La Vida Idealist

I have been volunteering with the preschool classrooms at San Pablo la Laguna for two years, and with the Ayudame a Pintar Mi Futuro (APMF) project in San Pedro for over a year now. Every six months, I buy a lot of the work of local artisans and weavers and take it to my hometown in California, throw a benefit of some sort and sell these beautiful products.

I talk about Guatemalan culture and history, and tell stories about my life and the people I’ve met here. And I talk about the projects and what they are doing for the people they benefit.

I love the buying, selling and the talking about what I see and feel in Guatemala; so in many ways it’s no effort, except for hauling around the full suitcases, through airports, taxis, bus and train stations.

I’ve done small benefits at house parties and church service social hours, and last year we threw a big benefit dinner in conjunction with the students in the high school Spanish classes — good food, first class service and live music to boot. From this dinner and the sales, we were able to buy a photocopier for the office of the school – a huge boon to the teachers, who had been copying work for the students by hand.

My last visit home we did an art show at a local restaurant– with paintings by the painters I work with in APMF — as well as two house parties, a church social, a booth at a fair, and a sale at a bilingual preschool Mother’s Day event. My goal was to get enough donations to build a climbing structure for the preschool classrooms in the barren yard next to the classrooms and the director’s office. And joyfully, we met that goal.

It seems as though the consistency of my appearances in my hometown, the feedback and thank you letters I write to donors, and my ongoing work in these two projects in Guatemala has had some effect. After this visit to the States, one person who has helped considerably with the benefits is offering to make APMF a project of the NGO she’s connected with, which also helps in Belize and Haiti. This will enable us to have official status, give tax deductions for larger donations, and perhaps to receive funding from other organizations. This is very important for us as it would cost us nearly $1000 to do this for ourselves in Guatemala.

Then another friend has offered to push forward a “Friends of…” group in our hometown, to help us raise money more consistently, and encourage sponsorships for the kids in our program.

I am really excited about both these steps forward, which can only allow us to give better services to our client families in San Pedro and the children of the San Pablo preschool.

So I guess my message is, stick with it. Consistency and duration pay off.

Miranda Pope is currently living in San Pedro La Laguna, Guatemala and is volunteering with Pedagogia Basica, Estamos Listos, and Ayudame Escribir Mi Futuro. For more on her experiences, check out her blog. For more on fundraising, read “Organizing Fundraisers at Home and Abroad” by Kim Friedland; “How to Fundraise With No Funds” by Andrea Vogler; and “Need Some Cash? Top 10 Ways to Fundraise” by Laurie Norton.

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