Nine Canadian volunteers head to Central America for the Guatemala Stove Project
by GSP Coordinating Committee
for immediate release
On Feb 4th, nine Canadian volunteers will head down to Central America for the Guatemala Stove Project's (GSP) annual trip to build stoves for impoverished Maya families in the area around Lake Atitlan and in the western highlands of Guatemala. Participants will also get a chance to see, firsthand, the relief being provided, by the Project, to victims of Hurricane Stan.
From Perth, coordinators Tom Clarke (8th trip) and Ali Ross (6th trip) will be leading the group. Al Teflissi of Coutts & Co coffee shop will be making his fourth trip and David Zimmerly will be our photographer for the second year.
On their first trip with the GSP are St John's High School teacher Jeff Peters and teacher Amanda Brady, who has lived in Guatemala before and has volunteered with Hanley Denning's project "Safe Passage" which provides schools for children who live in the Guatemala City dump.
From Kingston we will be joined by Kathy Mourtos of the Kingston Rotary Club, and Lorri Lavender, a Montessori teacher, as well as Dee Simpson of Toronto.
This will be the GSP's first time in the western highlands since the devastation wrought by Hurricane Stan last October. This was the worst natural disaster to hit this area since the earthquake in 1976. Nearly half of the country's rural roads and many of the stoves that GSP has built since 1999 were washed away.
Beyond those killed directly by the mudslides, there is a looming hunger crisis, as many others lost their homes, crops, and in some cases fields. This will be a life changing experience for the volunteers, who will be witnessing these brave people struggling to survive after losing everything to the hurricane.
For the first part of their experience, the Canadian volunteers will be joining a group of American volunteers who are building stoves near Lake Atitlan with local Guatemalan and American masons. They will then travel further up the altiplano to build more stoves in a small village near Quezaltenango and visit reconstruction work the GSP is funding.
Most of the volunteers will be returning on Feb 18th, although David Zimmerly and Tom Clarke will be staying longer to document stoves, and other relief and reconstruction work that the project is carrying out.
Since 1999 the GSP has built over 3 thousand stoves, as well as funding relief and micro development projects. As the need is so great, the GSP is asking for whatever help our relatively well off community can share with these families.
To contribute and learn more about this trip visit the website at www.guatemalastoveproject.org or you can contact the project by
Telephone at 267 5202
Email info@guatemalastoveproject.org
Or snail mail at Guatemala Stove Project
RR 4, Perth, ON K7H 3C6