Happy Thanksgiving, Feliz Dia de Gracias from Mayan Families!

Happy Thanksgiving, Feliz Dia de Acción de Gracias from Mayan Families!
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs175/1103559743325/archive/1115818440313.html

Sponsor a Student for 2014!

It's that time of year again! Time to Sponsor a Student and provide the gift of education made possible by you, our amazing donors. We are genuinely grateful for your support throughout the year. With your help we have been able to carry on our projects, begin new ones, and provide scholarships for students that would otherwise have no access to education.    See some of their amazing stories below... Gladys Elizabeth (1031) and Keder Samuel (1962) are both moving onto the 2nd Grade in 2014.  We are so proud of them for this achievement as so many indigenous children fail the 1st grade due to a lack of language skills and understanding of the system. This is often made more difficult as most indigenous parents having very little education themselves. Both Gladys and Keder are seeking new sponsors for 2014. Luis Andres (2706) whose parents did not study beyond the 3rd Grade, is graduating from High School this year. He is interning in our health clinic to gain experience in the medical field before he starts Medical School next year.  Your generosity gives Luis thetools to lift himself and his family out of poverty while developing vital skills to continue to support his community.  Sandra (346) is finishing up Graduate School where she is studying Social Work.  She has been in our Student Sponsorship Program since she was five years old.  We are so proud of her perseverance throughout the years and her hard work as head of our Education Department.  Your commitment to the education of our students has given Sandra the ability to create sustainable change in her community.   As we prepare for the 2014 school year beginning in January, we ask that you join us in our efforts to affect the type of change that has lasting impacts and can make generational differences by sponsoring a student.   Help us continue to reach students like Luis and Sandra whose families have difficulties providing the basic necessities of life, such as education, which so many of us take for granted. Your gift of education will empower students like them to pursue a better life.  Please click here to see some of our students in need of sponsorship. There are many students in our program; eager to learn. They are waiting for your indispensable support. Your gift of education helps: Empower youth to eradicate illiteracy and lead their communities out of poverty by offering them the gift of education Bridge the gender gap in literacy by giving a young girl the opportunity to receive a quality education Combat chronic malnutrition that plagues indigenous children by sponsoring them to attend a Mayan Families Preschool Nutritional Center Sponsorship fees for the 2014 school year (January-October) are as follows: SCHOOL LEVEL  SPONSORSHIP TYPE COST PER MONTH  COST PER YEAR  PreK - 12th Grade Full Sponsorship $30 $360 PreK - 12th Grade Co-Sponsorship $15 $180 University Full Sponsorship $105 $1,260 University Co-Sponsorship $52.50 630 Co-sponsorship means that sponsorship is shared between individuals or groups. Mayan Families actively looks for a co-sponsor. You are not obligated to find another sponsor; however any assistance is always appreciated. If you know someone that would like to share sponsorship with you, please contact melanie@mayanfamilies.org.    IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT PAYMENTS  Due to some launch issues through our new website we would ask that you make your payment using the old website method at www.mayanfamilies.net so that we can ensure that your payment goes through as quickly and effectively as possible.  Thank you for your patience and continual support during this transition time.  If you have trouble making a donation on our website, please call (619) 550-2608. We will be happy to assist you over the phone Monday through Friday 9-5 MST. You may also choose to send your Student Sponsorship donation in the form of a check. Please make it payable to "Mayan Families" and send to:                                                                                                                                   Mayan Families P.O. Box 52 Claremont, N.C. 28610   *Please be sure to include your student's number on the check We truly could not have done any of this without you.  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!   Do you know someone that might want to sponsor a child? Please help spread the word by passing on this e-mail to friends and family. Feel free to also share on social media websites such as Facebook or Twitter. Thank you for your support...it is greatly appreciated!   If you have any questions, please e-mail melanie@mayanfamilies.org    www.mayanfamilies.org

Mayan Families | 619-550-2608 | melanie@mayanfamilies.org | http://www.mayanfamilies.org 2609 Hartford St. San Diego, CA 92110 We appreciate the opportunity to communicate with you. We are committed to protecting your privacy and will not sell, exchange, or rent your email address. Copyright © 2013. All Rights Reserved.

Dental Awareness group...and their beautiful video!

This is a beautifully made video by the group.."Dental Awareness" that is working here in Guatemala and we are honored to be associated with them.  The pre school that they show is the Mayan Families San Antonio Palopo pre school....https://vimeo.com/76619714

Sharon Smart-Poage
MAYAN FAMILIES

a registered 501.(c).(3) Non Profit Charity

www.mayanfamilies.org

Amnesty for former dictator ?

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/guatemala-amnesty-former-dictator-would-give-green-light-genocide-2013-10-24

New Blog posts now located on our web site!

Hi everyone,
We have switched all of our Blogs over to our Mayan Families New Web Site. Please visit this link from now on to enjoy or new Blog posts!
https://mayanfamilies.org/blogs

Life out of the Box visiting Mayan Families

Hi, I thought you might like to see this post from a group called "Life out of the Box" who came to visit and volunteer with us.

There are  really cute photos of the very cute children at our pre school!

http://lifeoutofthebox.com/2013/10/14/lootb-gives-to-mayan-families-panajachel-preschool/

Sharon Smart-Poage
MAYAN FAMILIES

a registered 501.(c).(3) Non Profit Charity

Today we had a meeting with 15 people in Guatemala

Today we had  a meeting with 15 people . 

These were representatives of the different municipalities in the Department of Solola.  

They came to ask for our help. Their concern was the great problem of malnutrition amongst children.

They had a list of 149 children who were in danger of dying from severe malnutrition. 

They asked us if we could just help these 149 children with food.  They had been able to help them a little but they needed on going help. 

As I looked over the list of children they had printed out, there were children at different levels of malnutrition. 

The worst was coming to children who had a line drawn through their name and the word deceased next to it. 

What is the matter with this world that we cannot work out how to feed these children ???

They were very excited when they saw the bags of Feed My Starving Children and Kids Against Hunger.    We said that we would try our best to make sure that these 149 families were included when we next get bags of food.  We are very grateful to our friend, Tom Heaton from Mission Guatemala who shares this food with us and to Peg Meyer and Corlene Horan who work so hard to help us get boxes of food into Guatemala. 

It was a good meeting....one young man told us that they had worked out that a family who had 10 children and the father only earned 30 quetzales a day ...would only have something like 62 centavos to spend on each child for food for that day. ...That will not even buy one egg. 

He also said that he saw the main cause of poverty being the lack of family planning. He talked about the two different sides of the reality that people live in...they have the physical side where having too many children can cause a great hardship for the family...and the spiritual side that teaches them that having a lot of children is a great blessing. 

It was a thought provoking meeting ...and it was so good to see so many young people concerned about the children and having such a strong desire to make a difference in their community and the future of Guatemala.   I hope we can help them. We just need to get some containers of food here!

Sharon

MAYAN FAMILIES

www.mayanfamilies.org