On October 5, 2010, the United States withdrew its letter of interest in participating in a pilot program to resume processing of intercountry adoption placements for a limited number of older children, groups of siblings, and children with special needs. The letter of interest had been previously submitted to the Guatemalan Central Authority for Adoptions, Consejo Nacional de Adopciones (CNA), in response to its November 2009 announcement of this limited pilot program.
The U.S. decision to withdraw its letter of interest is based on concerns that adoptions under the pilot program would not meet the requirements of the Hague Intercountry Adoption Convention. Specifically, the United States believes that more safeguards for children should be in place before the CNA could start processing new intercountry adoptions. In addition, the Guatemalan Government has not yet provided specific details for how adoption cases under the pilot program would be processed under Guatemala's new adoption law.
The United States remains open to resumption of intercountry adoption placements from Guatemala, but will consider such a resumption only when it is confident that a Hague-compliant system is in place, including strong safeguards against abuses and resolution of the issues that led to corrupt and fraudulent practices prior to the 2007 halt in new adoptions.
It is our hope that the U.S. withdrawal from consideration for the pilot adoption program will allow CNA to focus its attention on resolving all pending transition cases.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Beautiful wreaths for Christmas will give vitamins to children in Guatemala.
This year, give a gift that will really make a difference.
I'd love to have everyone to order their Christmas Wreaths early so that the little kids in Guatemala will have vitamins. Each wreath provides a child with a full year of vitamins.You can order your wreath now, have it delivered later and the vitamins will be packed and shipped down on the 16th to arrive... to Mayan Fami...lies in plenty of time for Christmas! To order these beautiful wreaths please contact Sue who has done a fantastic job supplying vitamins to Guatemala. http://www.dogpatchgreens.com/wreaths.htm
I'd love to have everyone to order their Christmas Wreaths early so that the little kids in Guatemala will have vitamins. Each wreath provides a child with a full year of vitamins.You can order your wreath now, have it delivered later and the vitamins will be packed and shipped down on the 16th to arrive... to Mayan Fami...lies in plenty of time for Christmas! To order these beautiful wreaths please contact Sue who has done a fantastic job supplying vitamins to Guatemala. http://www.dogpatchgreens.com/wreaths.htm
Vitamins ....last day to order vitamins for children in Guatemala.
Just a reminder that tomorrow,Thursday, Oct. 7th is the last day to order vitamins to be included in the Boston shipment. If you would like to donate vitamins to your student and their family please order at http://www.dogpatchgreens.com/vitaminproject.htm The cost is $30.00 for a bottle of 1000 vitamins and covers shipping within the US and on Mayan Families in Panajachel. Donations in any amount are welcome to help cover vitamin costs for general distribution and the various preschools. This will be the final vitamin shipment for 2010. If you would like to order a bottle of vitamins please email Sue Frank at http://www.dogpatchgreens.com/vitaminproject.htm
Please, please, please, everyone, consider donating a bottle of vitamins for our preschools (remember we're up to 4 preschools now, as well as an after school feeding program). Talk about bang for your buck! Vitamins for children in their formative years are powerful stuff!
We also now have over 17 children in the small orphanage that Mayan Families together with Tom Heaton..Mission Guatemala have taken over. We need vitamins for all these children as well.
This year we have had a couple of occassions when we didn't have enough vitamins at our preschool to make it every day from one of your loving shipments to the next. Vitamins are completely inaccessible here, or at least prohibitively costly. Most of these kids go for extended periods living on tortillas, with little more. And that's just, plain dangerous for their development.
This is a sure investment, please help. You guys are basically our only supply for vitamins. Thank you so so much!
Please, please, please, everyone, consider donating a bottle of vitamins for our preschools (remember we're up to 4 preschools now, as well as an after school feeding program). Talk about bang for your buck! Vitamins for children in their formative years are powerful stuff!
We also now have over 17 children in the small orphanage that Mayan Families together with Tom Heaton..Mission Guatemala have taken over. We need vitamins for all these children as well.
This year we have had a couple of occassions when we didn't have enough vitamins at our preschool to make it every day from one of your loving shipments to the next. Vitamins are completely inaccessible here, or at least prohibitively costly. Most of these kids go for extended periods living on tortillas, with little more. And that's just, plain dangerous for their development.
This is a sure investment, please help. You guys are basically our only supply for vitamins. Thank you so so much!
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
“Dia de niños”
Friday was “Dia de niños” (Children’s day), so we headed out to the San Antonio preschool to bring a little something extra for each of the kids. We brought food bags full of corn, beans, rice, sugar, and incaparina for every family. A few days of rain meant that the road was in pretty bad shape, and carrying the heavy bags down the long hill to the preschool (you can’t drive up—there are steps in the road) left all of us (pathetically) winded, but it was worth the trouble of getting there for the chance to do something nice for the students and their families, about 80% of whom have been directly affected by the recent storms.
After helping with lunchtime and playing a great game of ‘run away from the terrifying pipe-cleaner snake,’ we were ready to distribute the food. (pictures 32, 4, 2 dia de ninos) Somehow, the mothers, grandmothers, and older sisters that came to take the students home didn’t seem to have nearly as much trouble with the heavy food bags as we did—plenty of them headed up the hill with the bag balanced on their head and a baby or toddler in their arms. Impressive.
While we were there, we noticed that one of Mayan Families’ sponsored kids, Laura, didn’t have any shoes, and her brother, Pedro, was in need of a new pair as well. After tracing their feet, we headed back to the office to find some footwear. Sapphire and I had to do some serious donation pile diving to get our hands on the right size.
After helping with lunchtime and playing a great game of ‘run away from the terrifying pipe-cleaner snake,’ we were ready to distribute the food. (pictures 32, 4, 2 dia de ninos) Somehow, the mothers, grandmothers, and older sisters that came to take the students home didn’t seem to have nearly as much trouble with the heavy food bags as we did—plenty of them headed up the hill with the bag balanced on their head and a baby or toddler in their arms. Impressive.
While we were there, we noticed that one of Mayan Families’ sponsored kids, Laura, didn’t have any shoes, and her brother, Pedro, was in need of a new pair as well. After tracing their feet, we headed back to the office to find some footwear. Sapphire and I had to do some serious donation pile diving to get our hands on the right size.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Nila
Nila is a widow who has four teenage children. She is the cook at the Panajachel Pre-school and really looks after the children. She has a lovely way with them and they all love her.Nila lives in a very small house in San Andres. There is not much room and she sleeps on the floor with two of her teenage daughters. It is very cold there especially as she does not have any windows or doors. Nila was very happy to receive this blanket that was donated recently.
More flooding.....in Guatemala.
For the past few days we have been once again, deluged with rain. It has been constant. There have been many landslides. The road to Solola from Panajachel has been blocked by three landslides. There was no way to travel on the road, even by foot. We heard that one woman trying to cross the landslide by foot was hit on the head by a falling rock.
The situation in San Antonio Palopo continues to worsen. I had a phone call last night to tell me that there was another landslide with very large rocks. Fortunately, no loss of life has the people there have become very aware that when it starts to rain that they must evacuate their homes. I was told that last night the church, the municipal building and the market were full of people trying to find a place to sleep. It was cold and wet and they had no place to cook food. The road to San Antonio Palopo is in very bad shape and soon the only access may be by boat.
In San Jorge la Laguna where one of the large landslides blocked the main road from Panajachel, the people who lived on the side of the mountain had all evacuated and moved to the church and the municipal building.
Today is Children's Day and we had planned to deliver food and clothing to all the children in the three pre-schools, San Antonio, San Jorge and Tierra Linda but it is impossible in San Jorge and Tierra Linda and extremely difficult for San Antonio so we will wait till Monday and hope the weather and the roads will be better.
Our pre-school/after-school and feeding program in San Antonio continues to operate and give food to the children there daily. It is a great respite from all the worry and the dangers that they are facing every day. San Jorge and Tierra Linda are also open and feeding children daily.
Yesterday we packed bags of food to be distributed .
Here is a new article about the flooding :
http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=40774&t=Flooding+causes+evacuation+of+refugees+in+Guatemala
If you can help at all with even a small donation for food, it will make a big difference to the people who receive it!http://www.mayanfamilies.org/DonateNow
The situation in San Antonio Palopo continues to worsen. I had a phone call last night to tell me that there was another landslide with very large rocks. Fortunately, no loss of life has the people there have become very aware that when it starts to rain that they must evacuate their homes. I was told that last night the church, the municipal building and the market were full of people trying to find a place to sleep. It was cold and wet and they had no place to cook food. The road to San Antonio Palopo is in very bad shape and soon the only access may be by boat.
In San Jorge la Laguna where one of the large landslides blocked the main road from Panajachel, the people who lived on the side of the mountain had all evacuated and moved to the church and the municipal building.
Today is Children's Day and we had planned to deliver food and clothing to all the children in the three pre-schools, San Antonio, San Jorge and Tierra Linda but it is impossible in San Jorge and Tierra Linda and extremely difficult for San Antonio so we will wait till Monday and hope the weather and the roads will be better.
Our pre-school/after-school and feeding program in San Antonio continues to operate and give food to the children there daily. It is a great respite from all the worry and the dangers that they are facing every day. San Jorge and Tierra Linda are also open and feeding children daily.
Yesterday we packed bags of food to be distributed .
Here is a new article about the flooding :
http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=40774&t=Flooding+causes+evacuation+of+refugees+in+Guatemala
If you can help at all with even a small donation for food, it will make a big difference to the people who receive it!http://www.mayanfamilies.org/DonateNow
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