Champion of the World's Children
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Dear Editor:
Enclosed are my memories of how the Guatemala Scholarship Fund (now “Progresa”) was started in the small Quaker meeting in Guatemala. The 1974 letter of appeal (enclosed) seems almost naively amusing! Please edit these in any way you feel appropriate.
– Pat Habicht, Taos, NM
Three letters from Friend Pat Habicht of Taos, NM, which demonstrate some of the growth in the Progresa program since 1974.
It is so hard to escape teenage-land when you’re on a trip with nineteen other teenagers. Our Junior Friends Service Trip to Guatemala was full of silly dramas and crushes and a lot of very loud laughter. In my head, I was culturally sensitive, inquisitive, and open. But I’m not sure that’s how I appeared to the Guatemalans I met.
To celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the Progresa program in Guatemala, program participants and supporters gathered in Guatemala in April 2013 to review the program’s history and accomplishments. Looking back across forty years, we found much to celebrate.
