Simply put, there is no such program that I have encountered in the past 20 years of being involved with the investigation and implementation of such programs. If only it was so simple. Governments and NGOs have thrown 3 trillion dollars at poverty, and it appears that we are not much better than … [READ MORE]
Hope
Where there is no vision, there is no hope.-George Washington Carver 1864-1943, American Scientist When the candidate families arrived for a first visit at the Somos Village, I reflected on what they might have hoped to find. Our social worker, Lucy, had previously informed them about the structural layout, the programs and some of the Somos […]
The Best Donors in the World
We are recently back from our annual Spring trek to Canada. We spent two weeks in Vancouver and a week in Calgary. While there, we had two board meetings, one public presentation, visited and spoke at five schools, had dozens of meetings, ate many amazing meals and drank far too many cups of coffee! Fortunately, […]
Tika Talks-Saying Goodbye to Gizmo
Gizmo has come and gone. I let him live with us for ten months. He showed up on the “finca” skinny, covered in mats and with broken twine tied around his neck and front paw, last June. We took him in and took care of him. He became part of our pack. Our pack is a […]
Becoming a Preschool Evangelist
Flexibility is key with this vision of ours. Growing organically is a guiding principle. When our first three families arrived with seven children under six (and with four of them in diapers), it quickly became clear that the majority of the mamas’ days were spent preparing food, cleaning clothes, comforting a crying child or children, […]
Southridge Volunteers
A heartfelt thank you to Southridge for a great week of volunteering! This was Southridge’s third time volunteering in Guatemala at Project Somos and once again, the school sent a great team of very hard working volunteers. While here, the team of twenty students and […]
A Week of Volunteering
It’s Friday morning and the Saints boys and their teachers are hard at work getting as much done as possible on their last day of work. This evening we will have pizza prepared in our outdoor wood-fired pizza oven, followed by a campfire and a talk about Maya culture. We are very grateful for […]
St George’s: First Work Day
Yesterday St Georges arrived, ready to work and serve! So after a delicious lunch of homemade soup and sandwiches, the boys were put to work. One of their projects is removing the stones from the Gathering Place, so we can redo them, this time secured with cement (the wind storms blew away the sand that […]
Volunteering 2015
Later this morning we will welcome our first 2015 school group of volunteers to Project Somos. St. George’s school from Vancouver will be our first group of students (9 young men). Next week we will welcome Southridge (South Surrey) and then Strathcona Tweedsmuir (Okotoks, AB) Last week we spent most of the week preparing for […]
Guest Blogger – Genny Tevlin
My time at Project Somos is coming to an end, this is my fifth week volunteering here and it has gone by at an alarmingly fast rate. I can’t quite believe that a week from now I will be leaving this place and not seeing these familiar faces everyday. My experience has been an exceptional […]