Micaela needs an echo-cardiogram in Guatemala

Micaela, is a single mother of three, Juan Eduardo, Yamilé, and Jasmin Aracely, and lives in San Jorge with her 78 year old mother.
She needs an echo-cardiogram to find out what is causing the pain and if her problems have progressed. The cost of the appointment and the transportation she needs from her home in San Jorge to Guatemala City is $92.

For more information on how to help Mecaela, please visit:

http://familyaidprogram.blogspot.com/2012/03/micaela-has-three-children-and-heart.html

Thank you!

Dominga fighting Cancer in Guatemala

Hi Everyone,

Rodrigo and Ana Patricia are the youngest of seven children and have lived a very difficult life. There father was never supportive and their mother has been ill for years. Despite their extremely difficult situation, the two will be the first in their family to learn to read and write. None of their five older brothers and sisters had the opportunity to go to school.

Rodrigo's and Ana Patricia's mother, Dominga's condition has recently worsened. Her doctors told Dominga that she did not have much time left, but she was recently diagnosed with cancer and given hope for a longer life with treatment. Unfortunately, she has been too sick to work and none of her family members are able to help pay for the treatment she needs.

For more information on how to help Dominga and her family, please visit:

http://familyaidprogram.blogspot.com/2012/03/update-dominga-has-been-diagnosed-with.html

Thank you!

Christmas party for the 54 children in the Mayan Families Orphan Program

The Hotel Porta de Lago in Panajachel gave a wonderful Christmas party for the 54 children in the Mayan Families Orphan Program.
The children and their caretakers, some were a grandparent, an older
sibling or a relative came along and had a fantastic day.

The hotel did all they could to make this a most memorable day for the children.

They had a special area decorated with a tree and lots of gifts. They
had an entertainer who played games with the children which was a lot of fun.
But the most exciting thing for the children was that they were
encouraged to go into the pool and swim!!!!

There was a rush to grab bathing suits that we had brought with us and children squished themselves into all sizes of bathing suits!
After swimming, there was a huge Winne the Pooh pinata ....and then the hotel Manager, Anna Maria Herbruger....gave out beautiful Christmas gifts for each child and a cake for each caretaker.

Then a lunch of hamburgers and french fries, drinks and a cake with
cream was served to the families.

This was an exciting day for these children to be able to enjoy
themselves and be kids without a care!
Thank you so much Hotel Porta del Lago.

We need your Vote on facebook to help impoverished children in Guatemala!

Ok everyone, it's time to take it to the streets. Get people to vote!! Set up your laptop, ask people to vote. Go to Starbucks or your favorite Coffee place & set up. Have a business? Ask people to take a minute on your laptop to vote. The easier it is the more likely people will be to vote. Make up flyer's and pass them out in the neighborhood. This money would save so many lives and it requires so little of anyone. Please, please help MAYAN FAMILIES and the two other charities here in Guatemala, Amigos de Santa Cruz and Mission Guatemala. Take an hour or two it could make a huge difference!! Vote now!

1. Click on link http://bit.ly/rFKYZE  for Mayan Families

2. Click on the green "Vote & Share" button.

3. You may be prompted to like Chase Community Giving page. Please "like" Chase Giving page.

4. Make sure to click on "Vote & Share" button again .

When you click on the Vote & Share button, a new window may open that states: "Chase Community Giving" is request permission to do the following...". This window will have an "Allow" button that needs to be clicked.

Once you click the Allow button, a new message will appear with the "Vote & Share" button at the bottom.

Voting is not complete unless you click this "Vote & Share" button and see a message "Thanks for your Vote", and the vote count increases. The link to Vote will appear on your Facebook page as well after you Vote successfully. That is how you know that you have done it correctly, plus next to your photo on the upper center right of the page it will say: 9 VOTES LEFT.

Happy Day in San Antonio Palopo!

Terri Weidle and her daughter, Maleni, ( who was born in Guatemala)
come down every year and spend time helping out at Mayan Families.

This year they are doing a great project of making butterfly hands
with the children at the Mayan Families Pre-school in San Antonio
Palopo.

The mothers were also delighted by the bags of much needed food that
they recieved from Terri when they came to pick up their children.

Terri collects money from her friends to be able to help the children
while she is here.

The children were also delighted to have a big cake to share after the
butterfly project!

  

  

Mid June, At the end of a week!

This has been such a busy week with medical clinics. Yesterday the medical/dental and vision group held a clinic in Chukumuk. They attended to over a 100 people. Gloria called me last night after she returned from translating for the doctors and was very disturbed by how many people have so little to eat. One of the doctors was in tears after talking to a very young, very thin woman who told him that very often she and her 10yr old brother often have nothing to eat . That her parents died in the mudslides and her older sisters have married and it is just the two of them. Thankfully, the doctor made arrangements with Gloria to send some money for food every month for these two young people. Gloria asked me if we could set up a pre-school/feeding program for the children there, she feels the need is very great. I told her we would love to but it is just a matter of money and trying to raise funds for it. Yesterday three young children were brought to Mayan Famililes by the mother of one of our sponsored students. They are a 2-3 yr old girl, a 4yr old boy and a 6yr old girl. Very thin, their clothes were very tattered and dirty. The mother of the children asked the sponsored mother who comes from the same village , if she could spend the night at her house, the sponsored mother agreed. The next day the mother asked the sponsored mother whether the children could stay with her for a week because she had found a job in Antigua and needed time to start the job and arrange things before the children came. The sponsored mother agreed again. A week went past, two weeks went past....nothing was heard from the mother. Then the mother called and said she was not coming back for the children, that the sponsored mother could do what she liked, keep them, give them away, it didn't matter. The sponsored mother's husband got on the phone and told the woman if she didn't come back for the children that he would call the police and she would be arrested. She came back the next day....she has a one year old baby she is still breastfeeding. She told the sponsored mother that she had met a man and that he does not want all these children with them but he will accept the baby. The sponsored mother and father once again, told her, that she needed to take the children with her. They have a large family themselves including one child in a wheel chair. The mother agreed to take the children and left with them. The sponsored family left to go to church around 6p.m. ....when they returned around 10pm the three children were sitting cold and trembling on the front door step. The 6yr old told them that the mother said that would stay there and that she would not be coming back for them. The sponsored mother came to us yesterday and is very worried about what to do with these children. She has known the mother for many years, the mother does not have any family that she knows of . There is one uncle that the children stayed with for a week but he beat them badly....and the children all said that they do not want to go back there because he hits them so hard. The youngest one appears to have some scars on her back from being beaten. She does not talk and she is not toilet trained. We are not sure what her problems are exactly ....but she had a fever yesterday and we treated her for that. The sponsored mother has already had someone offer to take the 6yr old girl. ....but it is obvious that this child would be taken in as a servant. The sponsored mother has said that she will keep the children together with her if she can get support to be able to feed, clothe, and send them to school. The young one, Michaela needs to be on the milk program so that she can have milk for her bottle. She is obviously very traumatised as are the other two children. I have never seen such a sad face as this little Michaela had. I think these children will be much better with the sponsored mother who is willing to take them and keep them together rather than send them to an orphanage. We are hoping that we can send them to our pre-school and we will be looking for sponsorship for each one of them. The sponsored father is a pastor at the local church and is a good man. He cares deeply about his own children and I think he will be very kind to these children. He and his wife are just concerned about having enough food to be able to feed them and support them. We have had an update about Heydi who was the young girl who was raped and now has a baby. She is back living with her family but the family do not really want her there but as long as we are providing food for her and the child then she can stay there. The family do not accept the little boy and they do not like to give them his food. We are trying to do everything that we can so that Heydi is not a burden on her family and making that happen we hope will soften the hearts of the family. We had hoped that there would be enough land at the parent's home to build a room for Heydi and the baby so that they could be independent but the space is too small. We are now hoping that we will find a small piece of land for Heydi and to be able to build her a house. We have given Heydi an option as to where she could go and stay but she feels safer if she stays at home with her family.....even if they do not want her. Thanks to the donations that we receive from you we were able to give plenty of clothing to the babies and children who came in. Anna from Family Aid left last Friday and is now back in Australia preparing to go back to University to start her Masters Degree. We have Dina from Brazil who is a lovely young woman who has taken Anna's place. Dina speaks fluent English/Spanish as well as her native, Portugese. We also have an intern, Erin who will be with us for several months who is helping Dina till we have a new person to take over. We have many volunteers right now and it is wonderful. We had a very inspiring young woman visit us yesterday. Her name is Colette and at 15yrs old she has started her own organization to help children. Yesterday, she and her father delivered work books that she designed and printed for young children. She delivered these books to Pana pre-school and to San Antonio after school program. The children loved them and we have enough to give to all the pre-schools. Colette's mother is a pediatrician who is here working with a medical group. She asked us to see if we could get medical care for a young boy 16 months old, who has a cleft palate and is also tongue tied. This condition is making it very difficult for him to be able to eat. We had a visit from the doctor at Central Salud, this is the govt. run health clinics that offer free medical treatment for the communities. Over a year ago we gave them an ultrasound machine that Wayne had driven down from Canada. Unfortunately, it was damaged in the process of coming down and it needs repairs. They have been trying to raise the funds ever since but they have had no luck. They can get it repaired but it will cost $1,500 US. They came to us to ask if we had any one who could help them with this. We are going to try and help them because this would be such an incredibly useful item for them to have. The doctor also told me that they have very little medications.....people come to them sick and they have nothing to give them. She also told me that the govt. has not allocated the workers wages for the past two months either....so no meds and no wages makes it very difficult for them to work. The doctor thanked us for facilitating these medical teams and said how much they help the people. We were able to give them some children's tylenol, some OTC meds but we really had very little that we could share with them. Today we are having a clinic at San Antonio Palopo. It is the last day of the clinics, tonight we will have a farewell dinner with the group and they will be heading off to Antigua for a few hours and then onto the city. This group has worked so hard and helped so many people. We are very pleased to have had the opportunity to work with them. We had a very happy, boisterous crowd from the San Jorge school soccer team come to Mayan Families yesterday. They were so thrilled to receive soccer uniforms ...thank you TEWKSBURY!!! , soccer shoes, socks, shin guards and three new balls! They were thrilled, they rushed off and played an impromtu game in the garden. Today, Tierra Linda Elementary school will be coming down to receive their uniforms. And on an even happier note, we have Shannon and her family here. Shannon is a long time Mayan Families Connection member and we are so happy to have her back here with us. Sharon

Opening of the Pre-school/feeding program in San Antonio Palopo,Guatemala

Yesterday we had the opening of our 4th Pre-school/ Feeding program in San Antonio Palopo where there has been so much devastation from the mudslides caused by Tropical Storm Agatha. This program is different from our others as we are having classes for older children in the afternoon. The children in the morning will be aged 3-5yrs old and in the afternoon the children will be aged 5-10yrs old.
Both sessions the children will receive two meals, brush their teeth, take a vitamin tablet and have educational classes and crafts. These children are in need of having some fun activities to take their mind away from all the tragedy that they have seen recently. Over 20 people died in mudslides in this village. Dozens of families have been left homeless and many other people are too scared to live in their homes.



Eating a healthy meal.
Volunteer Vanessa helping the children to wash their hands. Vanessa also taught the children how to brush their teeth. Many had never brushed their teeth before and it was a new experience for them!
Wendy,the teacher at the center.


Mayan Families staff member, Ely getting to know the children!

One of our sponsored families.

This family is typical of some of the families that we work with in Guatemala. There are five children in the family. The father, Victoriano works taking sand out of the river. It is one of the lowest paid jobs. He earns $20 US per week when he can sell his sand. The sand is used for construction. Some weeks he cannot sell the sand and there is no money for the family. Other weeks if it is raining he cannot work.

The family rents the house that they live in. It is $20 US per month. They pay $7 US per month for electricity and $2 US per month for water. This tin shed is their kitchen.

Their toilet and washing area has no walls, it is just plastic sheets for privacy.

The mother washes clothes by hand in private houses. She earns $2 - $3 US per day when she can get work. It can be difficult for her to find work because she has the young children and people do not want her to bring the children to their houses.

This is a pila, a 2 sided cement sink. This is where the family washes the dishes, washes their hair, washes their clothes and washed themselves. The big blue plastic can is used for storing extra water.

This is the kitchen . They are cooking over an open fire in a tin can.

They also cook over these bricks on the dirt floor.

The beds do not have mattresses. The floor is dirt and you can see where rain is coming inside the house and making the floor wet.

They have one closet without doors and they keep their clothes in this closet. Extra clothes they keep in cardboard boxes. They have one wooden table and two wooden chairs.

The baby was recently hospitalized with pnuemonia. Thanks to the sponsors of one of the children, medical care was made available to the baby and we were able to get the medication needed. But the family did not have any food. The children are malnourished. We were able to get some food for the family but they need on going help if the children are to have enough to eat.

This is one of the families that is being hit very hard by the increase in food costs.

an article about Mayan Families.

This is the link to an article posted in a local Canadian newspaper about Ren, a volunteer who visited this summer. Ren is a teacher whose group made such a difference in so many lives!
The family that she and her friends are sponsoring is 7 children who were all malnourished.
The family was living on approx. $12 US per week. Several of the younger children are now attending the Panajachel Pre-school, "Caritas Sonadoras" ....little faces with big dreams....and having a great time.!

www.nipawinjournal.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1725295

Getting a bed!

These students were so lucky to receive the wonderful gift of a bed from their sponsors today. Erick and his family have a house that is mostly made of plastic sheeting, they sleep on the dirt floor on straw mats. They are certainly going to be so happy to have this double bed at home tonight!

Maria and Cristina also live in Tierra Linda. Their father died a few years ago after an accident at work.
They now live at their grandparents house with their mother and a younger sibling. The house is just one room made of tin sheeting. They were sleeping on the dirt floor on straw mats.
They were so thrilled to receive the gift of this bed.

Mayan Families Panajachel Preschool

The opening of the Panajachel Pre - School was held this past week. It was such a joyous occasion. We have been delayed in opening for sometime due to lots of paperwork but it was worth the wait! Representatives from the Mayor's office in Panajachel, representatives from the Dept. of Education, Directors of local schools, several lawyers who had been involved in helping open the preschool came and representatives of a local organization to help women and children were also there. After the speeches, everyone poured into the classroom and enjoyed looking at all the decorations and wonderful edcuational toys.
In the kitchen, everyone was busy, including my 4 1/2 yr old daughter, Aleeya serving up chuchitos and horchata. Traditional food and drink for a celebration.
Luki, the teacher at the Pana pre-school along with the representative of the Dept. of Education enjoyed looking at the books in the little library.
Lic. Jose Aguilar and his wonderful team who made opening the pre-school possible.!
Mayan Families employees, Carlos and Rodolfo ( who is also a school teacher) enjoyed helping the children with the puzzles.

Lidia, another Mayan Families employee helping this little girl with her drink.
The kids just loved all these wonderful toys and puzzles, many of them supplied by our visitors this summer, Nancy and Merrill Preiss. Thanks to them we have probably the best supply of educational toys in Guatemala!! They collected, shopped and shipped several large boxes of toys and supplies to us this summer before they arrived. They were hoping to be here for the opening but unfortunately due to the delays they were not...but their presence was obvious in all the wonderful posters and supplies! Thank you Nancy , Merrill and family for all that you have done!
I also want to thank all the others who have sent donations for this pre-school and the other two, one in San Jorge and one in Tierra Linda! We so appreciate all these wonderful gifts and I wish that you all could have been here to see the wonder in the children's eyes!