OUR MISSION: Reducing poverty in Guatemala’s Mayan communities through education.
Dreams and Hopes was founded as a United Sates 501(c)(3) organization in Oregon to create the opportunity for individuals and corporations outside of Guatemala to learn about and support the education of Mayan communities in Guatemala. The primary partner in this mission is Sueños y Esperanzas. Sueños y Esperanzas is a formal Guatemalan non-governmental organization (NGO).
Sueños y Esperanzas educates, equips and empowers Mayan children and youth to have the best future possible in Guatemala. We help young people develop the skills to successfully compete in higher education and obtain careers of their choosing.
Founded in San Juan la Laguna in 2018, the initial focus of Sueños y Esperanzas was to offer scholarships for students to continue their education past elementary school. Families must pay for their children to attend middle and high school. Poverty prevents many children from continuing their education beyond elementary school.
Four scholarships were provided the first year. This program has expanded to an additional eight communities near San Juan la Laguna with over 80 scholarships awarded each year.
Once the school scholarship program was established, the focus turned to construction of a building where after school education could take place and support services could be provided. The Center was completed in 2022 when the third floor dining area with complete kitchen became a reality.
A program for elementary school children, Abejitas, was added in 2021 which offers nutrition, health and learning opportunities.
Mental/physical health services, support and training for students’ parents and addressing basic needs of community members are also provided as all these issues affect a child’s education.
Learning Through Action
Sueños y Esperanzas also teaches children and youth through service in their community, physical activity, honoring and learning about Mayan heritage, and the use of technology.
Parents of involved students are provided mental health services, financial management and nutrition classes as well as training on other topics.
When funding is available, Sueños y Esperanzas hires local masons or recruits volunteers from other countries to build smokeless stoves for local families.
Our Founders
Fredy Perez is from San Juan la Laguna, a town on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. He started Sueños y Esperanzas as a NGO (non-governmental organization) to provide sustainable aid for students and families living in poverty who, like him, were affected by the civil war.
Fredy’s earliest memories are of poverty, violence, and massacres in the areas around the lake, and of a struggle to survive in a broken family. As a child growing up in extreme poverty, his future seemed predetermined: he was expected to be a subsistence farmer with no opportunity for education beyond grade school.
Yet he persisted. He saved some of the money he earned from picking coffee as a child, and at the age of fifteen, moved to Guatemala City alone to finish his high school education. With that move, he left behind the expectation that he would become a poor farmer or start a family at an early age.
In Guatemala City he finished his education as an accountant, but over the years he kept thinking of the kids struggling to survive on the farms in and near his hometown.
Fredy longed to return to San Juan la Laguna and he did! There he reunited with Francisca Coché. They married and are now parents of two beautiful children. Francisca is also dedicated to the mission of Sueños y Esperanzas because she also grew up in San Juan la Laguna and saw the needs of children firsthand.
Fredy and Chika’s long-term goal is to provide education, motivation for students, agricultural aid, social services, and volunteer programs to reach families and entire communities living in poverty.