Adopt-a-Village in Guatemala works with Maya villages in the isolated northwestern region of the Department of Huehuetenango and offers educational opportunities to more than 300 villages in the region. These villages, scattered in the rainforest in the Cuchumatan Mountains, are accessible only by rugged dirt roads or walking paths winding through the mountains.

 

Many of the villages have been settled over the last 25 years by the Maya who were displaced during Guatemala's 36-year civil war and came to this region in search of affordable land. Families from different Mayan language groups that had until the war lived separately came together to form villages to work toward the common goal of a better future for their children. This is one of the poorest and least-served regions of Guatemala. Employment and education opportunities are extremely limited.  Chronic malnutrition is pervasive; some children routinely go a day or more without eating.