Prior to founding Ak’ Tenamit in 1992, Steve Dudenhoefer owned a successful landscaping business in South Florida. In 1990, he decided to visit Guatemala to discover why many of his employees, Mayans from Guatemala, had immigrated to the US to work and sent every penny they earned back home. He met people who lived on $1 a day, children without schools, mothers without vital medicine for their babies. Deeply affected by this experience, he returned home, sold his businesses and started Asociación Ak’ Tenamit in 1992 with the help of local village leaders. Today Ak’ Tenamit is run entirely by the Q’eqchi people, and Steve remains involved as Chief Technical Adviser, assisting managers and the Board but concentrating on fundraising and networking.

1996–The “We Must Educate Girls” campaign spreads to 70 village schools. Using Q’eqchi culture as the background, AAT produces and provides visual educational materials that promote positive images of girls and women towards education; improving both the family and the community’s image of primary school education for women. Five Q’eqchi health promoters trained in Western and Mayan health practices work in 70 villages to improve their health and nutrition.

1997–Rotary work teams cooperating with local villagers and students build a middle school “Básicos” for 17 Mayan boys. Using donated funds, a brand new 30′ x 60′ school building and adjacent dormitory are finished. This boarding middle school is the essential step in helping these first students to continue past a 6th grade education. Students donate 2 hours daily for chores and building our school.

1998–Disaster strikes during the last week in October as hurricane Mitch devastated the region resulting in extensive flooding and an unbelievable loss of food, farm animals, and crops. A new health crisis of diarrhea, illnesses, cholera, typhoid fever, malaria, respiratory infections along with skin diseases plummeted already suffering communities. Two health teams visited all 31 villages we serve over the next three weeks. Our village health promoters gave talks on sanitation, clear water, and distributed bottles of chlorine. On the positive side, our new Básicos school is growing… now with 26 students…18 boys as boarders and 8 girls… a “first” for girls where most indigenous girls drop out after the 2nd grade

1999–AAT started this year off by dealing with the aftermath of hurricane Mitch. Only with the unbelievable assistance of many friends, personal donations, and sizable gifts of food and medical supplies were we able to provide needed assistance and continue our programs. Our first six girls from remote villages enter AAT’s middle school as boarding students, utilizing the new girl’s dormitory just recently built. AAT continues its well-drilling program along with its home vegetable garden efforts.

2001–In response to growing demand for education. Ak’Tenamit buys land where students and parents build a vocational high school, named for American priest Father Tom Moran. Girls and boys cleared the land with machetes, graded the building site using pick axes and shovels, carried gravel, cement and building blocks up from the dock at the river to become expert cement mixers and bricklayers. All the students boarding at the new center performed these daily tasks to pay for their education. This center opens with 134 students, 35 of which are girls, in grades 7-9.

2002–Our 10th Year. The World Bank and the George Soros Foundation select AAT as one of the 10 best non-governmental organizations in Guatemala. We also won a $15,000 prize and were nominated by the UN Development Programme as one of four best sustainable development programs. A 10th grade is added to the Fr. Moran Center. Ak’ Tenamit opens a restaurant, Buga Mama, where students gain valuable job training.

2003–AAT’s growth allows the transfer of our primary school to Barra Lámpara fulfilling our long-standing goal of local residents managing their own school. In addition, AAT is educating more than 220 students from 38 villages attending grades 7,8,9,10 and 11 along with 25 teachers and staffers. The health team visits 20 villages every six weeks caring for 6000 patients. AAT trained midwives now total 56 serving 27 villages. AAT’s Fr. Moran Center combines traditional academics with practical hands-on training to enable our students to lead productive lives with sustainable agriculture, healthcare, income generation and community development to become leaders in their home villages.

2004–Three girls and 11 boys are the first to graduate from 12th grade at Fr. Moran Center. AAT introduces a combined academic and sustainable tourism curriculum. For every two weeks spent in classroom, one week is spent in eco-tourism working in a restaurant, gift shop, tourism center, and working at our Buga Mama restaurant at nearby Livingston on leased land on the Rio Dulce to prepare our students for a career. The British Embassy, Canadian Embassy and Rotary District 6950 contribute to a new computer lab and library.

2005–Our senior high school offers both Sustainable Tourism (hotels, restaurants) and Rural Well Being (health, village development, and leadership.) tracks. Tourism students spend two weeks in traditional classroom and then one week in practical hands-on experience in restaurant, craft shops, or retail visitor centers. Our rural students spend every third week focused on village infrastructure, handicraft production, crops, trees, and fish farming… a hands-on education in income earning and expensing. AKT is now serving some 400 students including the elementary schools along with the 170 boarder’s on-site working towards full-time employment.

2006–Hurricane Stan struck Guatemala just as the major storms of Katrina, Rita, and Wilma hit the USA. Consequences were severe… flooding, crop loss, rampant illness, over 1,200 lives lost, 1,500 schools demolished, 800 bridges destroyed, and extensive road damage. The Guatemalan government requested AAT to expand health coverage to a total of 124 villages with over 26,000 people, none of which had medical care or medical education. The challenge of expanding our organization to cover four times as many people in remote and distant villages turned out to be our biggest challenge ever. AAT is training numerous health promoters and new midwives and equipping 48 village clinics. Our high school is preparing 270 Q’eqchi’ boys and girls in practical rural education.

2007–Our 15th Year. Our innovative vocational high school now serves 320 students – 38% of them girls. This year we will graduate 22 students. Our “We Must Educate the Girls” program now is helping a growing number of Q’eqchi’ Mayan girls. In 1998, just 8 girls enrolled in the vocational high school; by 2007 there were 133 girls studying both academic and hands-on subjects in AAT’s restaurants, shops, handicraft center, and school farm along with community health education services. Our health program now serves more than 26,000 people in our clinic and some 180 remote and isolated villages.

2008–This year 26 students graduated from our Fr. Moran Center with many of them already employed. For the 2009 academic year, some 600 students are already enrolled with 93 on track to graduate. These next year graduates are hard at work refurbishing and expanding the dorms and building school furniture, all to accommodate more prospective students. Our health program is expanding to 125 villages serving 26,500 villagers with visits once every 3 months. AAT’s health promoters now total 54 in addition to the 86 midwives that serve in the local villages. Some 42 village health posts are open while our main clinic treated 6,500 patients. AAT ran 170 ambulance trips to the nearest hospital across the bay – a dangerous trip especially at night.

2009–AAT suffered an economic crisis this year – with donations down almost 30 percent. Personnel cuts were made reducing our expenses with our international volunteers and the 2008 graduates who donated one year of service filled the gap. For 2009, 42% of our school’s student body are female… close to reaching our goal of 50% girls. Our annual “We Must Educate the Girls” workshop day was completely filled with 5th & 6th grade Mayan girls visiting from local villages.

2010–AAT continues to struggle with funds to cover teacher and staff salaries, purchase food, medicine, gasoline, and basic school and building supplies. A special effort is underway to increase the money our students and villagers earn to offset the expenses of their room and board, their education and the health and cooperative services that AAT need to continue offering. Ak’ Tenamit has four restaurants and three handicraft shops run by students. By the time they graduate, students have 3,000 hours of job experience. Nearly all Fr. Moran Center graduates are employed – half in community development. 104 students graduate this year.

2011–We suffered the heart-wrenching loss of Catalina Mucu Maas and Alberto Coc Cal, both AAT graduates, in an ambush and murder while returning by boat from the Rio Dulce to their home village. AAT’s new Board of Directors members are 100% indigenous comprised of both staffers and villagers, made up of 50% women and 50% men with an average age of only 23 and representing 100% of the villages that Ak’ Tenamit services.

2012–20th Anniversary. An updated needs assessment in the health area found that other health organizations were providing services in the same area we were. This plus lack of funding led the Board to decide to suspend village health visits and concentrate on the riverside clinic. Over 330 students are enrolled in our Fr. Moran Center, and 52 students graduated – half with a degree in Community Development and half in Sustainable Tourism.

2013–During the two decades since Ak’tenamit was founded, this rural based organization is providing hundreds, of indigenous children and their parents living in remote impoverished villages with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to improve their way of life and to feel empowered. Without the help, the labor, and the financial assistance of international volunteers much of what AAT and GTF have accomplished would not be possible. AAT would not exist if not for our generous donors in the US and Europe especially Rotarians and Knights of Columbus whose constant support helps make this happen.

2014–Rios Guatemala, a mission-driven social enterprise joins forces with AAT and GTF to start the first ever secondary middle school in Seacacar, using AAT’s unique vocational education curriculum and some of our skilled graduates to imitate our successful educational strategies and internship programs. All of our students along with District 6440 Rotarians and Engineers without Borders (EWB) are embarking on a 5-year program of replacing unsanitary pit latrines with modern sanitation systems for collection and disposal of waste alongside a solar-power eco-friendly clean water system. This is part of our ongoing potable water filter and sustainable water system programs. Our 24-hour, 7-day a week Health Clinic is being completely renovated thanks to the efforts of Rotary District 6440 (Chicago) and Rotary International

2015 & 2016–Counting Down to Our 25th Anniversary
The year 2015 is ending up in a whirlwind of activity and marked by major political turmoil. throughout Guatemala. Both the president and the vice-president are in jail on charges of corruption following months of peaceful protests. Through all of this AAT continues to lobby government officials for the annual subsidy. Graduation day is always an exciting time at AAT but both 2015 and 2016 were even more special. In 2015, 124 young men and women received diplomas; our largest class to date to graduate! We had 113 students graduate in 2016 and for the first time ever more girls than boys stood on the stage. Compare that to our very first high school graduation class with only 3 girls and 11 boys. Much has been accomplished since our beginnings 25 years ago. All has been accomplished because of you, our supporters.