August, 2026
Starting our 30th Year:
This year’s Annual Meeting was a success! The board and our guests were treated to a presentation by Rigoberto Ordoñez Morales, one of the founders of Copal AA. Rigoberto talked about the history of the community, its dedication to the environment, and challenges and successes. We hope to continue having such educational exchanges with Copal AA and Santa Elena.
Here are the opening remarks from founder, John Gates.
On behalf of the communities of Santa Elena Veinti de Octubre and Copal AA la Esperanza, as well as the past and present board members of SEPA, I welcome each of you to our Annual Meeting. As we enter our thirtieth year, I’d like to take a minute to reflect on just a few of the things we have accomplished with your support.
In our thirty years, with an all-volunteer board, we have raised more than $727,945. You have helped educate hundreds of children in a nation where compulsory education ends in the sixth grade. Your donations have helped provide hundreds of scholarships, pay teacher salaries, and support the arts through the purchase of musical instruments and the sponsorship of cultural dances that reenact Maya history. Your generosity built a school addition in Copal AA–with a library and computer lab, and then provided computers for the lab. Thanks to you, our partner communities now have a road through which they can be accessed more easily. Now that there is a well at the Santa Elena School, the children and the teachers no longer have to carry water from the river. You have helped us build a community kitchen in Copal AA where students will prepare the food grown in their school garden. You’ve donated dozens of pairs of shoes.
Have you made a difference? No doubt.
Let me tell you about one of the young men from Santa Elena. WIth your help, he received his college degree and then went on to become a lawyer–But not just any lawyer. That man, whose family was deeply impacted by the anti-Maya policies of the Guatemala government during the Internal Armed Conflict, helped prosecute General Ríos Montt-one of the worst perpetrators of violence in Guatemala. And we have sponsored countless accompaniers, those young men and women who served–and continue to serve–as human rights observers.
But together, with your help, we have done so more than that. We have learned much from the communities of Santa Elena and Copal AA. We have learned about the importance of conservation, of living in harmony with nature. We have learned the importance of – and the impact of – defending one’s beliefs and one’s rights–rights to clean water, to self-determination, to health and to safety, to a quality education. The right, in fact, to live according to one’s beliefs. We have learned to look at our history with a more critical eye. Best of all, we have learned how far one’s heart can stretch, and how beautiful cross-cultural friendships can be. We have learned, quite frankly, how to love our neighbor.
And as we look forward to our next thirty years, I’d like to share with you some of our future plans.
1. In September, in conjunction with the community garage sale, we will host our first-ever plant and garage sale. We hope to see you there.
2. Thanks to our intern, we will roll out our new bilingual webpage.
3. We plan to partner with local high schools to help us on capital campaigns.
4. Working with Santa Elena and Copal AA, we will investigate and apply for grants, so that they can achieve their goals which include among others, preserving the history of the Internal Armed Conflict; maintaining their current schools while developing a vocational school; purchasing new computers to keep up with the growing school population; and rebuilding school bathroom facilities.
5. Finally, we will explore other ways of making the bond between our communities even stronger. In addition to restarting delegations, we hope to offer ways in which our three communities can understand more about each other–through classes and presentations–and ways in which our communities can communicate more regularly with each other.
I am excited about our past accomplishments. I am excited about our future. Once again, thank you for all of your support over the past 30 years.
News:
With heavy hearts, we announce the death of Judy Kruger, a long-time member of SEPA. Judy worked with SEPA for more than 15 years, had the tremendous foresight to ensure our legal non-profit status, piloted our B&B program, and traveled to Guatemala.
Our plant/garage sale will take place on September 5 at 26 King Street in Oberlin. Vice-Chair Sarah Johnson will provide herb seedlings, berry starts, rose cuttings, and flower bulbs as well as kombucha start-up kits and vermicompost. Coffee and homemade treats will also be available for purchase. If you have any gently-used items or plants you wish to donate to our sale, please be in touch to arrange a pickup: lori@sepaoberlin.org or kelly@sepaoberlin.org. Thank you to Rust Belt Riders for their soil donation.
Welcome to our New Board Members
Welcome to new board members David Kelley, Oberlin student Lizette Lopez-Ortiz and intern Jayen Pal.
Save the Date:
Our Annual Dinner is scheduled for April 3, 2027.
Email Change:
Note that we are changing our email addresses: To reach us please use Lori@sepaoberlin.org or Kelly@sepaoberlin.org.
Comments