Fall 2025

To the many who have cared,

Carlos and Andy are on track to complete all the requirements needed to earn a high school diploma in Guatemala. They are scheduled to graduate October 29, for the school year follows the traditional calendar year here. If everything proceeds as planned, they will become our twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth high school graduates.

Not long after opening a shelter in early-2000, Only A Child launched a back-to-school program at the urging of our residents, all of whom had come to us from the streets of Guatemala City. Most of them had not attended school for years, and despite having reached their mid-to-late teens, had yet to complete grade school. Fortunately, there was an abundance of schools that offered weekend programs for young adults who had fallen behind with their studies.

The first of our residents returned to school in the summer of 2000, repeating the last grade they had completed before dropping out years before. Therefore, Carlos and Andy's pending graduation marks a double milestone for both the residents and staff of Only A Child. As previously mentioned, we soon will have produced twenty five high school graduates. And at nearly the same time, we will complete 25 years of having offered quality education at independent schools to program residents who have come to us pursuing scholarships.

Conceived and founded in 1994, Only A Child spent the first two decades of its existence working almost excursively with Guatemala city's homeless children and youth. Our initial years were spent in outreach, sharing the streets with its youngest residents. Shortly after the turn of the century we rethought our mission and opened a shelter, while maintaining contact with the streets of the city.

In 2015, the surge in migration - large numbers of Guatemalans leaving behind their homes primarily located in the Quiche region of the country's western highlands - compelled us to once again rethink our mission. The migrants traveled to the United states in pursuit of a better quality of life, after having concluded that such opportunity was unavailable to them in their homeland. Economic hardship denied them access to a level of education which opens doors to employment related opportunity. For the past 10 years, Only A Child's primary objective has been to provide secondary and university-level education to youths coming from rural areas and impoverished backgrounds.

Given their previous circumstances, our residents have much to overcome. The communities which they called home were often isolated and lacking in resources. Options for education and employment are limited in such areas, all but guaranteeing that their coming-of-age residents will be channeled into lives mirroring those of the generations which preceded them. The possibility and hope for betterment is often beyond reach, promoting the kind of desperation which motivates young men and women to travel thousands of miles to a foreign land at great risk, in the pursuit of dreams previously put on hold. All the while understanding that a successful outcome would not be guaranteed.

The face of Guatemala's exploding migration is youthful. According to the Washington Post, roughly 8 % of 17 year old adolescents in Central America's Northern Triangle (Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador) fled their homelands between 2011 and 2016. That percentage has most likely grown in the intervening years, as the conditions compelling the exodus have only deteriorated during that time. Moreover, monthly encounters with migrants arriving at the southern U.S. border nearly tripled between 2015 and 2019, before falling sharply in 2020, coinciding with the onset of the COVID pandemic.

In 2021, the number of migrants reaching the southern U.S. border once a again spiked, eventually reaching a record level in December 2023, quintupling the number of encounters recorded during each of the initial months of 2017. The numbers of such encounters then fell steadily throughout 2023. Not surprisingly, in recent years most of the southern U.S. border migrants have come from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Of these 4 countries, Guatemala experienced the sharpest decline between late 2023 and late 2024 at 81%.

It is common knowledge that, for all practical purposes, the southern U.S. border has been closed since the beginning of this year. Some people approve of the situation, others do not. I offer no opinion as these letters never intend to be political. I mention the situation only to draw attention to the fact that, as a consequence of this new reality, the possibility for pursuing a better life beyond their own border is currently off the table for Guatemalan youths. It likely will remain so for some time to come, at least through the end of 2028. It seems safe to say that for young people coming from impoverished backgrounds, the possibilities for betterment remain minimal in Guatemala, offering a poor alternative to the U.S. model.

The phenomenon of having dreams transcends time, setting and culture. Although one can possess dreams at any stage in life, it seems safe to say that they most commonly abound when we are young, when much of life is still before us, leaving us to wonder how we can best make use of the many years yet to come.

Coming of age in a privileged land where opportunity abounds more readily promotes the tendency to dream. It also encourages the young to dream big, to aspire to greatness while believing it is within one's grasp . The sky is not only the limit, but also, not an unreasonable request or expectation. Such far reaching aspirations are rare in less prosperous lands, which is not to say that dreams do not exist. They simply tend to be more grounded in a less bountiful reality. They are more modest in nature, tempered with the understanding that life often times disappoints, and fails to comply with one's hopes and expectations.

The unrelenting denial of dreams often leads to a longing for what might have been but will likely never be. Constant disappointment and endless longing can eventually produce hopelessness and desperation. Living without hope often becomes unbearable with time and, little by little, can give way to bitterness, anger and, in extreme cases, rage.

Delinquency remains a major concern in present day Guatemala. Lack of access to quality education, resulting in an inability to find dignified, life-sustaining work fuels much of the problem, causing fundamentally solid young people to succumb to desperation and pursue paths they would normally avoid under preferable circumstances. Such conditions have significantly fed the surge in migration which has gripped Guatemala throughout much of the twenty first century.

Carlos and Andy have not only been classmates during the past 2 years, they have also become close friends during that time. They live in different rooms in our home, but during shared times in common areas, are nearly inseparable. They attend a local gym together in the afternoon, after returning home from school. Their friendship is meaningful to each of them for different reasons. Carlos lived in a dangerous area before joining us. As a result, his parents kept a close reign on him, seldom allowing him to leave home unaccompanied. This left little possibility for friendships outside of the home. Andy was bullied, at times brutally, throughout much of his childhood and adolescence. As such, friendship was something he mostly observed from a distance, excluded from the kind of camaraderie that many of his classmates took for granted.

With the closing of the U.S. border, Guatemalan youths from modest backgrounds once again face the daunting challenge of finding ways to improve their lot in life within the borders of their homeland. The chances for success are minimal, as the odds are well against them. As such, the opportunities provided by Only A Child remain an invaluable resources for those who come to us in search of a helping hand with their desire to better themselves. Thank you for continuing to care about the well being and the future of each and every one of them.

Following the need to cancel our annual spring fundraiser this past April, our Board of Directors has elected to reschedule the event for the fall, Sunday October 5th to be exact. It has been several years since we last held an event this time of year. Our fall events have been unqualified successes in the past. I ask that you make every effort to help us keep our record intact, by supporting the event to the best of your ability - generously if you can. If met with success, the event will be permanently moved to the fall, when lovely weather abounds in my native New England. I hope to see many of you on the 5th.

May God bless.

George