Connect & ServeA brighter tomorrow
Give a bed $400
Connect & Serve, a brighter tomorrow: volunteers with families in a Guatemalan highland village

Who we are

Beds, stoves, and a brighter tomorrow for families in Guatemala.

We Connect and Serve is Brad Pickett and Miran Ho's foundation. Four to six times a year we bring beds and vented stoves to families in Yalú, a village in the hills above Sumpango. We also help support Hogar Luz de María, a home for children ages 0 to 7.

Give a bed $400 Give a stove $265

Two gifts, no guesswork

Pick exactly what you're buying.

No overhead math, no vague fund. You buy a bed or a stove, and that's what a family gets on the next trip.

Two children at their new bunk bed
PHOTO — a built bed inside a home
$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
The old, worn cooking stove a family uses now
What most families cook on now
PHOTO — a vented stove in use
$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

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 fund a bed or a stove

Pick the exact item. Your gift is tied to one real thing, not a general pot.

We carry it up the mountain

Four to six trips a year, straight to Yalú. We buy the beds and stoves on the ground and build them with the family.

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.

A volunteer laughing with a family inside their home in the Guatemalan highlands
PHOTO — the village of Yalú in the highlands
A family’s home in the highlands

The need

A hard place to be cold.

Up here, a bed and a stove aren't luxuries. They're the line between a cold, smoky night and a warm one.

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. The nights get cold, the smoke stays in the house, and firewood eats up money a family doesn't have. Beds and stoves fix all three at once.

Read more about Yalú

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. Brad and Miran bought the building it runs in, so the home's roof is finally secure. Half the price is paid, with four years to cover the rest.

45

children at a time, ages 0 to 7

$400,000

already paid toward buying the building

$400,000

still to raise, within four years

We bring food, diapers and supplies on every trip, and we're helping pay off the building.

Read their story Help pay it off

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.

Bed $400 Stove $265