The goal is to create a village which provides a secure home, a loving family and a hopeful future to Guatemalan children in need. The vision is to build a village that will be ecologically and financially sustainable. The long term goal is to replicate this initial village in other locations.

The Project Somos Children's Village is being established by Compassion Fruit Society.

Compassion Fruit is a Canadian non-profit charitable society founded in 2002 with a mission to engage in activities that:

educate and create public awareness of children and families living in poverty 

assist in improving the life conditions of children and families living in poverty

History

This project was conceived after much soul searching and on the ground research by Heather Knox and Greg Kemp. Between the two of them, they spent many months and years exploring (and sometimes volunteering at) various projects in India, Jamaica, Honduras and Guatemala. Of all the projects that inspired them, it was the children's village model which most excited them and which they felt best suited their love of children, their hope for creating a better future and to best utilize their eclectic work and non-profit experiences they have gathered over the years. Their overriding desire to do more in this world, led them to create this vision for the Project Somos Children's Village.

Why Guatemala?

Guatemala, population 13 million, is one of the most impoverished countries in the Americas.  The statistics below give some idea of the situation:

50% of the population live in poverty

There is only 4% adult unemployment (a frightening statistic - even the employed live in poverty

Child labour rate is 30%

In 2005 UNICEF estimated the number of orphans at 370,000.

There is no comprehensive national infrastructure to handle such a staggering number of orphans 

Biggest school dropout rate is the first grade (many indigenous not speaking Spanish)

68% of students reach the fifth grade

35% of students reach high school

A 35 year civil war ended in 1994 with 200,000 killed and 40,000 disappeard

The plight of Guatemala's poor, most of whom are indigenous, is relatively unknown. Project Somos has a mandate to improve the living conditions of children and families living in poverty and to increase public awareness of the situation.