One by One

In recent years, Amway Latin America focused its efforts through Amway One by One.

While there are still many grassroots outreach taking place in orphanages and schools, the primary focus has been building homes across the region through Habitat for Humanity, and developing a nutrition program that will soon grow into other surrounding countries.

Here’s what happened in 2012:

In Mexico, 400 children were nourished with Nutrilite Little Bits products and other health services with partner Un Kilo de Ayuda:

120 Amway volunteers continued the annual tradition of traveling to Guatemala. This year, 10 homes were built in Usumatlán:

One special family moved into a new home with support from 29 volunteers in Zambrano, Honduras:

In Tijuana, Mexico, 40 Amway volunteers built 2 homes alongside the families who would live there:

One new home was completed by 10 Amway volunteers in San Isidro de Heredia, Costa Rica:

Another home in La Libertad, El Salvador, was completed by 20 Amway volunteers:

Finally, 15 houses were built by 45 Amway volunteers in São Paulo, Brazil, and a donation was made to build 35 more homes affected by recent flooding:

… which means the tradition will continue in 2013!

For 120 Amway distributors and employees in Guatemala, their annual trip ended with tired bodies and happy hearts.

They came from across Latin America, the Caribbean and the United States to begin construction on an entire neighborhood of 40 homes in Usumatán, with land purchased by Amway and top Amway distributor Tim Foley.

This week in, ten of those homes took shape for local families, many who will own a home for the first time in their lives.

The volunteer group gets bigger every year, and as the volunteers make their way home, they are already talking about what they might be able to accomplish during next year’s trip.

Thanks to Nancy Cortez for her remote reporting from Guatemala.

Note: Originally posted incorrectly as 12 homes – corrected to 10 homes on 3/4/2012. -JH

A group of Amway employees and Business Owners are making their annual journey to Zacapa, Guatemala, where they begin work on a new neighborhood of houses sponsored by Amway and Tim Foley.

This week, more than 120 Amway volunteers from the US and Central America - the largest Habitat for Humanity group ever in Guatemala – are working on the building of 10 homes alongside the homeowners and their families. It’s hard work, but great experiences for the volunteers and the families.

We will post an update next week!

Closing out a week of stories about homes, we travel to Guatemala. However, this story encompasses many countries, because many Amway distributors and employees were part of this project.

It started with a group of Amway distributors from the United States, who travel to Guatemala every year to help build homes through Habitat for Humanity.

Last February, the program was brought to a greater scale, when Amway distributors and Amway Guatemala invited the wider Amway family to participate. Amway distributors and employees from the United States, Mexico, Barbados, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Honduras, Colombia and El Salvador took part in the project, constructing 12 homes for families.

Amway also contributed $500,000 toward the purchase of land, matching the $250,000 gift of Tim Foley, longtime Amway distributor and Amway Founders Council member. This will enable more than 40 homes to be constructed over the next 5 years.

This program was the inspiration for the launch of a formal partnership between Amway and Habitat for Humanity that stretched among the five other countries whose stories we covered this week.

Look for more projects in 2012!

Our friends in Central America were busy over the holidays.

In Guatemala, Amway employees held a celebration for 39 children at the Hogar San Jerónimo Emiliani children’s home in the capital city. They delivered groceries and medicine, and celebrated the holidays with Santa Claus.

In El Salvador, our employees spread holiday cheer for 100 families at San Luis la Herradura in La Paz. The families received groceries hand delivered by smiling faces on Christmas Eve during a holiday celebration.

Employees in Mexico continued an eight-year tradition of collecting rice, beans, milk, cereal and other food items to send to children and their families that live in the Sierra Tarahumara. The team worked through the Fundacion Tarahumara Jose A. Llaguno to deliver the supplies high in the mountain areas of Mexico.

Another eight-year tradition near our headquarters office in Monterrey, Mexico, employees prepared a “Posada” (Christmas party) for 100 children at the Casa Imperio de Amor. The festivities included a holiday meal, piñata and, candy, and of course gifts given by Santa Claus and Amway volunteers.

 Thanks to Nancy Cortez for sharing these stories and photos.