Tuik Ruch Lew

TRL is a small, locally managed, Guatemalan nonprofit organization, located in Santiago Atitlán on beautiful Lake Atitlán, Guatemala. Established in 2016, TRL currently operates three projects that are helping improve the lives of Tz’utujil Maya community members by reducing poverty, improving health outcomes, and protecting local ecosystems. (1) The Improved Cookstove (ICS) project, which promotes the use of ONIL energy-efficient, clean-burning cookstoves (2) The provision of British Berkefeld water filters to enable access to safe drinking water and minimize pollution from single-use plastics (3) Brighter Futures, a project which replaces incandescent light bulbs with LEDs to increase energy efficiency and lower electricity costs All projects include close interactions with local community members, and each project has an environmental education component, which empowers beneficiaries to understand the environmental challenges threatening Lake Atitlán and to join local efforts to combat climate change. TRL operates on a consensus model, taking into account the experience and cultural knowledge of the local staff. We recognize that, in a grass-roots organization, it is vitally important for each person to understand the benefits of any new idea/technology and