Off to Guatemala

Kimberly Kreiling

Members will remember the founder of Agros (Ah-gros), Skip Lee, visiting the Club to tell about his vision for this budding foundation. The Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club, through its World Community Service Committee, has supported several projects with funding over the past few years. This year, a group of Rotarians and others, led by Steve Lingenbrink, will visit the village of Trapichitos, Guatemala. Trapichitos, which translates to “the place of the Little Sugar Mills,” is one of 16 villages in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua supported by the Agros Foundation.

Kimberly Kreiling, grant writer for Agros, accepted a check for $2,000 from the BBRC to support projects in Guatemala. “With 12 million people, Guatemala has been racked by a civil war and 5 million of the population is living in poverty. There’s not much land for ownership. It’s a problem of disproportionate ownership. Agros buys land and sells it back to the farmers and helps them develop plans for their new land. Prior to Agros coming to Trapichitos, there were 82 families living on only 35 acres of land. The foundation was able to purchase 635 acres and to raise support for 56 families at $2,000 per year per family. Already, the community is planting a coffee plantation and working to increase their cattle herd.

Steve Lingenbrink presents a BBRC check to Kimberly Kreiling.

Agros’ goal is to end rural poverty by directly assisting partnerships between Agros villages and other organizations to achieve the purchase of land, which will be sold back to the villagers when they’re able to pay.

In presenting the check for $2,000, Lingenbrink said an additional $3,165 has been raised to rebuild a community center that was destroyed by an explosion two weeks ago. One man lost his life in this accident. Steve said his group will leave March 20 and be gone that week, with plans to visit an additional two villages beyond Trapichitos.