Connect & ServeA brighter tomorrow
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Connect & Serve, a brighter tomorrow: volunteers with families in a Guatemalan highland village

Who we are

Beds, safe stoves, and a place to call home.

We Connect and Serve brings beds and vented stoves to families in Yalú, a village in the hills above Sumpango. We also help Dinora Palacios care for the children of Hogar Luz de María, with supplies, care, and the building itself.

Give See the orphanage

Three ways to give

Pick exactly what you're giving to.

No overhead math, no vague fund. 100% of your gift goes to the bed, the stove, or the orphanage you choose.

A family sitting on their new bunk bed in Yalú
A new bunk bed, built with the family
$400one bed

Get a child off the floor

A real bed means warmth, real sleep, and fewer sick days. In the highland cold, it's the difference between a rough night and a safe one.

Fund a bed
A family standing beside their new vented stove
A new vented stove, installed
$265one stove

Get the smoke out of the house

A vented stove pulls smoke outside, so kids breathe cleaner air. It burns far less wood too, which means real money back in a family's pocket every week.

Fund a stove
Children and volunteers in the playroom at Hogar Luz de María
Hogar Luz de María
Anyamount

Help care for the orphanage

Supplies for up to 45 young children, plus paying off and remodeling the building they live in.

Give to the orphanage

The mountain we're climbing

2,000 beds. 900 stoves.

That's the goal, family by family. Here's how far we've come.

2,000
bedsthe goal
Delivered so far: 300Goal 2,000
900
stovesthe goal
Delivered so far: 100Goal 900

These counts come straight from the foundation's trip records. 300 beds and 100 stoves are already in homes. Every gift moves the bar.

How your gift travels

From your screen to a home in Yalú.

You pick a bed, a stove, or the orphanage

Your gift is tied to one real thing, not a general pot. 100% of it goes there.

We carry it up the mountain

Four to six trips a year, straight to Yalú. We buy the beds, stoves, and supplies on the ground and carry them up ourselves.

A family gets it, and you see it

Every trip is documented by date. You can look back at photos from the trip your gift went on.

Volunteers carrying new beds up the road into the village
Carrying beds up the road

The need

Three needs, one corner of the highlands.

A warm bed, a safe stove, and a secure home for kids. Up here, none of those are luxuries.

Yalú sits at the end of a long, winding road in the hills above Sumpango. Nearly every family lives on a dirt floor and cooks over an open fire indoors, so the nights are cold and the smoke stays in the house. Nearby, Hogar Luz de María cares for up to 45 children at a time in a building that needs a lot of repairs.

That's where your gift goes: a bed, a stove, or the orphanage. We carry it there on the next trip.

See the orphanage

From the trips

A look at the work.

Swipe through moments from the mountain, or see the photos from each trip.

Beyond beds and stoves

The orphanage down the road.

Hogar Luz de María has cared for more than 1,050 children since 2004. With help from donors, we helped Dinora Palacios buy the building it runs in. Half the price is paid, with three years to cover the rest, and the building needs a lot of repairs and remodeling.

Children eating lunch together at Hogar Luz de María
Lunchtime at Hogar Luz de María
45

children at a time, ages 0 to 7

$400,000

already paid toward buying the building

$400,000

still to raise, within three years

We bring food, diapers and supplies on every trip, and we're raising money to pay off the building and fix it up. 100% of what you give here goes to the orphanage.

Read their story Give to the orphanage

Better together

Alongside the PDS Health Foundation

We bring beds and stoves. Their dental team brings care to the same families in nearby Xenacoj. Different gifts, same corner of the highlands, same people served.

Our partners

Send the next one up the mountain

Give a bed. Give a stove.

Every gift is one real thing for one real family. Pick yours and it goes on the next trip.

Give a bed $400 Give a stove $265

Reach us

Questions? Get in touch.

Whether you want to give, help on a trip, or just learn more about the work in Yalú, send a note and we'll get back to you.

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