Teamwork in Santa Clara La Laguna, Guatemala

Located in a remote mountainous region 5 hours drive from Guatemala City, the village of Santa
Clara La Laguna lives in abject poverty, its 8000 inhabitants having to work long and hard just to
survive.

Kirsten Sánchez Marín, Director of Administration in Central America for Henkel drew the plight of
this village to the attention of the Make an Impact on Tomorrow (MIT) jury with the idea that
Henkel’s volunteers should work together with the independent aid “Helps International” to bring
assistance to the people of Santa Clara La Laguna.

The goals were:

• To ensure access to clean water
• To improve the education and standard of health for children
• Provide participating families with a grounding in hygiene and healthcare
• Reduce timber fuel consumption
• Improve agricultural productivity

Early 2009, 21 volunteers from 6 countries met up in the village and started working hand in hand
with the village families. Within 3 days, 9 houses had been built including proper aeration and
water filtering for the provision of drinking water. In all, the funds provided by MIT would enable
120 houses.
The classrooms in the village school were also refurbished and equipped with enclosed cooking
areas and water filters.

One of the spin-off advantages is that the number of trees that required felling for stove fuel was
reduced by 1,500 which in turn led to a gradual improvement in topsoil retention, thus reducing
the danger of landslides.

The children of the village will also certainly remember the visit of the team as Renata Peroni from
the Henkel Brazil sales team recounts: “We practiced cleaning our teeth with the kids of the village.
We all had great fun, as we turned this ‘lesson’ into a quiz with all sorts of jokey questions,
enabling the children to win toothbrushes and balloons.”

All in all, the experience of helping this village has left the international team with fond memories.
Kirsten Sánchez Marín: “They all worked hand-in-hand with us right from the start. The children
often acted as our translators. We were also very moved by the generous hospitality and the trust
shown in us by the villagers. Their only thought appeared to be that these new people in their
midst had traveled a long way to help.”

Even the local news took notice as can be seen on this link from Helps international.