While Mundo director Dr Joan Williams hasn’t been able to visit Guatemala yet this year due to Covid-19 and travel restrictions, our local friends and partners have been working harder than ever to keep their communities safe!
AMACHAJUL is a local nonprofit organization in Chajul, Guatemala. Mundo has been working with and supporting them in their various community development projects. They focus on addressing local concerns and bringing the commnity together primarily through education and also agricultural projects, women empowerment workshops, and more. They now have a nice website where you can find more information about their mission, vision, and work.
We have helped support many scholarship students as well as mentorship and empwement programs. When the Covid-19 pandemic spread and finally hit Guatemala, AMACHAJUL were quick to react with aid. Closed borders and schools didn’t stop them from supporting their students, and we haven’t stopped either! As a long term response to the lasting economic effects of this pandemic, they have created Maya Girl Enterprise with Days for Girls.
This enterprise focuses on both women and girls health and the health and safety of all community members. Through this enterprise AMACHAJUL is able to educate women and girls about menstrual health through workshops and provide washable pads.
Another project of AMACHAJUL is mushrooms growing. These mushrooms are grown locally and organically and they sell the mushrooms to help fund their ongoing community projects. However, they also donate mushrooms to families in need, and there are many of people who are going hungry due to poverty and scarcity of goods with skyrocketing prices!
You can donate to these projects HERE, just $10 will provide a household with a handsewn mask, DFG feminine hygeine kit, information sheet, and mushrooms to help provide nutrition to meals! Many recipients of these donated kits and mushrooms live in difficult to reach and remote villages in the mountains; they are struggling the most with little access to larger town or cities with more supplies.