Helping to make a difference to hundreds in a week!
We have just finished another successful mission of sharing our love for children and passion for sport and play. We were so fortunate to instruct and work with over 200 children that came from a preschool, elementary and middle school from the small village and community in Chivarabal, a half hour away from the city of Tecpan, Guatemala.
Project: Sport and games camp Guatemala
Our gracious hosts and partners on this project were Greg and Heather the founders of an organization called Project Somos, an eco village and home for abandoned children and their mothers. Somos was the happening place for a crazy energetic week during this project. We were so grateful to have such a safe haven for our volunteers to sleep, eat and work at. We thank all the people on the Somos team for the time, care and attention that they put towards helping their community and neighbors. It truly was outstanding, unique and inspiring to work alongside them during our stay. Also a special treat to be able to meet and work with the mamas and young children from the homes at Project Somos. It was humbling for all of the volunteers to get to know and understand the hardship these families had to endure. We felt so blessed to be able to share our program and sport and play equipment with them.
Each day of the project our volunteers would eagerly set up the fields getting them prepared for our planned activities. Setting up the balls, hula hoops, races, tug-o-war, limbo fun, warm-up dances, skipping rope, yoga, bean bag and gymnastics so the children and teachers would have a structured program that was easy and fun to follow. It was truly exciting hearing the cheers, noise and laughter of the children who walked quite some distance from their school and village to get to our little outdoor grass and dirt field to do our sport and play camp activities.
These children live in extreme poverty with little to eat and definitely no time allotted for fun and play. The school is surrounded by barbed wire, cement crowded classrooms and courtyard. They have very limited resources and no funds for gym equipment. After the project we donated the sports play equipment and program materials to the school enabling the teachers to set up for future play programs and have physical education instruction.
It was so awesome to be able to also give each child who attended their very own take away sport gift backpack filled with a ball, Spanish sport play booklet and skipping rope. To some this was the very first toy that they have ever received.
We would like to thank all the volunteers who gave their love, time and talent, we know you all witnessed the magic of play that happened in Guatemala.
We also would like to thank all of our donors that gave towards this project. We have great confidence that our play programs will reach many more people in the future and keep playing it forward for years to come. Yay for play!