Visiquichum, Guatemala Food for the Hungry & Riversgate Church
Riversgate Church has been invited to partner with Food for the Hungry in Visiquichum, a small Mayan community in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. We partner with this community by providing support through Child Sponsorships & Community Development Projects. Child Sponsorships help meet the physical, spiritual, educational, and economic needs of these kids while the Development Projects help with the ongoing needs of the community. In 2019 we raised money which aided in the construction of some much needed classrooms (see photos & video below). 2020 saw the completion of a Sport Court built in an area that is unusable during the rainy seasons. Now it can be enjoyed year round! (See photos below). In 2021/22 we were able to raise money to help the much needed expansion of the Medical Clinic. (See Photo below). 2022/23 brought about the Stove Project where we are able to help put much needed stoves in 82 homes (see photo below). 2024 allowed us to help with the construction of a new school kitchen (see photo below).
2024 August Team with the Mayor & Leaders of the community (below)
2023 August Team (below)
Our August Trip team just returned from Visiquichum! They spent a week doing a VBS for the kids, installing Stoves, visiting sponsored kids & their families, as well as building relationships with the people in the village.
The next trip will be August 16-24, 2024! Email jeremy@riversgate.net for more information.
Update: This Project has been completed!
We are providing indoor stoves for every home (82 homes) in the village of Visiquichum. Up until now people have had fire pits in their homes for warmth and cooking. These fire pits are dangerous and very bad for the health of the families living in these homes. Many people have developed respiratory problems due to the smoke that they are breathing in on a daily basis. The new stoves (pictured above) will send the smoke up and out of the house through a vent and eliminate the hazardous smoke! These stoves also burn way less wood and provide a much better cooking system.
Thanks so much Riversgate for your continued support and prayer for the beautiful people of Visiquichum, Guatemala.
If you are interested in coming on a trip or sponsoring a child in Visiquichum ($38/month), contact Jeremy Pummel
You can also sign up to sponsor at child HERE
All of the kids on this link live in our partner village of Visiquichum!
If you would like to know more about our partnership with Visiquichum, click HERE
2021/2022 Project
2020-2021 Project- New Sports Court
guatemala trip summer 2019
In July of 2019, a team from Riversgate traveled to Visiquichum to help the community construct two classrooms, visit kids that they sponsor, and work with groups of local moms to help combat rampant malnutrition.
Here’s an update on the project from the Food for the Hungry liaison.
The classroom project is now finished. As I mentioned before, the community was responsible for installing the door and windows, so each family contributed with Q.10 ($1.20) and they were able to finish that a couple of weeks ago. The community leaders are very grateful for you and the children are motivated to start this school year. See some pictures of the school below.
Besides that, the community leaders decided to build a school kitchen with the leftover materials from the classroom. They were able to build a cinder block foundation, wood walls and even install water pipes (See picture "Visiquichum 4"). We are very happy to see the proactivity and hard work of the leaders. I'm sure this is only the beginning!
Watch the 2019 team video below.
