Think it's rough where you live? Michael Ewens would like you to onsider Chel, a village in northern Guatemala, home to the Ixil, a Mayan people:

· In the 1980s, hundreds of villagers were massacred by the Guatemalan army; the survivors are still recovering from that horror.
· The main occupation is subsistence farming, even though 90% of the land is mountainous.
· Less than one percent of the children complete high school.
· Ninety percent of the homes have dirt floors and either brick fireplaces or open fire pits. The nearest place to gather firewood for cooking and heat is an hour's walk away.
· The child mortality rate before the age of five is about 40 percent.
· Thirteen percent of all deaths are from dysentery.

Ewens, a husband, father, and carpenter in the state of Washington, saw all this on a visit to the area, and he determined to do something about it. In 2007 he set up an organization to help the people of Chel and neighboring villages.

A year earlier, Ewens' son was killed while serving in Afghanistan with the U.S. military. Ewens used his son's life insurance payment of $10,000 to form a nonprofit he calls the Ripple Effect because his wife used to sing to their children: "Drop a pebble in the water, watch the ripple grow. That way, when you love each other, everyone will know . . ."

Ewens wants to drop pebbles all over northern Guatemala, one of the poorest places on earth. How poor? He describes mothers there feeding their children tree leaves and tortillas with only salt, food that doesn\'t nourish but does stop the hunger pains.

In 2008, Ewens essentially moved in with the Ixil to work full time determining their needs and working to fulfill them.

The clear top needs: clean water and sufficient food. Ewens has worked on several water projects and kickstarted over 600 vegetable gardens in seven villages. He\'s purchased cows and given them to widows who have no income for feeding their children.

He\'s now planning an agricultural training center, purchasing 10 acres of land and building a structure where villagers can learn best practices for farming. Rotary Clubs in Washington State have contributed to this work, and have held fundraisers for Ripple.

The goal of all Ewens' work is self-sufficiency for the Ixil. And thanks to his Ripple Effect with its loans, co-ops, collectives, and education programs, the average Ixil families' yearly income has more than doubled.

There's a long way to go, but Michael Ewens is in it for the long haul.

You can follow his work at http://therippleeffectinc.org.