COVID-19 Guatemala Project #46506

Help fight the spread of Covid-19 in Guatemala

by Compartiendo Nuestras Bendiciones ONG

Project Report | Apr 23, 2026
Remember when a global health pandemic shook up the whole world?

By Colleen Supanich | Co-Director

2nd year preschool class

It has been 6 years since the global Covid pandemic shook the world. It is hard to go back and remember what life was like in Guatemala during that time. Schools, churches, public transportation, malls, shopping centers, and government offices were all closed down. Even little mom and pop stores run from the home were only allowed to open 3 days a week. Movement between towns was restricted, borders were closed. Meetings with over 6 people were prohibited. A 4pm curfew was put into effect and being outside of the home after that time would result in being arrested. Not wearing a mask in public was subject to a $1,000 fine. People stayed home and as they did the white flags started popping up in our community. The white flags were used by families to signal that they were in the desperate situation of not having enough food to feed their families. And people like you responded. People like you looked into people's needs and didn't look away, but rather pulled from your own resources during a time of complete and total incertainty so that another family would not be lacking.

After about a year, the Covid restrictions started to relax in Guatemala. All except for the opening of schools. Public schools in our community were fully closed for 2 years and only partially opened (2 or 3 days a week) for the next year. Even still, 6 years later, our local public schools have not been able to get back to the pre-pandemic academic calendar. Not surprisingly, students from low-income families in our community have fallen farther and farther behind academically. And we noticed.

Since 2021 our work has been focused on increasing high quality educational opportunities for disadvantaged students in our community. This currently takes the shape of Montessori preschool classes for 22 students ages 3 to 6; a 3 year cycle of after school art classes which use art to teach essential school skills, history as well as geography and cultural studies (subjects almost completely absent from the current national curriculum); and most recently after school taekwondo classes. The goal of these programs is to help our students succeed in reaching their potential despite the inequalities they face and to help them break the cycle of poverty in their lives. We invite you to check out our current educational projects through our We are the Future Center and if you aren't currently partnering with us we hope you will consider joining with us to break the cycle of poverty in Guatemala through education.

As always thank you for taking the time to care about our community,

Best wishes,

Colleen

Preschool letters activity

Preschool art project

Taekwondo students

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Oct 15, 2020
We go where the need is

By Colleen Supanich | Project Leader

Man receiving pantry supplies on his 90th birthday

We hope this update finds you well. To date, generous donations have enabled us to provide over 445 families with emergency pantry supplies packs. Most recently we handed out 28 pantry supplies packs in the community of Santiago Sacatepequez. One of the recipients was a man celebrating his 90th birthday. What a great way to celebrate his day! In this message you can find some of the photos from that day. You can find the full album with most of the deliveries we have made to date through this link here:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=compartiendo.nuestras.bendiciones.Guatemala&set=a.276560683350870

While we have enjoyed being a vehicle to bring pantry supplies to people during times of great need these past few months, all good things must come to an end. All over Guatemala we are adjusting to a new normal. When we first started this project it was in response to the necessary closure of all the non-essential activities in the country which made hunger a threat equal to the threat of coronavirus. Slowly but surely the economic activities are starting to reopen in the country. The president plans for an update at the end of the month regarding whether or not things will remain open or be shut down again. We are hoping that the country will be in a good state and that the economy will remain open and will start to regain momentum. In that event, we plan to close down this project in order to focus our efforts on our other great developing projects, including addressing the major gaps in education during these times of the pandemic. We invite you to check out the new project we have been developing in reaction to the fact that more than 40,000 children across the country have abandoned their education during the pandemic. This project involves traveling, hands on, educational exhibits to reengage children's learning while they have fun and recover from the psychological effects of months of lockdown. We go where the need is, and this is where we are currently being called:

https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/play-it-forward-guatemala/

As always we thank you for being a part of this great pantry supplies project that helped so many families to weather a rough time.

Best wishes from all of us.

Man with disability receiving pantry supplies

Elderly woman receiving pantry supplies

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Aug 19, 2020
Moving Forward

By Colleen Supanich | Project Leader

Future Team Member Inup

Apart from the challenges of our new lives living with the Covi-19 pandemic, these past few months have been a roller coaster for our organization. On June 2nd we welcomed our 3rd son. And then sadly on July 12th our family and team member Walter took his own life at the age of 18. He was an integral part of this pantry supply effort and accompanied our Director Luis to buy the pantry supplies, helped to organize the bags and then to distribute them to community members in need. Although he leaves a great hole in our family and organization we know we must continue on in his memory delivering supplies as long as there are donations as well as need in the community. Since Walter's death we have delivered pantry supplies to 119 families. But we couldn't do it with out the support of donors like you as well as withou community members who help us to identify people in need. This month through the help of Brandy from Florida and community member Loyda, we were able to bring pantry supply packs to 40 families in need in the rural village of Calderas. Agricultural communities such as Calderas have been really hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic as restrictions on movement and public transportation have prevented vendors from taking their goods to the market to sell as they normally would. These supplies are a life line and provide hope to families who are struggling to put food on the table. We give priority to families headed by the elderly, widows, single mothers, families with people with disabilites and people who have been layed off due to the pandemic, but others facing need are also eligible. Below you will find photos of some of the families who received pantry supply packs this month. You can see more photos of the families who have been blessed with pantry supplies through this link here: shorturl.at/lCLU3. Thank you for being a part of this effort. Your support keeps us moving forward!

How We Will Remember Cousin Walter

Family receiving pantry supplies

Recently widowed woman receiving pantry supplies

Out of work teacher receiving pantry supplies

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