By John Barrie | Executive Director
The last few months of 2022 and now 2023 have been very busy for Mayan Power and Light. The team in Quetzaltenango continued to teach classes in Green Entrepreneurship and Generations of Change. In December and January we hosted groups of volunteers to install solar in several homes and on the EDELAC home for street kids in Quetzaltenango. Our volunteer trips were fully booked and we expect our summer trips to fill up quickly. For more information on volunteering to install solar power and water filters in Guatemala please contact us: info@apptechdesign.org
With our volunteers Mayan Power and Light provided solar power to 9 families, a total of 47 people who were burning candles to see at night. These home solar projects make the most profound change in people's lives. Children study at night for the first time. Girls don't have to take the family cell phone to the next village to charge it. Children, especially girls stay in school longer and every extra year of school corresponds closely with higher lifetime income.
From our Mayan Power and Light EDELAC report:
"Evaluation of the current context of the establishment. (EDELAC solar center)
According to UNICEF "In Guatemala 8 out of 10 children are affected by poverty and about 2 million children and adolescents of school age are outside the educational system" many of these children go to a home, such is the case of the children served by EDELAC, whose families do not have the economic condition to satisfy the need for clothing, education, food and choose to look for different alternatives so that their children have a better future, currently EDELAC serves 20 children and adolescents (ages between 6 and 17 years) from different municipalities of Guatemala (Santa. Catarina Ixtahuacán, Sololá, Cobán, Quetzaltenango) providing them with education, health, clothing and food, however in the home they suffer from frequent blackouts, coupled with the high cost they pay monthly for electricity."
In January we started looking for a new office space that is closer to where most of our volunteer projects are and where we share a workshop with another nonprofit. We've narrowed down our location to near Lake Atitlan. We have been serving communities around the lake since our inception in 2011 and the lake is closer to our projects in Comalapa and Jocotenango.
Our big news is that in March our team Poder y Luz Maya became an independent nonprofit in Quetzaltenango! This affirms they're sustainable and they will continue to provide solar power and teach classes for sustainable development.
Mayan Power and Light will continue to provide our program more efficiently from our new location. I've been in Guatemala for several weeks now working with our Lake Atitlan team to identify and prioritize projects through December 2025.
Thank you so much for your continued support. On behalf of all the schools, community centers and families we've served we thank you.
Attached are photos of our work at the EDELAC home, family solar installations and of some of our Lake Atitlan Mayan Power and Light team.
By John Barrie | Executive Director
By John Barrie | Executive Director
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
