Volunteering with Project Genesis
My personal story ....
As many of you already know, my non-profit FAM (Females Aiding in Mentorship) and my caddies have been helping Project Genesis for a little over a year now. I came to volunteer for one week in November 2015 and was supposed to switch programs after 7 days and switch to an animal shelter for my second week here. Well, there was such a great need for help at this project and after falling in love with these kids I chose to stay at the project for my second week here in Guatemala....and ended up here four more times over the last 12 months.
The program is literally run by one man on a daily basis- with almost 80-100 kids showing up to the program. Not because they have to, but because they want to. Here they get a meal, a safe place to play, run and learn and its evident they all love and respect the mentorship Ricardo provides them. These children live in extreme poverty, some with alcoholic parents and are being raised in the dangerous street of San Andres Iztapa, a city in Chimaltenango. Project Genesis hopes to break the cycle of poverty for these children. Ricardo told me that before this program, "The kids maybe had the dream one day to be a chicken bus driver, or perhaps illegally jump the border one day to find a better life." Now, with the tools and inspiration on top of basic human needs, they are thinking far greater to learn english and attend university one day.
My first day was culture shock for me. We rode in the back of a truck about an hour outside of the beautiful colonial village of Antigua into a city filled with dust and diesel fumes, where the streets are lined with brothels and the gang activity thrives. Once we entered the city, we started making stops on busy streets in dangerous traffic to pick up the kids that were coming out from every direction. Nine year old kids carrying or pulling along their toddler siblings with no parent in sight and putting them in the back of the truck. I have never seen a truck hold 40 people before, and as we crept along the horribly bumpy dirt road with ravines to our right and a prison to our left, I could not stop thinking in my head, "This is so dangerous!"
The building itself that hosts the program does not have electricity. To flush the toilet, you had to fetch a bucket of water. There is hardly enough room to fit all of the children comfortably to learn, so sometimes some just hang out outside while others are at the desks. The kitchen is open air with just two burners to prepare meals for the kids every day. There is no oven, no fridge, no freezer, and until I brought utensils with donation money, there were no spoons or forks. The kids ate on the ground happily, surrounded by fire ants and stray dogs. Some days I saw they were getting a tortilla with bean paste as a lunch, other days a cup of hot vitamin drink (no solid food) and some days one slice of fruit. The first time we purchased food and cooked them chicken was the first time they saw meat for lunch all year; they were so excited. Despite what these kids have, or lack, they are so happy, helpful and they all take care of each other, because they have to. One of my first days at they project, they had lost their ball to their old beat up foosball table, so they were using a rock. I pulled a golf ball out of my caddying backpack and they hit the roof with excitement. Some went out of their way to come find me and hug me to say thank you. They don't have iPhones, they don't have GameBoys or iPads, and they're definitely not playing Pokemon.....but they are the happiest group of kids I have ever seen. Their toughness and resilience in the face of their circumstances suddenly gave me a tremendous sense of gratitude and calmness in my own life. Whenever people say to me, "Thats so great what you are doing for those kids!" I respond with, "I think they help me way more than I help them."
-Meghan Tarmey, Founder of FAM Non-Profit and The Caddy Girls
