Your Stories
Join Our Growing Community of Supporters
Below are just a few of our growing community of supporters and volunteers who have chosen to partner with us in our expanding work. They are all examples of individuals from across the United States and around the world who strongly believe in sharing with others their good fortune and hard work. Specifically, in the lives of thousands of children who are eager and excited to learn. Please think about joining this special group of people and helping us to give every child a chance.
Individuals - People to People
Angela is a young woman whose father had created a large, very successful private global company. She is just starting her family and lives in a modest suburban home. Given the success of her father’s company, Angela could be thinking about the sort of things Paris Hilton would find important. But she is not, rather she is thinking about how to help those less fortunate in the world. Angela through her father’s company is a major supporter of Child Aid and committed in her personal and professional life to making the world a better place for all children.
Ann is a children’s author who lived twenty-two years in Panajachel, Guatemala and worked to improve the town library there. Ann states:
“Guatemala is a country almost entirely without school or community libraries. Where libraries exist, they have few books. Nobody learns to read fluently when there’s nothing available to read. Further, even if there were books, in a country where many parents are functionally illiterate, children don’t learn to read from seeing parents do it.
While Child Aid provides scholarships, books and financial resources, most importantly Child Aid is training Guatemalan teachers and staff of small libraries in library management and the most tried and true ways to attract children to books. One Child Aid library’s summer reading program began with eight children in attendance and after a few weeks had attracted 800. That alone shows me that Child Aid’s methods work and wins my support.”
Ronni is an owner of a vineyard where many of her workers come from the type of communities where Child Aid partners. In addition to helping locally with the needs of the Latin American community, Ronni believes in helping to give the children in Guatemala a chance for a better future. This is why she personally has been a generous and long time supporter of Child Aid.
Corporations - Businesses Who Care
Lloyd and Kim are Canadian parents of an adopted Guatemalan child and Lloyd and Kim’s company Ethical Bean is a business that truly lives up to its name. Each year Lloyd and Kim’s support for Child Aid’s work has grown. Last year Lloyd and Kim took their children to Guatemala so the family could meet and visit with the children at schools where they provide scholarship support.
Jim of Jims Organic Coffee of Wareham, Massachusetts has literally transformed the lives for the children of the whole community of Tzanchaj by providing support for the building of classrooms and a beautiful library at the local school. This area was devastated by Hurricane Stan and through Jim’s help the children now have a chance for a brighter future.
Volunteers - Time and Expertise
Frances, a librarian from Pennsylvania, recently spent two weeks volunteering her time in Guatemala and had a great time. “They’re rudimentary but they’re exciting places, because people are so enthusiastic about these libraries, and they need them, they want them, they use them. Especially for the kids, it was all for the children.” Frances plans on going back and noted “You don’t have to be fluent in the language to do this type of thing. If you know the basics ... then you can do this work.”
Kati is from Estonia and she began volunteering in another organization in Guatemala City but moved over to work with Child Aid partly because of the fact that her mother is a librarian. She particularly enjoys the family feeling of working with Child Aid.
Lisa a Library Sciences Professor from Sweet Briar College spent almost a month of her sabbatical volunteering with Child Aid and helping to organize school and community libraries. It was a great experience and she hopes to return.
