OUR IMPACT

In San Marcos La Laguna, Guatemala education ends at the 9th grade. Locals then have few opportunities to continue their education.  Most will not even finish secondary school. They begin work as children. Opportunities for most locals center around building, gardening, housekeeping and cooks in restaurants. There is a desire for more. There is a desire for education.

One World Cacao & Familia Utz Corazón along with our sister organizations are so honored to announce our partnership to provide a paid scholarship program to locals of San Marcos La Laguna.

Our friends Wellkind and CentroComunitario Chitzununchoy Tzununá (Chi Tz Unun Choy) are working with CECAP Santa Cruz La Laguna and Amigos de Santa Cruz Foundation to provide education and training to locals in Tzununa. Here they provide real skill sets that empower locals to be their own entrepreneur.

Locals will have a range of courses to choose from such as to carpentry, electrical, cosmetology and sewing.  Each course has 3 stages from beginners to intermediate to advanced. The entire program will be for one year. At the end of the program, locals will receive a certification from CECAP and a further opportunity for a paid internship.

Locals are chosen through a video application. We ask they send us a 1 to 2 minute video introducing themselves and how this scholarship will benefit their future. In addition, each scholar is required to volunteer once a month in a community project. At the end of the program, scholars will work together with other volunteers to help families in need (small building/renovation project).

For just $200, we can provide a year of education and training to a local. This covers not only the entire yearly course but also transportation.

Please donate to our continued and growing efforts to provide for locals in San Marcos La Laguna….with the most important gift….Education.

We have created a deep, bonding partnership with the ancestors and farmers of the original cacao lovers. There is a sense of community & wholeness, and One World strives to give back to these farmers in any way we can. The One World Cacao community first planted cacao from seeds selected from heirloom trees in the Mayan regions of Guatemala.

Cacao is a shade tree. We reclaimed an abandoned coffee plantation and covered it with 150,000 + mixed hardwood trees.
We are now planting our cacao trees below the canopy of our nascent forest that are now producing pods with all white criollo beans. We also grow and dry green Cardamom which loves growing with cacao.

This is an example of a sustainable agroforestry system that permits economically viable reforestation in today's world.

After the fermentation in cedar boxes, we sun-dry the beans. A particular fermentation and drying permits us to shell the beans right from the drying patio to produce our raw cacao.  For the other cacao, we minimally roast the beans on the traditional wood comal, shell them and grind them to a paste to produce our Ceremonial cacao. We use the shells to make cacao husk tea. We then stone-grind the paste for hours to make the finer ritual cacao used in our chocolates.  As our beans have high butter content, we let the excess come out to make the Ancestral cacao, inspired a wise Qeqchi woman who taught us some of her secrets.  As we are isolated and completely off the grid, we produce our electricity from the water of our streams to power our stone-grinders and facilities.  When you enjoy our cacao, know you are helping us build the cacao forest!