Smiling Faces. Sunshiny days. We see many of these impressions in the candid photographs capturing Guatemalan families, especially the children. These photos show the Guatemalan communities as they laugh, play, and work. The youngsters seem to not even know that they live in abject poverty. Each photograph shows wide grins, full sets of pearly whites glistening from their beaming smiles. The older generations show character-filled, sun-kissed faces from drudging for hours each day in the coffee-fields of Guatemala, earning less than $2 a day. I think it is these older generations who realize and feel their poverty.
Yet these Guatemalans have a chance at opportunity stemming from the presence of nonprofit organizations such as Roots and Wings International (RWI), which introduces possibilities for education. The radiant children’s faces still glow but they now have books for school to further their learning, donated computers with which to perform calculations and a support system to help them direct their lives in the right direction. These Guatemalan farmers and their children still smile–great big smiles–but now with RWI’s support system behind them to help improve the quality of their lives.
