The Maya Collaborative for Global Understanding

The Maya Collaborative is a developing coalition of NGOs, non-profits, individual donors and researchers who share a common goal of improving the quality of life in rural Guatemala.  A spinoff of the MesoAmerican Academy language school, the Maya Collaborative was created to avoid any possible appearance of conflicts of interest, and to allow the individual organizations to focus more tightly on their respective missions. 

Additionally the Maya Collaborative provides management and analytical services to other organizations that do projects in Central America, providing their missions are consistent with our philosophy of promoting global understanding and the general well-being of America's indigenous peoples. The Maya Collaborative is, in that regard, a comparatively low-cost but equally competent alternative to higher-profile organizations that do project implementation and data collection/analysis.  As a consulting Project management and monitoring agency, the Collaborative brings to project analyses the following skills and assets:

* the expertise necessary to manage a Project office or fieldwork staff of rural Mayan employees

* an established reputation in Guatemala and surrounding countries, and necessary full-time presence in the region to rapidly engender local respect and acceptance in rural communities

* the experience and technical ability to do logistical or other necessary pre-planning to get projects off the ground

* the insight and experience necessary to assure accountability by project directors without alienating important local stakeholders

* familiarity with laws governing the activities of non-governmental organizations in Central America, and the ability and credentials to help foreign organizations launch projects under the auspices of already registered or newly created NGOs

* the technical skills and training necessary to conduct highly competent, multi-faceted quantitative and/or qualitative data collection and analysis to measure the progress and determine the efficiency and utility of projects. 

The Maya Collaborative for Global Understanding will continue its pro-bono relationship with the three existing “client’ organizations whose management and analysis needs inspired the creation of the Collaborative. A summary of each of these organizations is provided below, along with a link to each entity. It should be noted that all of these organizations have themselves expanded into multi-faceted operations, with boards that with the Collaborative's advice and feedback conduct planning, raise funds, and make budgetary decisions that impact project implementation and local policy. In each case, the directors of the Maya Collaborative and the overlapping staff of the MesoAmerican Academy are intrinsically involved in the management team for the projects these organization conduct in Guatemala.

The seeds of ACEBAR were sown in 2001, witha promise made by two US researchers working in Chichicastenango to cover the school costs of six primary school and junior high school students. Through the generosity of many unsolicited donations and the sweat of a small core of dedicated founders, those humble seeds have grown into an organization that in 2007 supported more than 330 scholarships. More than just scholarships, ACEBAR has grown into a grass roots organization that more generally promotes education through a educational resource center by providing supplies, services, and professional development opportunities to teachers; tutorial and academic counseling services to students at risk; and dental health services to town residents who otherwise could not afford it. The ACEBAR facility now boasts a computer lab, a small library, a well-run office and conscientious staff, and a fully equipped dental clinic with a professionally trained hygienist.

2) The Maya Center for Rural Education and Well-Being (MayaCREW) is a U.S. non-profit chartered to offer grants and technical assistance to ACEBAR and other worthy Community-Based organizations in Guatemala’s Mayan Highlands.  To date, its primary function has been to fund and assure accountability of ACEBAR expenditures and projects. As the primary funding agencies, its grants are largely responsible for the Muchachas Becadas Program, the Sonrisas Felices Clinic, and the Teachers Resource Center at ACEBAR. MayaCREW board members regularly visit the ACEBAR facility in Chichicastenango to ensure that accountability requirements have been met, to assess problems and efficiency in the operation, and to simply enjoy visiting with friends in Chichicastenango and working alongside the ACEBAR staff and volunteer directors from the Maya Collaborative for Global Understanding.

3) Hoops Sagrado is a Washington D.C. based non-profit organization that sponsors more than 50 secondary scholarships administered by the Maya Collaborative in pueblos near Quetzaltenango City, Guatemala. With the assistance and logistical support of the Maya Collaborative and the MesoAmerican Academy, it brings 20 or more inner-city youth to Guatemala each summer for periods of 3 weeks to 1 month, where they learn Spanish half of each day and conduct basketball camps for Mayan youth the other half day. It is a unique program that offers US kids from rough urban neighborhoods and Guatemalan kids from impoverished rural environments the opportunity to put their own problems and poverty into a new and very concrete perspective. Perhaps most importantly, when it's time for the Hoops Sagrado group to return home, they both leave behind and take with them the most valuable of all human commodities: new friendships, and heightened understanding that while cultures may vary, the experience of being human is universally shared and that every person in every tiny corner of the world is worthy of respect and assistance.