Long Way Home – A Class Apart – Alexandra Posada - Guatemala

27-09-2010

Filming documentaries brings you face to face with many of the challenges facing the struggle of communities for a better life. There are many cases of good intentions that get nowhere fast as they do not match the pressing needs of a community. Long Way Home is an NGO started by Texan Matt Paneitz working in Comalapa, a small rural community in the highlands of Guatemala and through careful listening he has managed to do just the opposite. What started as a crusade to get the community to recycle its waste has become a project that answers to just what the community needs.

A soccer field?

Everyone in Latin America wants one and Matt, or Mateo, as he is known around Comalapa, delivered on the condition that the entrance fee was paid with recycled waste plastic bottles. A new school? Fine, but it would be built with the help of the community from waste materials and cutting edge recycling techniques.

The results? A new twinkle in the eyes of the school's future students as they gaze at the beautiful round buildings that will soon become their classrooms. A deluge of volunteers from all over the world happily sweating away in the mud inspired by the fact that they’re changing this town’s reality one tire at a time. And an entire town galvanized into action with the certainty that they can transform their own future as easily as Long Way Home has shown them how to transform waste.

Posted by Alexandra Posada

Long Way Home – A Class Apart – Genevieve Croker - Guatemala

21-10-2010

The BBC filming was fantastic. Long Way Home board members, staff and volunteers really dug deep to ensure that everything was in top shape. As a result, the park is more beautiful than ever, the school construction is moving right along, and the mood is jubilant. Alex, our one-woman film crew, was a delight to work with and we can't wait to see the segment she puts together for us.

Alex was our first experience with a professional producer and she really made the experience wonderful for our staff and community members. Her warm manner and fluent Spanish helped put everyone here at ease. Many of our Mayan neighbors are unaccustomed to being on film and she was able to make them comfortable so that they could represent what's best about San Juan Comalapa.

From my perspective as Operations Manager, the process was an excellent opportunity to focus on what makes our project so unique and successful. Mapping out the filming schedule (how to fit all the highlights into a couple of days?!?!) was challenging but a chance to think very carefully about how we do what we do.

Often we are focused on the day-to-day details of constructing a school and the big picture can get away from us. Through the course of planning and executing the filming, our staff was able to reconnect with our larger purpose: working with our community to improve the quality of life for all residents.

Our selection as a BBC World Challenge finalist has already had a profound positive impact on our organization. We are so grateful for the lessons learned during the filming and of course, for the chance to share our project with a global audience.

Posted by Genevieve Croker