GODFREY – Since 2004, the Mustard Seed Peace Project headed by Teresa Cranmer has operated from Godfrey to bring infrastructure and hope to people across the hemisphere in rural Guatemala.
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The focus of the organization, according to an email from Cranmer, is to assist communities they work with in the development of sustainable programs toward education, public health and community development. They work with villages in the Ixcan region of Guatemala, which never fully recovered from the nation's devastating civil war raging from the 1960s through well into the 1990s. In 2018, the organization focused on completing phase one of its Clean Water Program. In 2011, the group helped bring clean drinking water to 155 families living in Virginia, Guatemala. In Oct. 2018, the group got water to the communities of San Alfonso and Las Mojarras, connecting 220 additional families to that life-giving natural resources.
“To date, we have provided 1,250 people with access to clean drinking water,” Cranmer said in an email. “The tabletop systems are a temporary solution. We hope to provide each community with a deep well in the near future.”
Cranmer is asking the community's assistance of achieving that mission. She is hoping the spirit of Giving Tuesday – a social media push to donate to nonprofits – will help remind people the Mustard Seed Peace Project is in need of a giving spirit. Starting at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 27, Facebook and PayPal will match donations up to $7 million.
“These funds will help us build much-needed latrines and hand-washing stations at the school in Virginia,” she said. “New latrines and hand-washing stations will not only provide the students with a needed convenience, but it will also help eliminate the spread of germs and disease. Our hope is to raise enough money to implement this project by May 2019.”
The fund-raising opportunity can be found on the Mustard Seed Peace Project's Facebook page. Donations can also be mailed to Mustard Seed Peace Project, 856 Chouteau Ave. in Godfrey.
