Natural Medicine Free School Project of Guatemala
The Natural Medicine Free School Project of Guatemala was started by Luzio Luna, a trained Acupunctrist and Shiatsu practitioner. Now the project includes the 6 original students and a number of foreigners. They are working to teach local indigenous people Shiatsu massage and Chinese Medicine for free and many people have expressed interest in teaching and learning. When we have a building and are open it will be open to anyone who has an interest in sharing their skills on any subject . We hope to have more medicine teachers volunteer their skills and create a musical instrument library, a tool library as well as a workshop area. The main hub of activity will be a bulletin board where people can list skills they want to learn or are willing to teach.
Impact of the Program
In 2005 Luzio taught two women to do Basic Shiatsu Massage. They worked in a hotel that has a massage room previously used only by foreigners. They went from making $5 a day to making $25 for every massage. They became two of a handful of people at the time from the village who had ever made that much money. One of those women went on to build an extra room on her family’s house with the money she made before marrying a man with enough wealth to allow her to raise the children without working. The other woman went on to open a successful grocery store with the extra money she made. She is one of the few successful entrepreneurs from San Marcos.
You can support this unique program by Donating to the Indiegogo Campaign (Campaign now closed)
We found a 6 room hotel for rent that is $500 dollars a month. Our first goal of $1000 dollars will be needed by June 15th to move in. We hope to be able to pay for a few months upfront, so that we can generate a buzz during those months to gain a solid reputation in the community. We hope to be able to pay the rent with a percentage of each massage given and a percentage of classes that foreigners will pay for. We can always fall back on renting three of the rooms weekly to pay the rent, however we would like to be successful enough to add those rooms as workshops, practice rooms, classroom and clinic rooms.