First Annual Christmas Fundraising Partnership a Success

December 12, 2011 – This year for the first time, Education in Action and Ten Thousand Villages joined forces to offer people the opportunity to link their Christmas giving with a direct impact on the well-being of communities in Guatemala and on the bottom line of third world Christmas gift producers. Education in Action and Ten Thousand Villages held a joint Christmas gift purchasing evening on Thursday, December 1st 2011. Held at both stores of Ten Thousand Villages on Bank Street and Richmond Road, this special revenue sharing event generated a significant amount of funds for Guatemalan communities needing housing, education and emergency solidarity. Education in Action is pleased to announce that its share of the take from this special event is $ 625, a considerable amount for a first-time, and short, sales-revenue-sharing activity.

This year, the need was particularly poignant. The October 2011 tropical storm hit Guatemala very hard. Fortunately, the campesino organizations, with recent solidarity support efforts such as ours, have improved their emergency evacuation systems, resulting in less loss of life to date than during Hurricane Stan in 2005 and Tropical Storm Agatha in 2010. However, according to our partners at the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA), the damage to infrastructure, homes, and crops is worse than in the previous storms. A recent update from the CCDA tallies 38 dead, 14,000 families who have lost their homes, 14 bridges were destroyed, many roads are washed out and thousands of hectares of corn and coffee trees are under water.

Our partner organisation in Guatemala, the CCDA, needs to further develop its emergency measures to keep loss of life to a minimum. New resources are needed to ensure that the communities they live in and work with regain their footing and continue the development that Education in Action has supported for six years. Beyond building houses and paying a teacher’s salary, we financed a coffee bean dryer and a water pipeline desperately needed for coffee production and daily survival. The continued support for all of these activities will generate more solidarity between Canadians and Guatemalans. This effort is not a one-way street as Guatemalans we have worked with during our annual, participant-paid, house-building trips have taught us more than we have brought them.

The revenue generated by this first annual partnership event has contributed to emergency measures taken by CCDA to offset damages caused by the weeks-long tropical depression and to longer term development efforts.

Education in Action wishes to thank Ten Thousand Villages for this opportunity to join hands in this successful endeavour. We also confirm that this annual partnership will occur again next year, in December 2012. The patronage of all of you who are dedicated to continuing the work of Roberto Miranda by contributing to Café Justicia is greatly appreciated. We look forward to seeing you at Ten Thousand Villages again next December.