GOD'S CHILD Project and Asociación Nuestros Ahijados staff and volunteers are right now working away to create a virtual visiting experience for the thousands of volunteers, friends, sponsors, and benefactors from around the world who want to love, pray for, support, and now VISIT the Project's boys and girls in Guatemala.
To get started, just choose one of the following Live Web Cams which are now broadcasting 24-hours a day from The GOD'S CHILD Project's Dreamer Center in Antigua Guatemala.
You will be asked for a User Name. Type in: amigo You will be asked for a Password. Type in: 1111
The first time you visit these web cameras, you will be asked if you want to download an Active X. Hit "Yes" (or "Download").
Also the first time, you will be asked if you want to run the program that will connect you to these web cameras. Hit "Run" (or "Accept").
That's it. Take care, and we look forward to seeing you looking down at us in Guatemala via these web cameras very soon.
P.S.: The Project's team members, children, and families that you see on these GOD'S CHILD Project webcams are people working, studying, and living their daily lives. Our actions in The Dreamer Center are not scripted, and since we quickly forget that we are on webcam, no one is acting. You see us as we are...... for better or worse. Enjoy!
The Dreamer Center in Antigua Guatemala is on Central Standard Time... the same as Bismarck ND, of course.
In the Project's Administrative Office at The Dreamer Center, Antigua Guatemala
What You Are Looking At....
When the first of several parcels of land that would eventually make up The Dreamer Center was purchased in 1997, The GOD'S CHILD Project had no money in the bank and tens of thousands of dollars in operating debt. The Project was working out of a small rented house at the top of a high hill, accessible only by dirt footpath, in the El Manchen neighborhood of Antigua. The 1997 donation of $ 150,000 from Dreamer Ministries (Plano, Texas, USA) gave permanency to the Project's effort by allowing it to acquire a permanent home.
The land that was purchased with the Dreamer Ministries gift was designed by GOD'S CHILD Project director Patrick Atkinson to be the Project's all-encompassing community development site. As a result, it was built out to within a meter of the whole of the property's perimeter, with this single building housing, among other departments, the Project's Atkinson Family Clinics and the Helen and Michael Walsh Community Hall. The third floor of this building was designed to be a nursery, to provide medical and day-time care for the children of the area's young mothers who Atkinson envisioned would study in the Project's school.
Over time and as other adjoining pieces of property were purchased, the Project dropped the idea of operating an on-site day-care center. At this same time, the Project was asked to leave the 3-room El Manchen house since the neighbors objected to hundreds of children passing by to visit this El Manchen house each day. As a result, the 3rd floor of this first Dreamer Center building was re-developed to house the Project's accounting, sponsorship, administrative, and social work offices.
Today, this one-room area, lovingly known as the Donna Miller Administrative Office, is home to (starting in the bottom left corner and going clockwise) the Project's administrative direction, an everybody-uses-it desk, ServiceTeam coordination, donations & acquisitions, group meeting space, an everybody-uses-it desk, and scholarship and accounting support. Additional offices located in the Donna Miller Administrative Office are accounting and internal auditing.
The Donna Miller Administrative Office is a very busy place from 8:00am - 5:00pm, Monday to Friday, and from 8:00am - 12:00noon, on Saturday. All-Team common prayer and general announcements are shared at 8:00am each morning.
If you are asked for a User Name, type in: amigo If you are asked for a Password, type in: 1111
Click Here for The Dreamer Center's Donna Miller Administrative Office webcam
In The Project's School Library at The Dreamer Center, Antigua, Guatemala
What You Are Looking At...
The GOD'S CHILD Project operates, or is the principal supporter of, 7 different schools in Guatemala. The main school, called El Centro Escolar Soñador (The Dreamer Center School, located in the Project's main campus in Guatemala) was built in 1980 and 1981 with the support of hundreds of benefactors. Major gifts were received from Rotary Clubs of North Dakota, Michael and Helen Walsh, Myron and Marge Atkinson, Steve Mittlesteadt, Peggy Ahlness, >.
The third floor of the Dreamer Center is home to the Steve Mittelsteadt Library and Peggy Ahlness Computer Center. The library is open to the public, and it is frequently visited by regional school classrooms, and after-hour school children, from schools too poor to have their own schools. Public education, mothers' groups, and community development programs also use this library to hold workshops and public meetings.
The Steve Mittelsteadt Library and The Peggy Ahlness Computer Center at The Dreamer Center School are used Monday to Friday, from 8:00am through 5:00pm, and on ocassionally on Saturday mornings.
If you are asked for a User Name, type in: amigo If you are asked for a Password, type in: 1111
Click Here for The Dreamer Center's Steve Mittlesteadt Library and Peggy Ahlness Computer Center webcam
In the Bauer Amphitheater at The Dreamer Center, Antigua Guatemala
What You Are Looking At....
The Bauer Family Amphitheater was built in memory of <description under development>.
The Bauer Family Amphitheater is a very busy place from 7:30am - 5:00pm, Monday to Friday, and from 8:30am - 12:00noon, on Saturday. It is also frequently used at other hours and on Sunday.
If you are asked for a User Name, type in: amigo If you are asked for a Password, type in: 1111
Click Here for The Dreamer Center's Bauer Family Amphitheater webcam
In The Project's Central Courtyard In Front of the School At the Dreamer Center, Antigua Guatemala
What You Are Looking At:
The Helene Calvet Courtyard at The Dreamer Center.
The GOD'S CHILD Project's main base of operations in Guatemala is known as The Dreamer Center. The Dreamer Center is also home to La Asociacion Nuestros Ahijados, a Guatemalan-registered charity that was founded in 1991 by GOD'S CHILD Project founder and international executive director, Patrick Atkinson. It is through La Asociacion Nuestros Ahijados that The GOD'S CHILD Project does most of its work in Guatemala.
In 1997 The GOD'S CHILD Project received a donation of $ 150,000 from Dreamer Ministries of Plano, Texas, USA, with which to buy a piece of land on which to build a permanent home. After much looking and many considerations, Patrick Atkinson negotiated to buy the Antigua's former garbage dump. This land was settled half ways between Antigua and the neighboring village of San Felipe, and both townships were quickly growing towards one another. As a result, this garbage dump was closed and the land left abandoned. After buying it, Atkinson would take visitors out there and delight in telling them how the stenching land that lay before them would one day be a beautiful community development campus serving God and humanity.
For months, the populations of Antigua and San Felipe enjoyed a good laugh at this man who had purchased the land filled with rotting animals and decaying garbage. Soon enough, though, work was begun and the contaminated soil was removed until virgin dirt was reached and a huge gapping hole was all that remained. A heavy rainstorm a week later left the municipality of Antigua begging for a place to dump the rich mountainside top soil that had washed down into the streets of Antigua. An arrangement was quickly made, and construction of The Dreamer Center had begun. Over the years, 23 years adjacent parcels of land were purchased and incorporated into The Dreamer Center. Today this property is one of the most valuable pieces of non-agricultural land in the whole of the Antigua valley.
Direct paths leading from The Dreamer Center School, Pamela Hirst-Prins Playground, BVM Dental Clinic, Dan and Kendal McDonald Dining Room, Kitchen, and the Volunteer / ServiceTeam / Social Work / Administrative Offices all merge in one spot in the middle of The Dreamer Center. This place is called The Helene Calvet Courtyard, in appreciation for our friend and major benefactor Dr. Helene Calvet. of California.
The building at the depth of this web-cam view is the Bob and Mattie Rupp Food Storage Room & Walk-In Cold Room. It is here that thousands of pounds of donated fruits and vegetables, collected and given by Guatemalan farmers and businesses, are collected and stored each week. This food is used by the Project in our kitchen to feed an average of 800 meals each day. It is also used in our Santa Madre Homeless Shelter and at The Scheel Center. Any fruits and vegetables that are left over at the end of the week are distributed to the hundreds of mothers associated with the Project's Mothers Clubs. This happens on Fridays between 10:00 and 11:00 am.
Diego Raymundo de Leon, a young man who grew up through the Project since he was 7 years old, and in fact shares Project founder Patrick Atkinson's birthday, is the Project's Director for Donation Acquisition in Guatemala. Diego is responsible for making and maintaining contact with our Guatemalan benefactors. In this web-cam, you will often see Diego parking the Project's two cars (a van and a pickup), as well as loading and unloading donated goods.
Dozens of volunteer ServiceTeam Experience groups come from around the world each year to build homes, classrooms, and clinics for the poorest families and neighborhoods in Guatemala through The GOD'S CHILD Project and La Asociacion Nuestros Ahijados. In this web-cam, you will frequently see these volunteer ServiceTeams groups loading and unloading construction supplies that they use in these community development efforts.
If you are asked for a User Name, type in: amigo If you are asked for a Password, type in: 1111
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In The Dining Room at The Dreamer Center, in Antigua Guatemala
Under the firm guidance of two full-time Guatemalan women, volunteers, project youth, and international volunteers in the Project's Dreamer Center kitchen prepare and serve over 1100 meals a day. About 800 meals are eaten in the adjoining Dan and Kendall McDonald Dining Room, which is shown in this web-cam, and the other meals are transported to our Santa Madre Homeless Shelter as well as to our Scheel Center vocational-technical training site. Our kitchen and dining room is open to the general public, and we frequently serve walk-in friends who have not had a decent meal in several days. Specialized meal service is available to youth, women, and families who have been rescued by, and are now associated with, the Project's Human Trafficking program pending a long-term solution to their individual situation.
Almost all of the food that is prepared and served here is donated by Guatemalan farmers, restuarant managers, and businesses. The food that we purchased is financed by special dedicated gifts. We always have a need for additional donations of food. Please make us aware of any additional food-donation resources that you may know about.
As you can imagine, the Project's kitchen as well as the Dan and Kendall McDonald Dining Room are two very busy places, all day, every day, Monday to Friday. It is used at other hours and on weekends to prepare the food which is later taken over to our Project's Santa Madre Homeless Shelter, and for special events. On occasion, it is used for dances, workshops, staff meetings, retreats, and by outside groups.
If you are asked for a User Name, type in: amigo If you are asked for a Password, type in: 1111
