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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 Leonel - a family in great need. – Leonel Culan is 37 years old. On December 3rd while he was working as a builders assistant he fell 3 meters off a rock wall.
His life changed forever and he became a parapalegic.
Leonel is in the hospital in Solola.
He is depressed about his own situation and terribly worried about how his family will survive.
He lives in San Lucas Toliman and has seven children.
They are:
Claudia Estela is 14yrs old. She works as a domestic in a private house. She earns $15 US per month. She went to school till 3rd grade.
Vidalia Susana is 13yrs old. She stays at home helping the mother at home. She went to school till 2nd grade.
Mynor Leonel is 12yrs old. He went to school only till 1st grade. He has been working since helping the family. He is working cutting and picking coffee. He earns $5 US per week.
Luis is 11yrs old. He is in first grade.
Mayly is 5yrs old. She is in kindergarten.
Marta Elisa is 4yrs old.
Wilson David is 13 months old.
The mother is Marta Elisa , 33yrs old. She did not have the chance to go to school and does not know how to read or write.
She washes clothes by hand in private houses and earns $8 US per week when she can get the work.
The money that the family is now earning is not enough for them to cover their costs.
Often they have to go into the mountains and find herbs to eat. Their main diet now is tortillas with salt.
They own the house they live in. It is in very bad shape. They have one room made of cement block. They have one dilapidated kitchen made of tin ...photographed above.
They pay $7 US per month for electricity.\
They do not have water connected and have to go to the lake to bring drinking water and wash their clothes.
The lake is now suffering pollution and people are advised not to drink from it but this family cannot afford to buy drinking water.
They do not have an onil stove.
They cook over a wood burning stove.
They have two chairs.
They have one table.
They have two beds but it is a hard plank bed that does not have a mattress. The other bed is a wire base but they do not have any mattress . This is the one the children are sitting on.
The floor is dirt.
They do not have drainage.
They have not been able to afford to connect the water or to buy a pila, which is a 2 sided sink and an essential part of a Guatemalan household.
The father will be released from the hospital shortly and his situation is very desperate.
The family does not have enough to eat. The living conditions are very unsanitary.
They need beds, food, clothing, the floor needs cementing, they need the water connected and they need to have a water filter. The father will need medical support if he is going to be able to survive with the care that he will receive at home.
This family was living very hand to mouth before this accident but now their situation is very, very difficult.
If anyone can help with any of these needs for this family, it would be a huge blessing for them.
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| SEMANA SANTA / EASTER BASKETS – Guatemalans celebrate Semana Santa ( Easter) eating fragrant sweet breads and drinking hot chocolate.
Malnutrition and hunger are huge problems for the indigenous Mayan communities.
The families that we work with do not have enough to eat nor can they afford the traditional foods that are eaten at this time of the year. Easter (Semana Santa) is a time of sharing in Guatemala -- Please consider giving a food basket to a hungry family to share in Semana Santa.
This basket will include*:
A chicken.
Carrots.
Squash.
Incaparina - a fortified cereal.
Oatmeal - to make the customary drink of "mosh."
Sugar.
Sweetbreads.
A block of chocolate to make cocoa.
(All in a large, re-usable plastic basket that has many uses in a Guatemalan household)
*Some food items may be substituted due to availability.
Your food basket donation may make the difference between hunger and a joyous celebration. Any donation you can send will help to relieve the crushing poverty that these children and families endure.
If you would like to give a basket of food to your sponsored student or a needy family, please send a donation of $35 to the Community Aid Project at Mayan Families,
either through our website, www.mayanfamilies.org/DonateOnline
or by check to:Mayan FamiliesP.O. Box 52Claremont, N.C. 28610
Please send your donations before March 28th for the Semana Santa baskets.
If you would like to nominate a sponsored student or a particular family to receive your basket, please send us their name AND number as a note with your payment, or you can email us instructions at info@mayanfamilies.org
If you would like to give this gift "In Honor Of" someone special, please send us an email including the details, and we will put them on our IN HONOR OF web page. If you would like to include a photo of your "someone special" we will also post their photo -- To have an e-mail sent to the person you are honoring, please send us their email address.
(Please remember that we accept donations for much needed food and our many other projects year round. No donation is too small.)
To help as many families as possible receive food, please forward this email to your family and friends. Please post it on your personal blogs, social networking sites and websites....together we can make a difference.
Wishing you and your loved ones a happy Spring,
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Special Notes Wayne in Guatemala! – We have been so fortunate to have Wayne, from the Be One to Give, Foundation of Alberta here in Panajachel volunteering with Mayan Families since late December.
Wayne has done so many wonderful things and has been such an inspiration to all of us...that it is hard to believe that one person can do so much and have such an impact on all of us the way that he has.
Wayne's time in Guatemala is drawing to a close, he will be driving back up to Canada on Sunday. He is going to leave a huge hole behind him here. We will miss his optimism, his down to earth .."lets do it now and get it done " attitude, we will miss his great sense of humor, his incredibly generous and kind heart.
Wayne and three of his sons drove an ambulance and a 20 foot trailer down from Canada.
It was packed with wonderful donations. Wayne and his wife, Judy , took over 8 months collecting the donations and planning this trip. Judy could not come with him this time but she was always here in spirit. We look forward to when she will come , hopefully, on the next trip.
Wayne is photographed from left to right with Ely, ( Mayan Families Staff ), Wayne, Susie ( Mayan Families Staff) and Dwight ( Mayan Families Founder).
We wish we could bottle Wayne's energy ....he has worked every morning , arriving before the staff, he has been training two boys in carpentry and building skills, he is leaving behind an amazing wealth of tools so that they will be able to continue on with this trade.
He organized a trip for all the Mayan Families staff to climb the volcano last week on Lake Atitlan. Out of the 26 who started the climb, only 16 got to the top, including Wayne, Ely and Susie. They left on this great adventure at 6.am. and by late afternoon , everyone returned exhausted and barely able to walk. Not Wayne, at 60 yrs old, and more than twice the age of most of his companion hikers, he jumped in the hot tub and then went out dancing till 1.am.! Next morning he was ready for work at 8.am.!
Wayne and Michael, another wonderful volunteer from Florida who is also a fantastic builder and has been Wayne's companion in building adventures for the past month, have fallen in love with the children at the orphanage in San Andres. They wanted to take the children out for the day. We organized this Sunday to have the children come to Mayan Families at 9.am. where Wayne, Michael, Stephanie , and Susie took the children on a fantastic day of fun.
They first went to the Nature Reserve, the children got to feed the monkeys, go on the swing bridges, play on the small zip line for children, run , play soccer, ball and climb trees. Wayne and Michael played soccer, frisbee with the kids and had as much fun as the kids.
Then it was onto lunch at a local restaurant overlooking the lake. The children had a great lunch of chicken, mashed potatos, vegs, and enjoyed the novelty of going out to a restaurant.
We joined them for lunch and then after lunch.....more fun. Down to the lakeside, where Wayne gave the children all squeaky balls that they had a lot of fun with, more games, soccer, frisbee, exploring the waters edge, throwing stones into the lake. Michael then brought the ice cream man and his little push cart full of ice creams and the children and staff all had ice creams. A happy end to a great day!
We are all going to miss Wayne !
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| 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.
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