Christmas Food Basket Time! IT IS THE SEASON FOR SHARING.
At midnight on Christmas Eve 2005, two of our sponsored students went door to door hoping someone would give them a tamale to eat.
This is the traditional meal at Christmas in Guatemala. Their single mother could not afford to buy the ingredients to make Tamales.
When we found out about this we wondered how many other families could not afford to celebrate Christmas and how many other children were sad and hungry at this time of the year.
It turned out there were a lot of people who could not afford to celebrate Christmas.
In 2006 we started the Christmas Tamale Basket Program. We gave out 215 baskets of food. In 2007 we gave out 650 baskets. In 2008 we gave out more than 1,000. In 2009 we gave out approximately 1,600 Christmas Baskets of Food!
This year has been a very, very hard year in Guatemala, natural disasters, sink holes, flooding, mud slides, volcano eruptions, rising costs of living and a severe lack of jobs due to a lack of tourism and all of the reasons listed above.
Mother Teresa said "If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one..."
We are asking for your help to feed just one family this Holiday Season.
Food prices have continued to rise again this year in 2010.
This Food Crisis means that families will be forced to forego traditional foods for tortillas and beans. This continues to take its toll on children and families. There are lots of families needing help.
Malnutrition is a constant challenge in Guatemala.
Please consider feeding an impoverished family this Holiday Season.
Many families in Guatemala do not have enough food to eat this year. Many of the families that we work with cannot afford to have the traditional meal at midnight on Christmas Eve.
You can make a difference now.
For $35 you can give a Christmas Tamale Basket and feed a family of 12 or more. Our Christmas basket is made of plastic and will be used afterwards by the family to stack and wash dishes, hold food etc. The food items will include: Oil, 15 lbs of Rice to make the tamales, a block of drinking chocolate (this is traditional to drink at midnight), a loaf of bread with which they eat the tamales at midnight, sugar for the tamales, coffee, usually we include raisins, grapes, apples but this year there are so many people in need of food that these luxury items will be replaced for food staples such as beans, corn or vitamin enriched cereal.
To make a contribution for the Christmas Tamale baskets please go to our website
http://mayanfamilies.org/DonateOnline
and go the General Donation section to send a donation. If you would like to nominate a special family or a sponsored student to receive your basket please send us their name or student number by e-mail to Sharon@mayanfamilies.org
If you would like to pay by check please send your donation made out to Mayan Families to:
Mayan Families
P.O. Box 52
Claremont, N.C. 28610
If you would like to give this gift in Honor of someone special, please send us an email to: dwight@mayanfamilies.org
giving us the details and we will put them on our IN HONOR OF web page.....to have an e-mail sent to the person you are honoring - please send us their email address. Thank you for your support.
ABOUT US:
Mayan Families is a small non-profit group working in the Highlands of
Guatemala. We are a registered 501(c)(3) Non Profit Charity of the Internal Revenue Code.
Your donation is tax deductible.
P.S. Please help spread the word by forwarding this e-mail to your community or posting it on your personal blog, web page and your social networks such as Facebook, You Tube, MySpace, Google Buzz, Twitter, Hi5, Blogs and any others that are appropriate.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM OUR FAMILIES TO YOURS. |
Thank you once again for supporting Mayan Families!
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