Good morning from Arenal village, a very small community on the Eastern border of Guatemala.

Arenal is one of the poorest villages in the country and we’re approximately 5 Miles from Benque and 3 Miles from Melchor de Mencos, on the Guatemalan side. Most of the villagers do not have permanent jobs; each of us does a little bit of agriculture, a little job here and there, and in order to survive we go to Melchor de Mencos for some cheap shopping from time to time or to the hospital for medical help.

In order to go to Melchor de Mencos we must cross a hanging bridge over the local river, and unfortunately this hanging bridge has been completely destroyed by a flooding in October 2017.

Some authorities visited us, a bunch of promises had been made, but it seems that we’re simply not important enough to get a new bridge, and while some authorities had promised to rebuilt the bridge by end of December, nothing happened and we guess that we’re not going to get our bridge back anymore, but we depend on this bridge. Actually we cross the river with small boats, which sometimes can be very dangerous, and we have to pay for the passage, which a lot of people her cannot afford.

The estimate of the construction of the bridge is 500000 Quetzales (approximately 75000 US$) and we want to try to get the funding of the bridge on our own.

We would now need 15 companies or organizations who would donate 5000 US$ each for this social project, and if we’ll find the 15 companies we’re going to organize the re-construction of the bridge on our own.

We think, that you could be one of the donators and wanted to ask, if you could please support our cause, maybe donate one or 2 of these shares of 5000 US$ and forward this letter to other companies or organizations in order to help us?

We would not claim any of the donations if the whole amount would not be completed. So what we would need for the moment would be your confirmation, that you would support us and be ready to donate a part of the needed amount. We, the people of Arenal, would appreciate very much your help and we say “thank you very much” for your possible support.

Arenal, March 16, 2018

We can be reached through a facebook site: or via email at arenalbridge(at)aalabina.com.

Hans Wagenhaus