The children, communities and staff of Primeros Pasos would like to extend our appreciation to the following organizations and people. It is only through your support that we are able to continue our work building a brighter future for these communities. (Haga clic aquí para leer esta pagina en español.)
Inter-American Health Alliance (IAHA)
The Inter-American Health Alliance is a volunteer-run 501(c)(3) charitable organization that supports community health organizations working with marginalized populations in the western highlands of Guatemala. They provide financial, technical and organizational support to their partnering organizations. IAHA provides about 70% of the annual budget for Primeros Pasos. They work to improve access to health care and health education through the development of innovative collaborations between governmental, non-governmental, and educational institutions. They believe in the power of service-learning and in the potential for sustainable university collaborations to improve health conditions in the communities where we work and to speed access to up-to-date, evidence-based clinical information and medical technologies.
QuetzalTrekkers
Quetzaltrekkers, a non-profit trekking company was founded in 1995 as a means of self-substainable, grassroots fund-raising for the functioning of Escuela de la Calle (EDELAC), a school for street children in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. They provide guide services for 6 treks between one and six days throughout the highlands of Guatemala. The proceeds from these treks provide the main source of funding for their programs, primarily EDELAC and Hogar Abierto, a home that offers a safe, abuse-free environment for children that either lack families capable of providing the same quality of care or have families living outside of a district in which basic education is available. In addition, Quetzaltrekkers host a benefit party each month, giving 50% of the profits to Primeros Pasos. In exchange, their guides receive free first aid training at the clinic.
Local Spanish Schools
There are six distinct Spanish Schools in Xela that support the efforts of Primeros Pasos. Click here to see the participating schools.
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University has organized a central office for the Inter-American Health Alliance (IAHA). This office coordinates activities between the Inter-American Health Alliance National Organization, Inter-American Health Alliance Student Chapters, and Primeros Pasos; activities include fundraising, submission of US-based grant and research applications, supplies collection, accounting, web and media development, and “best practices” research. The IAHA central office has received tremendous support from Vanderbilt University, its Department of Latin American Studies, and a variety of faculty members and students. In addition, in 2009, Vanderbilt began offering a course focusing on Health, Development and Guatemala, which uses Primeros Pasos as a community health clinic model in a rural setting, and brings the students to Primeros Pasos for 3 weeks at at the end of the term. Students are required to participate in the Inter-American Health Alliance student chapter's meetings and fundraising efforts as a part of their service learning as well.
SCEEN at Emory University
The Student Coalition Empowering Emerging Nations is a student group structured as a consultancy which pairs Emory University students with international development organizations to offer them research assistance in any way that would be most useful to the organization. Through this process we endeavor to increase the effectiveness of the development organizations with which we work while simultaneously allowing Emory University student to connect with professionals involved development work.
MBAid at Boston University
MBAid is an organization formed by Boston based MBA students. Our mission is to give MBA students a chance to learn from and experience the culture of a developing country, and to draw on our professionals skills to improve access to health care services to under-served children in rural Guatemala.
GlobeMed at Gerorgetown University
Founded in 2010, GlobeMed at Georgetown is one of 46 GlobeMed chapters working to improve the health of people living in poverty around the world. We work with Primeros Pasos in the Palajunoj Valley of Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, a non-profit clinic that provides over 7,500 children and adults access to quality medical, dental, and laboratory services along with providing health education classes year-round to participating schools, daycare centers, and women’s groups. This year, GlobeMed at Georgetown is aiming to raise at least $6,500 to launch a malnutrition project enabling Primeros Pasos to ensure that all schoolchildren identified as malnourished in the Palajunoj Valley are provided with the necessary medical follow-up.
University of Virgina
The Inter-American Health Alliance at U.Va. is dedicated to providing support for Primeros Pasos, a non-profit, independent organization that provides health care and health education to underserved communities in the Palajunoj valley of Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. We seek to support this dynamic project through fundraising, collecting supplies for the clinic's medical and educational programs, and spreading awareness of the concerns of these communities.
Manna Project International
Manna Project International – Vanderbilt (MPIV) is an organization dedicated to connecting Vanderbilt students with service opportunities through a range of local and global initiatives, both in the Nashville community and internationally with our Thanksgiving and Spring Break Service Trips. This year, Manna is particularly focused on increasing awareness of local service paralleling the extensive global service opportunities the organization provides in third-world countries. Manna’s mantra is “Learn to Serve. Serve to Learn.” By serving others, we benefit ourselves just as much as the communities in which we engage through the life lessons and global perspective we earn.
Change for Children
Change for Children Association promotes action for systemic change and sustainable development through solidarity and partnership, by nurturing community, and by maintaining an integral, vital and stable organization. They are mandated to support the poor in their own process of organizing to achieve an increased, active role in promoting peace, democracy, human rights, and improved living conditions, accomplished through: growth in understanding of unfair structures and the growing popular resistance to those structures; learning from people with whom we partner to accompany them in the struggle for justice; and acting in development with a sense of urgency and commitment.
Doctors for Global Health
Doctors for Global Health (DGH) is a private, not-for-profit organization promoting health, education, art and other human rights throughout the world. DGH is comprised of hundreds of health professionals, students, educators, artists, attorneys, engineers, retirees and others. Together we build long-term relationships between people and communities around the world to find effective solutions to social justice issues.
EntreMundos
EntreMundos is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) which supports and helps local community NGOs in Guatemala increase their capacities while respecting their principles and values. EntreMundos is an intermediary which facilitates and connects organisations and volunteers, both national and international, with the objective of maximising the impact of each organization.
Xelapages
Xelapages is an all inclusive website that provides tons of information for Xela's continuously growing traveler population. You can find information about Spanish schools, tours and treks, guide books, volunteering, bookstores, restaurants, real estate, night life, laundry, newspapers and tv, banks, travel insurance, buses, planes, and cars, internet and telephone, salsa and meringue, maps of Xela, driving to Guatemala, rural Spanish schools, medical tourism, hotels and guesthouses, places of interest to visit in and around Xela as well as offering discussion forums on any of the above topics.
Exela Ventures
Exela provides “affordable, service learning trips in and throughout Guatemala on themes related to social entrepreneurship, culture, Spanish immersion, leadership, and global citizenship.
