After Tropical Storm Agatha collided with Guatemala this summer, its aftermath created scenes of villages destroyed and families swept away. With a psychological toll as heavy as its physical effects, the storm remained long after the skies cleared. There to help pick up the pieces was Wuku’ Kawoq, a nonprofit organization founded in 2007 partly by two alumnae, Emily Tummons and Anne Kraemer Diaz, and annually aided by University students.

Disaster relief immediately became a priority in addition to the organization’s pre-existing summer plans of providing medical services to Guatemalans in their indigenous Mayan language, Kaqchikel.

Tummons, board chair of Wuku’ Kawoq and an instructor of Kaqchikel at the University, said that among the organization’s undertakings are child malnutrition projects in poor coastal communities, water projects in rural communities and diabetes projects near Guatemala City. Although the areas most affected by the storm aren’t typically visited by Wuku’ Kawoq, Tummons said a collective sense of duty arose.

“When Tropical Storm Agatha hit, we all knew kind of instantly that it was our responsibility to meet this with disaster relief,” Tummons said.

Located just south of Mexico, Guatemala is largely mountainous with the Pacific Ocean on its western coast and the Caribbean Sea to its east.

Roughly the size of Ohio, but with a GDP only about an eighth the size of the state’s, Guatemala was witness to twin natural disasters this summer. Two days before Agatha reached land, the Pacaya volcano in the south erupted and displaced about 2,000 people. When Agatha hit May 29, nearly 200 people were killed, scores went missing and 35,000 were sent to shelters.

After the storm, the need for clean water — contaminated water is the leading cause of disease and mortality in Latin America, according to The Pan American Health Organization — increased that much more.

Wuku’ Kawoq partnered with Proctor & Gamble to provide water filter packets to soak up mud and treat water so that drinkable water would be immediately available to those that needed it most.

“The packets won’t last forever but guarantee a few months of drinkable water,” Tummons said.

Offering services in the Mayan communities’ native language, something unique to Wuku’ Kawoq, more readily gained the trust of community leaders and allowed the group to better collaborate in its relief efforts. The organization also brought in counselors to provide post-traumatic stress treatment.

“To talk to people in their language, it shows that we’re there permanently and we’re there to work with them,” said Kraemer Diaz, executive director and a doctoral student at the University. “We’re not just doing one service.”

Clarice Amorim, a graduate student from Recife, Brazil, returned earlier this month after spending the summer in Guatemala with Wuku’ Kawoq. Amorim conducted interviews and surveys of water and nutrition projects, mostly in the small towns of Soccoro and Chocola.

Amorim said that Wuku’ Kawoq’s dedication to meeting with and educating communities of its services sets it apart from other organizations, many of which only visit temporarily.

“You can’t just throw stuff at people,” Amorim said. “Some organizations just go over there and they give people things. They give people clothes, and they give people medicine, and they give people reading glasses and they’re not asking if they want reading glasses. These people, many of them can’t read, why do they need reading glasses? Why are you giving them medicine if they have no idea what that medicine is for?”

Kraemer Diaz said that the organization is hoping to receive a grant to focus on child malnutrition in the highland regions. Other plans include working with a Guatemalan group to put diabetes information in Mayan languages as the disease is a problem in the country.

The organization relies completely on volunteers and has a student intern each year to provide updates from the field.

“Everyone is a volunteer,” Kraemer Diaz said. “It takes a lot of time but in doing that, we ourselves are driven to work because we’re working with people that want to give their time and that want to help other people in Guatemala.”

— Edited by Leslie Kinsman