Stephen W. Miller, Co-Founder, HELPS International Michelle Hollaender, Director, Public Relations
Helping Hands for Central American Communities
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As a native of Guatemala, Michelle Hollaender knows all to well about the living conditions of the people in her country.
Volunteers from around the world have joined HELPS International to assist the organization in improving the lives of these people.
As Director of Public Relations of HELPS, International, she is thrilled that she’s made a positive impact on communities in the country.
The founder of Exceptional People Magazine was excited to speak with Hollaender concerning the impact of her work on the lives of the people of Guatemala through HELPS, International.
HELPS is the brain child of Co-Founder and President Stephen W. Smith, who joined Paul Townsend in 1982 to bring the necessities of food, clothing and blankets to the refugees of Guatemala during the height of that country's conflict. The organization’s main focus is to aid Guatemalans and Mexicans. Its target focus areas are:
• Alleviating medical problems in Guatemala's rural areas
• Developing a sound educational system for children in K through sixth grade and providing scholarship assistance for those seeking a secondary education
• Community Development • The introduction of the Onil Stove, a durable stove that minimizes smoke and burns and reduces the use of wood by 70%.
• Economic Development • The Coffee Program where profits from the sale of coffee go to programs specifically designed to improve the lives of the Guatemalan people.
• The Corn Program – a key to alleviating poverty • Water Filter Program – providing safe drinking water in rural communities Hollaender has played a major role in shaping and developing programs to help citizens of that country become self-sufficient, while providing them with hope for a better future.
Monica: What is the mission or purpose of HELPS International? Michelle: HELPS was incorporated in 1984 here in Dallas by a gentleman named Stephen Miller, and the mission of HELPS began by him seeing how the poverty in Guatemala was unacceptable. He went to Guatemala as an investment banker, and he realized that the people needed more than funds to invest, so he started bringing two doctors, his friends. And they saw a lot of children in the highlands July-August 2011 | Exceptional People Magazine | 19
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dying from malnourishment and from lack of medical care. The two doctors who began going down in 1984 have implemented the largest medical relief aid to Guatemala in the highlands. Today HELPS takes around 1200 doctors and volunteers to Guatemala annually on medical missions to operate on the indigenous people who live outside the city, mostly in the Guatemalan highlands. Every year we focus on giving health care to about 24,000 people. This is free health care. The doctors saw a great need for health care. They saw people with hernias, upper respiratory problems, and children with burns. They realized that there was a common cause for all these problems -- the way people still cook in Latin America and throughout the world. They cook on open fires in the home. The home is just a one room home, very small. The children fall in the open fires. There are open fires going on 24/7 in the home, so there's fire and smoke in the homes that cause burns to little children. The hernias are caused because women carry the wood. Women are the ones who gather the wood for the open fires and they have to carry nine tons of wood per year. So every time they get down on their knees to put the wood on their backs, that causes the hernias. And the upper respiratory problems are obviously caused by so much smoke in the home. Their lungs are full of smoke and other horrible things.
HELPS developed a stove to eliminate these open fires. The stove is a self-contained stove, very easy to install. It's made in a factory. The stove uses only 30 percent of the amount of wood, so there's no more deforestation. Women no longer need to carry nine tons of wood per year because it uses only limbs from trees that they find around their home. And there's no more smoke because it brings the smoke out of the home by a pipe. And children are not falling into fires because it's a self-contained stove. Right now we have two factories in Guatemala and one in Mexico. HELPS has already installed over 100,000 of these stoves, but the need in Guatemala is 1 million stoves. Monica: In how many countries have you found these conditions? Michelle: All through Latin America. That's the way they cook in Latin America, and throughout the world in countries such as Africa and India -- using open fires. There’s a need for the stoves all over the world. I'm from Guatemala, that's where my passion is. And my job is really to be a liaison. The American people are amazing people. I have found that this is the most giving country in the world and the most giving society. HELPS was incorporated by an American. And seeing his heart and his will to help, I thought I needed to become the liaison between Guatemala, where I was raised, and the U.S. to connect both countries and people that wanted to help. My goal is to make HELPS the nonprofit organization that will really bring the country out of poverty. We work with microcredit, so women are now able to start their own businesses. We work with communities of women where one leader within 10 women is in charge of paying back the loan. The women get together and they start businesses such as bakeries and weaving businesses. So now they have health. Now they have money in their pockets because they're not spending money to buy wood. Now they're spending
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just 30 percent, they can save money. So women are bringing money to the home, which wasn't done before.
Monica: Sure. You're creating self-sufficiency within their communities.
Then men started asking, "Well, HELPS, could you help us as well? It’s not fair that only women get help." So we put in an agricultural program for men. They plant corn. Guatemala and Latin America is based on a corn economy. They plant corn, and that's what they eat. But centuries ago, they were planting corn the wrong way. They were planting three seeds or four seeds in a clump and not using the proper fertilizers.
Michelle: Exactly. And that's really -- you get it. We do not want to control their lives. We just want to provide them with devices and products to help them become selfsustainable. I don't think we will be able to eliminate poverty, but we can really help them get relief from poverty. That’s what HELPS is. And it's something that you can wrap your arms around; you can see a stove and you can say, "Okay. For $150 I really can change a family."
We join with companies that want to develop programs in Latin America, and we joined with the largest fertilizer company in the world. They have helped us with the corn program where we teach indigenous people how to plant. We teach them to use the right fertilizers for their area because every area needs a different fertilizer. And we have an agricultural development person in the area so they can guide them.
Most of the stoves are being provided through microcredit, so they pay -- they have skin in the game. We never give anything for free. We are totally against subsidizing or just giving free things because people do not appreciate it. I have two boys, and I make them work because if not, they become unappreciative.
And we have found that by just changing the way they plant the seed, by using the right kind of fertilizer and by having guidance, they have increased their corn production to 400 percent. So now the people have corn to eat, to sell and they can grow other crops. We also have an education program where we teach children and mothers the basics. Since we have the capability of going into the homes with the stoves with agricultural programs, they trust us. Also, we help them with pre-kinder and early stimulation programs for the indigenous children, so once they're in school they are a step further along.
Obviously, in health care, we provide free surgery because it's impossible for them to pay. Every medical team provides Guatemala with $1 million worth of medical aid, and the doctors don't mind doing surgeries. But what they have in their home, they pay for it, so they appreciate the stoves. Whenever we go into a home, it's beautiful. The feeling you get when you see these people, see their eyes, and they're kind of scared like, "Why are you coming?" We go inside. We install a stove. Within 45 minutes their world is
We have four pillars in our programs: education, providing resources that free their time and bring them money, agricultural assistance and health care. I like to say we have a healthy, wealthy community. The men do not want to come to the U.S., so in a sense we're helping to prevent the overflow of immigration.
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changed forever, no smoke in their homes. The children are going to be healthy. Women have time, and they help us. Another part of the project is that women need to be trained on how to use the stoves. They need to want it. They have to pay a portion of the cost of the stove and they need to help us install it, so they get ownership. When we leave, they say, "Wow, this is mine. Now I'll take care of it." We come back six months later to see if it's working the right way or if they need any replacement parts. And so it's a program where we prepare the community and provide aftercare. Monica: On average, how long does it take to help a family become self-sufficient? Michelle: In a community that has no stoves and you go in and install stoves and you bring in medical teams, within a year people will have money in their pocket. We have another device, a water filter purification system, so the children are not drinking water from the dirty lakes or dirty rivers. It's 99.9 percent efficient for those who have a water filtration system. So I can say that within a year a community is self-sustainable. Monica: On average how many people have been helped through the organization? Michelle: Well, I can tell you by number of people. With just the stove program alone we have already helped half a million people or more than half a million because we have installed 100,000 stoves. On average, there are five to six peo22 | Exceptional People Magazine | July-August 2011
ple within a home, so I would say that 600,000 have benefited from just the stove. With the medical teams we have seen over 200,000 people, so we have touched almost a million lives in Guatemala with education and with the stoves. Monica: Does the organization focus on education for kids or does it have an actual education program? Michelle: Yes, we have a school. We have a school in the highlands in a place called Santa Melina. It's in Keche. We started a school there because that's where most of the need was. The school is a trilingual school. They start with their native language, then go to Spanish, and learn English. And the school has graduated already seven promotions. We help them with scholarships to get into the national system. We have prepared a program that can be replicated throughout the country. Monica: I would imagine for individuals or families that all that they've known are the conditions in which they're living. So they come to think that they don't have what it takes to move their lives in a positive direction and they don't realize the potential that they have within themselves. What does HELPS do to help the people realize that they have a much greater potential than they realize? Michelle: You're so right. Women are the major agents of change in a society and they have been put in a corner in Latin America and throughout the world to do three things, to cook, to gather wood for energy and to have children. Once we go with this program, they realize that they don't need to spend their time gathering wood. They can get up, and they can be clean and they live in a place where there's no more smoke. And they know that they can learn because now they have free time, and time is what they needed before. So with free time, they’re starting their own businesses. They're becoming involved in community projects because they have self worth. Monica: When they start their businesses, where are those resources coming from?
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Michelle: Most of it is from microcredit. There are microcredit organizations working with HELPS, and there are outside microcredit organizations. I think that's one of the best things that has happened to nonprofits, this new microcredit revolution. That's number one. Number two is the money they're saving by not having to buy wood. They spend around $20 to $40 per month on wood. The women walk distances to gather wood, so they would rather buy it. They're saving 70 percent of that. Now they have money they can save to start their own business. So in the long run the stoves also provide funds for the women to start their own businesses. Monica: What is the biggest reward you get from doing what you do as director of HELPS? Michelle: Actually, there are so many rewards. The first reward is being able to live in the U.S. and help my country. I think it's God's gift to be able to live in this amazing country. The biggest reward I've ever seen is I grew up in a society where we never did social work, and then I came to the United States and I saw a different society. In the past four years I've been seeing a change. And I call it a wave. The young generation wants to help, wants to work.
Michelle: There are two ways people can help. They can join a team. If they have a week and they want to take a vacation -- let me tell you, eighty percent of my volunteers that go down return year after year. So it must feel good. The second way is you can just join and we'll find something for you. You can be a translator or a cook, work on triage, install stoves, or help with education. You can donate a stove. Just start by donating a stove and we will send you a picture of where we install the stove. A stove and its installation costs $150. That includes the pre-screening, the training of the ladies, the installation, and coming back after six months to see if it's working the right way. It's amazing. I was in Guatemala six months ago in a little village, installing stoves. I installed one in a home, and a little girl came by. She said, "Look. This is my favorite toy. I have this." And it was a little butterfly, a silver-plated butterfly. And I said, "Oh my gosh. It's so pretty." She says, "I want you to have it." I asked "Why?" "Because you have been kind to me." She was a five-year old little girl. Since then it broke my heart because that means that they see that their lives are changing. She gave me her favorite toy. I will never lose it.
Another reward for me is to see how my friends are becoming involved. They're going as translators with the medical teams. They're going out on stove installation teams, and now the Guatemalan companies are partnering with HELPS to implement HELPS programs in their areas. Monica: It's great that the young people are becoming involved because they will be responsible for what happens in the future. How can we as individuals lend a helping hand? July-August 2011 | Exceptional People Magazine | 23