Locals making a difference: Helping to educate children in poor Guatemalan village

Jazmin Carrillo was 14 when she moved to the U.S. from Guatemala. When she returned last year on a visit to the village of San Antonio where she grew up, the condition of her former school and the students there moved her to use her life in the land of opportunity to help out.

“Some of those kids, I went to school with their parents. That’s where home is, you know – that’s my childhood. I love it. I love the fresh air. I love the fact that kids go to school and you see them walk to school with no shoes and with just a big smile on their face. Just realizing they don’t have much and they’re so happy,” said 24-year-old Carrillo, of Mattituck . A 2007 Riverhead High School graduate, Carrillo is currently a student at Suffolk County Community College. 

She started fundraising so she could buy shoes and school supplies for the children there, selling simple bracelets made in the village for donations large and small at Love Lane Kitchen in Mattituck, where she is a manager. She began with a list of 10 children she would help. Once they were served, she thought bigger.

In one month she raised more than $7,000, and on Jan. 2 she will return to the village having used that money to meet the needs of the children there, some of whom can’t afford to attend school and work for less than $1 per day.

Her passion has inspired others at the restaurant, including fellow manager Dave Benthal, 26, of Jamesport.

“Watching Jazmin’s passion for these kids and their families, she’s kind of started a fire in our community,” Benthal said. One customer gave $20 for three bracelets. The next day he returned with a $500 donation.

Benthal and Jacob Smith, 23, of Mattituck will accompany Carrillo on the two-week trip. Smith is treasurer of the nonprofit she set up, Programa Sueños. Benthal, a freelance photographer, will act as documentarian, shooting photos and video that will appear on the organization’s Facebook page, where donations can be made.

Benthal said he was looking for opportunities to practice his craft and Carrillo’s project was the right fit.

“I wanted to find something that I could find moving, something that would inspire,” he said.

Carrillo’s ultimate goal is to raise $75,000 to rebuild the school, which she said is in much worse shape than when she was a child.

For her, the effort is in the spirit of her grandfather’s work as an activist on his village’s behalf during the brutal Guatemalan Civil War, which lasted from 1960 to 1996 and left an estimated 200,000 people dead, most of them noncombatants at the hands of government and paramilitary forces.

“It’s very personal,” she said of her connection to the people of San Antonio.

So far, her efforts seem to be working, Carrillo said – the 10 students she first selected for sponsorship have shown a “big improvement” in their grades.

“They’re actually learning. Maybe one of those kids one day can make a difference in Guatemala.”

Photo captions, from top: 1. Jazmin Carrillo and students at her former school in San Antonio, Guatemala, during her visit last year. 2. Carrillo and fellow manager at Love Lane Kitchen, photographer Dave Benthal of Jamesport, who will be traveling to San Antonio next week with Carrillo and Jacob Smith, of Mattituck. RiverheadLOCAL photo by Micah Danney.  3. Students at Carrillo’s elementary school in San Antonio last year.