Photos/Long WayHome

Long Way Home's construction team is building a school out of recycled materials in Guatemala.

>> View video about Long Way Home. 

The BBC/Newsweek World Competition 2010 has named UC San Diego alumnus Danny Paz one of its 12 finalists for the international contest to identify “projects or small businesses from around the world that have shown enterprise and innovation at a grassroots-level.” The finalist who receives the most online votes from the public wins the contest, and with it, a better chance for them to have a lasting positive impact on the world.

Long Way Home is building a school and recycling tires and other wastes as part of an innovative community development model in San Juan Comalapa, Guatemala. The group was founded by Matt "Mateo" Paneitz after he completed a two-year Peace Corps tour in 2004 in San Juan Comalapa, and returned to build a school.

Dubbed “A Class Apart” by the BBC/Newsweek World Competition, the project in Guatemala is competing with 11 others. The project that wins the most online votes will be featured by the BBC and Newsweek, and its leaders take an important step toward creating lasting positive impact in a part of the world in desperate need of it.

Long Way Home is dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty among youth in developing communities. This effort includes a program in San Juan Comalapa to constructively address its disease-causing garbage problem. By using alternative construction techniques with materials that would otherwise be burned or thrown away, Long Way Home has developed a model to build schools and create a safer garbage system. With additional support, Paz said Long Way Home can expand its development model throughout Latin America.

Long Way Home is building a school with recycled tires in Guatemala.

Since receiving a master’s degree in international affairs in 2006 from UC San Diego’s School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS), Paz has focused his professional career on international business. 

“Everything changed for me after I arrived in San Juan Comalapa to volunteer for Long Way Home,” said Paz.  “I was struck with how the residents struggle to meet their basic needs with subsistence farming and how effective Long Way Home has been in building a much needed school and a more effective, sustainable way to handle and recycle its garbage.”

BBC World News and Newsweek, in association with Shell, launched the World Challenge 2010 competition.

“We are asking all UC San Diego alumni, students, faculty, staff and friends to help Danny win this much deserved support for their program in Guatemala,” said Peter Cowhey, dean of IR/PS. Starting Sept. 27 and continuing until Nov. 15, anybody with an e-mail address can vote for the Long Way Home program at www.theworldchallenge.co.uk/2010-finalists-project06.php. “We’re spreading the word about Danny’s inspiring dream and asking all of our friends to vote for him,” said Cowhey.

As part of UC San Diego’s 50th Anniversary Celebration, the university will share 50 reasons Long Way Home should be the winner of the BBC World Challenge until the Nov. 15 voting deadline.

“UC San Diego has many outstanding alumni, and Danny Paz is an inspiration to all of them,” said Armin Afsahi, assistant vice chancellor of Alumni Affairs for UC San Diego. “Paz and Long Way Home bring home the message in the famous words of Margaret Meade: ‘Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.’”