Dear Friends of Safe Passage,
Twenty-five years ago, a small but determined group of people helped Safe Passage take root next to Guatemala City’s largest garbage dump and refused to let that be the whole story. Today, as we share this Annual Report, we do so with full hearts, knowing that what has grown here is nothing short of extraordinary: a living testament to what happens when education, love, and unwavering belief in young people converge.
This past year, we gathered to celebrate — in Guatemala, in Maine, in Boston, in California, in North Carolina, and in Germany. Longtime friends stood alongside new partners and reflected on how far we have come. Board Co-Chair Santiago Bolaños, who first visited Safe Passage as a middle schooler himself, stood before a crowd at the inauguration of our new middle school building and said it best: “This anniversary is not an endpoint… it is like any 25-year-old — there is so much life and living still ahead.”
That spirit is exactly what moves us forward. We have work and we have so much good to do together.
We would be remiss not to name the world we are working in. In 2024, more than 204,000 Guatemalans crossed the U.S. border. Poverty rates in Guatemala hovered near 55%, with 16% in extreme poverty — twice the rate of any other Latin American and Caribbean nation. As large-scale international development work slowed and even dismantled, grassroots organizations led by and rooted in their communities became more vital than ever. In 2025, Safe Passage articulated our deeper purpose and the fact that we have always worked at the root causes of migration: giving students and families the education, tools, and opportunity to build futures here — in Guatemala.
As we look forward, we are excited for our next 25 years of centering the leadership and strength of our students and graduates as they continue to change their communities and their country for the better. We are deeply proud of our many graduates and future graduates who share a commitment to strengthening Guatemala as doctors, lawyers, educators, psychologists, NGO collaborators and more. Our model intentionally builds leadership towards systems change, and our students and graduates are creating ripples and waves that will continue to leave a lasting legacy of good.
Safe Passage is strong because for more than 25 years, smart, creative, generous people — from Guatemala, the United States, and around the world — have built something beautiful and intentional together. Our students and families, our staff and board, our partners and donors are that community. You are that community.
We invite you to share Safe Passage with someone new this year. In a complicated world, this opportunity to do good work together is a rare and precious gift. Thank you for walking alongside us — for your generosity, your trust, and your belief in the futures our students are building.
With deep gratitude and great hope,
Erin Mooney, Executive Director
Santiago Bolaños, Board Chair
Programmatic Highlights
A New Chapter: Inauguration of the Middle School
After seven years of planning, fundraising, and dreaming, Safe Passage inaugurated its new Middle School building on October 9 — a $1 million milestone made possible by an extraordinary community.
The space offers more than 120 students dedicated classrooms, a gymnasium and sports courts, and arts, music, and STEM areas. For the first time, middle schoolers have an age-appropriate home designed specifically for how they learn, create, and grow.
The inauguration coincided with our 25th Anniversary Celebration, bringing together over 100 supporters from the U.S., Europe, and Guatemala.
Creative Roots: Safe Passage’s First Art Festival
In September, Safe Passage hosted its inaugural Festival de Arte — “Creciendo Juntos: 25 años de transformación y esperanza.”
Over four days, students across all grade levels participated in 18 simultaneous artistic workshops led by teachers and guest artists. Even our youngest learners in Early Childhood explored music, visual art, and movement.
The festival culminated in student exhibitions showcasing the remarkable range of creative work produced throughout the week. Art is now a permanent thread in the fabric of our educational model — a space to experiment, reflect, and express.
Growing From the Ground Up: EcoReto 21 — 3rd Place
Safe Passage earned third place in EcoReto 21, a national environmental competition, through a school-wide worm composting initiative that transformed both soil and learning.
Guided by partners at Rancho Pacaya and Dr. Glenn López, students integrated ancestral Indigenous knowledge with hands-on regenerative agriculture. From kitchen food scraps to classroom paper bins, every corner of campus participated.
In a community shaped by food insecurity and environmental degradation, these lessons build not only practical skills but a profound sense of responsibility — for the land, and for each other.
Rooted in Healing: The Rancho Pacaya Partnership
Safe Passage is proud to partner with Rancho Pacaya, a regenerative learning ranch near Pacaya Volcano led by Dr. Glenn López — a family physician and public health advocate with deep Guatemalan roots.
Rancho Pacaya began donating fresh, regenerative produce to our nutrition program, in January, 2025 and Dr. López guided our 9th graders through a worm composting project connecting food, ecology, and wellbeing.
In a hyper urban community, reconnecting students to the land is an act of healing — and of hope. We are seeking support to make regular student visits possible.
Empowering Young Leaders: Guatemala Youth Initiative Partnership
Funded by D.H Ross Foundation we launched a pilot project with the non-profit Guatemala Youth Initiative to train our own students and teachers as trainers in sexual and reproductive health education. The results speak for themselves: in 2025, Safe Passage recorded zero student pregnancies — compared to 16–18 per year just a few years ago. This outcome reflects not only this pilot’s impact but the deeper cultural shift happening inside our school, as students increasingly envision ambitious futures and understand the choices that make those futures possible.
Caring for the Whole Person: Expanding Wellness Services
Our integrated wellness model reached further than ever in 2025. The clinic served 4,813 patients; our team exchanged nearly 270,000 calls and messages with families throughout the year; and 2,321 psychometric and psychological assessments were administered. Forty-eight families participated in the “Nurturing with Love” parenting program. Together with our partner Shared Beat, who brings expertise in community health, we continue weaving preventative health education and social-emotional learning into every corner of campus life — ensuring that academic progress and personal wellbeing grow side by side. In 2025 we teamed with Moore Medical to broaden care to community members.
2025 By the numbers
To view all of our 2025 impact numbers, please view our complete 2025 Annual Report.
18
graduates from our program
350
families served throughout the year
519
students and affiliates served
100
percent of 5-year-olds measured “high” or “very high” in pre-reading skills
79
percent of our youngest students aged 3–6 scored “outstanding” on the EAD-3
7
graduates from 2024 obtained employment at their internship centers
Financial Highlights
To view all of our 2025 financial information, please view our complete 2025 Annual Report.
Our 25th anniversary year unfolded in a volatile funding landscape. The dismantling of USAID sent shockwaves through private philanthropy, slowing our planned growth in grants revenue as foundations scrambled to absorb unprecedented need.
We pivoted swiftly, deepening engagement with our individual donor community, who responded with extraordinary generosity. We also laid critical groundwork for local fundraising in Guatemala through individual giving and corporate partnerships. And we celebrated a milestone 25 years in the making: the completion of our Middle School building.
Our Global Community
Safe Passage is grateful to our incredible partners who continue to take part in living out our mission and to those who joined us for the first time in 2025 with commitments to breaking the cycle of poverty and creating transformational change in Guatemala.
It was a dream to be joined by so many supporters, former volunteers, emeriti members, and fans that came from the US, UK, Germany, and Guatemala for our 25th anniversary celebration and Middle School Inauguration in October.
2025 SUPPORTER SNAPSHOT
For 2025 Safe Passage’s global support community is represented by the following countries: Denmark, Germany, Guatemala, Spain, The Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom, Korea, and the United States. Whether you were in Guatemala, Maine, Massachusetts, California, DC, North Carolina, Germany, or Spain there was a way to join us in celebrating the milestones and growth of Safe Passage. These gatherings were more than events. They were opportunities to strengthen connections, share stories, and witness what we are achieving together.
650
Visitors from January – November
25+
Partners (health services, educational training, in-kind services, etc.)
128
New donors
830
Individuals fueled our work with generous gifts
10
Grants through Private Foundations totaled $276,155.78
Members of the Board
Santiago Bolanos Chair
Sofia Arimany Co-Chair
Sarah Bellenda
Esther Broll
Matthew Bucher Treasurer
Carla Campbell
Sara Danish
Emily Dollar
Don Francis
Jeff Katz
Camila Lee Witt
Rene Nazario
Cristina Rozas-Botran
Vice President
Ariana Spiliotes
Matthew Verghese
Christian von Oppen
Alyson Welch Secretary
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