British Week Guatemala 2014 – which bit did you like best?

The public events are the most obvious ones to start with and we kicked off in February with a Battle of the Bands to show that British Music is GREAT and so is Guatemalan musical talent. Singing along to British songs from bands as different as Coldplay, Led Zepplin and the Beatles is always a good experience. Congratulations to all the bands who participated and will be hired by the Hard Rock Cafe for future gigs, but a special mention to Rotz who won the competition and helped us celebrate the Queen’s Birthday Party later in BW14. I hope the fashionistas among you enjoyed the fashion show that presented the best of British street fashion at an exclusive evening event. Featuring clothes from Ben Sherman, Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins we were pleased to work with Saul E Mendez and our new model finds from our open casting competition that attracted 124 applicants.

We are big believers in how sport can be a good outlet for young people and we worked with YMCA and with the support of the Interior Ministry on a Goals for Life football competition involving over 250 students from nine municipalities in the Retalhuleu region of the country. We think lack of activities for young people is a significant contributing factor to the high levels of street crime. Providing a space to promote alternative options is key in addressing this problem. So on to our Family Commonwealth day in the Erick Barrondo Park.  Rugby and cricket demonstrations took place alongside the Sports Relief Mile with competitors from the Guatemalan Special Olympics team. With the help of the Guatemalan Sports Federation we were able to try their hand at various sports including gymnastics, tae-kwon-do, cycling – even sports fishing! And sample products like New Zealand cheese and South African apple juice.

A personal favorite moment of mine was participating in the business/civil society/public authorities networking event that we organized with Centrarse.  Our idea was to promote links and discussions between three sectors that have historically don’t always have regular contact with each other; to showcase some examples where Corporate Social Responsibility has had a positive impact; and to encourage new government-NGO-business partnerships. I got the impression a lot of people were meeting for the first time and I hope we can do more to help build these links in the future.

For many I am sure the highlight of the week was our national day. At the Queen’s Birthday we awarded 10 English language scholarships donated to by the International Business Academy narrowed down from the over 300 applications received.  Or perhaps it was the British Charity Ball at which we raised over $20,000 for Potter’s House that works with children and families who live and work on the city rubbish dump. Many thanks to the sponsors Blue Oil, Cementos Progreso, Centurion, Yantarni, Distribuidora Marte, Cerveceria Centroamericana, CSC Group, Energuate and Transequipos.

Finally being British we decided to go to the pub.  To celebrate the visit of our Consular Regional Operations Manager we hosted an evening for British citizens. I want to thank the Guatemalan officials who helped facilitate information in practical areas such as immigration, obtaining driving permits, etc. And the Consular team for helping explain the new passport arrangements and answer specific questions from the local community. I hope the Brits there found it useful.