Winter Bulletin 2003 Vol. 19, No. 4

Introduction
Plenty Boardmembers Visit Belize
Solar-Powered Lights for San Jose School
Clean water for Chimachoy, Guatemala
Central American Food Security Initiative (CAFSI)
Making More Plenty
Dorothy Bates Memorial Endowment Fund

After the massive earthquake in Guatemala in 1976 when 23,000 were killed and a million were left homeless, Plenty volunteers helped to reconstruct 1,100 houses in the town of San Andres Itzapa and 12 schools in different towns and villages in the Central Highlands. One of the towns where a school was built was Chimachoy. Now, 27 years later, Dennis Martin, who directed Plenty’s reconstruction efforts after the earthquake, has returned to Chimachoy to deliver funds contributed by former Plenty South Bronx volunteer, Robert Reifel and his Atlantic Design and Construction Company, to pipe clean running water to a spigot at every house (111houses) in the village from their new 700 foot well.

The man in the white shirt pictured above is Fernando Teguic Tohon who we met in 1976 when he was the first Mayan elected to the Guatemalan Congress and was instrumental in getting the first-ever Mayan language FM station on the air. Plenty provided the equipment, tower and technical support for Radio Quicoten. Now Plenty is seeking the funding to upgrade the radio station to a thousand watts of power to carry its Mayan language music and educational programming throughout the Highland region.