The Spirit Team in the US
We welcome people who are interested in joining our effort.
Pam Novak, a retired professor of business, founded the charity in 1999. While teaching many Asians in Australia, she realized women, especially from developing countries, needed help to get out of poverty. By providing an educational opportunity, family and future generations would be impacted. As president of spirit, she is blessed to have the following wonderful volunteers to make the Spirit dream a reality.
Joe Hentges had a career in education as a District superintendent. He retired to Arizona where he is very active in Rotary, just completing the series of terms as the district director. With his experiences, he has been an invaluable resource in working with young people. He is fully committed to our mission by sponsoring a number of students, providing for the construction of the large all purpose room in the Coatepeque house, and ongoing general program support. His commitment to the program has been unending and solid.
Oscar Moreno is a welcome addition to our team. He grew up in Coatepeque, but has lived in the US for many years. He plans on returning to live in Coatepeque for several month each year.
Donna Jungbluth began as an English helper. Since then, she has assumed responsibility for the volunteer program scheduling, recruitment and dissemination of information.
Steve Cavanaugh has been a volunteer and contributor in a number of non-profit organizations. Having worked on web page development for a Fortune 500 aerospace company, he takes care of some of the updates and organization of the Spirit web site.
Reina is organizing an alternative career option for our girls and will be managing the opportunity.
Our Team in Guatemala
The long term goal is to develop a team that can do most of the applicant interviewing and sorting out. They know the people!
Guisela Garcia was in the program though high school and her first year of university. Her grades were incredible! She was responsible and dedicated to maximizing the opportunity. She is now finishing her classes at university while working at a call center. She wants to be part of making this opportunity available to future students.
Dalia Hernandez came to us with the dream of being an English speaker. She graduated two years ago and after 18 months is in training as a supervisor in her call center. She is also carrying a full university load. She also has a passion for helping others in the future.
Mayling volunteered to be the Becada’s dentist. She brings a lot of enthusiasm and dedication to helping these young women. She works tirelessly and with great love and care on the girls. We are so grateful to have her.
We recently hired a new housemother, Ada (Lukey) Villatoro. The girls rave about her cooking. Lukey works very hard to get her job right. She and Egberto love living in their house on the property. We hope to have a long relationship with them.
