Join us in our Holiday Season Giving Campaign
MATCH FUNDING AVAILABLE UNTIL 31ST DECEMBER
DONATE NOW (Canadian $)
DONATE NOW (US $)
We have a match fundraising pledge of $40,000. For every dollar you donate, we receive $2, up to the value of $40,000!!! DONATE TODAY to ensure that your donation is DOUBLED in value.
Did you know, during the final month of the year, charities raise 30% of their budget for 2024? It’s an important time of year for you to support Project Somos and, with our Match Funding, your donation is instantly DOUBLED!!
Or, if you prefer to donate in US$, donate here.
We have a match fundraising pledge of $40,000. For every dollar you donate, we receive $2, up to the value of $40,000!!! DONATE TODAY to ensure that your donation is DOUBLED in value.
Where your money will be spent:
$55 can provide academic learning materials for a child so they can learn to read.
Children need support to stay in school and to succeed. With a strong focus on literacy, Project Somos works closely with children to improve their reading. With children in grades as high as 5th grade, who still cannot read, it is essential these children receive this guidance. With your gift, you can help a child stay in school and learn to read!
$60 can buy eight books to add to our learning library.
Books are expensive and so rare in Guatemala. Libraries are almost non-existent. Literacy remains so low because children have little to no access to books. With your gift, you can provide books and the opportunity for a child to fall in love with reading and have more success with their studies.
$75 can provide individual counseling for a child who is struggling.
Many children are working hard to stay in school while struggling with domestic trauma. Physical and sexual abuse is common. Many children are growing up with fathers who have made the journey north in hopes of providing for their families and the children are dealing with grief. With your gift, you can provide the support of our Mayan psychologist.
$100 can provide English and technology classes for four children.
In this multicultural, connected world, we all need a strong understanding of English and technology. Yet in rural, small communities, this simply isn’t possible, making the learning gap even greater and job opportunities even slimmer. With your gift, you can help children prepare themselves for a good, strong, successful career.
$140 can provide a nutritional program from our organic farm for a child.
Each month we provide 22 hot, delicious lunches and 44 fruit-based filling snacks to each child in the program. Good nutrition is something these children simply won’t get without our support and it’s something so vital for our brains and bodies to function properly. A hot, organic nutritious lunch costs just $3 and a snack is just $1.50, With your gift, you can help a child eat, grow, function and learn.
$200 can provide a complete academic education program for a child.
Our education program is well-rounded and rich with learning. We teach reading and writing through our literacy program, English with our foreign, trained teacher and volunteer supporters, technology through our computing program, sports with Mai, baking through our kitchen training program and agriculture with our farm supervisor Oscar. With your gift, you can support this entire program for a month, ensuring a child receives a well-rounded education.
$350 can gift a boy a space in our boys leadership program for a year.
Men in local communities are put into positions of leadership without really understanding what it means to be a leader. Our boys club prepares these boys to become respectful, inclusive leaders with strong development skills and emotional intelligence. With your gift you can include another boy in this program.
$350 can gift a girl a space in our girls empowerment program for a year.
A woman’s role in their community is often reduced or overlooked entirely. Our girls club seeks to create young girls ready to find their role in fairer communities, with abilities to think critically, question and reflect on themselves and be very self-knowledgeable. With your gift you can include another girl in this program.
$500 will pay for a Christmas party for the children this Christmas.
It’s important to find ways to celebrate and share time together. A Christmas party with a special menu, celebrations and a gift for each child is an important way to end the year. We’d like to have a party this December where the parents attend a training session, create a Christmas decoration with their children and pick food from the farm for lunch. With your gift, you can gift presents to all the children this Christmas.
$600 can pay the monthly salary of a farm worker on our organic farm.
Our organic farm and nutritional program is vital to ensure the children fully develop their brains and bodies, allowing them to learn, play and explore ready for their futures. We proudly employ local people to manage the farm, ensuring we are investing in the local area and training local people. With your gift, you can pay the salary of one of our farm workers for a month.
$800 can provide early education for a preschool class.
Preschool education prepares children to have more success and confidence in public school. It teaches them social skills, supports them to learn Spanish as their second language (the majority of the children speak their mother tongue of Kaqchikel) and to experience learning through physical, creative and imaginative play. With your gift, you can cover the salary of our preschool teacher for a month.
$1000 can buy new needed kitchen equipment for our kitchen.
Our kitchen serves more than 25,000 lunches and 50,000 snacks for the children every year. This means we often have to replace kitchen equipment or buy new equipment when we test and trial new recipes. With your gift, you can purchase new stoves, new fridges and freezers, food processors, pots, and more plates, bowls, cups and cutlery as our programs grow.
All gifts will be used as designated. If a certain gift becomes overfunded, your gift will be used in a similar manner to reach as many people as possible.
Children like Jocelyn.
Joselyn is a bright, intelligent, happy young girl with a great passion for exploring and learning. When she’s at the Project, there’s never a moment when she isn’t smiling or laughing.
However, at home it’s a different story. Joselyn sees aggression modeled to her daily and is often on the receiving end of that aggression. Luckily, her mother saw Joselyn needed time away from home and signed her up to come to Project Somos. Here, our trained therapist and teaching staff are showing Joselyn how to manage strong emotions in more positive ways. How to build special friendships with her classmates and how to use different ways to show how she feels rather than the punching and kicking she saw modeled at home.
Jocelyn has told us that the Project is her favorite place after being with her Mom. She says she always has lots of fun, learns a lot and plays with her friends. She runs, dances, sings the gorilla song and feels very comfortable in a place where no one laughs at her, but better still, everyone joins in with her when she dances.
Joselyn hasn’t always found it easy to change her behavior, however, we have seen her learn to understand the importance of positive, respectful relationships with her friends. With our support and guidance she’s been able to learn and reflect on the benefits of treating her friends better. Her home life is complicated, but it’s comforting to know that her Mom is by her side, doing the best she can for Jocelyn, and that we are right there with her.
Please note that we use different names and photos of the children in these stories to ensure their anonymity and safety, however, their stories are told authentically, respectfully and honestly.
Or, if you prefer to donate in US$, donate here.