By: Eden Morrison

Connection is at the heart of everything we do.  Whether it be strengthening our existing relationships or building new ones, collaboration is key to every aspect of our work. In an effort to expand our Latin American connections, Business Development Director Grace Obeda recently visited Guatemala. 

The Catalyst

When Obeda was assigned the role of the Americas business development director, it became increasingly more important for her to improve her Spanish. 

“Not being able to use Spanish on a regular basis here in Michigan, I thought was a huge disadvantage to the region that I would be working in, I really wanted to reach fluency so I could better connect with people,” Obeda said. 

She had already been corresponding with partners in Spanish over email, but wanted to further her conversational skills for better face-to-face interaction. With Business Connect starting to expand their network in Guatemala, it seemed like the perfect place to improve her language skills as well as get a ground level understanding of the work being done in the country. Grace put her goals into action earlier this year when she finally got a chance to visit Guatemala.

On top of working on her language skills, she got to spread the word about Business Connect: “a lot of it was just an introduction to who Business Connect was… letting them know that we’ve got inventory on the ground in Honduras, so we can better assist with projects in Guatemala.” 

Through this experience Obeda was able to both foster Business Connect’s pre-existing relationships with Latin-American non-governmental organizations as well as make new ones.

Guatemalan Connections

Business Connect is continuing to expand our connections with organizations in Latin America. One of our long standing relationships is with a partner non-government organization, Water4Life Global. Water4Life works to distribute water filters throughout areas of Guatemala which Business Connect helps to provide. Grace spent a good portion of her time in Guatemala with Water4Life Co-Founder and Executive Director Jenna MacEwen, learning about the ground level of the organization and considering options for growth within our partnership. 

World Vision is another one of the non-governmental organizations in this region that Business Connect has been fostering a relationship with. This international NGO works both in Guatemala as well as Malawi and focuses on community health, food security, and WASH. “We’ve done maybe 10 or so projects around the world or helped facilitate and supply those projects around the world in the past, but we’ve never worked directly with the World Vision office in Guatemala,” Obeda explains. “Connecting with their local offices is really important.”

During the final week of her trip, Grace visited World Vision’s Guatemala office. There she met with many of the organization’s program directors where she learned about their current projects and programs as well as drafted plans for how their partnership with us will look going forward. This includes action steps such as expanding our network of on-ground inventory, moving Business Connect into a facilitator role between manufacturers and distributors, and always working to build and maintain stronger professional relationships.

Expanding Country, Expanding Need

Guatemala has been expanding and urbanizing at a rapid rate, and the government simply can’t regulate at the same speed. Because of this, the country is finding it increasingly more difficult to maintain the health of its environment.

One of the biggest environmental threats facing the country currently is greywater pollution. Greywater pollution is the contamination of freshwater sources through the misdirection of hazardous material such as industrial run-off, laundry water, and other chemical pollutants. The current greywater pollution poses a particularly dangerous threat to Lake Atitlán, which is at risk for becoming a dead lake. This would mean that the lake would no longer be able to support the majority of its current aquatic life due to poor oxygen levels, thereby killing its entire ecosystem. 

The Mental Strain of a Water Crisis

The house Grace stayed in while in Guatemala came equipped with a water filter. What it didn’t come with was a clear expiration date. During the trip, Grace’s host started feeling ill. After some trial and error in figuring out the cause, the two realized that although they were filtering their water, they had no idea how old the filter was. 

“We were using a ceramic water filter that was already in the house that we were staying at, thinking there’s no reason we shouldn’t trust it. And then after doing a little bit more research and looking at the lifetime and seeing we don’t know how long this filter has been in this house. They only last two years. It looked kind of old.” 

Thanks to their preparedness, the two were able to use P&G Purifier of Water packets for the remainder of their trip, but the strain of constant water worries left an impact on the two. 

“If this is your daily life, constantly thinking about if you have clean water or not, or remembering filtered maintenance or just even the process of filling it up every day was… it just took a lot of mental space and mental energy.”

Attentions Diverted

As the need for aid has grown so intensely in other areas of the world, the needs of many Latin American countries have been thrown to the wayside. Aid funds are being diverted away from Latin America, meaning that countries such as Guatemala are struggling to receive the aid that is so crucial for their development.  

“I think that we have to remember that even places that we see as maybe having less need, it might just not be as visible or it manifests differently,” Obeda said. 

As global attention is being directed to other areas of the world, it is highly important that we continue to expand our efforts in places that don’t receive as much attention in the media such as Latin America.

How can you get Involved?

Currently, Business Connect runs a program where Honduran citizens living in the U.S. are able to purchase water filters through one of our partner organizations in Latin America, Goodjustice. Through this initiative, customers are able to buy potentially life–saving products for specific households in the country.

Some of the best and most reliable water filtration products on the market are currently available for purchase on our website. The P&G Purifier of Water packets and Aquatabs are two particularly groundbreaking products that ensure the highest quality drinking water wherever you go. 

Cameron Barnes

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