Ana Paredes originally from Chile and arrived to Canada with her parents and six siblings. Her career path has been in community and social services working in different capacities that has given her in depth knowledge and experience on project management, community development and international development.

For over ten years Ana has been quite involved with the Hispanic community in Toronto by participating on research projects, being a Board Members of local organization, has met with all level of governments to voice community issues, member of international delegations and today is the Vise President of CCARE. Through her leadership and vision Ana has been presented with two prestigious awards; in 2002 Ana received the Hispanic Development Award for her leadership and contribution to the development of the Hispanic community and in 2004 was presented with the Latin American Achievement Award in the social work category for her contribution and work in the social and community service sector. Furthermore, Ana has worked throughout Latin America as a project manager, coordinator, consultant and advisor in Mexico, Honduras, Chile and Guatemala.

Ana begun her journey with CCARE in 1999, after many activities a meetings Mrs. Rossi requested a formal meeting to discuss the support of the Hispanic Development Council. Since then the Council has given full support to this initiative by providing institutional and logistic support on organizational and project development.

As Ana became involved on this project, she began to take a personal interest that lead to full participation on the organization. To describe what she does is quite the challenge; however, this is a summary of her work.

Ana has been instrumental in the organizational development and transition process from HPCARE to CCARE, numerous hours of research, compiled information, studied different by-laws models of governance, policies and procedures development that lead to CCARE incorporation and later on became a charitable organization.

Project development is an important area of Ana’s work as every project that is done in Guatemala goes through a thorough assessment process, to identify the needs, budget, coordination, implementation, outcomes and evaluation.

CCARE works with the following model “working from community to community” this means that CCARE consults with the local communities as to what their needs are and based on this information the projects at the Merendon Mountains are develop.

Ana is also responsible to prepare the team for the trip to Guatemala. The mission training is an important aspect of the mission and every year mission members goes through a thorough process to prepare them for the mission. This means that a work-plan is develop and everyone knows what their role and responsibilities are. In addition, workshops are facilitated to learn about the country, group dynamic, the do’s and the don’t’s, cultural shock, general policies, security policies and health and safety policies.

Ana’s many others roles are: in her capacity as the cross cultural communications liaison, Ana is responsible to keep and maintain effective and open lines of communication both locally and abroad, public relations, report writing, outreach and other duties as need it, as Mrs. Rossi has stated; Ana is my right hand person.

Ana has been working with CCARE for over six years; she has brought her professional expertise and most importantly her heart and soul. She believes in CCARE mandate, vision and mission and is committed to CCARE’s work. On her first trip to Guatemala she felt in love with the country, the people and the culture.