Executive Director, Pete Kinch with children from Recero "B" 
Dr. Leeon Aller, founder of HFPF, carrying suitcases of medicine for a stay in Barillas 
The Aller Skill Center, completed in 2010 to teach villagers and locals employable skills 
HFPF "Mission House" in Barillas which is designed to house up to 16 visitors at one time Our Mission
The mission of Hands For Peacemaking Foundation is to promote opportunities for self-reliance in rural Guatemala.
DonateAbout Us
Hands For Peacemaking was established by Leeon Aller MD and his wife Virginia in 1985. Dr. Aller had traveled to the NW highland area of Guatemala and was struck by the wide spread medical challenges the villages faced such as TB. polio, malnutrition, starvation and the conflicts between the rich and poor.
Guatemala was engaged in a bitter Civil War that went on for 36 years and cost over 100,000 lives.
In 1991 Hands For Peacemaking Foundation was incorporated as a non-profit organization. Today, Hands For Peacemaking has its own facility to handle up to 16 visitors at their Santa Cruz Barillas headquarters. They have a full time staff and vehicles that are used to provide services to the over 250 villages that surround the Barillas area.
The organization is unique because their staff lives in the midst of the people they serve. Most Guatemalan human service organizations are headquartered in cities like Antigua or Guatemala City. Both locations are over 14 hours away from the extreme poverty faced by villagers of the NW highland area of Guatemala.
The Hands For Peacemaking Foundation organization meets regularly with village leaders to determine the needs of the Mayan Indian villagers. Often villages are “lost in time” with no electricity, no safe water supply and little food to eat. They cook with open fires in their huts and suffer the effects of constantly breathing the smoke from the fires. Meals often consist of just tortillas and salt, three meals a day. If there is little work, families will go days without food.
The Hands For Peacemaking Guatemala staff requires that a village present a request for their project. The village or villagers must be willing to pay a portion of the cost then Hands For Peacemaking Foundation-United States finds a sponsoring individual or organization that is willing to partner with the village to make their project a reality.
The focus of the organization is to offer opportunities for economic development, improved health conditions and access to education to promote self-sufficiency for the Guatemalan people.
