About TRE
About TRE
How We Got Started
When TRE’s founder, Michael Ewens, first visited the Ixil region he found a vibrant indiginous people struggling to meet basic needs. People suffered from malnutrition, no access to clean drinking water, and harmful smoke from fires built on the floor in the home. When Michael’s son, Forest, lost his life in an ambush in Afghanistan on June 16th, 2006 he collaborated with an Ixil village building a gravity fed water system with the proceeds from his son’s life insurance. This event began a ripple that continues to grow. Since then The Ripple Effect has built 15 water projects to date. The Stove and garden programs were developed later and now TRE works with over 400 gardeners and has built over 500 clean burning stoves.
Our Mission
The Ripple Effects strives to work alongside Ixil people most affected by extreme poverty in order to make sustainable changes that empower and uplift the community as a whole. The focus is on basic needs that are sometimes taken for granted by those who have never lived without them. Thanks to generous partners The Ripple Effect works each day with this goal in mind.
Meet the Team
Michael Ewens
Founder & Director
Manuel Lopez Cobo
Stoves Program Manager
Antonio Caba Santiago
Administrator
Felipe Castro Ramos
Site Manager
Salome Garcia Cruz
Garden Trainer
Gaspar Caba Santiago
Garden Trainer
Cruz Vicente
Water Project Manager
Andres Laynez Brito
Water Project Manager
Peyton Foley
Farm Manager
Cristina Asensio
Office Manager
Meet the Board
Michael Ewens
President
With a background in construction and an adventurous heart he has dedicated his passion to helping the Ixil people. Since 2006 he has been working and developing relationships in the United States and the Chajul Region to support the work of this organization.
Shirley Anderson
Vice President
Shirley has lived and raised her family of five in Puyallup Washington. She was a dedicated Habitat for Humanity volunteer for 5 years in their Tacoma Store and brings that dedication to TRE using mind, heart and hands to help guide us.
Pat DeLap
Treasurer
Pat has raised a wonderful family in the Gig Harbor area. He has a background in event planning and home care for the terminally ill. Years of spiritual dedication have developed an attitude of giving and service that Pat contributes to TRE.
Christie Fierro
Secretary
Christie is a professor at Tacoma Community College – Gig Harbor. Christie takes to heart changing lives as she involves herself with her students. She brings energy, ideas and vision to the board.
Dan Russel
Guatemala Operations
Dan has been involved in mission work in Costa Rica and the Rainbow Home repair project in Houston, TX. He has completed humanitarian projects in with Miracles in Action. One of the reasons he and his wife, Anne, moved to Guatemala was the Mayan people’s wonderful attitude toward life.
Teresa Farrell
Chair at Large
Teresa lives on the Kitsap Peninsula and truly appreciates the abundant nature and lifestyle of the Northwest. Having spent her career as a marketing and systems consultant, she now enjoys volunteering for social justice and NGO projects abroad.