Giving the Hope of Life to millions

Cranston-based group builds homes, schools in Guatemala

The Cranston Herald ·

In their new offices on Sockanosset Crossroad – behind the Wines and More – is Hope of Life International, a faith-based non-profit that services more than two million people, including building 30 houses and five schools per week in Guatemala and housing up to 500 people at a time on their campus there.

Sixty-five percent of the non-profit is funded through a jewelry company that Carlos Vargas and his wife, Cheryl, founded. That jewelry company, as of this month, is run out of the warehouse where their new offices are on Sockanosset Cross Road. Having worked out of Providence for the past ten years, Carlos said this new location gives them more warehouse space and, more importantly, bigger offices for the family to run their true passion – Hope of Life – out of.

“This is the right place to be here in Cranston,” Carlos said. “It’s right near the airport, close to everything.”

Vargas, now in his sixties, grew up in Guatemala and was trained at an early age to fight in guerrilla warfare, he said, but “didn’t want to fight his own government,” so he moved to America when he was 16.

Vargas later recalls being “on his deathbed” roughly thirty years ago, when he was back in Guatemala due to illness, but unexpectedly recovering from it. He then “promised to God” that he would spend the rest of his life on a mission to help people, especially in his home country, who were in need.

Thus, Hope of Life was born.

For the first twenty years after he began his mission, he and Cheryl worked in Guatemala, building up a network of what he calls “leaders” to help them in their mission to create better lives for the residents there in need.

Despite having a main residence in Johnston – where the Vargas’s could run the Providence operations of their jewelry company, which he said ships hundreds of containers of jewelry out per day – they would fly down to Guatemala constantly, where the organization was rapidly growing. About ten years ago, Hope of Life International became a certified nonprofit here in the United States.

The campus that they built, which now houses 500 people at a time, is self-sustaining, as they farm produce, raise livestock, fish, and educate volunteers and workers, 90 percent of whom are American, on how to efficiently make change in Guatemala.

Carlos said that some of the workers are staffed by the organization, while the volunteers stay months at a time. Different skilled professionals, including welders, electricians and carpenters, train them so that they can build schools and houses around the country.

“I don’t believe in dreamers,” he said. “I believe in dream-makers. I believe in education, good principles and good leadership. America gave me that.”

He said that because of how advanced the organization has become, they can now train the younger “leaders” to run the campus in Guatemala and train the volunteers. Carlos and Cheryl’s own daughter, Katie Arriaza, is now the CEO of the nonprofit.

“If this dies with me, then I’m a bad leader,” Carlos said.

Carlos also said that the guiding motivation behind the non-profit isn’t to have control over the people they serve, but to create a sustainable future that those people can uphold.

“I don’t believe in welfare,” he said. “I’m not trying to create dependence; I’m trying to create independence. My mission is to create leaders who can sustain themselves.”

Some of the additional services they do, aside from building houses and schools, include “securing 4,000 babies a year from dying” by keeping the mothers safe and graduating young children there from high school so they can become “dreamers.”

In recent years, they’ve begun helping people in other countries as well, such as Haiti, and expanding their operations by partnering with leaders in Canada and elsewhere who share the same mission as them. Carlos said he’s constantly traveling to other states and other countries to try to expand the nonprofit.

Additional funding for the organization comes through sponsors, international partners and government aid, although Carlos prides himself on the self-sustenance of their operation down in Guatemala.

Tiffany Erikson, the organization’s marketing manager, said they also want to expand locally now that they’ve found a home in Cranston. She said they’ve been establishing relationships with local churches and with local politicians to figure out what they can do in Cranston.

“We want to be part of the community here in Cranston,” she said. “There’s so much we can do if we just do it together.”

Mayor Allan Fung, who helped cut the ribbon on their Sockanosset location Thursday morning, praised Hope of Life for their work.

“We’re proud to recognize your mission, your values, that have come together to help so many people,” he said. “That’s why I’m so proud to have you in Cranston because that’s one of the things we always recognize.”

Carlos added to Fung’s comments to the crowd of around 60, “we’re going to be good neighbors!”

More information can be found at hopeoflifeintl.org.