The Life You Change Could Be Your Own!

International Work

beyond the walls in Guatemala City, Guatemala

beyond the walls partners with Potter’s House Association, a nonprofit organization that serves the 11,000 people, more than half of whom are children, who live and work in the Guatemala City garbage dump. They are derogatorily called scavengers by the locals as they sustain themselves by picking through the garbage in hopes of finding food to eat, materials to use in building their houses, and bits of refuse that they can sell for pennies. Most of them earn less than $5.00 a day.

A documentary film about them, called Recycled Life, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 2007, gives an excellent picture of their lives. As tempting as it is to take the easy way out and just send money, we know that handouts are only a temporary fix. So we have partnered with Potter’s House Association, a Guatemalan nonprofit located less than 50 yards from the dump, which has been working for 24 years to equip the “Treasures” for life beyond the garbage through education, micro-enterprise, personal development, community support, and health care programs.

In 2010, 100 beyond the walls volunteers built seven houses of concrete block, renovated nine existing houses, offered a medical clinic, set up a micro-enterprise for a group of women, ran sports clinics and other child-oriented activities, installed ten safe, fuel-efficient concrete stoves, and went door-to-door personally delivering bags of groceries to families. beyond the walls has committed to sponsoring a half-day enrichment and tutoring program for the fifth and sixth grade classes in the Potter’s House Education Program. We want to get to know these children better and continue building relationships that we hope will endure long past the day they graduate and enter secondary schools.