Hands for Peacemaking Foundation (HFPF)

Über uns

Hands For Peacemaking Foundation (HFPF) is an international organization headquartered in Everett, Washington and incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1991with core operations in Barillas, Huehuetenango, Guatemala

Our focus at HFPF is to offer opportunities for economic development, improved health conditions, and access to education in order to promote self-sufficiency for the Guatemalan people in the regions we serve.

Our work
• Mission House: Today, We have our own facility where we can accommodate up to 16 visitors at a time in our Santa Cruz Barillas headquarters. We also have a full-time staff on the ground in Guatemala and vehicles that are used to provide services to the over 250 villages that surround the Barillas area.
• In 2010, Hands For Peacemaking opened the Aller Skill Center on property purchased adjacent to the Mission House: The 5,000 square foot, two story building is designed to teach employable skills such as: welding, manufacturing, and assembly, while providing employment for over 9 local people. The Aler Stove, school desks, teacher desks, white boards and latrines are the products presently produced at the Aller Skill Center. The facility has become the centerpiece of our effort to teach villagers and locals employable skills.

Projects:
• Clean Air Stoves: One of the leading causes of illness, injury and death among the villagers of the Barillas area relates to the breathing of smoke inside the village huts from the open fires used for cooking and heat. The result was the development of the Aler stove, that is manufactured in our Barillas facility. Aler Stoves burn 65% less wood, are designed to greatly reduce the risk of burns, and are built right in Barillas, which provides jobs for the local economy. With the Aler Stove, not only do they spend fewer hours of each day gathering firewood, but the potential for smoke-related respiratory illnesses has all but been eliminated.
• Clean Water: Hands For Peacemaking Foundation has established a number of methods to help villagers get safe water. In some cases, we have partnered with a village to install water storage tanks, coupled with water filters to meet the basic needs. The resulting water system doesn’t replace a well or spring, but it does provide emergency water that can mean life or death for villagers. We have helped some villages properly protect their wells by installing a concrete cap, purifying the water, and installing simple, easy to repair pumps. Depending on the water source, these wells can sustain a village in the dry season.
• Improved Education: Through the help of sponsoring organizations such as the Marysville and South Everett-Mukilteo Rotaries, Hands For Peacemaking Foundation began to build much needed school buildings in villages that either lacked a school, or had one that needed additional classrooms. After a couple of years, the HFPF staff decided that they would design and build the school desks and white boards, rather than buying them (from other regions in the country). To date, we have built over 11,000 school desks, and are the largest manufacturer of desks in the Barillas area.
• Teaching new skills: Hands For Peacemaking also provides opportunities for villagers to learn new skills such as candle-making, embroidery, and gardening. And through the Aller Skill Center, we teach welding, manufacturing, assembly, and other skills that lead to employment opportunities. Programs such as these help villagers become entrepreneurs using their new skills, and lift themselves out of poverty—creating opportunities for a brighter tomorrow.
• Vuelta Grande Virtual Project - Virtual mission/project trip: From a firsthand look at the manufacturing of an Aller Stove tot he installation of 45 Aller Stoves in the village of Vuelta Grande.

Jeffrey Hager is the Executive Director of the Hands for Peacemaking Foundation (HFPF).

For other net participants we can offer an expert guidance through trained staff, give an expert opinion, procure expert information and establish new contacts in the field of our work.