What an amazing testimony from Emily one of our GCP Team members!
“In June I went to Guatemala to witness and help provide humanitarian aid to malnourished infants, school children, abused women and severely impoverished families. I was able to help at the Casa Jackson Malnourished Infant Hospital, go on social home visits, help build a house for a working family, and work at a school that provides education to some of the poorest children on our side of the globe (literally). Helping to take care of the malnourished and starving infants and visiting children’s houses in the slums were the most rewarding experiences.
Guatemala has the most severe infant malnutrition in all of the Western Hemisphere, due to the 36 year civil war that ended 2 decades ago.
They are still in a period of social recovery, and much of their farming practices were wiped out during the war. The people in Antigua were very kind and polite, despite living in impoverished conditions, and I never felt uncomfortable or in danger.
If you or anyone you know would be interested in going on a humanitarian aid trip like this, I HIGHLY recommend it. It will be the most memorable and rewarding trip you will ever take.
The GOD’S CHILD Project has been welcoming and coordinating volunteer aid trips like this for over 25 years (food, housing, and schedules that include volunteer aid and fun tourist time), and they are a charity that applies over $0.91 of every donation directly to their aid programs. Their admin and overhead costs are the lowest I’ve ever found in a charity that does what they do. That’s why I called them to ask if I could volunteer, and now amazingly I’m lucky enough to work for the cause. 🙂
They also remove children from human trafficking, run a homeless shelter (for men, women, and children), find and support foster care for children who need it, run a dental and medical clinic, help people who are addicted go through treatment, employ a lawyer for the legal needs of the local children and a psychologist for traumatized kids. Is there anything they can’t do?”
~Emily Schaefbauer