San Juan Comalapapopulation 39,000

View of

Comalapa

San Juan Comalapa

Dept. of Chimaltenango

Clustered city surrounded by small farming plots

Traditional traje, machete and hoe, “azidon”

Wood-burning stove, multi-generational compounds

Children all work

Market Day is Tues. Friday Sunday

Community Pila

Weaving is a major industry

What are Indigenous Peoples?

People who have the oldest historic connection to a placeThe “originals” (like aboriginals)

Mayans have lived off the land of Guatemala for over 1100 years. Have evidence of decline of Mayan civilization in 900.Comalapa was settled back to 1520. The Spanish conquered Petén in 1697.

In Comalapa, the indigenous Kaq’chikel are 95% of the population

5% of the world population

are considered indigenous yet

15% of the world’s poor are

indigenous.

Indigenous people are over-

represented in the group of

the “world’s poor.”

Indigenous people are an important group of

rural poor.

Indigenous people

constitute an

important group of

rural poor.

In Guatemala some 86.6% of

the indigenous

people are poor.

44% of population in

Guatemala are indigenous people

Why are we in Guatemala??

“the global poor, if only they had been born into different social circumstances, would be just as able andlikely to lead healthy, happy and productive lives as the rest of us.”

The root cause of their suffering is their abysmal social starting position, which does not give them much of a chance to become anything but poor, vulnerableand dependent — unable to give their children a better start than they had had themselves. -Thomas Pogge, Ass. Professor of Philosophy, Columbia U

StatisticsLife Cycle Median age:

36.7 years Median age:19.2 years

School Life Expectancy

total: 16 years male: 15 years female: 16 years (2006)

total: 10 years male: 11 years female: 10 years (2006)

Gross National Income per capita

$41,950 $4,410

Literacy 99%99% male99% female

56%63% male49% female

Population below poverty line

12% 56%

Expenditures on education

5.3% of GDP (2005)

2.6% of GDP (2006)

USA Guatemala

Facts taken from the Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook

Long Way Home’s mission is to break the cycle of poverty

among youth in developing communities by

•Creating educational opportunities

Tecnico Maya Vocational School

•Cultivating civic interactionSimajuleu Civic Group

•Encouraging healthy lifestylesParque Chimyá

Recycling

Rebecca Sanchez, Volunteer Coordinator

Ericka Temple, Architect

Aaron Colvin, Assistant Project Mgr.

Matt Paneitz, Executive Director, Founder LWH

Adam Howland, Project Mgr.Liz Howland

Not shown: Andy Case, Webmaster

Parque Chimiyá

Parque Chimiya, basketball court, soccer field, organic gardens, public park open dawn to dusk

Reforestation Program: 37,000 trees planted in four years

1,182 hours of work

Typical method of trash disposal

Raw materials

Tires are collected from Chimaltenango, 30 miles away

Excavation

Rafael works on a tire for the vocational school.

Adam and the crew fill tires with earth.

Foundation is filled with gravel and earth-filled tires

Crew filling top tier of tires

School taking shape

Volunteer bringing concrete to roof

November 2009February 2010Finished interior-no tires in sight

Roof has a drainage system that diverts water to a cistern.

Volunteer fills a liter bottle with earth to make a brick.

Earth-filled and litter-filled liter bottles form the structure for building.

Earth-filled and litter-filled liter bottles form the structure for building.

Bottles filled with litter are the basis for this structure which became a community library.

http://catorcekt.wordpress.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeOouXAC42c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SvZ_8Tq8Jo

350 interns and volunteers

since 2004

We believe that in order to break the cycle of poverty people need to

know that it exists.

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