LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

A LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

If 2020 taught us how to deal with panic and crisis, 2021 taught us patience and resilience. As the USA and many other rich countries rolled out COVID vaccines to the public, Guatemala was left far behind, along with so many countries in the developing world. We patiently waited our turn and by August 2021 our whole team had been vaccinated; a huge relief for our healthcare providers and community workers who had put themselves at risk to support others. Our initial concerns about not having vaccines available soon shifted to the realization that the majority of our population did not trust the vaccine. Much of our work in 2021 was dedicated to creating vaccine information in the local Mayan language Tz’utujil in order to educate our communities about the myths and realities of COVID and the vaccine (page 8). In September 2021, ODIM led a collaboration of 16 non-profit organizations across the region in the creation of create a video for local television and social media to combat fear and taboo around the vaccine. This was an exciting moment for ODIM; we felt one step closer to achieving our vision of becoming recognized as leaders in health education on a national level, and uniting so many organizations created a wave of excitement around the lake. Our fears around malnutrition due to the pandemic became reality as we saw the numbers coming in. Official statistics reported that child malnutrition doubled nationwide, and even among our program participants (who receive food supple‐ments, vitamins and fresh food baskets) we saw parents struggling to keep their babies at a healthy weight due to a lack of income. Thanks to support from the brave Ultimate Guatemala Challengers (see page 12), our Healthy Mommy & Me program has been able to continue supporting moms and babies through these hardest of times. Our volunteer teams started trickling back to Guatemala this year and the reality is… we need you to come back!ODIM’s communities thrive because of your help, and we are committed to creating safe environments for visitors who want to have a positive impact on these communities during the toughest of times in our recent history. Take a look at page 25 if you are thinking about travel and how it may look during the pandemic. We were thrilled that Giving Tuesday in 2021 was a great success and raised over $17,000 to support our work around Gender Equality (see page 21). We can only do all of this amazing work because we have an international community driving us forward. This is all because of you and we can’t thank you enough. Best wishes from Guatemala on behalf of all the team,

Amy Holly Executive Director 4

“Our volunteer teams started trickling back to Guatemala this year and the reality is…we need you to come back! ODIMʼs communities thrive because of your help, and we are committed to creating safe environments for visitors who want to have a positive impact on these communities during the toughest of times in our recent history.”