(In Guatemala time, that could be anywhere from 2017 to 2025 <grin>)
We’ve been on an incredible journey with Rio Azul over the last 8 years. We helped them get clean water to their village, and then to their homes. We helped them create 2 new sewage treatment tanks, removing the grey water from their homes. And we sponsored them to build a Veggie School program, creating personal gardens that give them nutrient dense foods. The result, kids are healthier than we have ever seen in this region wracked with chronic malnutrition. And the infrastructure is in place to keep helping them until their graduation, where they feel comfortable standing on their own two feet again.
It’s been an incredible journey. And while we had hoped to take this same model and help the community 20 mins down the road from Rio Azul (a town called Xonca), we’d even shot all the video to tell their story the last time we were in Rio Azul, it isn’t going to happen. This is the sad news.
After many years of frustration with our partners, Food for the Hungry, we finally hit the point where we realized that we just can’t gain enough momentum with our community with a partner who isn’t communicating with us on a regular basis. I don’t want to bad mouth Food for the Hungry. That’s not my purpose. And when we announce to the community this week that after Rio Azul, we are looking for a new partner to work with, we won’t be talking about the problems we have had with Food for the Hungry. I think extended dialogue about the problems we have had only taints the good we did in Rio Azul, and I don’t want to take that from our community – who don’t know that we were planning on working with Xonca next door, so this won’t seem like a change. But I wanted all of you to know.
If you want details about why we made this decision, I’m happy to talk one-on-one but I’d rather not put those in this email. I hope you understand my heart is to not badmouth Food for the Hungry – I don’t think that serves any of us.
We have agreed with Food for the Hungry that we can do one last trip to Rio Azul when they graduate from the program. So if you want to go down, start saving your dollars (or quetzals) now. It’s going to be a blast to go celebrate graduation with them.
Thank you for your commitment to this community over the last 8 years. You have truly changed their lives. And I’m looking forward to taking what we learned with Rio Azul and finding another community that we can inspire, support, and partner with.
Water never stops, it just flows in a new direction.
Thanks everyone