This story is being shared as part of our Summer Match Campaign. We have $25,000 of match funding, doubling all donations until 31st July 2025. For more information, follow this link. Thank you.

After years of planning, partnership, and persistence, in May this year, we officially opened the doors of our Community Health Centre – a space created by and for the people of Chivarabal, and now serving more than 1,000 people in this rural region of Guatemala.

But this story didn’t begin in 2024. It started over a decade ago, with a quiet act of compassion by a teenager from Canada.

In 2013, Matthew Boroditsky visited our project on a school service trip. He was just 15, but the connection he made with the community here stayed with him long after he returned home. Later that same year, Matthew was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. When granted a wish by the Children’s Wish Foundation, he didn’t ask for a trip or a gift, he asked to fund a health clinic for the families he had met in Guatemala.

The clinic was finished in 2018, and used for various different activities.

However, thanks to the success of our 2024 Holiday Campaign and the strength of our partnerships, with local leaders, the Ministry of Public Health, and of course, donors like you, we were finally able to open the clinic full-time in May 2024. A wish, fulfilled.

Today, Matthew is a doctor himself. When we shared the news, his response was: “This is such wonderful news. When I first envisioned this clinic, this is exactly what I had hoped for. I’m especially grateful that it’s grown from within the community.”

And it truly has. The clinic is now run by Ana Salomón, a skilled nurse from Chivarabal appointed by the Ministry of Health. Ana brings not only professionalism and care, but a deep understanding of the people she serves. Her leadership is already making a difference.

This story is about a clinic, yes, but it’s also about the power of long-term commitment. Of seeing a need, responding with love, and trusting the process—year after year. It’s about what’s possible when we walk alongside a community and build, together.

And it’s just the beginning.