GuateBuena Association
Project Name: GuateBuena Association
Project Leader: Wilfred Sotz
Area of Focus: Utz K’aslemal, Holistic Well-Being
Location: Chimaltenango department of Guatemala, Central America
Partners Since 2017
Fundraising Goal: $24,000
The GuateBuena Association, formerly Community Finance Guatemala, exists to promote Utz K’aslemal, “the good life,” in Guatemalan communities. Utz K’aslemal is a Kaqchikel phrase that envisions an alternative to human development that is informed and inspired by Indigenous values. The vision of GuateBuena is a Guatemala where communities develop integrally, through mutual support, to reach true happiness in harmony with Mother Earth.
GuateBuena’s mission is to conscientize and empower Guatemalan families to create alternative systems, through integral education, accompaniment, and entrepreneural opportunities.
The core of this work is the Community Finance program, through which groups of Indigenous Maya women form solidarity groups and receive training in financial literacy and goal-setting. Through the groups, the women save money, make loans to one another, earn interest, and earn to achieve their goals. Currently, there are more than 400 group members organized in 21 groups. In 2021, these groups saved more than $50,000 Through loans these savings generated more than $10,000 in interest earned and distributed back to the members!
GuateBuena supports these women’s groups holistically in achieving economic, physical, spiritual, emotional, and ecological well-being for themselves, their families, and their communities by providing trainings and counseling, a home gardens initiative, and by connecting members with a network of local services.
Ixoqi’, GuateBuena’s social enterprise, also provides employment to women in the program, a total of 100 artisans who weave, embroider, and prepare bands for hats that are sold to our Texas-based retail partner, Sunshine Tienda.
GuateBuena is an inspiring team of five people from San Juan Comalapa, founder Andrew Becker and his wife Danielle Huffaker, and a wide generosity network of supporters. Our team is devoted to serving Guatemalan communities and embodying GuateBuena’s values:
Tireless resolve;
Unconditional love;
Shared laughter and tears;
A hand offered freely; and
Trust in one another’s word.
Cindy entered the GRACE Cares world in 2016 to redesign their website. She eventually moved into supportive roles and took over the day-to-day financial operations as well as maintaining the website. She is proud to be part of this organization that supports others in their missions that help communities thrive.
Aziza joined the GRACE Cares team in 2020. As Program Coordinator, she supports the Executive Director and the Program Manager in coordinating meetings, tasks, and communication between the GRACE Cares team and our partners. She also works on creating documents and templates to help organize information and workflow within GRACE Cares as well as with partner projects.
Carol Katz has over 40 years of experience in finance and administration, primarily in the healthcare field. She received her MBA from Babson College, and her undergraduate degree in accounting from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She has been living in the Tampa St Petersburg area for the past 20 years where she owned and operated a revenue cycle management company.
Austin joined GRACE Cares as an intern in 2021, helping with social media, then transitioned into his current role as a Communications Specialist. He operates GRACE Cares’ social media accounts. As a Communications Specialist, he makes sure there’s always engaging content on Instagram and Facebook.
As Program Manager, Dorothee has provided support to project leaders and partners based on their goals and needs since 2022. She enjoys working in International Development and supporting people with ideas and a passion for changing their communities.
Lamia Lahrech joined the GRACE Cares team in August, 2018 as the Executive Director. Under her direction, GRACE Cares continues expand project engagement and refine the organization's processes.
Isabel is a bilingual professional with over 8 years of program and data management experience across sectors and industries. She earned a Masters in Quantitative Methods of the Social Sciences from CUNY’s Graduate Center and Bachelors degrees in Economics and Latin American Studies from the University of Miami. This formal education was informed by and is balanced with international experience in social impact organizations, where she’s been responsible for strategic program and measurement framework design, development of indicators and data collection channels, program execution and iteration, and all things analysis: data cleaning, statistical analysis, visualization, and communication of outcomes to diverse stakeholders. Outside of impact learning and measurement, Isabel is called by nature, conflict transformation, and creative exploration.
Noah Steinberg-Di Stefano is a seasoned humanitarian Program Manager with expertise in Cash and Voucher Assistance, Disaster Risk Reduction and food security programming. He has worked on emergency response, refugee support and early recovery projects throughout Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, Colombia, Jordan and East Africa. He has a MA Degree in Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University Heller School for Social policy and published a MA Thesis on Neuroscience frameworks for positive youth development and reducing violent extremism. Noah first connected with GRACE Cares in 2021 and has supported with fundraising and grant writing strategy for partners.
With 17 years of nonprofit and corporate leadership experience, followed by 15 years founding, growing and selling her own businesses, plus multiple volunteer leadership roles, Suzanne is a values driven leader who is passionate about making systems, structures and organizations perform better for all stakeholders.
Dr. Zoe Kopp is originally from Tarrytown, New York. She has lived and worked throughout the United States, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. She received her PhD in Health Behavior from Union Institute and University in 2007 and her Master of Public Health in epidemiology and evaluation from Tulane University in 1987. In 1981 she founded North Florida Women’s Health and Counseling in Tallahassee, Florida, and was guest Lecturer at Florida State University. During 1987-1989 she was Clinical Services Officer for International Planned Parenthood Federation and led that organization’s development of clinical guidelines for reproductive health and quality of care initiatives. As Deputy Director for Primary Health Care for CARE International (1990 -1992) she guided health education programming and expanded HIV prevention activities in Asia and Africa. Dr. Kopp, as a consultant to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) programs, authored several texts on Women’s Health/Urology and helped to establish the continuing education department for the Indian Medical Association. Zoe is retired from Pfizer, where she was Senior Director of Outcomes Research, leading international research teams and studies from 1996 until 2012. She and her husband currently reside in Florida.
Kasey Ochiltree joins the GRACE Cares Board from Boston, Massachusetts, where she is currently the Program Specialist for the Humanitarian Team at Oxfam America. Kasey graduated with her MA in International Peace Studies from the University for Peace in Costa Rica and her BA in Intercultural Studies with minors in Missions and Islamic Studies from Houghton College in Houghton, NY. Her growing area of focus with Oxfam is around Gender Justice and Transformative Leadership for Women’s Rights. Kasey enjoys soccer, photography, and exploring the world. She is very excited for this opportunity to be a part of the GRACE Cares community.
Dean Gallea is a co-founding board member of GRACE Cares. A test engineer with Consumer Reports since 1974, Dean has provided mentorship, technical expertise and capacity building to GRACE Cares projects for over a decade. Dean continues to lead annual service tours in the Dominican Republic with Project Hearts. He is passionate about the transformative effect of technology, arts, health and education for GRACE Cares community partners..
Danielle Huffaker, MA, is a social scientist, community development practitioner, and communications professional. She holds a B.A. in Anthropology from UC Berkeley and a master’s degree from the Centre for Development and Environment at the University of Oslo, where her thesis research focused on what the Cosmovision of the Maya people of Guatemala can offer a transformative enactment of climate change adaptation. She has eight years of involvement in grassroots development projects in Indigenous communities in Guatemala, having lived in Guatemala from 2013-2017. She now lives at the Monastic Academy for the Preservation of Life on Earth (MAPLE), a training center for developing leaders able to confront global existential crises with wisdom, love, and power. She is excited to lead the board of GRACE Cares because she finds inspiration in the passionate service of local heroes serving their communities all around the world.