Maria.

Little Maria is 6 years old. Maria is one of our sponsored students at the Mayan Families Pre-school in Panajachel.
We took Maria this morning to see the parade and have breakfast.This is the first time that she has ever been to a restaurant.

Maria is the eldest of three children. Her mother is a single mother. Maria has a 2yr old brother , Rodolfo . She looks after him, feeding him, changing his diaper, carrying him everywhere.
The mother has a newborn baby about two weeks old. Another little boy.
The family is living in a one room mud brick house without electricity. They have no bathroom, no closet, no table, no chairs, no stove. They do not have water connected.
Maria has to carry water from a neighbors house. They cook over an open fire on the ground.
There is no bathroom. They have to go out in the fields. Maria says that at night she is very scared to go outside to the toilet.
We found Maria's family when we had a wonderful group visiting here for the summer. We visited Maria's house and found that they were sleeping on a cement floor with just a few thin blankets. Recently, Maria's little brother was in hospital with pneumonia at the same time his mother was delivering the new baby in another part of the hospital. Jennifer's group also gave food to the family, they had nothing to eat. The father of the baby has not been responsible for helping the family so far . I don't know if they have the same father.

Maria's family is being evicted out of this horrible little room that they live in. The landlord has given them another week and then they must move. But the mother doesn't have a job. It is impossible for her to find a job with a new baby and a two year old. The mother has locked Maria and the two year old in the room when she has gone to work before. Obviously this is very dangerous.

They have nowhere to go and they cannot afford to rent a room. The mother is not able to afford to pay the rent. Hopefully, in a few months she will be able to work and have enough money for the rent. She will probably never have enough money for rent and food.
We are hoping that someone may want to sponsor them for their rent. It would be approx. $80 US a month.

Maria has been coming from the Mayan Families pre-school to our house in the afternoons, playing with my four year old daughter, Aleeya.
Aleeya at first, was not keen to play with Maria because all the children said she was dirty. It was true. She has no water connected to bath in, the mother has to go to the river to wash the clothes....not an easy task when you are pregnant or just given birth to a child. But Maria's sweet and easy nature warmed her way into Aleeya's heart and they have become fast friends.
Aleeya told me last night that Maria "doesn't have a t.v." and that Maria is sad because she wishes she had clean clothes, socks and shoes and that she would like to have a hairbrush, because she only has her fingers and water to do her hair.