Overwhelming.
That was Brandon Verboom’s first impression of Guatemala as he stood on a dusty street surrounded by tin-shack homes.
“It was eye-opening for me, because 16’s fairly young and I’ve lived here my whole life, so I’ve never really experienced that level of poverty before,” said Verboom. “It was really satisfying to go in and you could see the direct improvement you’ve made on a family.”
Nearly a decade later, Verboom is returning to the Central American country with some of his fellow members of Truro’s Immaculate Conception Church, alongside others from across northern Nova Scotia. As in previous years, they will be delivering cooking stoves to Guatemala’s poor.
On Jan. 26, the church hosted a multicultural night and silent auction as a fundraiser for the upcoming Guatemala trip. Its congregation members from as far away as India and Ecuador served up dishes from their home countries to their guests.
The 28-strong Guatemala Outreach Project team will be in the country from March 15-23, delivering 250 to 300 indoor cooking stoves to people in the villages Yerbabuena, Cerro Alto and Las Violetas.
Presently, many people in these villages use indoor pit fires to cook meals, a dangerous method that can easily burn down their flimsy dwellings.
Reaching the villages is not easy, however. After landing in the capital Guatemala City, the mission members will drive for about 90 minutes to the north-west, heading into the mountains.
Verboom’s fellow team member Stephen Ellis said that each stove unit costs $300. For 300 stoves that means $90,000. All Guatemala Outreach Project team members will pay their own way – freeing up as much money as possible for the people they are helping.
In 2010, the program installed a playground, delivered medical supplies and fixed up a school roof in the village of Jose. In the years since, team members have built more playgrounds, delivered cooking stoves, library books and funded a medical clinic, as well as paying the tuition of two nursing students.
“It’s a homegrown project and that’s the big thing that the people here have supported for the last 10 years,” said Ellis. “We all think that it’s very important to share our time, talent and treasures.”
The Guatemala Outreach Project began when a woman from that country named Rosa Maria Oliva visited Truro 10 years ago. As she did in her homeland, she attended church services with her children at Immaculate Conception.
“As simple as it sounds, she said ‘you guys should come and do a project in Guatemala’,” said Ellis.
A decade on, another Guatemalan who is now an Immaculate Conception member offered her own take on the outreach project.
Carolina Hauser, who ran the Guatemalan food stall with her husband John, said that she was “very grateful.”
“I’m very happy, because there are many people from different nations that are helping people in my country,” said Hauser.
For more information and updates, please visit the Guatemala Outreach Project’s Facebook page.
