encountered during our Rotary trip to Guatemala, and the results of other humanitarian work we’ve done through the District in Guatemala and Southern Mexico, I’d be happy to come at your convenience. We are truly making a life-changing difference through your generosity over the past 10 -12 years through our international focus in District 5830.
Thank you, in advance, for your generous support of this effort!
Carroll Greenwaldt
903-235-6448
