Caring Hands Service Trip Highlights

For the past eight years, volunteers with Kyäni Caring Hands have been working diligently to serve the indigenous communities of Chiapas, Mexico. These efforts will continue as Kyäni transitions fully to become part of Amare in the coming months. We are so excited that our efforts will continue under the leadership of Amare Chief Impact Officer Katy Holt-Larsen and President of Sales Gabriel Sanchez.

We are so grateful to all those who traveled to Chiapas, Mexico, on our latest Caring Hands trip in August! More than 20 participants spent a week helping build four classrooms for the rural indigenous community in Los Pozos. These classrooms will serve high school students in Los Pozos. 

With the rooms in various stages of construction, volunteers worked hard digging ditches, mixing and pouring concrete, and laying concrete blocks. Our Caring Hands group was able to prepare two classrooms for their foundation while helping with the structural integrity of the classroom walls in two others. 

With the addition of these new classrooms, Caring Hands has helped construct over 50 classrooms in 8 schools throughout Chiapas. But as anyone who has served in Chiapas with Caring Hands will tell you, volunteering is about more than just a building.

“Our efforts are about more than just giving a helping hand,” says Andrew Mangeris, former Caring Hands Executive Director. “We do trips so that our members can build relationships and interact with the people in Chiapas. People don’t know how much you care until they get to see you in person. It would be cheaper to pay a construction crew to build the building, but we are trying to build relationships and help others lift themselves.” 

During Caring Hands’ service trip in March, a representative from COBACH, Caring Hands’ partner in the Mexican education system, came to observe the efforts of the volunteers who had traveled to Chiapas. He was so impressed by those individuals that he joined our group in August and expressed his appreciation for the Caring Hands mission.

“He told me that what really set us apart in his mind and changed his heart was how we interacted with the kids,” Andrew explains. “He remembered a volunteer comforting one of the children who was having a hard time and said that changed him more than any of the physical work we did. He appreciated seeing where our hearts are.”

Thank You’s from Caring Hands Volunteers 

“We are so grateful to everyone for doing their part to make the mission of Caring Hands all the more meaningful. I want to thank the wonderful managers, their families, and especially Erich Diestel for going above and beyond to make our accommodations so pleasing and exciting. I will never forget this treasure and meaningful time together impacting lives.” –Peg Janssen

“It was such a great experience to share with everyone. I want to thank everyone for their help in making this such a memorable trip.” –Jen Lamberth

“We had a great week with all the time we spent working together. All of the memories we made together will be with us all our lives. We impacted so many lives in the time we were there.” –Twila Wadsworth

August 2022 Caring Hands Trip Volunteers

Kyäni Business Partners who volunteered were accompanied by Andrew Mangeris, Chief Product Officer, and his family, Javier Duron, Kyäni Compliance Officer, and his wife, and Garret Williams, Photographer.