Building a brighter future for children and young adults.
Since 2013 we have funded vital scholarships for young people living in Nuevo Amanecer and the surrounding communities who otherwise would not be able to stay in school or receive job training without our solidarity. Scholarships for middle school, high school, and technical college have provided pathways away from poverty and low-wage, back-breaking work in the coffee and banana fields. Youth have attained careers as nurses, chefs, mechanics, nurse’s aides, commercial secretaries, and graphic/construction designers.
In 2013, we provided $2,862 in scholarships for 15 students.
In 2021 we have expanded this commitment to support 31 scholarship recipients – 16 in middle and high school and 15 for technical college.
$248 will send a child to school for a YEAR! To support a young person in Nuevo Amanecer by helping them attend school or receive valuable job training, please donate.
A Clean, Reliable Source of Clean Water
Residents of Nuevo Amanecer only have access to water for only two hours every other day.
This water, which is used for basic living needs such as for washing and cooking, actually dries up completely for one to two months annually during the dry season. During this time, community members have to wash their clothes in the polluted Rio Naranjo and buy expensive bottled water, leading to health risks and plastic trash.
New Dawn Guatemala is working to provide a reliable source of clean water by building a well and connecting the community to a nearby spring. The total cost of the project is estimated at $9,721. Thus far, we have provided $638 in funds for local indigenous women water engineers to conduct an assessment to ensure that the plan is technically sound and that the water is clean. We recently received a $3,000 grant from the Seattle International District Rotary Club, which will fund the first phase of the project, water capture ($2,441) and a portion of the second phrase, storage ($2,808). The final phase is transport ($3,834).
The project also involves replacing the rubber plants surrounding the spring with plants that will help bring back quetzals and other native birds and help attract visitors to the area.
Please consider donating to this project, which will provide life-giving water, improve health, and bring greater economic development to Nuevo Amanecer.
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Connecting Communities Across the Globe in Solidarity
We support the community’s efforts to preserve and strengthen their unique cultural heritage by funding local festivals and promoting ongoing connections between the people of Nuevo Amanecer and Seattle volunteers.
Since 2013, we have provided annual funding for the Mother’s Day celebration, which honors the important contribution of mothers to their children’s education. We also support the anniversary celebration, which commemorates the founding of the community in 1998, after the many years of exile of the town’s founders, who had been forced to flee Guatemala.
We also help fund the annual celebration on December 12 of the Virgin of Guadalupe, whom the community honors for helping to guide them back to Guatemala after their painful years in Chiapas, Mexico. Finally, we support the Toys for Kids event, which provides a Christmas toy for every child up to age 7. In 2020, the cost of this support is an estimated $1,685: Mother’s Day $195, Anniversary $650, December 12 $450, and Toys $390.
Visiting Nuevo Amanecer
Members of our board and other supporters travel to Nuevo Amanecer in an annual delegation to learn how the projects we fund are progressing, find out more about community needs, and strengthen our people-to-people connections. We have established links between churches and women’s groups in Seattle and Nuevo Amanecer, and we are strengthening those connections virtually and by phone.
We have also worked with the community to establish a Solidarity Visitors program in which supportive people can stay for a short time in Nuevo Amanecer, learn more about the community, and help contribute to their economic development. For more information about participating in our Solidarity Visitors program, please contact us.
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