1. The Receiving Center in Guatemala City is currently home to five young people who graduated from ICAP recently.  They are being sponsored by local in-country donors to attend university in Guatemala City.  This is a new development within this project, and ICC is working to establish a management plan for this initiative.
2. The warehouse at ICC headquarters is bulging with clothing, supplies and equipment ready for transport to Los Pinos.  The plan is to load the container sometime during the third week of April.  The foundation of the first lady of Guatemala will be helping to facilitate the processing of this container so it arrives safely at the Los Pinos campus. Thank-you to all donors who have supported this initiative and please pray for “smooth sailing” until it arrives for the children. 
3. This project is especially blessed because within the past few months another shipping container safely arrived at the children village.  That container was sent by ICC’s Dutch partner, Stichting Internationale Kinderhulp, and contained items such as chairs for the church, paint, ceramic tile, soap powder, soccer uniforms, toys and multi-vitamins.  Pictures of some of these items are posted below.
4. Anabela continues to do a wonderful job raising awareness and funding for Los Pinos from within Guatemala.  Her efforts are helping to reduce the amount of funds that ICC partners need to send in support of the operating budget for Los Pinos.  One project of keen interest is the VISA NET program.  In this program, those individuals who have a particular VISA credit card will receive along with their statement a promotional brochure featuring Los Pinos. Included in the brochure is information detailing where they can give a donation.  We are hopeful that this can be an ongoing program once per quarter and that a significant amount of funds can be raised for the children of Los Pinos.
5. The chicken industry on the campus of Los Pinos continues to develop.  A new flock of chickens will be arriving soon.  Two temporary chicken houses are being built.

New Chairs for Church

Soccer Uniforms

Washing Powder

Graduates

The weekend of November 27-29, 2009 was a special time  for some of ICC’s kids in Guatemala.  Seven from the Guatemala Los Pinos Children’s Village graduated from the Instituto de Capacitacion Adventista del Peten otherwise know as ICAP.  ICAP is the secondary and vocational training school that is adjacent to the ICC project in Guatemala. Three additional  kids from ICC’s project in Nicaragua also graduated bringing the total of ICC graduates to 10.   One of ICC’s kids also received a medal for achieving the highest grades in the graduating class. 

It’s thrilling to observe  ICC kids growing and preparing themselves for life on their own.  Congratulations to these graduates for this achievement.

The children in Guatemala have a special need regarding their education.  Please click on the picture below to read more.

Here’s a recent message from Joel, our director at the Los Pinos Children’s Village in Guatemala.

We have started our pineapple harvest.  We will have a big harvest in April, and then several small harvests during this year.  Thanks very much to the people who donated the funds for this project.

Eight children from the Los PInos Children’s Village in Guatemala recently graduated from the ICAP school on the adjoining campus.  Two ICC staff children graduated as well.

This year, all but one of the ICC graduates completed degrees in teaching.  The other one graduated from the mechanics course.  Two of the students have accepted teaching positions in Puerto Barrios (Guatemala) while some of the others plan to attend University when possible to further their studies. 

Congratuations to these ICC children as they’ve completed an important chapter in their lives!

Guatemala Graduates