Our church is so excited to give 11 laptops to families from our Compassion center who have children that have not been able to attend school due to COVID-19. These laptops will allow the children to connect with school again. We know that connection to the internet can help families immensely, but a laptop with no internet connection isn’t very helpful. We are using this project to fundraise the cost of 12 months of internet access for the 11 families we are giving laptops to. Over that year, we hope that the families can build a plan for how to pay for their own internet in the future. This project will allow them to get a head start with one year of internet to use alongside the laptops they are receiving. Internet service here in Guatemala costs Q200 per family for one month. Q200, multiplied by 11 families, multiplied by 12 months equals Q26,400. Would you be willing to join us to pay for even just one month of internet for one of these families? We will provide an update once the families have the laptops and internet so you can see the impact you are making in their lives!

Due to COVID-19, our students haven’t been able to go to school in over a year. This global pandemic forced school in Guatemala, like the rest of the world, to become an online activity through remote education systems. Unfortunately, these systems require technology that most of the children at our church don’t have access to. Therefore, they are unable to get connected to their classes online. We know that this could have long term impacts on our students’ education, so as a church, we want to help! We want to give 11 families in our community laptops so that all the children in the family can do their schoolwork. If giving these families laptops is successful, we hope to give them to more students in the near future! Our goal is to support our students so they can study better and thrive in their education. Each basic laptop costs Q5,000 ($800 USD), and we expect to buy them and give them to the families within 2 months of having this cause funded. Thank you for any support you are willing to give! We will provide updates once the project is funded so you can see how your support has impacted the children in the 11 families from this project.

Our church has had limitations with our current sound system and has had to rent some speakers. The problem with this is that when we add more and more speakers, it makes more noise and is not respectful of our neighbors. For this project we would like to purchase a sound system to benefit the kids who attend our child development center, as well as the church members in the congregation. We want to be able to hold the attention of the people who join the activities from our church (EX: NYE reunion). To do this we plan to buy an equalizer that will level out the sound (part of the law in our community is to standardize the sound for the respect of the neighborhood). Our church is currently trying to follow this law by turning the volume down, because the idea is to not harm the neighbors and not bother them with the noise. The equipment we currently have is minimal, and due to the size of the sanctuary, when we have devotions with the youth or training for the parents the sound doesn't reach everyone. This causes people to get distracted and loose the valuable information we’re sharing. Our church has already raised around Q5,000 for this purpose but the equipment is expensive. With your support we would like to buy 2 speakers, 2 subwoofers, 1 equalizer and 3 sound monitors to remain within the laws of our community, respect our neighbors, and help everyone in our sanctuary hear the important lessons we want to share with them.

Because of the pandemic our church has not been able to have students learning in person. We also know that once we can have students back, they will need to be social distanced in their classrooms. Because of this, we have a dream to equip 6 of our classrooms with technology that would enable our teachers to share curriculum digitally with students. Our dream is to have each of the 6 classrooms have a Smart TV as well as a tablet. Each classroom could have six children in person with the teacher, and then we could film and reproduce the class digitally for more students. Our child development center has 341 students, and technology is the only way we can serve all of them in a safe way post-COVID. We are requesting funds for 6 Samsung Smart TVs, 6 Smart TV wall mounts, and 6 Samsung tablets. Our church is passionate about this project and therefore we will cover all labor costs of installing the equipment. We have seen how technology has allowed schools in other countries to continue throughout COVID, and we want our children to have that same benefit. No child should have to lose their education due to the pandemic, and we hope this project can be part of the solution to the problem we are seeing in our community.