Memo from the Board of Directors: Continuing Our Mission with Focus

Over the past few years, the environment for international development organizations has shifted significantly. Major disruptions in the international development sector, changes in the global funding landscape, economic uncertainty, and broader instability have created critical challenges. Many nonprofit organizations, including CHOICE Humanitarian, are being called to make hard decisions about where and how they can create the greatest long-term impact.

In response, and after months of careful financial analysis and deliberation by organizational leadership and the Board, CHOICE has made the difficult decision to conclude operations in Mexico, Guatemala, and Peru effective June 30 and to reduce the size of our Central Office team. Like many nonprofits navigating this environment, CHOICE faces financial pressure—these decisions reflect a responsible effort to align our resources with what we can sustain.

We recognize the weight of these changes and the people they affect. These decisions speak to the environment we are navigating, not the quality of the work or the teams behind it. In each of these countries, we've been honored to support extraordinary community members and local leaders. Mexico and Guatemala have been part of CHOICE's story since 1992, and Peru since 2015. Dedicated country teams—led by experienced and passionate country directors—walked alongside communities through decades of work to strengthen locally led solutions, expand opportunity, and fuel progress in areas experiencing rural poverty. That work has shaped what CHOICE is today.

As we conclude programs in these three countries, we are committed to managing the transition thoughtfully and responsibly, including exploring whether the work might be continued by local organizations or other partners. We are deeply thankful to everyone whose dedication made our mission possible in these areas.

This challenging moment calls us to focus our efforts where CHOICE is best positioned to support lasting, community-led change. By concentrating our resources where the CHOICE Way (our unique, integrated approach) can be most effective, we can build a stronger organization—one capable of deepening its reach and serving more communities in the years ahead. CHOICE's community-led philosophy has proven itself for more than forty years. Though this chapter is difficult, we remain anchored to the mission that has guided CHOICE through the decades and lights the path ahead.

A Legacy that has Changed Lives

Mexico and Guatemala have been part of CHOICE's operations since 1992, and Peru joined in 2015. Across all three, the work has always belonged to the communities, with CHOICE's local staff walking alongside in a supporting role. We are grateful for the country directors and teams who made that partnership possible, and for every community member whose leadership, resilience, and hope made it real.

In Mexico, Juan Alducin has been with CHOICE from the very beginning, helping launch the program and serving as its first employee and longtime country director. Raised by indigenous grandparents in rural Puebla, Juan brought a deep and credentialed background in agriculture, as well as a lifelong understanding of rural life, to his work. The communities CHOICE supported in Mexico led initiatives that developed innovative aquaponics systems, launched income-generating cooperatives, and strengthened food security across the region.

In Guatemala, Olger Pop has served as country director since 2018, bringing formal training in agronomy and agroforestry and a personal history deeply rooted in the highland communities he serves. He has led with a conviction that resilience comes from within communities, not from outside them. Across rural Guatemala, communities participated in family health workshops, entrepreneurial trainings, and food security projects. The King Family Guatemala Initiative, made possible through the generosity of Pat and Florence King, brought these opportunities to more than 120,000 people since its launch in 2020.

In Peru, Wilmer Cruz joined CHOICE in 2011 as a nutrition researcher and grew steadily into leadership to serve as country director. Born and raised in a community much like those he serves in the Andean highlands, Wilmer's academic background in health and social development deepened his understanding of what lasting change requires—and he has consistently centered the agency of rural women and the wellbeing of children as essential to it. Communities across Peru drove initiatives that measurably decreased childhood malnutrition and anemia and strengthened women-led enterprises.

To all who have been part of this work over the past three decades in these countries, and to the communities who brought it to life: gracias de todo corazón.