“What has been the greatest surprise for you in your short time with ODIM?”

It is a question I get often and one that I can answer enthusi-astically. “The single greatest surprise for me has been the caring and competence of the 40 people who make ODIM work well all year long.” Our staff are smart, creative and they want the best for their communities and ODIM.

They are great people to work with! We have just three for-eigners on staff; all the rest are local Guatemalans, which means that ODIM is intimately

connected to the communities in which we serve. These four women run the bulk of our non-

clinical Programs. L to R: Melyna (Diabetes and Stu-dent Scholarship) Elena (Nutrition) Aracely (Patient Referrals) and Lesbia (Maternal Health)

Six months in and going strong

I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E :

Volunteer Ops 2

Goals for 2105 2

ODIM Awarded

Global Health Grant

3

Partnership Devel-

opment

3

Speaking Tours 3

How You Can Help 4

W H AT I S O D I M ? The Organization for the Development of the Indigenous Maya, is a non-profit that operates two medical clinics, a dental clinic, community-based programs (nutrition diabetes, women’s/maternal health, sexual education) and offers student scholarship and learning reinforcement programs in the communities of San Pablo and San Juan on Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. ODIM (“O-deem” in Spanish) welcomes medical, dental and construction teams from other countries and employs 40 local staff persons who are the backbone of the organization and make a difference in these communities year-round. In 2014, ODIM cared for 7400 medical patients, 420 dental patients, 700 people through our health and education programming, and offered good jobs to our employees.

Lake Atitlan Times The Mission Newsletter of Rev. Jeff Hassel

Executive Director of ODIM Guatemala:

The Organization for the Development of the Indigenous Maya

J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 5 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 1

“I love my

new vocation

as Executive

Director of

ODIM! It isn’t easy, but I

can be my

authentic self in

this type of

service to God

and Neighbor…

that makes it

worth while.”

P A G E 2

ODIM Volunteer

Coordinator, Joel

Enright stands

with ODIM home-

owners Israel and

Andrea after the

dedication of their

home in Decem-

ber .

Looking Ahead

In 2014, we dedicated a new clinic building in San Pablo and began operations. Along with our key staff, we have put in place plan to deepen and im-prove our core programs and services. To that end, these are some of our goals for 2015... the first three are already done!

Expand doctors hours by 33% over 2014

Invest in our employees by doubling our continuing edu-cation budget

Expand our commitment to education by adding High School to our child scholar-ship program

Redevelop our communica-tion and donor-relations pro-grams

Integrate the women’s health and nutrition programs into one seamless program

Hire a full-time Program Ad-ministrator to lead our health-related programs

2015 is going to be a

great year for ODIM and

there is much more that I

want to share with

you. I'll keep you post-

ed!

This is what their home used to be; leaking roof,

dirt floors and drafty. The result:

Chronically sick children.

Volunteer Teams: Spaces Filling up Fast! 2015 is shaping up to be a strong year for our volunteer program, with

17 teams already signed up. We're very excited to be welcoming a number of new groups alongside many returning teams. We welcome medical and construction teams all year long. If you are interested in scheduling a volunteer team in 2015 or 2016, we have a team calendar on

our webpage http://www.odimguatemala.org/team-calendar that shows which dates have been scheduled, and which ones are still open. You can reach me at: odim.executivedirector@gmail.com if you'd like to discuss the possibility of bringing a team down!

Partnership Development

P A G E 3 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 1

ODIM Receives Global Health Grant in 2015 Before heading to Guatemala in July, I swung

by the office of the General Board of Global

Ministries (HQ from my days as a missionary

in Lithuania) to warm-up support and see

how ODIM might be able to work-in with the

major United Methodist mission structures,

including UMCOR. As a result of that visit,

UMCOR sent a rep down to visit us in July

and we were invit-

ed to submit a

grant request.

Four months and

LOTS of work later, we were approved for a

$12,000 grant to merge our nutrition and ma-

ternal health programs. The model for our

program is the globally recognized thou-

sanddays.org program, in which we will offer

medical, nutritional and educational support

to pregnant wom-

en that continues

seamlessly until

the second birth-

day of her child.

This is done be-

cause develop-

mental damage

done in those first

1000 days of life is

not reversible. We

are so excited to receive our first grant from a

major player in the world health scene.

Thanks UMCOR! We are grateful and will

work to insure we can grow this program with

you in service of people here in Guatemala.

Speaking Tours I have plans to come back to the

states in April, July and October to

build relationships with churches,

universities, businesses, service

organizations and individuals. If

you or a group that you are in-

volved with would like me to come

and speak with you, about the

great work of ODIM and how we

might connect in partnership, please drop me a line! We’ll see

what we can arrange!

Recently, eight ODIM staff attended the “Collective Futures Conference”, organized by the well-respected NGO (Non-Government Organization), the Mayan Health Alliance. The conference gathered national and international organization leaders, doctors, and local community health workers involved in develop-ment work and research in Gua-temala. ODIM was invited to pre-sent at the confer-ence and leaders Melyna and Les-bia shared the work ODIM’s health promoters and our two medi-cal clinics are doing through our diabetes program.

Our presentation was the launching point for produc-tive discussion about the best way to manage pa-tients with diabetes in this rural and remote setting. I am especially proud that our ODIM leaders did so well presenting at this conference. A positive result is that we have opened the doors to forming stronger partnerships with organizations who do similar work in Guatemala. Collectively, our goal is to serve the people of Guatemala; doing this in cooperation with other NGOs strengthens all of us.

Guatemalan Health System Crisis: ODIM Steps Up For the past six months, the doctors and nurses who work in the country’s system of health cen-ters have not been paid. The health centers in San Juan and San Pedro had been closed for all but emergencies, and have just recently started working regular hours again after the government paid some of their back-wages. Things like this are common in Guatemala, and I am pleased to be art of an organization that can meet the health needs of people when the main lines of support fail. We could step up to serve in this crisis be-cause of support from people like you.

For me, shifting to the role of an Exec Director is part of living an authentic life. It is also the most difficult thing I have ever done. I want to thank all of you who have given in support of this new vocation and mission...your gifts carry a message of care and support...and matter more than you know.

How to help

I welcome financial and prayer partners to join with me so that I

may be in service to people in this part of the world long-term!

During the coming years at ODIM, I will work to develop an in-

credible staff, and together we will create programs and partner-

ships that work well for the people in our care. My goal is to go

deep, not grow huge.

Here’s how to make a tax-deductible donation to keep me in mis-

sion:

1. Make your check payable to:

HAYESVILLE FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

2. Write “preferenced for support of Jeff Hassel” as the memo

3. Mail to:

HAYESVILLE FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

Guatemala Medical Mission Fund

PO Box 85

Hayesville, NC 28904

4. Hayesville First UMC sends out receipts for tax purposes after the close of the tax-year, the first acknowledgement

(via a "thank you" e-mail) will be from me.

Thank you!

Special Thanks to the Administrative Council of Hayesville UMC for partnering with me in this mission in Guatemala.