Education for 500 children in Guatemala

I hope all is well with you and the New Year has got off to a great start. Thank you so much for your continued support for our work in Guatemala and we want to share with you our plans for 2026.

Our work will continue in several communities where we will provide scholarships to around one hundred secondary and college students. Thanks to the scholarships even more girls will be continuing their studies when classes restart at the end of the month. 

School materials will be purchased for four hundred primary school students who cannot afford the basics, in spite of the government providing some items at the beginning of the school year this month. 

We aim to increase our support for a school for students with varying disabilities and our local teacher will continue to work there as well as in other communities offering help with homework and advice as well as managing the sustainable plans. 

The new Plan Costura sewing centre which was built last year will open its doors shortly and will help single mothers and University students cover extra costs of their education and we hope to expand into other communities over the coming years.  

Thank you so much to everyone who donates regularly to the projects which really does help us plan ahead as well as get through the lean months! If you want to set up a regular donation it can be done easily via this page by pressing the donate button and selecting regular donation with the amount you want to donate. Thank you so much in advance.  

To celebrate twenty years working in Perú we will be undertaking a Charity Challenge hiking Colca Canyon from Saturday 25th July to Saturday 1st August followed by a big party in the school. The costs are £675 ($840) per person with two people sharing a hotel room in Arequipa or £720 ($900) for single supplement, although it is shared accommodation on the trek. If you are interested in joining us please follow the link below or do get in touch - you can reply to this newsletter. Funds raised don't necessarily have to go to Peru, it is just the location of the challenge, so funds raised can be directed to Guatemala. 

Once again, thank you so much for your support for Guatemala - it really is hugely appreciated. 

Have a great 2026.

Cheers     

Links:

• 2026 Charity Challenge in Peru

I hope all is well with you. As we enter the final month of a very successful year here in Latin America we are pleased to launch the 2025 Phoenix Appeal today to coincide with GlobalGiving’s part-matching campaign which is now live. This year’s Appeal aims to raise funds for our local teachers' salaries, secondary school and college scholarships, classroom materials and food programmes in Guatemala, Ecuador and Perú in 2026.

From now until 1200 EST, 1700 UK tomorrow, 3rd December (0400 Eastern Australia on 4th December) all individual donations up to US$2,500 (£1,900) will be enhanced with a proportional share of a half million dollar pot. Last year this proportional share equated to 25% extra on donations so it is an excellent opportunity for the projects.     

Donations to last year’s Appeal contributed to almost a third of the $50,000/£35,000 day-to-day spending on all our projects so far this year helping us provide access to education for over five hundred children in Latin America including Guatemala.

With your generous donation to this year’s Appeal, we aim to increase the number of students to six hundred in 2026 across all our projects including 500 in Guatemala. You can donate directly to this page and thank you so much in advance. 

Thanks to last year’s Appeal four hundred children from several communities in Guatemala had access to primary, secondary and college education with scholarships and classroom materials this year. Four of our 2024 graduates who excelled in their final exams earned places with a national bank as part of their apprenticeship scheme.

We started supporting fifty students with varying disabilities in a small school on the lake where we helped with eye tests and glasses for one partially sighted student. We aim to increase our support for the school in 2026. 

All the children and families we support from different communities around the lake live in extreme poverty. They are unable to purchase even the simplest classroom materials, never mind the monthly costs of further education. Weeks are spent visiting different communities to identify the families in most need to make sure all our scholarships are awarded to the students who really need them.

As part of the scholarship programme the parents of the students got involved in litter clearing around the lake during the year. Several tonnes of litter were collected from the shore which was then sent to the local government for recycling and landfill.

The scholarship students were also involved in our annual reforestation programme planting hundreds of trees which helps offset Phoenix’s carbon footprint in all our countries.

Work was undertaken on building a new centre for our Plan Costura (sewing business) which aims to provide training and income for dozens of women, especially single mothers.  

Finally, we celebrated Day of the Child for all the students which included plenty of food and games that everyone could enjoy. The mothers got together to prepare and cook all the food. It was a great day in all the schools which up until now had rarely celebrated to this extent and we will now aim to celebrate their day each year.

Thank you so much for anything you can donate today to this page to take advantage of the part-matching. Your donation will help make a tangible difference for hundreds of families in 2026 and thank you so much in advance.

Have a great December. 

Cheers