GETTING READY FOR THE ABANDONED BABIES

We love teams here at Casa  De Sion. They help so much. This team from Atlanta, GA finished off our playground for us. Another team from St. George, Utah started the playground with the tire swing and the teeter totters. Then the Ga. team came a year later and added a swing set, a monkey bar and a climbing thingy. We had to have this to meet government standards for the orphanage, but the community kids in our " orphans at home" program love it too.

The above pictures show this same team repainting all our rooms where the orphanage will be. We want it to look bright and pretty for both the government workers who check us out and then approve us, but mostly for the little ones who come to us afraid, abused and abandoned. We want them to not only feel safe about their physical surrounding, but also their little spirits to feel safe and loved. This teams brought down 11 suitcases of donations and gave 4-5 days of their time to help that happen. They brought a chiropractor who was busy the whole time. He shared clinic days with a medical doctor. I am sure these men and women who have carried 100 pound loads of wood  or vegetables to sale or have had a baby strapped on their back day and night could use a chiropractor. I used to think they just had stronger backs. But I found out they just had a higher tolerance for pain. Anyway we love our teams. They also sponsored 4 kids to be able to go on to middle school. Those same children had helped the team all week in the projects they did.
We have had our first inspection for the orphanage and passed. We have 3 more to go. I wish we were open. I heard the sad stories of 3 more tiny ones today. If we were open they could come to us for care and love. Two were at the hospital. One had come in with the placenta still attached and the other so malnourished it hurt to look at him.  An orphanage of a friend of mine took the 2 month old who had been abandoned at a woman's door. Soon we will need sponsors for these little ones. Or if you want, you could right now sponsor the first girl or first boy or first baby who comes to us.Because I have no doubts they will come.

So please partner with us
educate a kid
give an orphan a home
feed a malnourished "Orphan at home"

So many ways to make yourself happy and feel blessed.

Go to www.casadesion.org and push the donate button and give yourself a spiritual lift.

As posted by Casa de Sion

WITH LOVE ON VALENTINE'S WEEK

WHEN I THINK ABOUT THESE PICTURES, I THINK ABOUT THE LOVE THAT WENT INTO THEM. HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF THEM. THE PARENTS OF KIDS WHO NEED SCHOLARSHIP MONEY TO CONTINUE IN SCHOOL. THESE PARENTS HAVE NO EDUCATION [ MOST CAN NOT READ OR WRITE] OR RELIABLE MEANS OF MAKING MONEY. SO INSTEAD THEY COME TO US AND ASK FOR OUR HELP. THEY PUSH THEIR KIDS TO DO WELL IN SCHOOL. THEY WORK HARDER SO THE KIDS WILL NOT HAVE TO WORK AND CAN GO TO SCHOOL. THEY KNOW EDUCATION IS THE WAY OUT OF POVERTY AND THEY WANT THAT FOR THEIR KIDS. THEY PAY US BACK BY WORKING IN OUR ORGANIC FARM, BY WASHING THE BEDDING BETWEEN TEAMS, BY ALLOWING THEIR KIDS TO WORK WITH THE TEAMS IN OUR SPONSOR ME PROGRAM. LOVE, THAT IS WHAT IS IS CALLED.
NEXT IS THE LOVE OF OUR VOLUNTEERS. ENOUGH LOVE TO SEND THEM FROM THEIR COMFY HOMES INTO A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY. ENOUGH LOVE TO OVERCOME THE FEARS FOR THEIR SAFETY. ENOUGH LOVE TO HELP OTHERS GO FORWARD IN LIFE. CAN YOU SEE THE LOVE IN THE PICTURE BELOW. NOTHING THRILLS MOST WOMEN'S HEARTS MORE THAN EDUCATING A GIRL. AN EDUCATED GIRL WILL NOT PUT UP WITH VIOLENCE LIKE A GIRL WITH A FIRST GRADE EDUCATION. AN EDUCATED GIRL

DEMANDS LOVE AS HER RIGHT. LOOK AT THE PICTURES BELOW OF THE KIDS GETTING THEIR SCHOOL SUPPLIES FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL. THEY KNOW LOVE TOO. WE HAVE 20 SPONSORS FOR 100 KIDS. THOSE SPONSORS BECAUSE OF THE LOVE IN THEIR HEARTS HAVE AGREED TO $30.00 A MONTH TO HELP A KID MOVE OUT OF POVERTY THROUGH EDUCATION. THOSE YOUNG TEENS KNOW THE LOVE OF THEIR SPONSOR AND THE SPONSOR KNOWS THE LOVE FEELING OF GIVING OF THEMSELVES. I ALSO WOULD LIKE TO

THANK THE US STAFF OF SAFE HOMES FOR CHILDREN WHO WORK FOR FREE TRYING TO KEEP ALL THE PROGRAMS MOVING FORWARD. THEY KNOW LOVE TOO AND SHOW IT. THANKS FOR THE LOVE AND IF YOU WANT TO SHOW SOME MORE FOR THE 80 KIDS WHO STILL NEED SPONSORS, JUST WRITE ME

VICKI
20.vicki@gmail.com

A Story of Despair and Sorrow Among Mayan Mamas and Their Babies

A post from Vicki at Casa de Sion.  Guatemala Childrens Project sends monthly contributions to help support this program.  Please help by clicking on the donate button and making a donation today.

I spent the better part of yesterday at the Chuti-estancia Mayan mama/tot program. Every Thurs. we have this program in a different community.  The first Thurs. of the month is Chuti. We now have

104 mamas and their assorted kids under 5 so maybe 200 littles. I knew ahead of time there were 4 new Mayan women who wanted to do this program. I was still recovering from strep throat and a fever of 103, but I had been on the Zpac now for 2 plus days and did not want to miss this program. I have to tell you I can  sit there and watch these women and kids and just feel happy, glowing. I don't know why. I don't know why I feel so honored to be helping and learning from this group and my other mama/tot groups. But it is not just me. Lots of our volunteers feel the same way and don't want to miss a mama/tot program while here. I think it has to do with being humbled by their humbleness, by their survival lacking so much of what I take for granted. So let me tell you a little about each one and see if you want to sponsor them and feel that same thrill of being able to help. I am not telling you their names as I can't remember them. But I remember their looks of despair and their sorrowful eyes.I will be getting a written report on each one with their names, etc if you want to sponsor them.

So this young lady is 16. She is in the picture above also. No husband and a 4 month old. She hung back from the others and looked so sad the whole time. She really touched my heart. Her baby is the 4 month old pictured at the bottom of the page  

This one gripped my heart also. An older lady with a 6 year old and a 15 day old. When I asked about the husband/boyfriend the other women told me, "sex, pregnant, papa gone". We have the best time pantomiming our ladies conversations.
 A whole slew of women brought her in to sign up for our programs. I was so proud of their sense of community and women helping women.
To top it all out, she has no breast milk "absolutely none sworn to me by about 15 women"
Neither of these two ladies had any.... nada education. They also both seemed to have lower IQs. Her baby is the 15 day old at the bottom

THIS LADY ACTUALLY LOOKED LIKE SHE LED A LIFE OF LEISURE AFTER THE LAST TWO, BUT SHE IS 19, MARRIED TO A HUSBAND WHO WORKS IN ANOTHER TOWN, HER BOY IS 13 MONTHS. ALL THESE WOMEN NEED SPONSORS OR RATHER PEOPLE INTERESTED IN THEM ENOUGH TO HELP THEM STAY IN OUR PROGRAMS. THEY WERE ACCEPTED YESTERDAY BASED ON MY KNOWING THAT 3 OF YOU WILL STEP FORTH AND SPONSOR THEM.  

 

The Miracle of Edison

Posted by Erin - Casa de Sion  (We love these success stories!)

Here is a picture of Edison and his mama. She brought him to Casa de Sion 2 years ago when he was 2.5 years old. He could not hear. But he had the sweetest look in his eyes. You could tell he was unsure of the world by the way he never smiled, clung to his Mother's skirt and never played. We had him checked out by Dr. Peter who said he definitely could not hear. then he recommended treatment at Fundibien in Panajachel. Casa de Sion  found a sponsor who has paid for the transportation. Then they started a school in Pana for special kids like Edison. Again their transport was paid for. we never could come up with the $1000.00 needed for the hearing aids tho. But the school found him some. I saw him for the first time with his new hearing aids a couple of days ago and he is a different child. Coming up to me and signing hello. Smiling and laughing and looking like the world is not such a scary place. Oh how he touched my heart. Then his mama gave me a basket full of hot homemade tamales. So poor, but so generous. How I love this Mayan family.

my basket of tamale feeding the men

Have you ever seen a sweeter smile

see his little hearing aids?

Donate now so we never have to tell a child like this no

Successful Volunteer Vacation in Guatemala

We have a wonderful supporter who brings us teams that do much good thru out the year. This was a nursing teams: RNs and student nurses who came to help. Below is the initial report they made on their work among our Mayan communities. I will post more pictures and comments from this great team as well as the amazing dental team we had: again dentists and students.

so many Mayans in Guatemala who need the medical help

some great nurses

our clinic needs the meds

the teams all seem to love Dominga's cooking

Below is the quote

"Saw the team off this morning at the airport and am spending the rest of the day in a home hostel near the airport with my feet up, listening to the rain outside, reading and catching up on email and FB. We treated over 325 patients, made great new friends, and learned a lot. I am grateful for every team member and their amazing contributions to the efforts to provide health care and education to the Mayan communities we visited. I will be back to Utah tomorrow night to get ready for the two June teams. The MTSU students are not only wonderful clinicians but awesome organizers, the clinic is in terrific shape and ready for the June med"

We had wonderful news yesterday. here is another quote from our accountant in Guatemala about Edison the little boy I posted about last week. he is deaf and now has the hearing aids he needs. TTL

"

I read your blog about Edison. It was nice to see what I wrote in your blog. Thanks. Now, I got new news for you:   “Remember Edison?, the deaf little boy from Agua Escondida, who you are helping with the transportation? Well, I have good news. I helped his mother (Rosario) to write a letter and I went with her to talk to some people from the school he is attended here in Pana to ask if they could help her with special ear phones for his deaf son. That was like one month ago. And guess what ????????? HE GOT HIS SPECIAL EAR PHONES. He had them on last Friday when I saw them. I didn´t have a camera with me that moment but I will get one. He doesn´t listen very well right now, but he has to practice and get use to the ear phones step by step. Rosario (the mother) is so happy and she told me to tell you about it. Now, the problem is that she doesn´t have money for the batteries and she is asking if we can help her?... She is gonna let me know how much are the batteries and how often they need to change them, and when I know , I’ll let you know.?" Great things are happening Vicki Dalia

Mother's Day Plea: Two Stories on Why We Want to Open an Orphanage/ Part 1

We have been working closely with Casa de Sion for many years and look forward to helping open the orphanage.  We share this story from their blog.

Many of you will remember Juan and his two boys, Juanito (on the right) and Erwin.  Juan came to work several years back as a guardian and field hand, and it was soon evident that Juan had some serious mental health issues.  He worked at a snail's pace and was perfectionistic to a fault.  But he was malnourished and pitiful and it was hard not to want to help him.  His presence at our facility on the weekends gave us security and his two boys obviously needed some structure in their lives.  They had been living on the streets of Guatemala City.  And that's what we were doing: helping kids (and adults that were really only kids). These boys

The boys did not seem to have a mother and were lacking many of the love pats a mother adds to a child's life. I tried to add some of the things to their lives that a mother would have made sure they had. It was hard tho as Juan did not cooperate. I wanted routine. I wanted discipline. I wanted cleanliness and a healthy diet.He wanted none of these. He loved them in an easy way as long as it required no effort. We got the boys in school next door and we didn't know it at the time, but this was probably the highpoint of their lives.  As if often the case with abused and neglected children (and adults), with the security (meals and a paycheck) of their new life we started having problems.  We decided that Juan was probably autistic which accounted for the fact that it took him a month to do a two-day job.  And part of it was plain old attitude.  Dominga complained of missing food from the locked kitchen. Then volunteers began complaining of money missing even from locked rooms.  We knew the latter was Erwin who could charm the socks off anyone.  We had several "come to Jesus" talks which didn't do any good.  Several times Juan was absent without notice for days at a time and his one redeeming factor--security--was useless.

After endless warnings, we eventually had to let him go, which was a heartbreaker for us, and he moved to Panajachel where he had been going to church and had engendered similiar sympathies among many of the members.  Months later he wore out his welcome there as he had with us and he and the two boys were on the streets again.  Roy, our accountant, had an old house he let them use and we gave them a monthly allotment of food--part of our fast offering.  In time they left that house and were living on the streets again but with a more lavish lifestyle that scared us.  It looked like the two boys were doing prostitution. 

Recently, the two boys disappeared for a week and Juan finally went to the police.  When the boys returned, the court got involved.  Juan did not have proper paperwork and the boys were sent into an orphanage, which will be their last best chance for a relatively normal life.  This story is not that uncommon with the rampant malnutrition that causes serious and permanent damage to the brain.  This and several other stories that we'll publish over the next few weeks are causing us to rethink opening the orphanage.  While it was one long battle for us with the government, the winners were the kids.

We also need a mature couple to make a  commitment to the running of said orphanage and our other projects among the poor Mayans of Guatemala .

If you feel the need to help out this wonderful cause please click on the donate buttons and give today.

The need for an orphanage

A post from Vicki Dalia

Well we are home from Guatemala and I have a ton of stories to tell. Uploading pictures for a blog is difficult down there so not many got done, but a tremendous amount of work got done. I will start with one that continues to impress upon my mind.

This is Carla. She was abandoned by her mama and papa and is being cared for in the room of her grandmother. She does not receive much care. Safe Homes For Children provides all her formula and clothing. When I saw her in January she could not turn her head as she has not been held much. When I brought her to my house to bath her and cuddle her, it was obvious she had not had a bath in her 4 short months.
There is a tremendous shortage of quality orphanages in Guatemala now with adoptions shut down completely. Many children are being abandoned or severely neglected. Ones like Carla. This weighed heavily on my mind. I had a dream down there that we opened an orphanage. Two days later, my husband had a dream that we opened an orphanage. I have talked with other orphanage owners who are also from the USA and they have told me the government is much more supportive of their efforts now. We have met with our attorney and he says our paperwork is in order for us to open an orphanage. The next step is twofold: hiring Edy Tum, the top social worker in the country, and the one other USA  orphanage owners work with. He will get everything done that needs to be done before we open our doors. It will take 6-8 months and cost $6000.00. Edy wants $3000.00 of it up front, but he is worth his weight in gold in this area. Then we need to add a third floor to Casa de Sion.
We bring in money from our volunteer teams and want to build the third floor for them. The first floor would be for 24 orphans and the middle for the Director and bodega.. This will cost about $50,000.00. Then I figure about $70,000.00 a year for the day to day running of it. Our business is improving and we will donate part of that profit, but we want partners to do this with us.

PLEASE HELP CARLA AND OTHER CHILDREN LIKE HER TO HAVE A HOME WHERE SHE WILL BE LOVED, PLAYED WITH AND EDUCATED. WRITE ME AT 20.vicki@gmail.com today and we can talk about your involvement or agree to sponsor a child for $300 a year or just donate for the building or bring a team down to build. But do something.

thanks
Vicki Dalia
PS. we are not abandoning any of our other projects, just adding another badly needed one

Blessed are those who help those with Special Needs

There is no safety net for the poor in Guatemala.   While there is a National hospital system that does help without cost, it is not free because of the many other services that are often beyond the pale for most of the indigent in Guatemala.  You must bring your own food to the hospital, medicines and auxiliary procedures are not necessarily free and you must have a family member be the nurse because that service is not included.  Neither is transportation or the cost of an overnight stay if you are not being treated in-hospital.

With this knowledge and a heart for the many special needs kids that come to our programs, we try to help get medical treatments for the poor that we often take for granted in the States.  For you that support a medically fragile child here, know that sometimes you are literally a lifesaver but always a good Samaritan.

On Vicki’s first visit to the Momma’s and Tot’s program this year she had a ready line of those asking for help.  First was Eli (his name is way too long to write).  He was two months old and his head was the size of a basketball—hydrocephalus.  The mother was young, poor, with one other child and no husband.  She had been to the National hospital once already and they had drained the fluid from his head.  The incision was visible.   Since the fluid returned he was going to need a shunt but she didn’t have the money for a return visit nor the series of visits it would take to treat this condition.  Vicki gave her Q100 for travel as well as two cans of formula because she had no milk of her own and obviously could not afford formula on her own.   She lives in a village next to Godinez.

Next was Flavio, the 5 year old, blind Downs boy that Peter, our Boston pediatrician, has seen several times.  Peter recommended a professional examine and the child has diagnosed with cataracts.  Again his family is VERY poor. (Dominga checks these things out for us.)  The next step for him before he can be considered for surgery is an appointment to get an echo-cardiogram since Downs kids often have weak hearts.  That procedure is Q275.

Eduardo was next.  His parents have been regulars at our programs for years.  He needs a hearing aid that we hope Peter can come up with.  Meanwhile, we have a faithful donor paying for his transportation one day a week to go to a special school for the deaf in nearby Panajachel.   His mother would like for him to go every day and is willing to do the leg work if we can find a sponsor to pay for the other days.  Sorry his picture was in the shadows as he has the sweetest, most humble eyes of any child I can think of.

This was just an average day in a land with abundant need.  If you’d like to help any of these situations or any of the numerous others that are going to pop up, let us know.

I have given the money for the preliminary needs knowing I could trust you to make the donations to replace it and also knowing I did not have the words to turn them down. 

thanks for the help

Vicki

To help these and many other children please click on the DONATE button.

A sad but true reality!! We can make a difference one child at a time.

UN: Guatemalan Children Still Facing Sexual Exploitation, Forced Labor 

http://www.hispanicallyspeakingnews.com/notitas-de-noticias/details/un-guatemalan-children-still-facing-sexual-exploitation-forced-labor/18248/ 

Please help our fight to help educate these children. Donate today by following the link below. The change begins with help from people like you. 

http://www.guatemalachildrensproject.org/sponsor.html#donate 

Want to volunteer? Please contact us, we are planning our 2013 adventure.

Lots of Moms (as posted by Joel Greer)

Today we had 54 mothers with 98 children and numerous infants. It was a big day and we used every bit of food and still needed to raid our fridge for a few leftovers that we had there. Today we distribute formula and encaperina to all the moms. And this is only half of them. The remaining moms come on Thursday cuz the group got so big we had to split it.

Before lunch all the moms were treated to a demonstration on making some sort of handicraft that they can make themselves and sell. We are always looking for ways to teach mothers self sufficiency as well as other pertinent topics.

While the moms waited, our wonderful volunteer finished interviews and pictures so that we now have a fantastic database of all of our moms and kids with birth dates and other important information. Andrew created a terrific program that allows us to monitor the progress of each family over time and has made it so anyone can update and add new mothers. This will be a vaulable tool here at Casa de Sion.

Everyone lined up for lunch and enjoyed very much the hot nutritious meal our cook, Dominga prepared. It's a miracle we are not all fat with the great cook we have. But then it seems that natural whole foods with no preservatives and sugar don't tend ot make you fat regardless of how good they are.

Dominga is always here and never slows down. She cooks, cleans, serves, directs, delegates, manages programs and just about everything here at Casa de Sion.

Most of the moms and kids sought out some shade in our warm sunny weather here in Guatemala. It was a great day and everyone went away full and satisfied. It was a great day.