Sunday Snapshot: We Want YOU!

Except instead of the US Army, we want you to join our non-governmental organization that serves Latin American communities. 

...Close enough?

In all seriousness, Program Director applications are currently being accepted for the 2013-2014 year! If you are looking for the opportunity of a lifetime, you should definitely consider becoming a PD in Guatemala (the best site...), Ecuador, or Nicaragua. When else can you adopt a completely new culture, play with the cutest kids in the world, learn a new language (or two, if you come to Guate!), and gain non-profit experience, all while making a real impact in a Latin American community?

Let me let you in a little secret, this experience is hard to find anywhere else. Sure, there are a cornucopia of different orgs that will allow you to teach English in some far away country. (And yeah, they may even pay you.) But the experience I've had here in less than 3 months is worth so much more than any amount of money I could gain by teaching a language I already know.

While I do teach English here, that's not where my work ends. We are encouraged to build relationships with people in the community, attend extremely interesting cultural events like parades and celebrations, and make new programs/modify existing ones.

To me, that last part is the most exciting. I came here in July with the intention of creating new programs. While that is definitely in the process, it has also been very rewarding to be asked to assess the work that has already been done here. At training we discussed a little bit about what it means to be in international development/community development, and since then I have been observing how our work here fits in with that definition. We are all continually discussing what we can do better, what can change, what should remain the same. We are excited to create our own community survey to ask Chaquijyá what they see as their biggest needs we can/should address. We are talking with other local organizations about how we can partner with them and therefore make a bigger impact in the area.

This experience has certainly been challenging, but in a truly beautiful way. I am being challenged and in turn challenging our approach to the way we do things. I feel empowered to make a difference, and therefore I will be empowering others in various ways-- whether through teaching them how to better take care of their children, filter their water, how to respect the environment, how to start or run a business, etc. I can't think of anything more beautiful :) And I cannot wait to see where we all stand when my time here is through in August 2013.

Won't you help us continue the great work we're doing?

I hope you do. :)

-Nicole

Sunday Snapshot

PDs and interns help train Pencil of Promise health workers in the art of dental health! Wahoo collaboration! ALSO, we welcome Guatemala's new Country Director, Jessica Falla, to the main stage (pictured bottom right).

Tell Your Friends

Manna is a very small organization. There are 6 full time staff members spread between four countries, nineteen Programs Directors, and in the 2010-2011 fiscal year, MPI operated on a budget of about $427,000. To give you some means of comparison of annual budgets in the non-profit sector:

Pencils of Promise: $1.1 million; WorldTeach: $3.15 million; Invisible Children: $8 million; Charity Water: $11.6 million; Falling Whistles: $104.7 million; Habitat for Humanity: $285 million.

The point is we're small in almost every way. We don't have the manpower or resources to publicize and market ourselves with the big guys. Even when it comes to recruitment, truth is, the majority of our volunteers hear about Manna from one of our current or past volunteers, and we rely on that. I personally found out about Manna from my high school friend, Jackie Weidman who was a PD in Ecuador before MPI Guatemala ever existed. I remember reading MPI's website and wondering why I had never heard about the experience before, and MPI isn't the only one. There are so many life-changing opportunities out there looking for candidates, but seldom do the interested candidates and opportunities meet.

In a few days MPI Guatemala will welcome a new PD named Lorena Zamarelli, who--you guessed it--is also a friend from high school, and Manna is currently recruiting summer and 13-month volunteers for 2012-2013.  Posting to Facebook and other social networking sites does help, but it's not enough. We need a grander advertisement, a broader PSA.

These are my best friends from high school. 75% of them have either volunteered themselves with MPI, visited an MPI international site, or donated to the cause.

So do me a favor, tell your friends. Share our story, and spread the word. To beef up your Manna knowledge, visit our "about us" page, or our volunteer page.

Gracias,

Dana