Causes: Human Service Organizations, Human Services

Mission: Mission Guatemala Inc. , is a faith-based 501(c)3 non-profit organization with a mission to help meet the basic needs and improve the quality of life of under-served Guatemalan people through health, education and nutrition initiatives and missionary service.

Target demographics: children, under-served Guatemalan people

Geographic areas served: San Andrés Semetabaj, Guatemala and surrounding communities

Programs: Medical Clinic – Mission Guatemala operates a medical clinic 5 days a week in the community of San Andrés Semetabaj. Patients pay a small fee for consultation with the doctor and have access to any needed medicines at a greatly reduced cost. Mission Guatemala works to ensure that no one is denied access to the doctor due to a lack of resources.

Nutrition Programs – According to the World Food Programme, 47 percent of children in Guatemala suffer from chronic malnutrition, which is the highest rate in all of Latin America and the Caribbean and one of the highest rates in the world. Over the years, Mission Guatemala has worked to help combat this through our nutrition programs, which are organized with community collaboration.

During a child’s critical early years of development, the effects of malnutrition can be especially devastating, leading to stunting, anemia, and chronic infections and sickness.

For this reason, Mission Guatemala coordinates the "Niños Chispudos" (Kids With Spark) Early Childhood Nutrition Program which utilizes the Chispuditos® food product. Chispuditos® is a soy/corn based atol, or porridge, developed by The Mathile Institute in order to provide a daily nutritional supplement for children in Guatemala. Our "Niños Chispudos" program is open to all mothers with children aged 6 months to 6 years old, and provides Chispuditos® as well as free medical care for their children at Mission Guatemala's medical clinics. In addition, any young children suffering from malnutrition who are treated in our clinic are referred by the doctor to the "Niños Chispudos" program.

Scholarship Program - Most of us take the opportunity to have access to a middle and high school education for granted, but here in Guatemala, the education that the government requires and readily provides ends at 6th grade. While the level of elementary school enrollment generally approaches 100%, because of the lack of access and increased cost of a middle school education, the percentage of Guatemalan youth who continue their education past the 6th grade drops to below 50%.

The "Becas con Misión" (Scholarships with a Mission) program helps provide an opportunity for students who have the determination and grades—but not the financial resources—to continue their education past the 6th grade, which is still the only educational level that the Guatemalan government requires and readily provides.

The students selected for the "Becas" program are chosen based on a variety of factors, including economic need, grades from elementary school, and recommendations from their 6th-grade teachers. Once accepted into the scholarship program, students will have the opportunity to continue in the program throughout middle school and beyond, as long as they maintain a 75% average each semester.