What exactly are we?

Proyecto Mosaico e.V.

Project Mosaic is a German nonprofit association (Projekt Mosaik e.V.) with its registered office localized in Mannheim, Germany. In 2003, the association was founded to help and continue the work of Project Mosaic Guatemala, which was established in 1998.

Due to our longtime history of work in Central America we concentrate on partner organizations with a main focus on: EDUCATION and SOCIAL WORK, WOMEN and/or ENVIRONMENT.

Our fields of work

Helping Partner Organizations - We support our partner organizations by providing education, networking services, and individual consulting; we collect much needed material and financial resources and allocate them to our partner organizations, we help them planning and running projects, and we organize workshops.

Volunteering - Project Mosaic provides a bridge by helping people from around the world to find volunteer work placements in one of our Partner Organizations in Central America. We offer a great range of many different organizations and projects in Central America (Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and El Salvador) to international volunteers.

Our philosophy

We believe in the importance of aid for self-help and in the importance of help through exchange and connection on every scale: at local level (partner organizations are connected within their countries), at regional level (partner organizations are connected within Central America), and at international level (due to the volunteers).

It is of great importance to us that both parties, organizations and volunteers, profit from their cooperation. We try to accomplish this by providing professional guidance to our volunteers, by offering close contact to our partner organizations, and by proffering further education for both parties. From our point of view, volunteering is one of the most effective means of fostering intercultural communication and understanding between people of divergent backgrounds. Due to first hand participation, we believe that together we can build a future that is more tolerant and compassionate.

We are opposed to any types of discrimination and do not have a religious or party political background.

Our History

When Hurricane Mitch hit Central America with a vengeance in late October 1998, people from around the world spontaneously came together to found the non-profit organization Project Mitch Guatemala (PMG). The goal was simple - to ease the plight of hurricane victims. PMG established an office in Antigua to dispatch volunteers to afflicted regions and collect and distribute donations to relief organizations, villages and individuals. PMG ultimately arranged placements for about 150 emergency volunteers in the wake of the hurricane.

After immediate-aid needs were met following Hurricane Mitch, PMG decided to continue arranging volunteer work placements for willing international volunteers in numerous organizations throughout Guatemala. This decision was based on continual need, even in the absence of natural disaster, which permeates Guatemalan society. It was decided to change the name of the organization to Project Mosaic Guatemala.

Since the beginning of 2009 we've expanded our work to other countries in Central America and changed our name to Project Mosaic. We work with lots of different countries, volunteers, and partner organizations, all combine to make up a grand mosaic across some of the poorest countries in Latin America.