{"id":7271,"date":"2019-07-29T14:52:25","date_gmt":"2019-07-29T14:52:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gophilanthropic.org\/?p=7271"},"modified":"2019-07-29T14:52:25","modified_gmt":"2019-07-29T14:52:25","slug":"new-partner-esperanza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gophilanthropic.org\/new-partner-esperanza\/","title":{"rendered":"A Visit to New Guatemala Partner, Comunidad La Esperanza"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cQue Nadie Se Quede Atr\u00e1s”<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

(No One Will Be Left Behind<\/em>)<\/span><\/h2>\n

The following update was written by Christina Bruce, GoPhilanthropic Foundation\u2019s Guatemala Program Manager, who traveled to visit partner organizations in May 2019 and left feeling incredibly inspired by all that she witnessed. As you follow along on her journey, you will come to know GoPhil’s newest partner program in Chimaltenango, Guatemala, Comunidad La Esperanza, and hear from their dedicated teachers and resilient students.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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In Chimaltenango, 35 minutes away from Antigua on the Pan-American Highway, you will find Comunidad La Esperanza (CLE). Hairpin curves on a road cut into the mountains lead to the outskirts of \u201cChimal,\u201d a major crossroads for trucking and construction industries and a rough, transient neighborhood. The highway is busy with cement trucks, sixteen wheelers, pickups piled high with building supplies, and almost impervious to the traffic, indigenous women in bright traditional clothing selling breakfast tortillas on the edge of the road. Chimaltenango is also the center of used car and truck sales in Guatemala, and hundreds of used cars line the dusty highway along with all sorts of auto supply, tire repair and car paint businesses. The unrelenting cement color of the buildings is brightened by cascades of fuchsia and yellow bougainvillea competing with the bright colors of the \u201cchicken buses\u201d transporting people to work.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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At a large intersection populated with every American fast food joint imaginable we turn off for a few blocks of unpaved, dusty road leading to Comunidad la Esperanza, or \u201cCommunity of Hope\u201d. My driver drops me off at an iron, pedestrian gate, or \u201cport\u00f3n\u201d where I enter the neighborhood and walk up the road to CLE. Later, CLE Director Hilda will tell me that they try to keep the gates closed to limit undesirable traffic into the neighborhood. My approach is quickly announced by a glimpse of the brightly colored wall mural that decorates the entrance, as well as the loud chatter of teenagers from inside the building.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>

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I immediately notice something new since our last visit \u2013 a tall pitched corrugated metal roof over the cement patio that creates shade over the only large meeting area. The other change to this small, cement-brick building painted bright blue is a small teacher\u2019s work room and library where the kitchen used to be. Hilda told me that they desperately needed more space, so she moved out of her house next door and rented a house \u2014 even though she now commutes 40 minutes each way \u2013 so they could use her kitchen for lunch prep as well as for the vocational training workshops on cooking and baking, and the other rooms for storage and meeting space. And speaking of cooking and baking, cooking teacher (and substitute \u201ceverything teacher\u201d) Estella, who our GoPhil travelers will remember from our last visit, had prepared us a typical breakfast of homemade breads and plantains in mole.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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