Critical-Thinking
/ Philosophy Program
Education is the heart of our
work. The Critical-Thinking Program for
teenagers is about changing culture
from the inside out. We are working towards
this goal, not by teaching our students what
to think,
but by teaching them how to think for
themselves.
 
We were honored
to host Amy Edelstein during the month of
December. She came all the way to Guatemala
to
support us in two very important events. Amy
gave a full day workshop to our philosophy
students on Morals,
Ethics, Spirit & Changing the World, and
she also participated in our first annual
Meditate to Educate fundraiser.
Mariano Castro, who has played with Andrea
Bocelli and Frank Sinatra gave a recital to
great applause!
 
Our
critical-thinking / philosophy education
program for our teenagers grew from 24 at
the beginning of
the year to 32 by the end, all by referral
from our existing students. The photos above
are the morning
and afternoon classes, which we held once
per week, with their copy of Jeff Carreira's book,
Philosophy
is not a Luxury, which we will be using as
homework in our classes in 2014.
  
The class in meditation. Some of the
students have 'meditation competitions' at
home to see who can
sit the longest! Conal (middle photo) is busy
studying during one of our classes. On the
right above is
the schedule for this year's Meditate-to-Educate
12-hour event.
  
As
part of this education program we invite
speakers to share their wisdom with our
students. This year
l. to r., we were honored to host spiritual
teacher Andrew Cohen. We also had talks from
Linda Shaw and
Andy Hopper, seen in the last two pictures
being translated by Debora Prieto
(co-founder and teacher).
Sponsorship
Program
The
backbone of our work is the Sponsorship
Program. Sponsorship allows us to work with
the children,
adolescents, teenagers and their families
personally. There is so much behind each of
these photos, and
there are so many of them from our work, so
here we selected just a few of our favorites
from 2013.
  
In
this first photos, Liz Flinn, our Director of
Programs, is seen with the kids from Panorama
who are in
this program. Mick on a visit to the home of
Jose, Saida and Freddy. Our first two
college sponsorship
graduates; we are most proud of chef Miguel
and accountant Esli (our thanks to Kate and
Joanna!)(r).
  
Bob
and Shirley, from Canada, are seen here visiting their
sponsored kids Keller and Grecie. Maria and
Carmen
in the second
image are involved in
several classes and activities with us. The
moms and grandma
from San Mateo visiting Antigua to meet with
Liz and to collect their monthly nutrition
baskets (r).
  
We
encourage our sponsors to communicate with
their kids, and vice versa. Here is a thank
you note from
Keyla to her sponsors Michael and Michelle (Mishell!).
Andy Hopper, with Mick visiting his
sponsored
teen, Conal. In the last photo is our
sponsored family from San Andres Ixapa on a
visit to Antigua.
This is a group photo of all of the
families that your
sponsorship and support is helping.
The picture was
taken at our event over the holidays.
Thank you!!
Solar Power / Water Filters
 
We provided 9 home solar installations and one at a school. Mick
(l) with sponsored
kids Keller,
Grecia,
and their grandma, Dona Julia. The second
photo is staff member, Reinhard, installing
a home
solar unit
in the Jocotenango slum overlooking the
Spanish Colonial city of Antigua Guatemala.
 
Mario, seen here with Mick, co-founder,
and his brother, who are both in our
sponsorship program also
received a solar unit to provide more light
in their study area. On the right is a
donated emergency
solar system which was provided to IHF by
Todd of Waters of Marah, and Sunbeam
Technologies.
 
We
also coordinated the importation and
distribution of five large capacity water
filters. On the right
is Carolyn Daly and a staff member from the
non-profit charity, Milmilagos, who work
with indigenous
communities by Lake Atitlan in Guatemala, accepting one of
the large capacity water filter units.
Special
Situation Responses
We
also responded to situations included in our
mission but outside of the scope of
our programs.
  
Angelita
(l) has been in our program for 3 years. We
did a special appeal this year for her
so that we could employ a tutor for her on
Saturdays in 2014 to help her with some
school
subjects with which she is having
difficulty. Juan Carlos, see in the last
photo on the right
is in his last year of studying to be a
teacher (also sponsored by IHF), and he will
be working
with Angelita, and two other girls from our
program on this special project next year.
More
projects and smiles!
 
Arturo
(middle) has been teaching English to Carmen
and Maria, with special thanks to Charlie
and Rachel.
Debora is seen in the second photo with
Marisol, who is our Community Liaison for
Jocotenango.
 
 
Jose
is Marisol's five year old son, seen here
sitting in mediation (which she taught him)
for twenty
minutes - our youngest meditator. Debora
seen with Mikey at the LA fundraiser and
with Terry Patten
and the team from Bay Area Integral, in
Berkeley CA, During our fundraiser in
June.
Questions,
comments, suggestions?
Tell us what you think, send us your
questions, comments and suggestions, we'd
love to hear from you.
Visit this page to write us: http://www.integralheartfoundation.org/ihf_contact.htm
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