About
Our history
How a group of Guatemalan adoptees founded AWGR in 2019, and what we have done since.
Adoptees with Guatemalan Roots is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in the state of Delaware. We were founded on November 11, 2019 by Kendal Zekus, Maria Gregorski, Mason Jerman, Ruth Meininger and Benjamin Fossen.
We saw the need to build community among people adopted from Guatemala. We saw that many Guatemalan adoptees struggle with questions of identity, and we sought to build a safe community for Guatemalan adoptees, run by Guatemalan adoptees.
We have been very active in the larger Guatemalan community, raising awareness about the topic of adoption from Guatemala. We successfully lobbied the Guatemalan government in January 2021 to provide services for adoptees. We met with President Giammattei and received presidential approval for our requests.
We have hosted many virtual and in-person happy hours, meetups, book clubs, Guatemalan speakers, cooking demos and much more.