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As many
of you already know from our past newsletter, 2011 has
been a difficult year both for Volunteer Petén and for
Guatemala in general. As the social integrity of
Guatemala continues to decline and collapse, tourism,
the major component of Volunteer Peten, has also
declined greatly and, in the Peten region, has virtually
collapsed. Earlier this year, we made a plea to friends
and past volunteers from our program to donate so that
we could make ends meet and finish our school program,
as well as maintain programs in the ecological park and
community library, and we received a great response and
are deeply grateful for all your aid and assistance.
Upon facing this crisis, both the decline in tourism
and the increased violence in the region, only two
decisions were available to continue with Volunteer
Peten; one was to continue our projects based solely on
donations from friends and family, or to find other
sources of income to run the projects based on
sustainable projects such as selling firewood, animals,
plants, and produce. Since 2002, when our project first
began, our philosophy has always been to manage our
program more like a business than a charity and that our
success would be based on the participation of
international volunteers. With the volunteer program
financially sustaining our program, we were able to put
all extra donations towards some amazing projects such
as the ecological park, the community library, and
building schools for the community. Therefore, the
option of having donations sustain the program is does
not fit with our philosophy and goal as an
organization. This past year, most of our efforts were
put into projects for our students in the natural
resource management school, where they participated in
growing and selling produce, animals, animal products,
plants, and firewood. And even though these activities
are important and integral for the survival of any
society, the market doesn’t exist in the Petén to
economically sustain these activities. Therefore, the
second option is only viable to sustain one person or
one family, but is unable to sustain any type of project
or formal program. Also, since the lack of security and
violence is growing in the region, right now it is not
even feasible to sustain a project without investing in
private security, which also goes against our goals and
philosophy.
Having
explained the current situation, we have decided to wrap
up our project in the next few months and to end all
programs in February or March of 2012. We apologize to
those that have already made plans for 2012, and hope
that you can make the necessary changes to your
agendas.
Our project is completing its 10th
year this January, and we still have some work to
accomplish before we close our doors next year. We are
soliciting donations for one last time to help us put
some closure to our projects, as we will be working
diligently during the next couple of months to pass our
projects to local authorities in hopes that they can
sustain the park, library, and school projects that we
have created. Our goal is to raise $6,000 during the
next two months to help us with the following goals;
continue to fund and organize the 2012 school year for 6
students ($400 for each student for one full year, for a
total of $2400), training park personnel to continue
running the park in coordination with the local
authorities ($2,000), training a community librarian and
establishing a community fund to sustainably manage the
library ($1,600).
Visit us at
www.volunteerpeten.org for more information or
contact us at
volunteerpeten@hotmail.com
Click here to donate.
Thanks to all your help and support for our program,
and we will continue our work here in San Andres and
keep you informed of our goals and accomplishments.
Matthew R. Peters
Director |
