1 Family. 5 Children. From Canada to Guatemala to learn about sharing.

Our project is all about pushing boundaries of what people see as possible with a large family. (Our five children currently range from under 1 to 11 years old!) As a family, we have taken the leap and moved to the remote town of San Juan La Laguna, Guatemala.

On May 26th, 2021, we arrived in Guatemala with the simple goal of assessing where our family of seven could be of most use volunteering. The vision has become clear. Together with a committee of 5 Mayan women, we have formed a kid's club aptly named "Children for a better San Juan." Situated on the shore of beautiful Lake Atitlan, the area is facing a severe pollution problem.

As a community project, we are taking baby steps towards investing in the inheritance of the next generation. 

"Children for a better San Juan" is an environmental/educational club that focuses on teaching children to take the initiative of cleaning up their neighborhoods. We are setting up public trash cans in the areas cleaned, and feeding the children involved a full, nutritional weekly lunch at the end of the program.

The committee consists of two trained school teachers, a cook, an accounting student, and a mother of some of the children involved. The programmed weekly lessons are themed around environmental care, sanitation, and recycling.

As with all experiments we start with a simple question. In this case we are asking, "How much of a positive impact can a young family have within a problem as large and overwhelming as plastic waste?" We do not have an answer. However, we are coming to realize that movements towards a solution always start with baby steps.

This project is a human experiment with ourselves. It is trial and error at it's finest!