FEBRUARY 27, 2007

Thank you to those of you who donated money to buy milk. Because of these donations yesterday we were able to supply milk to this little boy who is 5yrs old. He broke his elbow three weeks ago but his mother could not afford to take him to a Dr. so she used a local "Curandero" - this is a natural healer and there are some very good ones who heal and who can put bones in their place. Unfortunately, the one this little boy had was not able to help. Dr. Jennifer saw him and told his mother to take him to the hospital. They set his arm but they found that his bones were fragile and he needs calcium. The Dr.s told the mother that he needs to drink a glass of milk a day. This family does not have enough money to buy this can of milk. It is almost a week's wages for them. They were very appreciative to receive this very large can of milk.

 

These 20 women were selected to receive the first micro loans to the women's group in the village of Tierra Linda. They had walked all the way down the mountain carrying their children. We had a meeting and explained the responsibilities of these loans and the women explained what they would like to do with the loans.

Most of them wanted to be able to invest in buying more seeds to be able to plant their fields or in buying vegetables. and fruit to sell at the markets. Some of them wanted to buy chickens to grow and sell. One is investing in materials to be able to do machine embroidery on weavings. Yet two more want the loans to be able to invest in buying beads wholesale for their beading businesses. They are all delighted to receive these loans and were very happy to meet some of the Directors of Paso por Paso who are making these loans possible.

FEBRUARY 24, 2007

Santiago and his family who lost their house and all their possessions - scroll down ( a long way to January 28th, 2007) on the blog to see the photos - we want to thank the kind people who sent them money to buy 300 blocks for their house. Two of his sons came to the house to receive new school shoes for the children. They also got a soccer ball which had just been donated.

Santiago is trying to rebuild his house - he still needs help with more building supplies - he is anxious to finish it before the wet season starts at the end of April.

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This is one of the families in San Jorge that Dr. Jennifer identified as being "at risk". The mother is a single mother. She has three small children. They do not have enough food. We purchased a box of food for this family and gave them milk for the children.

  

This is the kitchen of this family. This was their entire supply of food here and as you can see it is not much.

This is the bathroom the family is using.

The eldest girl is 5yrs old, the middle child is 2yrs old. They are photographed next to a well nourished 2 and half year old from the same village. You can see that the 5 yr old is not much taller than the 2 1/2 yr old and that the 2yr old is much smaller. These are some of the families that we are hoping to help with vitamins, they need food to be able to build them up. We hope that we will be able to supply the mother with chickens

 

  

This is one of the babies that received formula this week. Thank you to the people who sent money to be able to buy formula for these babies whose families are not able to provide it for them.

This is Chabel's little girl, she is 2 and half years old. She is wearing a "new" jacket that we gave her that is for an 18 month old.

She is a very smart little girl. She had a very difficult time while her mother was away, she is used to breastfeeding but we were able to supply her with milk and a bottle and that made it a lot easier for her.

 

This is Chabeli's eldest daughter's clothes. While her mother was in hospital we gave her a "new" used Corte (traditional).

This is Chabel's daughter with the "new" Corte we gave her. She was so happy.

ANOTHER HOUSE FINISHED!

          

This house for Joaquin and his family has finally been completed. A very generous donation from a family who had adopted their son from Guatemala and wanted to do something to celebrate his first birthday in a meaningful fashion made this house possible for this family. We also received a donation from LAAF which helped complete this house.

This family in Tierra Linda were living in appalling conditions. It was very doubtful that their house would have made it through another wet season.

They personally demolished their house and built this makeshift camp to live in while we completed their home. They live in a remote area of Tierra Linda and it has taken us a week to get there to take the photo. But this family would not move into the house until we came, took the photograph and they thanked us. They are a very religious family and they are having a traditional blessing of the house before they move in.

This family is also not used to cameras and are very shy. They are extremely happy about this house but as soon as we took their photograph they became very serious. They really cannot believe their luck that they have this house and that they now do not have to worry in the wet season that the house will dissolve around them.

Thank you so much to everyone who made this possible. This is a huge blessing in the lives of this family.

     

This is what the family has been living in while their house was built. This is all the meager possessions that they own. We would love to be able to get them an Onil stove, a bed and a table for the children to be able to do their homework.

ANOTHER HOUSE BUILT!

  This is a little house that we built in San Jorge in partnership with Project Gift. This family of five children and two adults had a piece of land but no possibility of building a house. The room that they had been living in had been taken away from them and they were desperate. This is only a two room house but it is bigger and better than what they had before. We also found that the children were not going to school so we were able to arrange sponsorship for two of them.

FEBRUARY 23, 2007

     

Chabeli came out of hospital last night. She spent the night at my house because it was too late for her to go home. This morning Julio and Juan, took Chabeli and her new bed home. There were no mattresses available to fit this bed, so one has been ordered and will be picked up in the next few days You can see the bed that Chabeli was sleeping in with her three children, she was so thrilled to get this bed. We also bought her a supply of food to get her through this week. She is doing so much better and her children were so happy to have her home. Thank you to the Mayanfamiliesconnection@yahoogroups.com who made this possible for Chabeli.

     

Chabeli also had her window and door put in. She is photographed with two of her three children here, her son is not in the photo. This is the food that we bought for her. These plastic chairs are all the furniture she has apart from her new bed! Her house is made of mud and sticks. Thank you to all who helped her.

WORK BEGINS AT TIERRA LINDA SCHOOL!

     

Thanks to a very generous donor work was able to start this week completing the second floor of the Tierra Linda School. The community is very excited about this, the work is being done voluntarily by members of the community. The Mayor of Solola has also sent to builders to help. This is something that the community has been hoping desperately that somehow they would be able to finish this school, they are very grateful to the person who has so kindly made this happen.

FEBRUARY 22, 2007

  

This little boy successfully had his cleft palate operated on and is now doing great. His mother brought me a bag full of vegetable today to show her appreciation for organizing the operation. It is so wonderful to see this little boy doing so well.

 

FEBRUARY 20, 2007 Edited from e-mails.

Hi, I have some good news on this family. ....it seems like the group who are coming to do the Eagle Scout Project are looking very closely at helping this family finish the construction of their house and even thinking how they could help with the construction of the retaining wall so that this disaster does not happen to them again.   It is not definite yet but please keep your fingers crossed for them.  
But even so, as you can see from the photos their living conditions are dismal.  It would be wonderful if we could supply them with an Onil stove, two beds, maybe a table and a few chairs  and some chickens so that they may be able to have some income from the chickens. 
Thank you for all that you are doing, Sharon

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Hi Everyone - This is really exciting that you are thinking of this chicken project. As Bonnie says it really does help the lives of the people here a lot.
 
  We have a great guy who works with us on the micro credit projects, his name is Mark C. and he is a retired Economics Professor. He has been very instrumental in organizing the micro loans projects and maintaining them,, he has been doing interviews every 3-4 months with the women to collect data on just how the micro loans are benefiting them.
 
When he was here last time he also did a study on the Chicken Project that had been completed in Tierra Linda. I will be posting his report soon.
 
Chickens really do help the finances of the family.  Especially, if they sell one and buy two chicks more. We have one woman who now has a flock of chickens ( I don't know if chickens are called a flock - but she has a group o them!)
She has 60 chickens from the original 10 that we gave her and she has steadily increased from every chicken she sells she replaces it with two.   Not everyone has the land available to be able to do that. But it certainly helps their income and it helps them with eggs and with meat.
 
We were buying the chickens wholesale and with three vaccinations for $1.80.   I think the price has now gone up to $2.00 but I will check that out. I will also get Juan to give me the cost of the chicken food and the coops again. It has been awhile since we have done it so I am sure that there is a small increase.
 
This is a really terrific idea to "give a chick for Easter".  I think that if you make it $3.00 a chicken it would definitely cover it's cost with food and hopefully a coop.   I love these projects that can help people to help themselves!
Thank you all for thinking of this!!
 
Sorry, that I did not get back to you earlier but we were delivering and assembling 300 water filters in San Jorge yesterday.  Everyone is so excited about these water filters, we have a waiting list already being compiled. We are hoping that Rotary will approve another project if they see the need and interest. 
Please let me know what more information you need. I have a ton of chicken project photos if  you would like them. Sharon

FEBRUARY 16, 2007

 

This family lost their home when Hurricane Stan hit here in Oct. 2005. You can see the rubble of their adobe house lying behind them. They were given some funds to be able to rebuild their house but it was not enough to complete building it. They are now living in a tin hut near their new house waiting for the day that it can be finished. The problem that they have is that they have no money coming in. The mother who does not know how old she is, probably in her late 70's has two adult daughters who are both disabled. The eldest daughter is blind and widowed. She lost her eyesight through cataracts and the younger daughter is blind, physically and mentally handicapped. According to the doctor who saw her she may have a thyroid problem as well.

The mother of these two women makes money by begging. She and her elder daughter collect firewood. They have no other income. They are living in a tin hut with just one bed between them awaiting completion of their one room cement block home. The new house needs to have the walls finished, a floor laid and a roof , windows and a door put in. They also need an outside toilet. The house has no plumbing and no electricity. There is one outside water tap close by. They are living in the shadow of a collapsed road. They have no other land to go to so they need to have a supporting wall built to stop this roadside collapsing onto them. To finish the house we estimate that it will cost $1,100 dollars. To build the retaining wall it will cost approx. $2,500 US. When their house collapsed during the Hurricane, the younger disabled daughter was buried underneath the rubble of the house and was trapped for several hours. Her left lower leg was broken. She is still unable to walk well and without pain.

The mother shows the injury that her daughter suffered after being buried under the rubble for hours after their house collapsed.

  

This is the condition that they are living in presently. The bed does not have a mattress, it is planks of wood with cardboard cartons on top of it. The base are cement blocks.

  

This are all their possessions. Some are stored outside under pieces of tin.

The youngest daughter spends her day sitting on the floor playing with her two Teddy bears.

  

This is the house that needs finishing.

This is the view of the roadside that collapsed onto their house. Their house is buried underneath this and this is where the youngest daughter was recovered from.

FEBRUARY 15, 2007

In San Jorge la Laguna School they have 562 students in eleven classrooms. In every classroom they are short 2-3 desks and chairs.

The desks and chairs cost $15 U.S each. Yesterday we had two donated

but we still need 18 more. If you would like to donate a desk and chair please contact us. It will be greatly appreciated by the students and the teachers.

Another classroom in San Jorge la Laguna.

This is the cereal snack being cooked at the school in San Jorge la Laguna. It is a cereal called Incaparina which is rich in vitamins and fiber. It is mixed with a little powdered milk and a lot of sugar. The children at this school are lucky. They receive this snack daily. The women are cooking these huge pots over wood stoves. The heat and the smoke in the room was overwhelming.

Because of lack of space at the school, they would like to convert the kitchen into a classroom and put the kitchen into a smaller room. They do not have any funds to do this and they are asking for help to be able to do it. They need to be able to move the stoves out and the water pump and locate them in the smaller room. They then need to install the stoves into the new kitchen.

FEBRUARY 13, 2007

 

Yesterday we visited the school in Tierra Linda. The directors from Paso por Paso came to deliver some school supplies and valentines cards from a school in Canada. The children were very excited to see the photos of the school in Canada and what the children did there. We also had a meeting about starting work on the second floor of the school.

We have received a generous donation that will allow us to finish the second floor. But we still need donations for the windows, doors and staircase. ( a rather important part of the second floor!)! The group Paso por Paso has committed to finishing the doors and windows on the ground floor. This is wonderful because the wet season will be starting by the end of April and without windows and doors it will be impossible for the teachers to work there. The children were very curious about the meeting and excitedly peered through the windows that have no glass and the door opening that yet has no door.

 

The children receiving donations from Paso por Paso and looking at the photographs that the children from Canada had sent.

The boys in Tierra Linda working on their solar system project.

  

The very crowded conditions in some of the classrooms in Tierra Linda.

 

Some of the problems that still have to be addressed at the school in Tierra Linda. Hopefully, we will receive donations for these problems before the wet season starts otherwise the conditions will be miserable in the classrooms.

   

The children were happy to show the crafts that they had made out of recycled bottles.

In the classroom of the third graders I noticed a particularly small child wedged in between two students. I asked the teacher what this little boy was doing there. He replied " I don't know- probably the mother had to go away for the day and the sister brought him with her"! He seemed very happy there!

The water filters in action in San Jorge. The other 300 should be delivered this week.

 
I thought you all might like to know that we have sent Chabeli back to the hospital.  Yesterday her sister came to tell me Chabeli was having a lot of pain and fever, this morning we went up and brought her down to see a Doctor.
The Doctor thinks she has a urinary tract infection that has gone to her kidneys. The Dr. also found that she has problems with two heart valves ( probably from having rheumatic fever as a child) the Dr. is worried about the infection going to her heart and so we have sent her back to the hospital in Antigua. She will be arriving there probably around 6p.m. so I am hoping that they will be able to attend to her.  I was shocked when I saw her today, her face is very drawn and she has lost a lot of weight.  Julio, who works with Mayan Families, is accompanying her, She has her brother with her but neither of them speak much Spanish and they really need someone with them to make sure that they are attended to.   Please keep her in your prayers, Sharon

Monday morning Olga from the women's group in San Jorge and one of our recent graduates of the Sewing Class had her first paying job using her new skills as a "Sastre - Tailor". With her new skills she was able to earn $5.00 U.S. for a morning of sewing on labels. This is much more than she would normally earn a day making beaded jewelry.

FEBRUARY 12, 2007

     

Today we were able to give out micro-loans to 30 women from the San Jorge Women's group. They all received $120 US. each which is a no - interest loan. They will be paying it back at $12 US a month. We have been running this project now for nearly 2 years and we have had 100% repayments of all loans. Most of the women will use their loans to be able to buy beads wholesale for their beading businesses. This greatly improves the profits the women make from this very low paying work. Before they were not able to buy beads wholesale, they could only buy very small amounts at retail prices. One of the women will be using the loan to buy a better stove for her tortilla business. Some women from previous loans have used the money for different businesses.

One woman bought an "Icee" machine that makes a favorite snack here that is sold on the streets, flavored ice with marinated fruit, she started off with her one machine, with the profits, she bought a second and she now has a third and is employing people to run them. Another woman had 9 plots of land but only enough money to buy seeds for 2 plots, through the loans she now has been able to plant all 9 plots. Yet another woman who sells tomatoes in the market has been able to increase her baskets of tomatoes from two baskets to 6 baskets of tomatoes offered for sale. Another woman opened a small store in San Jorge and is doing very well. There are many stories like these ones and we are so happy that these women are able to increase their livelihoods from these loans. They are small loans but they make a big difference in the lives of the women here.

FEBRUARY 11, 2007

Hi guys, this is just a short note to keep you up to speed with what has been going on.
 
This past week we finished the installation of the 120 stoves donated by Rotary Canada through Rotary Antigua, to San Jorge la Laguna.  It took Julio, Juan and some great volunteers, Chantal, John, Gary, Stuart, Dave and Dan nearly two weeks to finish the messy, dirty, hard work of installing these stoves.
 
We also took delivery of 200 of the 500 water filters also donated from Rotary in Washington State to Rotary Club Sur in Guatemala City.  We gave these out to the waiting crowd, showed them how to put them together , gave a talk on how to care for them and then with the help of Alberto, the sewing teacher and a volunteer from Bomberos in San Jorge we assembled them so that they were ready to use when they were taken home.  On Friday, Juan Carlos from the Rotary Club came to inspect how they were being used. He was very happy with the results. Everyone was using them and we have many requests for more. 
 
We have had clinics running for five days in San Jorge with the Women's group facilitating it.  Dr. Jennifer from Canada has been weighing and measuring children and has found that , in her modest estimation, that at least 49% of the children are underweight and malnourished.   Parasites are a huge problem. We bought medicine for more 50 children for parasites. We have supplied milk and groceries to several different families that were identified as "at risk".
Dr. Jennifer has been very happy to have the help of several different volunteers, Jan, Karen, and  Linda are some that have been helping her measure, weigh and chart.
She will be continuing the clinics on the other side of San Jorge this week. Jan and Karen are helping her again.
 
We have also had several visitors this week.  One man and his parents came on a lightning visit to Guatemala for four days to visit groups that they would like to support.  I took them to Tierra Linda and San Jorge. They seem very interested in helping Mayan Families.  While they were here we got an emergency call from The Capulin school. They are in dire need of classroom space. Their classrooms are full and because they are a govt. school they cannot turn any children away.   So I took these visitors to the school and they saw the need that the school had to finish a wooden A frame structure that they had got from a defunct school.  The parents had dismantled it and rebuilt it but there were no funds for the roof, doors, windows, or floor.   The visitors gave us a donation of $360 to finish the job. Gary and Stuart have already started work on this project.
 
We also received a donation to finish the two classrooms in Tierra Linda. We will start work on this as soon as possible. 
 
Our school sponsorship is still continuing - we now have 187 children sponsored.
We have been busy buying school uniforms, school shoes and giving out supplies.
 
We also continue to be able to give out shoes and clothes that have been donated.
 
We had a visit this week from a new school in Jucanya.  It is a govt. school - they will be using the existing school of Jucanya that has it's classes in the morning.  The govt. has funded a director.  They have also funded two teachers who are on contract. that means they are only paid for 10 months out of the year.
This school is only Parvulo, Kindergarden, 1st and 2nd grade.  They have 93 children registered. They are not charging an inscription fee.  This school is for families who cannot afford the inscription fee.  I didn't realize this but the inscription fee is what the school uses to buy school supplies and snacks . ( this is what they told me anyway!)  So they have no supplies, no snack and no money.  They are asking for help with the snack. They said that a lot of these children come from families where they do not get a lot to eat and many may be coming without lunch.   This snack program of a cup of incaparina could be supplied to the school for a cost of $50 US a month. They are responsible for cooking it and the children bringing their own plates. 
 
We also have another school in the Tablon, above Solola , asking for help. They have 60 children registered and do not have any desks or chairs. The kids are working on the floor.   These combined desks and chairs would cost $15 U.S. each.  In case you know of anyone who would like to donate!!
 
We supplied 300 bricks to Santiago who lost his house in Panajachel to a fire that was deliberately set.  See blog.
We also bought new school shoes for his children. 
 
I took the Dr's and nurses from Medicos in Action to see Ernesto the paraplegic who lives in Aqua Escondido. He is living in miserable conditions. We received a $1,000 donation to be able to improve his house    They brought special cushions and shoes for him and left him with a lot of painkillers and medications.  We are going to try and have him accepted into Transitions in Antigua so that he will learn to be more independent.
 
This coming week - we will have the continued clinics in San Jorge.
 
We will be giving out 30 micro loans to women in the group in San Jorge.
 
We will be organizing the Veterinary clinic that is coming in March 2007. There will be 3 Vets and 3 Techs. and they hope to be able to do 50-75 dogs a day. 
 
We will also be looking for 2-3 building projects to do for March and April. We have three groups coming who want to be involved in a project and God Bless them will be funding these projects. Preference will be given to people who lost their homes in Hurricane Stan in October of 2005.
 
Good news is that Robyn from Mayan Families Canada has found a wonderful woman, Louise who is going to be the fundraiser. She has lots of experience  - has already built a school in Haiti - and we are looking forward to working with her.  They are planning to come down here in August.  Yay Robyn!!
 
We will be organizing the micro loans to go to Tierra Linda.
 
Then Patti is taking a holiday and going to the Dr's in Xela.....at least she says it feels like a holiday!!
 
  We also have a group that has formed called Mayanfamilesconnection@yahoogroups.com  they are mostly parents who have adopted from Guatemala and they are very enthusiastic about supporting us they are getting their first shipment together, not a container, but through a shipping co. Medrano. and they have already this week raised the money to put on the doors and windows in the house in Tierra Linda.
 
O.K. this wasn't so short.....!    Abrazos, Sharon

FEBRUARY 10, 2007

Thank you everyone for being concerned for Ernesto.  His life is very miserable and so is his young (23yr) and very pretty wife's life.  I will be calling Transitions on Monday and see if they have room for him. But we cannot force him to go and he had such a bad experience at the Solola hospital that he is very resistant to going anywhere. But he was interested when I talked to him about it.
 Karen, the nurse with Medicos en Accion, and I went back to visit him this past Wednesday. She was very disappointed that his wife did not appear to be using the new dressings that had been sent to him.   It is difficult for her leaving at 5.a.,m. to go wash clothes. We are trying to contact the community nurse who we may be able to pay to go and do his dressings.
 Medicos en Accion brought some really great equipment for him,  cushions for his wheelchair, the ones with the blow up bumps, they brought him cushions to lie on, yes , he does have one between his knees. About the only place without a bedsore.
They did bring sheepskins down for him but felt it was better not to give it to him because it would only become soiled.
He does have a good mattress that we gave him that was donated from Canada. It is actually a hospital mattress covered in good plastic.  He does not have a real bed though, it is just planks on cement blocks.  He does have pillows we gave him and  they seem to have sufficient blankets. What this family always needs is food.  Ernesto is very thin.
I am going to send Bonnie a photo of his bedsores...it is too graphic to post on the blog or to send out generally but if anyone is interested they could ask Bonnie to mail it to them privately.
 I don't think that I saw a radio there. I have to get someone to make him a rope that he can haul himself up on. There are no men in this family to help.   His care is left entirely to his wife, the rest of the family are horrified about becoming involved in the care that he needs.

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In regards to Chabeli's house, Stuart and Gary went there yesterday, measured it up and are buying the materials. Gary has left his power tools at another project across the lake so he is going over to get them to be able to start work. 
They had an unpleasant surprise when they went to Chabeli's house. The dirt road that goes to her house was being repaired and they had to park the car and walk about a mile to get there. This is a really rough road, I am surprised that they are even repairing it.  Then after you leave the road, you have to walk a distance on a little dirt path through the cornfields. It is not flat, it is on a mountain track so it is up and down.
After we found that out we were very concerned about Chabeli going home. We arranged for her to stay in Panajachel with a woman who knows her. We were going to supply both the families with food for the week in exchange for the woman taking care of Chabeli.  We were also going bring her children to stay with her. We thought we had it all arranged beautifully but when we spoke to Chabeli on the way home from the hospital, (via the cell phone of the van driver)  she really wanted to go home to her house and said that she would manage the walk. (She does not know yet of the surprise that is coming her way with the doors and windows.- which will actually be shutters). 
Thank you to all of you, she will this week have doors and shutters - they don't tend  to use glass in her area - it is all wooden shutters.  And thanks to the very generous anon. donor we will be able to buy her a real bed, food for two weeks and we are trying to get her an onil stove. Unfortunately, there are no stoves available yet but we called HELPS and asked to be added to the waiting list. 
When the guys were at Chabeli's house they realized that she also needs a decent chicken pen so that she can keep her chickens outside of the house. They are going to see what they can do about that.
Julio said that he looked around the kitchen and said that there was no food just two packets of rice.
We are planning on getting a big basket of food to them today.
Thank you so much for all that you have done, this is a real miracle for this family. I am going to send you some photos of Chabeli. 
Sharon

FEBRUARY 8, 2007

I wanted to let you know that we have kits of jewelry sitting in San Diego, CA. U.S.A.  We decided to do this as a fundraiser but have never got it organized correctly ( or at all! ). These bags cost $50 each and the beaded jewelry has a value of a minimum of $250. This is the beadwork that the women in San Jorge do.  It is beaded bracelets, key chains, necklaces and they all sell for the affordable cost of $5.ea. They are really beautiful and the work is very popular.
We were hoping that this would have a two fold benefit, the women would get paid more for their work because they would not be giving it to a middle man and the money raised would help our projects.  If anyone is interested please contact me, thanks, Sharon
The fastest way to send us donations is through PayPal on our website.  Dwight has a special account set up just for PayPal.
You can also send a check  - this goes to Dwight Poage, 2609 Hartford St., San Diego. CA 92110. If you send a check, Dwight  advises us.
If you need a tax deductible receipt then you can make the payment through World Link Partners c/- Helen Hogan, 411 East 3350 North, North Ogden. UT. 84414.   You can also access PayPal on the World Link website as well.
PayPal takes a 3% charge. World Link does not make any charges on the donation.
Thanks, Sharon

FEBRUARY 7, 2007

Hi everyone, I am sorry that I have not been responding to emails these past two days. It has been really hectic here, we have the clinic in San Jorge running with Dr. Jennifer and three volunteers, we have a nurse Karen, Jan who is doing all the charting, Linda who was here for two days helping and giving out donations, the committee of the Women's group has been very busy helping them.  They have discovered many children are underweight and  malnourished,we have already run out of vitamins so it is fantastic that you have got so many vitamins together.  We will be handing them out as soon as the box is unopened!!
 
Yesterday we sent a box of food to a family that the team in San Jorge identified as being at risk. In fact, the family had no food. Jan and Karen gave up their lunchtime sandwiches to enable this family to have something to eat until the next day when their emergency food box arrived.  Their is a 1 that was born 2 months premature and he is very malnourished.  Jan said that he looked better today after having some of the food that they had left behind.
 
Then we had 200 of the 500 water filters delivered, see the blog for the photos. Everyone was very happy to receive their filters! The rest of the 300 people are waiting until next week. Of course, we now have many other people wanting these filters. These ones were donated by Rotary. But I spoke to Juan Carlos Cheves who manufacturers the water filters and we can purchase individual ones for the price of $50 U.S.  So I am going to put that on the website in case people would like to donate a water filter to a family.  This will make a big difference in the health of a family.  Dr. Jennifer is finding out that many, many children and adults are suffering from parasites. Clean drinking water will go a long way to relieve this problem.
 
The same day I had calls from two schools asking for urgent help. One school has 60 children and no desks for the children to do their work.It is a school that is a ways out so I have not been able to get there yet.  The other school is here in Panajachel.  They have constucted an A frame to make into another classroom. They have no room at the school. But they ran out of funds to put the roof, the windows and the door.  Fortunately, we had some wonderful visitors here who immediately gave us a donation to be able to buy the roofing supplies and then Gary and Stuart who have been putting in stoves in San Jorge for the past week are now able to start work this afternoon putting on the roof.
They were also able to come up with some very good ideas to improve the existing structure.  The school is absolutely delighted that there is such a fast solution to this major problem that they had.   In one classroom they have 75 children. Because it is a govt. school they are not allowed to turn away children when the classrooms are full.  It is a difficult situation for the teachers.
 
Yesterday I also went with one of the nurses, Karen, from Medicos en Accion , a Canadian medical group that has been doing a medical mission here for the past two weeks. We went back to visit, Ernesto who is a paraplegic. He lives quite a distance from Panajachel so we do not get to see him as often as we would like.  We had visited him last week with two Doctors and Nurses from the same group and they had spent a long time showing his wife how to clean his horrendous bed sores and how to dress the wounds.  This return visit was to see how she was doing with all this.
We paid a surprise visit and unfortunately, it was disappointing to see that he had no dressings on his wounds and  while some of his bedsores looked better, one had got much deeper. 
He was lying wet on his soiled sheets. He is using a plastic shopping  bag  wrapped around his genitals to catch the urine. It is not effective. It is a very depressing situation for him and it is very difficult for his wife to be able to take care of him.
 
His wife, Sylvia 23yrs old, had left at 5.am. to go to work in other people's houses washing clothes by hand. It was 11.am. when we were there and Ernesto had not had anything to eat.  A neighbor had dropped off one egg for him. It was sitting on his bedside table so I asked one of his nieces to cook it for him. He had not taken his medication because he had to take it with breakfast.  But the pain medication that the group had given him was definitely working and for the first time since I have known him for  a year now, he was almost out of pain.
 
Karen, the nurse is very worried about him and feels that he may die unless he gets professional treatment for these bedsores. We are going to try and arrange for a community nurse to come in once a day and dress his wounds. Of course, we will have to pay her to do this - it is always a matter of funds and what we have available.  We are going to call "Transistions". It is an organization in Antigua that helps people with disabilities, especially, spinal injuries. It is a live in situation until they learn the skills to be independent.  Hopefully, they may have space for him, even for a short time so that he can get some care for his bed sores.
 
I can't wait to for the arrival of the first box!!!   How exciting!!
 
Paula, I cannot believe that you got that shoe measurement apparatus!!!  How amazing !!  and you did it so quickly!!
That is going to be so great!  I never even thought of something like that!!   It is so wonderful to have all this support and with all of us putting our thinking caps on - who knows where we can go!!
 
I have to tell you when I went to the school yesterday I saw two of the children that we are sponsoring. Their father died about 2 1/2 yrs ago in an accident.  The mother has five children and was pregnant a the time.  She gave birth a few months later and she had some strange thing happen to her and she has been paralyzed from the waist down since.  The family was poor to start with so of course things got much worse. The eldest boy, a teenager, went to the U.S. to try and get work. He has been up there now for about 2yrs sending money home to the family. Unfortunately, he was caught in the net and is waiting to be sent back to Guatemala. The mother is very worried about her son, she doesn't know where he is or how he is being treated. I assured her that the U.S. Govt. would be treating him well and feeding him.   So, of course, they have no money coming in.  We supplied them with a box of food to last them a week this past Sunday.   The 10yr old girl had started school last year but did not stay in school. When I asked why it was because the family could not afford to buy her school supplies, shoes etc and the other kids had made fun of her and the teacher was mad with her for not bringing in books.
Anyway, this young girl has been very sullen ever since I met her, she never smiles.  She did not want to go back to school but I insisted that if we were sponsoring the rest of the children that she had to go, too. She was very resistant. The system here in Guatemala, even though she is ten, she has to go to kindergarten.  I was not sure how she would do.  When she came and got her school supplies and backpack....she almost smiled then.  But yesterday at the school, she came up to me, hugged me and was smiling !!! She then ran off arm in arm with her friends!!  She was taller than the rest but she didn't seem to care- I was so happy to see that. The school principal told me that she is doing very well and that they will have her evaluated and see if they can put her up a grade or two.
 
Lots of love to everyone, Sharon

 

This is Chabeli - (or Ricarda) after much wrangling she has finally had a successful operation for a prolapsed uterus that she has been suffering with for 12 years. She is a single mother and lives alone with her three children. They live in Tierra Linda, their little mudbrick house is perched on a cliff top. It is very windy. The house has no windows or doors and she will be returning home to this house in the next few days to convalesce after her operation. We would dearly love to be able to put the doors and windows on her house. It could be done for $100 US. We have volunteers who will do the work for free, we just need the materials.

FEBRUARY 6, 2007

I was very pleased to have visitors, Peter from Huntington Beach and his parents, Helen and Michael from Santa Barbara came to see our projects today. We did a quick trip to Tierra Linda to visit the school, then down to San Jorge la Laguna where they visited the clinic that Dr. Jennifer was working on, had lunch with the busy volunteers, saw an Onil energy efficient stove being installed and paid a visit to the school in Panajachel. We went to this school in response to a request that they had for help. The school has too many children for the classrooms. Because it is a Government School it cannot refuse any child to attend so the classrooms just become more and more crowded and harder for the teachers to be able to teach.

The parents had got together and built this extra little classroom but they have now run out of money to finish it. They have given their time and the money that they could afford to give and now they need help to finish it. The school was very lucky today to receive a donation to buy the material for the roofing. But they still need money for the windows and doors. If anyone would like to help this little school ....it would be greatly appreciated.

Linda Seeger brought lots of clothes and shoes to donate to the children of San Jorge la Laguna. She was quickly called into service at the clinic and spent the rest of her time there assisting Dr. Jennifer from Canada, Nurse Karen and Jan with all the children that they were weighing and measuring, and dispensing medicines.

   

Today was a very happy day in San Jorge la Laguna. 200 of the 500 water filters were delivered.

" 200 of the 500 Q Beta water filters... This project has been sponsored through a Rotary Foundation Matching Grant (60923) together with the Florence, OREGON Rotary Club of District 5110 and the Guatemala Sur, GUA Rotary Club of District 4250. Rotarians George Lewis from Oregon and Juan Carlos Cheves from Guatemala have been coordinating the project. The remaining 300 filters are expected to be delivered next week. For more information on the Q Beta water filters, visit www.bombagua.com.gt"

 Juan Carlos Cheves has coordinated this project and we have been very happy that he chose us as his partners. The people of San Jorge are really delighted to have these filters which will give them access to clean drinking water and hopefully, this will help relieve the terrible amount of parasites that the population currently has to suffer. The other 300 people who have signed up for these filters are anxiously awaiting the delivery. We thank Cropa Panalapina for donating their services free of charge to bring these filters to San Jorge la Laguna from Guatemala City.

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Shoe's for School: One way we get the size of the children's feet is to draw them - yesterday we had a mother with a family of seven bring the outline of all her children's feet.  They were  of course, all sorts of sizes yet she marked them all with the exact same size of shoe that they all needed. They were all size 33!! In Guatemala they use the Metric system.
Another way the people here take the size of a child's foot is they measure it will a piece of string. We have lots of pieces of string on our notice board waiting for shoes - the trouble is that sometimes they stretch out the string so this really changes the size , or the woman in the shoe shop stretches out the string. It is always a hit or miss. We very rarely take the children to the shoe shop to buy the shoes because what happens is that we are buying shoes for school and they start gazing off at the fancy shoes and the whole process takes a very long time. So to save time and disappointment Gloria takes the children's shoe sizes and buys the shoes from the little store in town, the lady gives us a very good discount because we buy in such bulk from her.  Usually the shoe size works out o.k. but sometimes the kids with their parents have to take the shoes back and exchange them for a different size. We let them do this by themselves because the woman in the store knows that these shoes can only be exchanged for the same shoe or a similar one.
 Sharon

FEBRUARY 5, 2007

Today we celebrated the third group of twelve women who have finished their four month sewing class. This is a very joyous occasion for all. The women feel very proud that they have learnt a skill. Most of them have never been to school and cannot read or write. It is a very special for them to finish this course and receive a diploma. They have a tradition of cooking lunch for us and we bring a cake to celebrate. It is a very festive event. Today was especially nice as we had several visitors join us. One of the special guests was Jan from Miracles in Action. Jan has been very busy buying sewing machines off EBay for us and she managed to bring down 12 this time. These will be distributed to the women who have graduated. We are encouraging them to have their own cottage industries at home.

We also had the pleasure of Karen who is involved with Miracles for Action. Karen is a nurse and Dr. Jennifer quickly got her and Jan involved in helping with the clinics. Gary, Jan's husband, and Stuart from Canada are helping install the stoves with Julio and Juan and doing a great job at it. Also visiting were Linda, her sister, Patti and Linda's 2yr old daughter who was adopted from Guatemala. We all enjoyed a delicious lunch of BBQ chicken, beans and rice that the women had prepared and gave thanks to all the people who helped and donated to make this project such a success.

These twins are 5 years old, they are classified on the growth charts as severely stunted (for height) and clearly underweight.

 

This photo below shows the difference between a normal two year old and one of the 5 year old underweight twins. My daughter, Aleeya is Guatemalan, adopted her at birth.

 

These women are waiting to have their children assessed.

Hi guys, I am sitting here with Dr. Jennifer from Canada and she is very keen on having vitamins after spending another day measuring and weighing children. She found that 47% were underweight and malnourished.  She is very keen on having vitamins for these children, especially folic acid. 1 mg a day each for the first two years of life. New research published in the last three months shows how critical it is for neurological development, not only at the time of contraception, but throughout development during pregnancy and for the first two years of life. ( it can also help you if you are over 50 and feel slightly mentally slow -  please send that to me!!!! LOL!!!)    We have probably 600 kids under two years of age in San Jorge.  Thank you so much for all that you do.  Sharon
FEBRUARY 3, 2007

Hi Patty, Regarding donations and buying items in the U.S. You raise a very good point.  Formula is probably cheaper to buy in the U.S. but shipping it makes it expensive and also we have had this problem that some of the babies get diarrhea because of the change of formulas. So it is better to be able to buy the formula here BUT we don't always have the money for that. So if you can get it for free then at least the babies can have something. Also if there is a chance that you get enough of the same brand of free formula then a baby could get used to that formula.
Also one thing which would be terrific to have would be vitamins. After talking to Ed B. from the Washington Rotary Club yesterday he convinced me yesterday of the great need for vitamins for teenagers and women of child bearing years.  (vitamins of course, would be wonderful for everyone.)  I knew that Folic Acid was important to prevent Spina Bifida but I didn't know that it also helps prevent cleft palates. 
I also gave out vitamins here at the house yesterday to a teenager who is anemic. They were children's vitamins but they had extra iron so I hope  that they help her.  So just keep that in mind if you see any sales on vitamins!
Thank you so much for your help, Sharon

FEBRUARY 2, 2007

Hi, I think that I may have mentioned on the blog that we have a Dr. Jennifer from Nelson, B.C. Canada who asked me if we could set up a clinic in San Jorge that would be an ongoing clinic that some of the women could manage.  This will be just to check the weight and height of children under 5yrs of age and especially focusing on babies under 1yrs of age. We are hoping from this that we may be able to head off medical problems and get early treatment.
Yesterday was her first day and she found of the children that she saw that 30% were malnourished.  She also decided that we need to get funds to be able to do laboratory testing on many of the children complaining of stomach aches. A lot of these are parasites but it needs to be confirmed by a feces test.  And then of course, we need to start finding the parasite medicine to treat these children.
What she has found so far is that the children are very healthy until the mother stops breastfeeding. That is when the malnourishment starts.  Some children are lucky and breastfeed until 18 months or older but many of the mothers are pregnant very quickly and so some only get breast milk until 9 months of age.
I am really pleased that she has started this clinic and I am also really pleased that the women seem to be very interested in it and are learning how to fill out the forms and do height/weight checks.  So any milk formulas donations would be terrific.
 
It has been a busy day today but it has been a good day. We had a meeting in the morning with the women from San Jorge and made a list of the next group of women to receive the micro loans.
We also made a list of the women who will be entering the next sewing class of 4 months duration.
We had a group of visitors from a Rotary club in Washington state come along with us, they were able to watch the installation of one of the Onil energy efficient stoves and have a look around some of the construction work that we have done in San Jorge
We then came back to Panajachel and with the Directors of Paso por Paso had a meeting with some of the Directivo of the Tierra Linda Women's Group.  We discussed with them the possibility of starting micro loans for them in Tierra Linda. They were very excited about it and have gone back to discuss with their group and see if all are in agreement. It is a lot of responsibility for the women to take on.  But I think that they will want to do it.
We also had the Tierra Linda School committee come and discuss the amount of money needed to finish the two classrooms on the bottom floor. For some reason, the university has become economically challenged and cannot pay to finish the windows and the doors. These are really important parts of these classrooms!!!  Especially when the wet season comes. Imagine the poor teachers have to take everything out of the classrooms to put into a room that can be locked every afternoon!!
Paso por Paso ( which means Step for Step) cannot afford to do both classrooms so we will have to look for other funding.
We also discussed how much it will cost to finish the two unfinished rooms which are the second floor . It is going to be $3,500 for both classrooms.. So if anyone can put their fundraising caps on ..we are going to need it!!
 
Thank you all so much for all your enthusiasm and excitement. It is wonderful!   Big hugs to you all, Sharon

JANUARY 31, 2007

Hi All, I just want to say how overwhelmed and stunned and excited I am by all the great postings and all the information you have found out about shipping things here!!!  What an amazing group of people you all are!  
Somebody asked - sorry can't remember who after reading all those postings! - what kind of goods do we need most. Right now we need backpacks, school shoes, tennis shoes, and then just plain old shoes!  We always need socks, underwear, (clean, used is fine) warm jackets, cardigans, jeans and pants for boys of all ages, disposable diapers for adults and children, blankets, you name it...we need it and will use it!
I am so touched by all of the enthusiasm that you have been showing  - it is really wonderful. We really appreciate it.
I would love to write more but right now - I am very tired - it has been a long day.

  Chabeli.

This is Chabeli receiving food to take home to her family. She was scheduled for an operation the next day.

 
I started the day by sending Chabeli of Tierra Linda to the hospital in Patzun to be operated. She has a prolapsed uterus. She does not speak a lot of Spanish so we sent Yolanda, a woman who often helps us out with medical clinics, to translate for her and to help her get settled in the hospital. Poor Chabeli was very scared, it had been difficult to arrange for her to go, She is a single mother with three children, 1 only 2yrs old.  Her mother did not want the responsibility of minding the children because she had to work. There was no one to mind the children. Finally, we decided to pay the mother with enough food for her and Chabeli's children for a week so that  she could stay home and not have to worry about working.  Unfortunately, in the afternoon, after waiting a long time, the hospital refused to admit her because she did not have a blood relative with her.  So we now have to find a relative that will go with her to the Hermano Pedro Hospital in Antigua and we need to do it quickly because this medical team will only be here for another week.
 
Then Petronilla who works with us came in to say that there was a bleeding dog that had been run over on the road. I called  Miguel, the vet, to come and pick the dog up, sent Roberto and Mynor to help him pick up the dog.  Later we found out that the dog had been laying there for close onto a week. Miguel has had to amputate the dogs back leg. Xani (pronounced Shane-ee) from the animal shelter in Sumpango has agreed to take it if the poor thing survives.
 
 After that I took a group of Directors  from Paso por Paso to Tierra Linda school.  We found out today that the University is not going to supply the windows and doors for the two new classrooms.  As it is right now nothing can be stored in the classrooms at the end of the day. Everything has to be moved into another room that can lock.   We are getting a quote tomorrow and hopefully we will be able to raise the money to install the windows and doors in the two downstairs classrooms.  After that we will see about trying to raise money to finish the two upper classrooms - which are nothing but shells.
 
We looked longingly at the land next door to the school. There are three lots for sale. They are approx. $2,000 US. each and would love to be able to buy them so that the school could be extended.  The school is very small and it has very limited space.  Not enough space to cope with all the children that are going to be coming of school age in the next few years.
 
On the way back from Tierra Linda we stopped and picked up the woman who I brought back from the City Hospital last week. She is a 20yr old single mother whose baby has hydrocephalus. 

This baby is being helped with the operation, medical and tranpsortation costs by PROJECT GIFT 2003.

The baby is 10months old, is already blind, maybe deaf and probably has suffered brain damage. The mother loves this little baby and has been so good with her, she was at the hospital for over two weeks waiting to have the operation. She is so cheery and has such a positive outlook.  I brought her back to the house, gave her baby clothes and blankets and then sent her to see Dr. Lyle for a check up.

 
In the afternoon, I took a group of doctors and nurses from Medicos en Accion and Judith from Paso por Paso to visit Ernesto, a 25yr old man who has been a paraplegic for 3 years. Suzi and Cody went to visit him when they were here.

 

The Canadian medical team "Medicos en Accion" teaching Sylvia, Ernesto's wife how to care for his bed sores and how to prevent them in the future.

 

They had brought beautiful equipment for him to use to help stop the horrendous bed sores that he has.  I translated for the nurses and doctors as they taught Sylvia, Miguel's wife how to care for his wounds and how to prevent them from happening again.

Dr. Brian from " Medicos en Accion" distributing shoes to Ernesto's extended family. His mother has been collecting all these shoes for the children of Guatemala.

 
We also gave out shoes to the many children in this large family. I noticed that one of the little boys, Sergio, 3yrs old was not speaking well.  I mentioned it to Rolando the Doctor, and when he clicked his fingers next to this young boys ears, it was obvious that the boy was not hearing anything.  Rolando prescribed antibiotics as the inside of this boy's
ears were very crusty and we are hoping that this will help him. After that we will try to find a medical group coming that has a hearing specialist with them.
 
I am so happy to tell you that this group has decided that they will give us approx. $2,000 so that we can improve the very dismal conditions that Ernesto and his wife are living in.  It is a tiny room made of tin sheets. It is very hot in the day and very cold at night.  This is absolutely wonderful news!  I am so happy for this family.
 
In the meantime Julio and Juan continue with the help of several volunteers to install onil stoves in San Jorge and Dr. Jennifer is getting ready to start her clinics in San Jorge.  These will be mostly weighing and measuring children under 5 and particularly under 1.  We are hoping to be able to head off any problems that could be developing.
 
We received two donations for milk which is fantastic. We also received a donation that will enable us to buy 300 blocks for Santiago's house.....that is a good start!
 
Well, now I really am tired! 
Once again, I have to tell you how thrilled we are with all the support you are giving us.......MUCHAS gracias!!! Sharon
 

JANUARY 30, 2007

Karrie writes,

I personally have stood at the edge of this huge gravesite where the mudslides happened. Words cannot adequately express my feelings of compassion. Many had gone to work, or walked over to the lake to fetch water and upon their return found thier homes, their families, buried alive in an instant it was over. Even pets mourned atop the mounds of mud where their homes had been.

Editors note: See the article in our Fresh NEWS page from the region

Dear Karrie, thank you for posting this article.   I live in Panajachel which is the largest town on the lake.
It has been 14 months now since this tragedy stuck but people here are still trying to get their lives back together.
 
We work with many people who are still living in deplorable conditions because they lost their home and all their possessions.    We have built several houses since the destruction but there are many, many more waiting for help.
Just this week we went to visit an elderly widow who lives with her two daughters, one is blind and the other is mentally disabled.  Their mud brick house was completely demolished when the road above collapsed onto them. The daughter who is mentally disabled was buried for several  hours under the rubble but managed to be pulled out alive. She had suffered a broken leg, she was taken to the hospital and they put a metal rod in her leg but she is still unable to walk without assistance.  They have managed to re-build a certain amount of their house but now more than a year later, it is still unfinished, they have no money to finish it, it needs a roof, doors, windows, floor, it is basically a shell. In the meantime they live in a tin shed with a dirt floor. 
 
One of the mothers that we work with came to visit me after standing at the gravesite. She watched as they were able to recover the bodies of her aunt, uncle, cousins and her sister. It was a terrible experience for her to watch these bodies being recovered, the worst was seeing the babies being pulled out, But now she feels much better having her family buried in the cemetary and she can  visit them.
 
  Many of the children that we have arranged scholarships for this year are children of families who lost everything and would not be able to afford to send their children to school this year because they are still trying to get the basics back together in their lives, rents are now higher because there was such a demand for places to live. 
 
This kind of disaster is terrible for anyone but for people who are already existing below the poverty level to have this happen is something that will take them years to recover financially and some may never.  Thank you for reminding people of this tragic event, the initial disaster is over but the impact will continue for a long time.  Sharon www.mayanfamilies.org

JANUARY 29, 2007

   

Yesterday, we were invited to a very special lunch to celebrate the completion of the house for Lucas, Ana and their family of 7 children.

Lucas has been a paraplegic since a terrible building site accident last year. He and his family were living in a very dismal and depressing situation.

The were living in a one room rented mud brick house with no bathroom and no kitchen. There was enough room for two single beds and one table. There was not enough room for Lucas to be able to turn his wheelchair around. The room was very dark and their was no access for Lucas to be able to get outside of this room.

They had very little food, the 17yr old son had left school and was working and this is the only money that the family had to support themselves with. Ana and the eldest daughter, Vilma also made beaded jewelry but this is very low paid work and they just did not have enough money to cover their basic costs.

Lucas was ill but they had no money to pay for medical care and no money to be able to pay for transportation to take him for medical care.

This is when a wonderful family, the de Sutters, read about Lucas's plight and they came to the rescue of this family and generously gave their hearts and financial resources to help them out of the misery they were living in.

They funded this family to buy the piece of land that this house is constructed on. They built this spacious, wheel chair accessible 3 roomed house with a large bathroom. One of the large rooms is the kitchen, the other two rooms will be bedrooms. Not only did they do this, but they have provided much needed food for the family, including providing them with a food budget for one year, they sponsored five of the children to go to school and brought down bags and bags of fantastic and useful gifts for this family on their recent visit. What an amazing miracle the de Sutter family has been for this poor family.

Yesterday, the family invited the people from Mayan Families, myself, Gloria, Julio and Juan, and the Directors of the San Jorge Women's Group - who were the ones who originally brought our attention to the needs of this family to a delicious lunch of Barbequed chicken cooked in their new kitchen.

As lunch was served Lucas made a speech of thanks, first to God, then to the de Sutter family for all that they have done, to the Directors of the Women's Group for asking for help for them and to Mayan Families.

I had tears in my eyes watching Lucas, sitting in his new wheel chair( that the de Sutters had brought him), wearing his new clothes that they had given him and proudly showing people around his house. The room were we all ate was big enough for 15 people seated comfortably and still room for more.

He can now move through the whole house and has a patio outside where he can sit and watch the fabulous view that they have of the lake, talk to neighbors and participate in family life. He is no longer confined in a tiny, dark, dank room.

The family would not move into the house until they had given this celebratory lunch for all involved. The day before their priest had come and blessed the house, waving cans of smoky incense through every room and blessing all who would live there.

These people have had their lives totally transformed by the generosity and kindness of the de Sutter's. I don't have the words to convey just how appreciative we are of this gift that they have given.

Vilma, the eldest daughter who is 15, left school after only one year of schooling, there was no money to send her to school, thanks to the sponsorship she has received she is now enrolled in week end school and is loving it. She very proudly told me that she will be finishing first, second and third grade this year. Her parents were also very proud that she will be accomplishing this. I am thrilled that she will be learning to read and write. I am also happy to say that for the first time since I have been working with this family that Vilma actually had a smile on her face, she was always very serious. A lot of the care of her father has fallen on her shoulders and now she is at last being able to do something for herself.

Today they will be moving into their new home! In a special place of pride, on the wall, is a beautiful framed photograph of the de Sutter family.

This is a little 3 and half year old boy that we saw in San Jorge la Laguna yesterday.

He broke a bone in his upper thigh a few days ago. The Doctor has said that he is lacking a lot of calcium in his bones and he needs to be able to drink a glass of milk a day.

The family cannot afford to be able to buy a can of milk for him, the cost is approx. $17 US for a large can that would last him for well over a month. The family does not have a refrigerator so we have to get them powdered milk.

If anybody would like to help this little boy please contact us at mayanfamilies@yahoo.com

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These next Photo's show what we see every day. Your Donations of shoes, backpacks etc. will change this!

You really do make a small miracle happen for them!

 

 

JANUARY 28, 2007

BLOG

SANTIAGO’S HOUSE.
A week ago this family were asleep in the second floor of their house.  Some person, without regard to the lives of the 12 children, mother and father asleep, poured gasoline around the perimeter of the house and set fire to it. 

Fortunately, the mother awoke, to what she thought was the sound of rain, surprised she went to the window to see, (the rainy season finished some time ago) and to her horror she saw the bottom floor of their house on fire. 

  It is made of river rocks that the husband and children had laboriously carried to build the house so they had time to get out of their second floor alive with just the clothes on their back.  The second floor was made of wood planks, the floor made of stone tiles gave out just as they were escaping.  If the mother had not awoken this family would all have plunged into the fiery flames below. 

As it is they are now living at the grandparents home, trying to make sense of such a violent act. They have lost all their possessions. Their house is completely destroyed and the family is devastated.  They have no insurance to cover these losses. They have had to rely on the kindness of people to help them with the most basic of needs. Some of the townspeople have given them blankets and clothes.  We are supplying the children with new shoes to go back to school. Somebody helped them with backpacks and they have some school supplies. 

Santiago has worked for the local council for many years, he helped many people during the flood here a year ago.  He has helped for many years with a group of widows, helping where they needed assistance. 

Mario 22yrs old, works with his father for the council. It is hard work, they work in teams cleaning up the lakeside, cutting down the weeds, trees that have fallen, cleaning the river, they do a lot of dirty jobs.   Mario saved up his money to buy a computer that would help his brothers and sisters with their school work.  He has had this computer only one year.  He is very upset about the loss of this computer that he worked so hard to buy.

To further add insult, a few days after the fire destroyed the house, someone stole Santiago’s bicycle. His only means of transportation. 

Their most pressing need is for building materials to be able to rebuild their home.   We would like to be able to help them buy cement, blocks and tin sheeting for their roof.  If anyone would like to help this family with a small donation, it would be very gratefully received.

   

A tragic Fire Burnt down their house and belongings.

JANUARY 25, 2007

   

Yesterday 120 energy efficient stoves were delivered to San Jorge la Laguna. They were laid out in the main square while all the pieces were put together. This was a long awaited day for these 120 families. Now the work of installing them begins!

JANUARY 22, 2007  From Sharon's e-mails, edited for content:

Hi guys, we have a busy week ahead and I am just letting you all know what is going on.  I am sending a cc of this to Roger and Pat who are Paso por Paso (Canada) and who are staying here in Panajachel - if any of your group would like to participate in any of these events - you are most welcome.
 
MONDAY.  JAN 22nd.    Penny from Miracles in Action is here with 9 group members. I am taking them to San Jorge to see the sewing project. They have brought about 12 machines to donate. They will also see the house that they pledged to repair the last time they were here. - it is finished - just needs painting and electricity.
Then I will be taking them to Tierra Linda and hopefully we will be able to sort out the problems of building the two classrooms for Tierra Linda.
 
WED. JAN 24TH.  The 120 Stoves - the final amount for San Jorge - are being delivered.  We have had extensive classes for the women who are receiving these stoves.  A representative from Rotary Antigua was there last week to make sure that all the women knew how to install and care for these stoves.  Luckily, they all passed with flying colors. Also thanks to Juan and Julio who spent a few days in San Jorge last week showing them all how to do it.
 
THURS. JAN 25TH  Juan Jose from the Water Filter Project is coming to visit San Jorge.
 
SAT.   JAN 27TH.   500 Water filters are to be delivered and distributed in San Jorge.
 

JUST A REMINDER ......we still have many families coming to the door asking for help for their children to go to school. If you know of anyone who would be willing to sponsor a child to go to school please let them know it is not too late.

There are several children we know who will not be going to school unless they get a sponsor. $110 US a year.
 
SAD note  - Hanley Denning who is the founder of Safe Passages - or Camino Seguros who worked in the Dump in Guatemala City and who had done wonderful things for the children there was killed this week. She was a passenger in a car, traveling from Guatemala City to Antigua, that was hit by one of those dreaded chicken buses - going way too fast and overtaking.   A tragic loss of an amazing woman who has accomplished so much. God Bless Her, Rest in Peace.  www.safepassages.org
 
Wishing you all good health and peace, Sharon

 

JANUARY 18, 2007

I loved the T-Shirt that this little girl is wearing. I think it sums up exactly how she felt about getting a pair of shoes today!!

This young boy has been sponsored to go to school but he was too embarrassed to go to school until his new shoes arrived. He was so happy to get these shoes! Look at his shoes that he had been wearing. It's hard to see but they are completely falling apart.

This young 18yr old girl is a single mother to a young baby. She comes from a very large family, she is the eldest of seven children. Her family lost their home and all their possessions last year during the flood caused by Hurricane Stan.

They have been struggling since to recover. They all live in a wood plank one room house. They have no kitchen. They have no electricity. They have not even a table or chairs. They have no pila outside their house, which is an absolute part of every household here. This is a big sink that is used for washing dishes, washing clothes and people use it for bathing. Her parents work in the river sifting and collecting sand to be sold to construction sites. It is very hard, very tiring and low paid work.

The baby has been sick in hospital for the past week and the mother is not able to produce enough milk. The family does not have enough money to buy formula and so we are lucky due to a generous donation to our emergency baby formula project that we were able to supply this baby with a can of formula.

Today we had another busy day with school sponsorship. Children coming to collect their school supplies, parents coming hoping that we will be able to help them. We are lucky that we still have people sponsoring children as we have many still needing help.

Today we also gave out milk to two families needing milk for their babies. This woman is the aunt to seven children who were orphaned last year. She is now mother to all of them and has struggled to keep the family together. The baby is now 18 months old, he has been sick and wants to be able to drink his bottle of milk. The aunt has been trying to satisfy him with cereal in his bottle but he has been really unhappy. Thanks to donations to our emergency baby formula fund we were able to give him a can of baby milk.

JANUARY 16, 2007

BLOG  JAN 16TH , 2007. 

Today was a very happy day.  A young boy who was shot in the mouth and has been unable to be operated on for nearly two years because of lack of money will now be able to get his operation due to the generosity of “Companeros de Salud de Atitlan”. This is a volunteer group in Panajachel who help medical teams organize their missions here and who raise money through bake sales and yard sales for medical needs. 

They have been able to give us $1,000 US. for this young boy to have the metal taken out of his mouth and go onto the next procedure.  This horrible event happened when he was a passenger in a car driving down the mountainside near Panajachel. When robbers attempted to carjack the car, the driver kept going and the robbers shot at the car. The bullet went through one side of his mouth and came out the other shattering his jaw. He was nearly one year with his mouth clamped shut and only able to drink liquids. He is only a young boy, just 15 now and it has been a devastating ordeal to go through.  

The family have gone to the city to make arrangements with the hospital. They were so excited and grateful .It was wonderful to be able to tell this family that at last there was help available. It will surely cost a bit more than the $1,000 we have been donated. They will probably need another $300 at least to cover medicine costs and transportation.  If anyone would like to donate to this boy’s medical care  - please contact us.   

On a not quite so happy note was the single mother who suffers from epilepsy. She is unable to always afford her medicine. One time when she was not able to buy it, she had an episode and fell into the fire. She had been cooking dinner at the time.  This is the 2nd person that I have met who suffers epilepsy and because of not being able to afford the medicine, has had an attack and suffered terrible burns from falling into a fire. 

We are hoping that we will be able to get this woman treatment from one of the medical groups coming down.  I think that she needs plastic surgery so that she will be able to move her fingers again. Her index finger cannot be bent or else the skin splits and bleeds. 

She is a single mother with three children and since April, 2006 has not been able to work due to her hand injury. Her sister has been supporting her and her children.  

Another woman who came seeking help yesterday is a 42 yr old single mother who has been diagnosed with a brain tumor. Her extended family has been able to raise $2,000 towards her operation but it is only half of what they need.  They are not asking for a hand out to help with this operation, they are willing to borrow the money and pay it back. They are quite desperate to have it done as soon as possible. 

Apart from these medical issues we have been very busy with school sponsorships. Buying backpacks, school supplies and an endless amount of people coming to the door asking for help.

Please go to the website and click on the photos of “Children receiving school supplies” to see some very happy faces.  Thank you to everyone who has sponsored a child and made this possible.  If you would like to sponsor a child …it is not too late, please contact us.

 

 

Boy who will finally be able to have his operation to remove metal, thanks to the generosity of "Companeros de Salud de Atitlan"

 

These are the daughters of Lucas who is a paraplegic. They are very lucky to have a sponsor who is supplying the family with food for a whole year. Here they are collecting food supplies for the next few weeks. They were also given a very large bag of maize (corn) to make tortillas.

 

This 42yr old single mother has a brain tumor and needs an operation.

Her family has raised half the amount of $2,000US but they still need to come up with another $2,000 US. They have no way of doing that and have appealed to us for help.

 

This is the photo of the woman who has epilepsy. She couldn't afford her medicine to control her attacks and she had an episode and fell into the fire. Her hand is badly burned and will need plastic surgery.

She has had it like this now for 9 months and has not been able to afford surgery. She is a single mother with three children. She has been unable to work since the accident and her sister has been supporting her.

 

This is Carlos wearing the new clothes and cap and proudly showing his wallet with the dollars he received from his sponsor for a Christmas present. He was thrilled to get these gifts and he used the money to help buy the maize (corn to make tortillas ) for his grandmother.

Carlos has never had anything to do with foreigners before and he was very scared to come to the house and receive his gifts. He had tears in his eyes when he was waiting to receive his gifts and Gloria, a Mayan woman who works with us, asked him why. He said that he was really happy to be getting gifts but he was really scared because people told him that the foreigners would give him gifts and then steal him. Poor kid, we all started laughing and there were several children there who have been sponsored for years who assured him that nobody has ever tried to steal them!

He feels so comfortable that this week he came and asked me if he could have a job working with us!

JANUARY 15, 2007 

 

Blog 1.  JANUARY  15TH, 2006 

We are finally managing to catch our breath after all the Christmas activities, we were able to supply toys for 5 Christmas Parties for different communities. 

Thanks to the generosity of all the wonderful people who have helped us this year, we were able to distribute more than 1,500 toys.  

We were able to give out 215 Christmas Tamale Baskets to needy families who would have not been able to afford to buy the ingredients to celebrate on Christmas Eve.  

I was moved to do this project because of a poor family that I know in San Jorge. This is a single mother with three children.  I was very saddened to learn that last Christmas these children were crying at home because they did not have tamales to eat at midnight, which is the traditional celebration here.

These children then went from house to house hoping that someone would give them a tamale.

When I started asking how much it cost to be able to buy the ingredients for tamales, I realized that it was very difficult for single mothers and very poor families to be able to stretch their budgets to be able to buy these foods. We estimated that it cost approx. $30 US for a family to be able to be able to celebrate Christmas. 

I was really amazed at the response to my request for help to sponsor families with these baskets.  I thank everyone for their generosity – it made so many people so very  happy! 

I also have to apologize to all the people who sponsored these baskets. I had said that I would send you a photo and bio of the family receiving the baskets but unfortunately, we experienced so many problems that it was impossible to do.  First our internet service went out for days, then when it came back on, the electricity went out, when it came back it remained sporadic which made working on the computer very difficult. After that my faithful digital camera suddenly stopped functioning, I borrowed Patti’s but it was not compatible with my computer and then to top it all off, the program that I had been using to send photos for over a year which had worked flawlessly just stopped functioning.

So what should have been a simple exercise to send the photos and bio’s out became impossible.

By that time it was either laugh or cry….but we didn’t have too much time to do either. 

We were lucky to have wonderful volunteers who helped pack Christmas presents, thank you Bonnie, Mike, Heidi, Suzi, Cody and Ting. They also poured out and packed bags of rice for the baskets. 

We had selected the people who would receive the baskets and had notified them to come on the morning of the 23rd. That would give them all day to cook their tamales and have them ready for the evening of the 24th.  One thing that we had not thought about was giving out the meat.  The baskets included 5lb of meat that goes in the tamales. Well, of course, none of these families have refrigerators. So we decided that it would be best if they came back in the late afternoon of the 23rd to collect their meat and it would stay refrigerated all day. Some we were able to freeze for people who had to travel long distances.  

At 10.am.on the morning of the 23rd, we had over 200 women waiting outside the front gate. They were such a happy crowd.  Some who had come from outlying villages had come together in the back of a pick up.   We separated them into groups depending on which village they came from, and one by one they had their name called, received their basket and had their photo taken.   Most did not bring their children with them because there were just too many people to fit into the pick ups or my garden. 

Of course, word quickly spread through the town that we were giving out food baskets and we soon had a lot of women at the door also asking for help.   Unfortunately, we could not do it but we did give them toys for their children or in some cases a bag of sugar, or a bag of coffee.  

We had one woman who was not on the list to receive a basket, nobody knew who she was, but she managed to get into the garden and was obviously, very poor, her children had no shoes, they were all very thin, she had two little girls about 6 and 8 yrs old and was carrying a young toddler. She kept watching all the people receiving their baskets and kept asking us if there would be one for her.  We told her that we were sorry, that all the baskets had been allocated. She was very sad and looked very depressed.  She kept staying through out the morning, watching everyone get their photos taken.  The children sat quietly with huge eyes watching everything.

I told her that I would give some shoes to her children.  I asked where there old shoes were and she said that they were completely worn out and she had no money to buy even plastic sandals. 

Gloria, who is a Mayan woman who works with us and who has a heart of gold and does a wonderful job, found that we had an extra basket left over.  Everyone had their baskets and we had one left over. Obviously, we had miscounted and had made 216 baskets but these baskets had been counted over and over and there had always been 215 so it remains another Mayan Mystery to us! But we were so happy to be able to finally, at the end of the day, give this woman a Christmas Basket.  When we gave it to her, she got tears in her eyes and said softly “now I will be able to give my children tamales”. The way that she said this went straight to my heart. Of all the people that we gave Christmas Baskets to this woman who was not on the list and who waited all day, is the one who stands out most in my memory.  Being able to give her that basket made all the work and organization worth it. 

I wish that everyone who sponsored these baskets could have been here to see how much they were appreciated and how much joy that they brought.

Maria Antonietta, 15yrs old received a christmas present from her sponsor, she was very excited that she was able to buy herself a new corte (skirt) and a new blouse ( latest style - hand crocheted).

 

The Women busily wrapping presents.

 

These are from Sharon's e-mails, edited for content:

 

Hi J, our group Mayan Families has been doing school sponsorship for several years.  You can go to our website to read about it. www.mayanfamilies.org   we currently have 123 children on our website, nearly all of them are sponsored but we have at least another 40 waiting to be put on the web. Hopefully, in the next few days we will have the rest of the photos and bios put on - we have been experiencing some computer problems. 
Our school sponsorship program is $110 US a year. The child you choose, will receive their school registration fee paid, a backpack, all their school supplies, their school uniform, a pair of school shoes, a pair of tennis shoes, 2 pairs of socks and two pairs of underwear.  This fee also covers for some students the cost of an annual excursion or a musical instrument that the school requires.
You receive updates on the web site in the area with your students photo about the child's grades which is usually every 3-4 months depending on the school. 
You are welcome to communicate with the child.
We are in the process of obtaining 501c(3) status, it costs over $900 so it may take a while, in the meantime World Link Partners www.worldlinkpartners.org  is a registered 501c(3) organization, accepts donations on our behalf and issues tax deductible receipts.
Any other questions please don't hesitate to contact us, Sharon