Common Hope

Common Hope promotes hope and opportunity in Guatemala, partnering with children, families, and communities who want to participate in a process of development to improve their lives through education, health care, and housing.

What we do
The families who walk through Common Hope’s doors often live in one-room houses made of cornstalk and scrap metal, with little or no access to education, medical care, clean water, or jobs with livable wages. These families have the ability and desire to improve their lives if given the chance. We simply provide the opportunities and tools for them to do so.

The heart of our work: Education
At Common Hope we believe that education is the key to unwinding the cycle of poverty, so we provide the necessary resources for thousands of impoverished children to attend school each year. We understand, however, that education is about more than books and uniforms – a child’s success in school depends on the quality of the education he or she receives. For this reason, we partner with local schools to support and enhance the education they provide. We help teachers implement more interactive, engaging curriculum, and we foster more individualized support for students at-risk of dropping out of school.

A 360° approach: Nurturing students at home
A child’s success in school also depends on his or her family’s health, safety, and stability. If 11-year-old Ana is distracted by hunger pains, or if she needs to leave school to pick coffee to pay for her mother’s medical bills, she is not going to reach her full potential. For this reason, we also provide integrated services in health care, housing, and family development to provide the stability children need to succeed.

Common Hope was established by Dave and Betty Huebsch in 1986. Today, Common Hope serves more than 8,000 impoverished children and families in 17 communities outside of Antigua and Guatemala City.