On Tuesday, April 16th, the Rochester Rotary Club honored Linda Eastman of Rochester Hills for her humanitarian work with the Mayan people in Guatemala.
Some 25 years ago, Linda went on a vacation trip to Mexico and experienced the frustration of being unable to communicate. That experience motivated her to earn degrees in Latin American Studies and Spanish. She was a non-traditional student, going to Oakland University while raising four children, and was one of two students to graduate summa cum laude (4.0). She returned to Oakland University some years later to earn a Nonprofit Management Certificate.
She began making volunteer medical mission trips to Guatemala as a translator but quickly became a leader. Linda now serves as the language and cultural bridge for mission trips. She travels on her dime two or three times a year to oversee the work. She is also fully involved in the planning, grant writing, and fundraising for the Casa Colibri (Hummingbird House) Clinic. Her volunteer work has focused on maternal and child health (prenatal care training for traditional birth attendants/midwives), dental and eye care, literacy, and programs for healthy children and young women.
In 2007, she co-founded the non-profit Casa Colibri (https://casacolibri.org/about-us/) and helped open a free Guatemalan medical clinic. The people in the area live in extreme poverty and travel hours to reach the clinic. She helped initiate a Clinic on Wheels, which brings medical services to 35 – 40 villages and serves 15,000 – 20,000 people! Thanks to Casa Colibri and her fundraising efforts, the clinic now has six Guatemalan employees. As president of Casa Colibri, Linda is responsible for all of the non-profit’s committees.
Linda has extended her focus to literacy, working with Guatemalan teachers to develop two reading programs. Readers-to-Leaders is focused on children in the primary grades who need improved reading skills to enter middle school. The second program grew from the pandemic when Guatemala closed its schools for two years. Preschoolers could not get ready to read, so Linda initiated the Mighty Minis program, which focuses on these very young children. From 2,000 miles away, she works remotely with Guatemalan teachers daily. She is a champion for bringing health, education, and literacy to an area of Guatemala where there was little or no hope.
Locally, Linda serves on the Rochester Rotary Board and is exceptionally committed to fundraisers focusing on polio and the RI Foundation. She volunteers with the Michigan branch of Reach Out and Read, Inc., a national early literacy organization that works directly with pediatric care providers to share the lifelong benefits of families reading aloud to their children daily. She adapted this very effective evidence-based program in the Guatemala villages served by Casa Colibri.
When Linda began working in Guatemala over 25 years ago, she was met with skepticism from the local leaders. These same leaders now acknowledge, welcome, and celebrate the work of Casa Calibri. They know volunteers like Linda will sustain the services to improve the lives of the Mayan people in their area.