ASOCIACION BPD – 2017 CHARITY ADVENT CALENDAR
“On the 11th, 12th and 13th day of Christmas FieldWorks gave to ye…”
Who are they?
Asociación BPD (ABPD) (known as ALDEA in the US) addresses the principal needs of rural Mayan communities in the Department of Chimaltenango, Guatemala. Working directly with indigenous communities they empower them to tackle issues like chronic malnutrition in a sustainable and integrated way. They don’t just teach people solutions or better practices, they support families to grow nutrient rich produce and actively help community development committees lobby the local municipality to build stable water supply to every household.
Why we like them?
Over a decade of work, ABPD has taken what it has learnt and combined it with input from the communities for which it works to establish a two-year programme that truly achieves the impact it seeks! It has community leadership at its core, with an approach that is simple and neither overpromises nor under-delivers. Crucially, they know when to reach out to others more specialised than themselves where necessary. Ego is often a problem that plagues NGOs who end up doing ‘a little bit of everything, decently’. Who wants decent when you can have better?
Why should you support them?
“Go to the people. Live with them. Learn from them. Love them. Start with what they know. Build with what they have…when the task is finished, the people will say ‘We have done this ourselves”
ALDEA/ABPD have been supporting Guatemalan communities for 50 yrs. Take a look at our info sheet and watch their 50th Anniversary video.
Why does ABPD say you should support them?
Children’s chronic malnutrition is one of the main health problems in Guatemala. In the communities where ABPD works, more than 70% of children suffer from this type of malnutrition, affecting them for the rest of their lives.
One of the causes is the poor sanitation conditions in these Mayan villages, with no access to water or sanitation facilities. ABPD has improved health by providing clean water to the community of Xecubal in Santa Apolonia, but there is no drainage system in this village.
By providing gray water filters, this problem is solved and children can play around their homes with no risk of getting sick because the contaminated water. $4225 will support the construction of gray water filters for 95 families from Xecubal.
Interested in supporting them? https://aldeaguatemala.org/donations/