Mayan Families

MAYAN FAMILIES STORIES

Latest News Articles

7/3/2009: Yesterday we hosted a group of 15 students and three teachers from East High in Wichita, Kansas. Mission hosted by Global Legacy Programs. All of t...
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Sad news

7/3/2009: I am saddened to say that little baby Amarillis passed away today at 3pm. Thank you to everyone who helped pay for medical care for her. The parents c...
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4 Year Old Yeson is the youngest.

6/30/2009: Yeson is the youngest. He was four years old in this photo. I have had several people ask me about the little boy who died. He was the youngest brot...
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Hope for the Animals!

6/29/2009: Today we spayed and neutered 22 dogs and cats. We discovered two that have a STD disease that causes a cancerous tumor. We were able to start treatme...
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Happy Fathers Day to All!

6/21/2009: Happy Fathers Day to all the dads, to all the single mothers who do both jobs and to all the people who made the Father's Day Food baskets so successf...
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Who Are We?

Mayan Families is a small non-profit group operating in the Highlands of Guatemala. We live and work in the Lake Atitlan region.

We operate a variety of programs as a comprehensive approach to give a hand up to needy Maya people and the communities in which they live. The work of Mayan Families is supported completely through donations, which are tax deductible in the U.S.
Learn more about us >>

Urgent News

Construction! – As many of you know who have visited we have very little space. Last year we received a $10,000 donation from two wonderful people who wished to remain anonymous. They realized that Mayan Families needed more room to be able to function. This donation has enabled us to build another room onto the patio area and it will eventually be a second storey. We had to wait to start building till the wet season finished last year, then we had to wait till the Christmas activities were finished, then it was the start of the school year and it was too busy to have so much construction going on, so we just managed to start in February and it is almost finished. We have run out of money to completely finish it and need about $5,000 US more...so if anyone would like to help us complete the construction on this very much needed space....we would be very, very grateful!! Any donation, no matter how small will help us put up another block! Thanks, Sharon

Sponsor a Student

Last year 830 students attended school because of student sponsorships provided by supporters of Mayan Families.
By sponsoring a student, you can help a family break out of the cycle of poverty through the empowerment of education! Read More >>

Special Notes

Preschool! – Unfortunately, in Guatemala single mother families are a common occurrence. As a result, these women are the only income earners for their family and often have to face the very difficult and unavoidable decision to leave children unattended, at home, while they earn money to support the family.
Most of these Indigenous mothers are uneducated and unable to acquire well paying jobs. As a result they do not earn sufficient money to support the family and definitely, not enough to cover day care. Most of them barely make enough to feed the family and if they are renting it is often a choice between paying the rent or food.
As a result of watching so many mothers struggle with this dilemma, we have opened one day care/pre -school in San Jorge La Laguna.
This center provides nutritious meals and a stimulating educational environment.
We have had a very successful outcome with this center. The children have all put on weight and are learning healthy habits, such as brushing teeth after each meal and washing hands.
The children have access to a wide variety of educational toys to stimulate manual dexterity and construction toys for 3D thinking.
In their home environment these children do not have access to these kinds of .toys or materials.
   We know of many situations where children as young as 2yrs old have been locked in houses alone while their mothers, out of desperation, have to go to work.
This problem is occurring in Panajachel and we would like to expand our day care program to this town.
Mayan Families is going to open a daycare/pre-school for these children. We expect to have an attendance of 35-45 children daily this year.
The children will have the opportunity to develop skills that will help them succeed when they start school.
Many of the Mayan children speak only their Mayan language and do not have exposure to Spanish until they enter school. This causes the children to be at a disadvantage and 40% of the children have to repeat first grade due to lack of exposure to language and stimulation.
In addition to providing stimulation and teaching Spanish we envision running a nutritious feeding program at the same time.
The children would receive a healthy breakfast and lunch. For many of these children it will be their only meals of the day.
We will also provide vitamin tablets and hygiene training, such as brushing their teeth after each meal. Many Guatemalan children have serious dental decay.
This will protect the children, aid the family finances and give the children a head start for their future with their education and health.

New Website – As you can see, Mayan Families has a new website! Some of the features of the new site are up and running, like online student sponsorship, and a single location for all our blogs. Other features will be be added over the next several months, such as a login for sponsors to receive student updates, multimedia, and a volunteer sign-up page. We would love to hear your thoughts about the new site.