Emmanuel's Heart International was formed in 2005 by American missionaries and adoptive families in Guatemala who jointly recognized the great struggles of Guatemalan women to be able to care for their families, given the poverty, lack of education, and culture of abuse in which they live. We began by working with individual families in crisis, providing emergency housing, medical assistance, educational scholarships, and home building, in an effort to improve family stability and success and to break generational cycles of poverty and abuse. We continue to work with individual families in this way today, as well as providing microenterprise opportunities for women and being involved in community development projects.
In 2007 Emmanuel's Heart International joined forces with Partnership in Women's Ministries (PWM) to open the doors of a women's abuse shelter in Guatemala City. In the first three months of opening El Refugio we sheltered more than a dozen abused women and their children, and the shelter continues to remain very full, meeting a very real need.