Where are they now

Lidia Gutierrez Ruiz

When Lidia Guiterrez Ruiz won a scholarship to enter Junior High School in 2010, she was the first in her family to do so.  The 2016 Amigos de Guatemala High School graduate today is a practicing psychologist and teacher of psychology at the university in Santa Cruz de Quiché.

 

“The team from Amigos de Guatemala actually cared about us and showed us that there are opportunities beyond our village,” she said.

 

On graduating from high school, Lidia worked in a clinic to earn money for the university.  Today she works mostly with youth suffering from anxiety due to technology, broken homes and feelings of isolation.  Her practice is broken up about 50/50 young men and women.

 

As a contract psychologist, she earns about 5,800 Quetzales per month ($750 a month).  Many uneducated Maya are lucky to earn Q12,000 to Q14,400 per year! ($1,500 – $1,800) 

 

A couple of years ago, Lidia bought some land and is completing construction of a house.  She and her mother are set to move in in March, 2026.  This is the first time anyone in her family has owned a home.  She credits the Rotary Club of Healdsburg, CA for supporting her through junior and senior high school for making her success possible.

 

Her fondest memory was being invited to a dinner as she entered the program which she described as “elegant” and inspired her.

In ten years, Lidia sees herself with her own clinic and her own patients.

Carolina Estela Hernández

Carolina Estela Hernández had a challenging life while focusing on her goal to be a high school graduate or as they call themselves “professional.”  Even before earning a scholarship starting with middle school, she became the first in her family to attend school of any kind.

Carolina lived with her mother and grandmother as squatters on land with a basic lean-to house.  
 
Only a tar paper roof protected them from the elements.  After many years living there, the landowner knocked down their shack and evicted them.  With no regular income and living hand to mouth, they took shelter in a cave. Yes, a cave without electricity or running water for the second half of her senior year in high school.
 
Through her perseverance, Carolina’s smile and positive attitude never faltered.  She graduated from high school in 2015 as an auxiliary nurse.  During a volunteer visit a few years ago, we ran into Carolina.  She proudly said that she was attending the university to become a nurse.  Though we have not seen her since, Amigos de Guatemala is confident that she will complete her next step in her education.

Maria Isabel Hernández de la Cruz

Maria Isabel Hernández de la Cruz is a force in a very small body.  We first met Isabel in 2013 waiting patiently at the front door of the ADIZ office.  Like every year, there are always more students in need than scholarships available.  Unfortunately, she was not selected.  Every morning during our visit, she would wait patiently to learn if another scholarship became available.  Around the 5th or 6th day of the visit, one of the volunteers could not take it any longer and decided to sponsor Isabel.  Her face lit up with joy when she learned that her dream for an education would come true.
 
Isabel lived with her mother and little brother at that time.  Her father was not around.  Her new “madrina” took her shopping to buy some school supplies.  This little 4’ 10” 13 year old turned to her and said matter-of-factly, “let me negotiate the price.”  That’s our Isabel.
 
In 2018 she completed her dream to finish high school and start her life as a “professional.”  Like many graduates, we did not see her during our annual visits.
 
Fast forward to 2024, the sponsor received a message via social media asking how she was doing.  Isabel proudly told her that she is working to help pay her way through Law School and loved the challenge of university studies.  However, her mother had left with a man leaving her to take care of her 5th  grade brother.  Because he was abandoned, the government started the process to make him a ward of the state.
 
Isabel was at a loss as to what to do and went to talk with our partner Fredy Argueta for ideas.  As she was a legal adult in good standing with a job and going to school, he helped her get legal guardianship and was awarded custody.  
 
With financial help from her sponsor, Isabel will graduate from law school in 2027 and her little brother has just started middle school.  We predict Isabel will continue being tenacious in every step of her life.

Elena de la Cruz

Elena de la Cruz graduated high school in 2019 and went on to college where she graduated as a professional nurse in 2023.  She’s a traveling nurse specializing in assisting with surgery.  The team she is associated with only works five days a month and she is looking to expand her days helping patients. Meanwhile, Elena is helping her father in the field where he tills corn.
He has a third grade education.  Her mother spent some time in the U.S. packing onions to earn money to help Elena’s older sister complete medical studies.  She lives with her father, a sister and little brother.  Five other siblings are married and live elsewhere.  Elena likes to teach younger children at church and cook for the family.  She hopes to continue her medical studies and in ten years have her own clinic to help the community.

Mayko Fabrizio Estrada

Mayko Fabrizio Estrada has been selected as the Zacualpa region’s youth delegate to the Congress in Guatemala City.  He was selected and elected as a young deputy to shadow the already seated deputy.
 
In his role, Mayko will direct and formulate projects, develop and carry out legislative initiatives working with the elected delegate for Zacualpa.  On accreditation as the rightful youth deputy, he was named to the Health and Social Assistance Commission.  His work on that commission will be based on the health of the municipality of Zacualpa and the Department of Quiche.
 
With the support of the official deputy, Mayko will be tasked with finding the resources to carry out the projects he identifies.
 
“It is a process I like very much, especially because it is for the benefit of the population and I can be a spokesperson for my people,” he said.  As Mayko puts it: “I like to get involved in politics and be able to contribute my grain of sand.”  While serving on the shadow youth congress, Mayko continues his studies toward a law degree.

Josue Morente

i“There were times that I had no money for an after school snack and almost gave up,” said Josue Morente.  And then he thought of the faith his sponsors had in him by supporting his Senior High School education in a town five hours from home.  Josue was one of the first applicants for a scholarship from Amigos de Guatemala as he hoped to enter the seventh grade in 2003.  In those years no girls had graduated from elementary school and were even eligible for Junior or Senior High. Josue knew there would be a better life through education.  Always looking for the way things worked, on graduation from Junior High School in 2006; he applied to technical training high school Don Bosco in Quetzaltenango, five hours away.  With tuition costs covered by the scholarship, he still had to finance meals and lodging far from home. Amigos de Guatemala means a lot to Josue.   The continued support of his ADG sponsors pushed him to study hard and graduate in late 2009 with a certificate in motorcycle mechanics.  He was hired a couple of months later by a motorcycle repair shop in his native Zacualpa. Today Josue has his own motorcycle repair business in Zacualpa.  His brother, Timoteo, has joined him in the business he founded in 2019.  He married a few years ago and has a  daughter, Madeline, five years old and a 20 month old son, Jefferson. Before we stopped to visit Josue, he had seen ADG founders Bob and Jan Hatmaker pass by his shop; but was reluctant to say “Hello” for fear they would not remember him after all these years.  There were smiles all around at the reunion in his repair shop.

Juana Estela Morente Morales

is a 2013 high school graduate thanks to Amigos de Guatemala.  Being the oldest sibling, she had to stop her studies in elementary school to help her mother and her sister who was born with medical complications.  Later, Juana attended an educational program that focused on those who were older teens and early 20’s.  Upon graduating high school, she started selling clothes in the busy setting of the Zacualpa market.  After a couple of years, Juana started to focus on shoes.  In 2016 she proudly opened her own shoe store where a thriving business supports her husband, Daniel, who completed third grade, and two sons and daughter. Victor is ten years old and in the fourth grade.  Luz Estalla is eight years old and in third grade. Eleazar is an active 15 month old son. The store is open every day except during church and when she has to run errands.  After housework and doing laundry there is little free time.  One of her teachers recommended Juana as a scholarship candidate to Amigos de Guatemala founder Bob Hatmaker and he said that he would find a scholarship sponsor. At 37, Juana reflects on the importance of studying that led her to start a successful business and she is instilling the importance of an education on her children.

Jessica Lorena Gutierrez de León

graduated in 2022; just as Guatemala and the world started to reemerge from shut down due to Covid-19.  While isolated at home, she decided to take up painting.  In a few short years, Jessy has won several regional and national competitions.  She brought a few, including one unfinished, to the 20^th anniversary celebration of Amigos de Guatemala. The 20^th Anniversary celebration was a very special day for Jessy; the famous artist and  scholarship graduate of Amigos de Guatemala.  She presented her works to ADIZ and Amigos De Guatemala, and celebration guests purchased all her paintings! “EDUCATION, THE ONLY WAY TO DEVELOPMENT,” said Fredy Argueta, ADG’s coordinator in Zacualpa. All were purchased by folks attending the celebration, including the unfinished piece.  She has been engaged for commissioned work such as creating a town mural.  She is teaching art in a local school.  Jessica was sponsored by the Salida Interact Club. Interact is Rotary’s auxiliary for Junior and Senior High School students.

Elvia Rosalina Alvarado Morente

graduated from high school in 2013. But her studies were not over. The next five years saw her attending University where she graduated as a nurse. She was working at the Zacualpa Medical Clinic until she recently broke her shoulder while playing with her daughter. Elvia plans to return to nursing when the shoulder is healed. Meanwhile Elvia helps her mother at the family run pharmacy, a huge achievement. Both parents had no formal education, and her father is illiterate. Her mother studied on her own to learn to read and write some Spanish. Elvia continues to study and is taking courses on-line to achieve a degree in geriatric nursing. Her parents saw the value of an education and supported her as best they could after elementary school. But “ADG helped a lot as my parents could not pay for a junior and senior high school education,” Elvia said. Her nine-year-old daughter, Ixchel, is in the third grade and encouraged to study hard by both her mother and grandparents.