Manuel, 22, lives in San Pedro La Laguna, which is one of the many beautiful towns along the shores of magical Lake Atitlán. Every day he takes the “lancha” (public boat) across the Lake to Panajachel to work in the Mil Milagros’ office where he is the Administrative Assistant and go-to resource for anything computer-related. He handles computer maintenance and troubleshooting for the office and our partner schools. He also manages our databases, in addition to many other responsibilities. In his free time, Manuel is a musician, soccer player, and university student. He speaks three languages — Spanish, Tz’utujil, and…

As a mother of two children adopted from Guatemala, and having visited Mil Milagros, Ellen understands first hand the poverty that many children experience in Guatemala. After meeting Mil Milagros’ founder Margaret Blood eight years ago, Ellen was moved by her passion for helping children and families and wanted to help. When she made the trip to Guatemala with her family, she experienced MM’s work in its partner communities.

What inspired you to give?

We had heard MM was doing great things in Guatemala, and through friends I met Margaret at a MM fundraiser. We were impressed by Margaret’s passion…

When the school year begins in January, Mil Milagros celebrates program inaugurations in each of our partner schools. It is a chance for the Mil Milagros team to highlight our partnership with the school and for the children, teachers, and parents to show their commitment to our shared mission of improving the lives of children and families. This January, we celebrated nine inaugurations in Santa Lucía Utatlán, including a new school, Cruz B. (Stay tuned for a 10th school inauguration to take place later this month!)

Here’s what an inauguration entails. The teachers, mother leader volunteers, and children present an…

We’re excited to introduce to you two new members of the Mil Milagros team — Carmen Holman (Director of Communications) and Rosanna Giorlandino (Director of Partnerships and Evaluation).

Carmen, you’re from Australia. And Rosanna, you’re from Massachusetts. How did you two find yourselves in Guatemala?

C: I first came to Guatemala two years ago to study Spanish. My initial plan was to study for three months, then travel down to South America. But Guatemala got the best of me, and I never left!

R: I had gotten a job with Habitat for Humanity Guatemala in 2016 and moved here to…

Telma, Claudia, and Sandy are the newest members of the Mil Milagros staff team. Each of these women participated in Mil Milagros Early Childhood Development program where they excelled as mother leader volunteers prior to joining our staff team. They now work with three other Mil Milagros’ Community Coordinators — all former mother leader volunteers — to equip mothers in their communities with skills and resources to improve the lives of children and families in villages where more than 70% of the children are chronically malnourished.

Telma, Claudia, and Sandy recently shared their perspectives about becoming leaders.

Why did you…

Silvia stirs a large pot of corn that is boiling on a wood-burning stove while her grandmother sits in a chair, looking on. Her four children are outside playing with the chickens and the dogs, and the family pig basks in the sun. Her two-room tin house was built through Silvia’s hard work, determination, and sacrifice. It is nestled on a small plot of land owned by her mother in the village of Nuevo Progreso. She moved to her mother’s land four years ago, pregnant, and with three young children in tow, leaving an abusive husband behind in Guatemala City.

Los Planes, a village in the Western Highlands of Guatemala, can’t be found on Google maps. The corn fields nestled between miles of forest change colors with the seasons: lush green during the rainy season, beige picked-over stalks after the harvest, and miles of brown dust during the dry season. People in this community have a special phrase for what it’s like during the dry season — it translates to something like “getting dust all over yourself.”

In this remote rural community, the dry seasons seem to have stretched longer in recent years. Drought has weakened crop yields, sending many…

In rural Guatemala, a storybook costs more than a family’s daily wages. A survey conducted by Mil Milagros with its partner schools last year found that 99% of families did not have any books at home. Schools in rural Guatemala are severely under-resourced — and many classrooms have no story books at all.

One of MM’s goals is to improve literacy by creating a culture of reading in our partner schools and communities. To achieve this goal, student councils conduct reading campaigns and MM provides books for school lending libraries. Durig last month’s campaign, the children in our partner schools…