Guatemala Children's Project

Lots of Moms (as posted by Joel Greer)

2011-11-15T19:00:00.000-07:00

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.

Maria Comes Home Posted by Joel Greer

2011-10-07T08:45:00.000-06:00

I have written recently about Maria who lives in Nueva Victoria, a community far from the main road, high in the mountains. Maria nearly lost her foot due to an infection caused by her inability to walk which left her dragging her foot in the dirt with crutches too small. The infection was so bad that most feared her foot could not be saved. Maria could not walk due to a very common disease in Guatemala, Spinal Bifida, which is due to a lack of certain nutrients during pregnancy. With the highest rate of malnutrition in the western Hemisphere, Guatemala also experiences extremely high rates of many other diseases as a result.

Several people helped out and we were able to get Maria to a hospital in Guatemala City where, through some fortuitous connections, she was able to have surgery and have a membrane placed over the hole in her foot. Our only cost was transportation for the mother back and forth to the hospital and food and medicines. She spent a good month in the hospital. The mother was able to stay part of the time but with seven other kids at home, she had to return regularly to Nueva victoria.

Today Maria and her mom were released from the hospital to return home, much to everyone's joy. Maria has progressed well and although she will need considerable therapy, she is whole and all that helped are to be thanked. We all have great expectations for the future for Maria. Posted by Joel Geer 06Oct11

We here at Guatemala Children's Project wish to thank all who have supported Maria through this miracle with your prayers and financial help. This young woman surely would have lost her foot and quite possibly her life without your help. You are truly her angels. Thanks!!

Maria needs your help

2011-09-12T13:31:00.000-06:00

Hello friends

Please be warned that some the pictures in this post may be graphic due to the medical condition of Maria.

I am writing you today with a sad heart. It has been brought to our attention that there is an 11 yr old girl in the Village of Nueve Victoria who was born with out being able to use her legs. She has had to crawl everywhere she needs to go. Because of this she has not experienced what it;s like to run or play. Some time ago she has injured her foot and the wound will not heal. It is very infected and she need medical attention very soon. We are raising funds to help Maria and her mother travel to the capital to receive this medical care.

If you are able to help with any amount we will all be very grateful. Our goal is for this young woman to live a long healthy life full of love and happiness. Please help by donating today. Just click on one of the donate buttons.

Nine new Mamas and 21 new Children From Chipop as posted by Vicki Dalia

2011-04-22T11:50:00.001-06:00

Our mama/toddler program is growing like crazy. Way too many starving people in this country and what mama wants to see her little one starve. last Tuesday on distribution day we had 47 mamas and 88 children 1 to 5, 20 0 to 1 and 35 over 5. On Thurs. at the same program just for another group of woman and kids we had 37 mamas and did not count the kids. I added 4 more mamas and kids two days ago. Precious. A 5 year boy with CP who is being raised by his grandma and can't walk or talk , but he sure can do a pretty smile. Another women who is blind, has 5 kids and was pregnant with no. 6.
These nine women and their 21 assorted kids are all from the pueblo of Chipop. it was a difficult decision about whether to take them as they are known as a community of bandits. But they were there and the children's faces are sweet and you can't blame the kids for the parents, so we took them. Hopefully it gave us a measure of protection. From the bottom up , here are the women, some of the kids and the number of children they have.
1. Estela Dias 2 children
2. Ismelda Chavez. 5 children one of which is Wendy who has Juvenile Rheumatory Arthritis. Thanks to a medical student we were able to give her Prednizone to help control this for Wendy.
3. Juana Perez 5 children
4. Rosenda Martin 2 children
5. Vidalia Sicay 1 child
6. Gloria Sancales 1 child
7. Maria Keju 2 children
8. Estela Lopez 1 child
9. Candelaria Martines 2 children

Five new Mothers added to Our Program

2011-03-02T09:24:00.002-07:00

Our mama/tot program in Los Robles is very popular. One of the only places that moms can get formula and incaparina for their hungry children and a meal for themselves. Last Monday we had 4 new mamas join. Here are their pictures. Yesterday we had two more join. I do not have pictures of them yet. One of them was a mom with 6 children ranging in age from 3 months to 14 years. The infant who was with her was one of the most ragged looking infants I have seen. Her husband kicked her and the 6 children out of the shack they were living in so he could move in a new girlfriend. Her 14 year old son is working to provide the only money coming in. This family needs your help. Can someone please sponsor them? We also need many more sponsors as we now have 69 [ not including these ] mamas and their kids. My husband who believes in a budget says no more until we have sponsors. I, who have to look in their hungry eyes, say they can join. Not good for my marriage. Please think about committing to $20 a month to help one mama and her family. Ask your relatives to help. You will receive a picture and a short bio. Another family that was at the program yesterday Joel wrote about and did a blog on when he was here. They walk for 2 hours to come to the program. They have 3 month old twin boys, the cutest 2 year old girl, a 4 year old, 7, 9, 10, 11 and 14 years old. The dad was hurt in an accident and can not work long hours doing physical labor. He grows some corn and beans to feed his family. They have no school supplies for the 5 in 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 grade. One of the twins is severely malnourished. I paid their transport for them to come to my house yesterday to go over in detail what they were eating. The tiny one was only getting 3 ounces a day of nourishment. I fed him a 4 oz. bottle and he drank the whole thing. I sent them home with formula, bottles, newborn kits and tuna fish for the older children. They were so grateful. They desperately need a family sponsor. And I need advice from you medical people on what to feed the twins to put weight on them.
Lots of suffering down here and lots of work. Please give anything you can today. Your help is needed!

DONATE NOW!

Vicki Dalia
Safe Homes for Children

The Eyes of Hunger

2011-03-02T09:14:00.000-07:00

As I get ready to return to Guatemala, these are some of the children I will see and relate to. I will actually look in their eyes, not just see them from these pictures. They are real people suffering the real pain of not enough to eat. I need your help to help them. Please look in their eyes and see if they are telling you to help. I know when I see them again, that is what they will say to me.

To help you can push the donate button or click here to send send a check. 100% goes to these and other children. We still need more sponsors for our mama/tot program. $20 a month for a year feeds and gives supplements to one mama and her infant and toddler children.

Vicki Dalia
Safe Homes for Children
01/10/11

Food needs For 2011

2010-10-18T10:27:00.000-06:00

Bad Omens for 2011 – FOOD-GUATEMALA

By Danilo Valladares

Food distribution from Safe Homes for Children

GUATEMALA CITY, Oct 16, 2010 (IPS) - Guatemala needs to take steps to prepare for even worse problems of hunger in 2011, caused by climate change and farmers' heavy dependence on a few basic crops like corn and beans, experts warned on the occasion of World Food Day, celebrated Saturday.

"The phenomenon of La Niña is expected to last through 2011, bringing extremely heavy rains," Eddy Sánchez, director of the National Institute of Seismology, Vulcanology, Meteorology and Hydrology, told IPS. "Extreme climate conditions will continue to be seen over the next few years."

La Niña is characterised by cooler than normal sea surface temperatures and unusually strong trade winds in the equatorial region of the Pacific Ocean, which often bring torrential rains.

El Niño and La Niña are opposite phases of a Pacific Ocean cycle that affects temperatures in the ocean and the atmosphere above it. They repeat every three or four years on average, and are the extremes in what is known as the Southern Oscillation.

Mothers and children waiting for dontions

The proportion of malnourished people in Guatemala rose from 15 percent (1.4 million people) in the 1990-1992 period to 21 percent (2.7 million people) in the 2005-2007 period, according to the "Panorama de la Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional en América Latina y el Caribe" 2010 (Overview of Food and Nutritional Security in Latin America and the Caribbean).

Honduras and Nicaragua, meanwhile, reduced their malnutrition rates from 19 to 12 percent and from 50 to 19 percent respectively, in the same lapse of time, the report adds.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) study released this week warns that the food security situation in Guatemala, as well as Bolivia and Haiti, is serious.

The production of corn, the main subsistence crop in this Central American country, has declined due to the impact of climate change. The projected harvest for the May 2010 to May 2011 period is 28 million quintals, while average annual consumption is 40 million quintals, according to the United Nations agency's office in Guatemala.

Sánchez said that in order to counteract this situation, the country must adopt measures to adapt to global warming, using flood- and drought-resistant seeds, and diversifying crops, for example.

The situation has not been easy for Central America, especially Guatemala, one of the poorest countries in the region. Half of the population in this country of 14 million people lives below the poverty line and 17 percent of Guatemalans are extremely poor, according to U.N. figures.

Tropical storms Agatha, in May, and Alex, in June, and torrential rains in this year's rainy season left more than 100,000 people homeless and caused serious damages to roads and other infrastructure.

Paradoxically, the main problem in the region last year was drought, which caused severe losses in grain crops, and even the malnutrition-related deaths of at least 54 children in Guatemala.

Furthermore, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala are still feeling the effects of the devastation caused by hurricanes Stan, in 2005, and Mitch, in 1998.

"We are entering a more alarming stage," Roberto Cabrera, with Action Against Hunger, told IPS. "We have had three years of virtually continuous shocks since the 2008 global economic crisis, the drought caused by El Niño last year, and the excessive rains this year."

The expert said small farmers have not had "a single successful harvest season" due to the erratic climate conditions, which "this country is not prepared for."

This year's heavy rains caused crop losses mainly in the south and the west, while the so-called "dry corridor" in the centre and east of the country continued to suffer the effects of drought and the food crisis, although there was less crop damage, Cabrera said.

Guatemala needs "an integral government policy that creates alternatives which would free farmers from having to grow corn and beans, their main sources of livelihood," he said.

Sucely Girón, with the Food Security Observatory, told IPS that it would be very important to "put a priority on food and nutritional security" when the government budget for 2011 is being discussed.

She called for strengthening the Secretariat of Food and Nutritional Security information system in order to map out where the hungry are located, and for the earmarking of funds for the institutions that make up the National System of Food and Nutritional Security.

These institutions were created by law in 2005 to promote policies and mechanisms specifically designed to fight hunger. However, they have not yet had tangible results.

Girón also said it is necessary to invest in studies to explore other possibilities of subsistence for people in rural areas, such as tourism. "People cannot continue to depend on the cultivation of corn," she argued.

In addition, "crop diversification must be promoted, as well as the use of agro-forestry systems," or the combination of agriculture with the planting of trees, to optimise production, she added.

Gustavo García with FAO Guatemala also commented to IPS that alternative sources of income in rural areas must be explored. But he stressed that access to credit must be improved in order to do this, because "many farmers would like to diversify their crops, but don't have the means to do so." (END)

Save A Life

Push the Donate Button

Posted by Vicki at 3:21 PM

Patzaj

2010-09-24T11:42:00.000-06:00

Here is another aldea near us that was washed out by the mudslides. They did not have much to begin with and now they have even less. I was not in the country at the time, but a couple of our volunteers were. They along with our employees set up 3 shelter box tents for them, gave them food and took clothes. Our stock of clothing is limited and the stock of shoes is gone. They took pajamas and the mothers put them on the kids right away for warmth. I can't wait until our 140 buckets on the container arrive at our place. Then we will have tons of clothes and shoes and some school supplies and shampoo and kitchen items.
One of the pictures shows a woman overcome by the loss and despair at the amount of clean up work.
One shows the muddy road you have to take to get into Patzaj. Many are of the tents and the people. All over Guatemala people are suffering. Thousands have lost their homes. Many have lost loved ones. And several hundred thousand have lost their food supplies of corn and beans.
Help us to help them. Push the donate button.
Thanks
Vicki

Info for buying books

2010-09-15T12:23:00.000-06:00

We are holding an Usborne on-line Book Fair (eFair) to benefit Safe Homes for Children! Usborne is a leading publisher of children's books, offering high-quality commercial-free books.

For total Book Fair sales of $200-$499, Safe Homes for Children will receive an additional 25% in free books. For total sales of $500+, Safe Homes for Children will receive an additional 50% in free books! For example, if total Book Fair sales reach $800, Safe Homes for Children will get an additional $400 in FREE books!

There are two ways to shop... both Wishlist sales and personal use sales count towards this total.

Please go to the website below, then click on "Safe Homes for Children" under Active e-Fairs. There is a Spanish book wish list for you to choose from. Once you get to the check-out, choose "Ship to Organization – Safes Homes for Children", and the shipping will be free. Also, there is no sales tax.

Or, if you would like to shop for your family, while benefiting this Book Fair, just
click on "Safe Homes for Children" under Active e-Fairs and begin your shopping. Once you get to check-out, choose ship to your home and your order will ship immediately.

The Book Fair will be open until Sept. 15th. At the close of the Book fair, the Spanish books will be mailed to Vickie Dalia, then make their way to Guatemala.

Thank you for considering supporting this Book Fair!

www.OrderGreatBooks.com

Please buy books for you and help us get more for the library

2010-09-15T12:21:00.000-06:00

A report from one of our volunteers on the success of the library.

The library: One of the biggest successes is the library. Children love coming around or staying after class to read a book or two.

The access pass: their parents’ permission.

The principal from the school told me that there is a difference of day and night between the kids
that stay in the program and the ones that don’t, she also told me that they have improved their reading speed and reading quality by tons. One of the programs that I was going to start on the Wednesday was the reading contest. I left the poster ready on the side of the closet that has the TV on the main central room. It is ready to have names posted on it and how many books were read in the period of two weeks. Children are reading between 2 and 5 books a day! They also learned silent reading. The kids loved lying down on the petates or sharing a chair and reading. They would come to me after reading and before leaving and they would tell me how much they loved the stories and what they were all about.

Desperate Need. As posted by Vicki Dalia

2010-08-19T09:13:00.000-06:00

first let me say i am at an internet cafe with no caps that work on the computer and is missing several keys. love guate. we have been so busy. the first day here mike with shelter box tents called me asked if we needed more tents. he had given us 50 some right after the hurricane and he was in the country ad had more and had my guate number. i told him we were going to do a needs assessment the next day would let him know. well in one day we found over 1000 homeless people living in horrible shelters or out in the open. the children were so sick from living in the cold , 40 degrees, and rain with only a t-shirt and pants and some with no shoes. 600 of them had zip in the way of food. not even beans and corn. safe homes for children is buying 1500 DOLLARS WORTH OF 100 POUND BAGS OF CORN AND BEANS AND BOXES OF SOAP. GUS, OUR SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR FRIEND HERE IN COUNTRY GOT A TRUCK FROM THE MUNICIPALITY AND IS PICKING UP ALL THE TENTS TODAY. THEY WEIGH 110 POUNDS EACH AND COST 1000 US DOLLARS EACH. WE WILL BUY THE FOOD TOMORROW AND SPEND ALL DAY TOMORROW, FRIDAY AND SAT SETTING UP TENTS AND GIVING OUT FOOD IN 3 COMMUNITIES. I WILL BE SO HAPPY FOR THE CHILDREN TO GET OUT OF THE RAIN AND COLD. I HAVE SHOES FOR THE WORST OF THE CASES.either there is no caps or all caps. gosh i miss my computer . other organizations are begging us for small meds tools. please go to all your doctor friends. we need the thing you look in the ear with. a stethoscope and the thing you listen to the babies heart beat with.. we need them for several clinics. also many meds as the homeless people are all sick. also money for food. and to ship our container that has many pairs of shoes. oh yeah we are out of formula.

yesterday at our mamas group we had 44 mamas and 100 children. another crippled boy who can not walk, a two year old who had been hit on the arm so bad it was broken and the dad would not let us take him to the hospital. we have a 13, 9 and crippled 6 year old living by themselves that need help. tons of malnourished and starving kids and moms. i will write more and send pictures when i return. but samuel has his new braces and walked across the room to me with a huge smile on his face. he walked perfectly. it was amazing. the 8 year old who came in yesterday and can not walk is named tony and is 8. my son at home is named tony and is 8 so i fell in love with him immediately. my twins were there and they are so healthy and cute thanks to the formula and clothing we gave for them. i started teaching the mamas the steven covey 7 habits yesterday and they had no idea what being proactive meant, but by the time i finished they said they knew and marie is going to work with them on the habits for the next year helping them grow in their effectiveness in life. i love our new managers, russ and marie. they organized all our books and classified them and we now have a genuine library, the only one for an hour around.

love all of you and really miss you, but sure do realize how lucky you have it.

vicki

Formula and Building a Communidad

2010-08-09T10:38:00.001-06:00

I leave to go to Guatemala tomorrow for two weeks. We will be looking at all the homeless communidads and assessing needs. We have about $2000 donated dollars for food. We have a man trying to raise money for a water system for them. We also have a man that is talking about providing housing for 76 of the families. We will be working to aid in the accomplishment of all of this. We will also be meeting and training our new directors and buying chickens for our completed 100 bird house. And checking out all our existing programs.
We got a call last night about the twins that we are helping with their support. They are two months old and can not tolerate any formula but Enfamil Supreme. It is not available in Guate so I went to Walmart and bought $275 worth of formula for the babies in our programs who need special formula. Thanks to one of our donors we had money for this.
So the pictures are of one of the twins and children from the communidad that will receive the homes.
Thanks to you our donors.
Also thanks to my two adult daughters who have come in babysit our kids still at home.

Vicki
Safe Homes for Children

Help Needed!

2010-08-09T10:35:00.002-06:00

We had a man from TN go down to volunteer recently. I had told his story about a dream/vision he had of a young boy in a blue and yellow shirt a few blogs ago. After the dream, he had searched the internet until he found the boy from a picture I had posted on a blog that same day. So Bryson felt impressed to help us. He went by himself two weeks ago, but in Sept. wants to bring his wife and two young children down. Bryson helped with our projects in Los Robles while there putting in a cement wall on the third floor so that rain water would drain better up there. Then he visited the homeless villages. The 24 families in San Andres and the 76 families in Panamache. He was very impressed with their need for everything. He took incaparina to the children and clothes and shoes from our storehouse. He came back fired up to help the 76 families get water. They basically have none: to bath, to drink,etc. He wants to raise the funds to put a permanent water system in. The only problem. There is no electricity there so pumping it up from a hand dug well would take a generator and trying to collect rainwater would only work 6 months out of the year when there is rain. ANY IDEAS? WANT TO HELP? Push the donate button. The pictures are of the kids that belong to the homeless families. The one of the plastic bags is their makeshift shower. I would guess you would have to be pretty dirty to go do that.

I have been asked to supply the finances for 4 teachers to go to the 76 families to teach the children. There is no school there, but there are 120 elementary children who need the structure and learning supplied by school. CAN YOU HELP? To do this for the next 4 months will cost $4000.00.
Also we have enough donations to send a container down. I have a hospital and dentist willing to give us equipment when the container goes down. I can buy a container and send it for $10,000.00. The container will belong to us and can be used as a storage shed. With all the projects we are doing, we need a storage shed.. So we need money for this. We also would like to take our preschool program/lunch/elementary tutorials to Panamache. They will donate the land and do the building. We supply the materials and hire the cook and teacher. Can you help with this? Please pass this blog to everyone you know. We need some grant writers or just plain rich people. But we like the $10.00 a month people too and the praying ones. Put this blog on your facebook. Do what you have to to help us grow and help the people. 100% goes to the people to help them help themselves.

thanks
Vicki
Safe Homes for Children

Hunger in Guatemala

2010-08-09T10:29:00.000-06:00

Good article on hunger in Guatemala. A quote from the article.

"Just under 50 percent of children in Guatemala are malnourished, the highest rate in Latin America and one of the highest in the world, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). "

The rest of the article.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52309

Vicki

Living conditions after Hurricane Agatha (By Vicki Dalia)

2010-06-22T09:54:00.000-06:00

Pics from the bottom up
1] the road leading to the 56 families and where they live
2] how would you like to cook for 350 plus on this the grounds that the families live on; at least it is flat
3] this is your living room not a picnic and then go home to comfort the storage room and kitchen area
4] one of the sad eyed starving children
5] Debbie told me this little boy kept scraping the bowl for one last drop of black beans; it never came
6]How would you like to live here
7]HOME SWEET HOME

Well I had a hard time sleeping last night because I could not stop thinking of what it would be like to sleep in a tent like this. Not for just one night or even two but indefinitely. What do you do if there is a downpour like there has been for the last week. What if you have an infant or a sick 3 year old or a elderly mother with pneumonia.? No blanket, dirt floor and rain pouring in. No food to keep you going. What about the picture of the little boy who keeps licking the bowl trying to find enough black beans to keep his stomach from hurting. or the little girl whose eyes show the despair she feels at such a young age.
this is how over 350 people have been living since hurricane Agatha caused enough dirt and water to destroy their village. A kind man has given them this land to live on indefinitely and is supplying them with wood to cook with and try to stay a little bit warm. CAN YOU HELP WITH THE REST/ JUST PUSH THE DONATE BUTTON. AND REMEMBER 100% GOES TO THE PROJECTS.

Vicki

***UPDATE***

I worked really hard the last couple of days and was able to procure 56 shelter box tents. They provide so much more than just tents. here is a picture.

http://www.youngshelterbox.org/inside.php

Families from Chutinamit homeless because of Hurricane Agatha Friday, June 11, 2010 24 (By Vicki Dalia)

2010-06-22T09:41:00.000-06:00

We finally have an official report on the 24 families that the mayor of San Andres asked us to help. Safe Homes volunteer Debbie and her volunteer team of one woman and 5 teens visited on Weds. and went back on Thurs. with donations. Here is what they found.
Image , if you will, that you are in your 10 by 10 home that, if you are lucky, has a cement floor, if you are not. it has a dirt floor. It is maybe made of cement or maybe of corn stalks. It starts raining and it does not stop. You remember Hurricane Stan from 2005 and you start to worry. You are already worrying because you can't keep your children dry with all this rain. Then the mud and dirt start moving into your home. Gullies start forming outside and then gorges. Big holes start forming in your house from the rocks that are falling with the mud and soon the mud is coming in in torrents. At some point your terror gets deep and dark enough you know you have to leave. Soon the whole community of 24 families is moving into the school. When the rains stop and you look out the pueblo is destroyed. The houses are too beat up and full of mud to live in, but worse so much of the mountain behind you has fallen that you know it is impossible to live there any longer. The school is nice for a while. It is new and has something of a kitchen for cooking and dry floors to sleep on. It has a small courtyard for the children to play in. But it has one major flaw. There is a big sinkhole that has formed behind it due to the massive rain from the storm. It is a matter of days before the school falls into the sinkhole. The mayor sends up beans and a little rice to feed you, but that is all you get for 101 men, women and children.
That was the state of affairs when Safe Homes' team visited on Weds. They went back that night feeling fortunate for their nice dry place to stay and that they were the ones fortunate enough to be able to help. The pueblo is reachable only by 4 wheel truck and so the San Andres police loaned us a truck and driver for both trips. The teachers from the school were wonderful to help with all the coordination. Here are some pictures of the families receiving aid. Our team bought rice, oil, potatoes, instant soup, soap, cookies, water, incaparina and milk.. Enough food for each family to eat for 3 days. That cost $300.00. They took clothes from our donation room as the families did not have time to gather anything as they left their homes for safety. And now it is covered in mud. The teens palyed games with all the children wile the women distributed what they brought. Safe Homes has $500 more to donate towards food that will be used ofr the very basics like big bags of rice and amseca and beans, but after that WE NEED YOUR HELP. PLEASE PASS THE WORD AND PUSH OUR NEW DONATE BUTTON AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE.
These pictures are of passing out donations. later i will post more pictures of the devastation.

SAMUEL AND THE WALKER AND OUR PRENATAL GROUP Thursday, June 10, 2010 (By Vicki Dalia)

2010-06-22T09:33:00.000-06:00

We had five pregnant ladies come to our first prenatal group.One of them was Samuel's mom who was due to deliver any day [ she has delivered but I have not heard whether boy or girl ]. One of the community midwives was there. Her name is Lillian. She has more education than most as she finished 8th grade. She is also very interested in the women becoming educated.We gave out beautiful baby blankets made by a woman and her mother in the states to each woman at the meeting. They were so thrilled to have something new for their babies. None of them had been to the doctor. They were scared of delivery because the closest hospital is an hour away by car and they do not have a car. At least in our birthing room , it is clean and we provide needed supplies as well as baby items. They don't have the excitement American women have over the new baby items and cute little clothes that offset some of the fear of delivery.
I got a donated child's walker from a PT that works with a friend's children. Sherrie picked it up, put it in the mail. Safe Homes paid shipping and I hauled it to Guatemala and out to Los Robles. The first children's playgroup, I had the walker ready. Samuel crawled over to it, pulled himself up and then walked with it for the next 3 hours. We have another child who is using it also. It is Angel. He is 6 and has never walked. He looks normal and no one has any idea why he has not walked. He also loved the walker and we paid to start Angel in rehab. My cook Dominga is taking him.

Our First Child Development Class/Lunch Wednesday, June 09, 2010 (by Vicki Dalia)

2010-06-22T09:21:00.000-06:00

The first Tuesday I was in Guate, we started our child development classes.
We had 50 mamas and 100 children under 4. The kids were to go in the playroom while the mamas had classes and then everyone would eat. I am used to US kids and it never crossed my mind that these children had never seen a toy and did not know what to do with one. My son and daughter blew up over a 100 balloons when the kids first got there and the mamas made sure that each of their children got one.Then we took them in the playroom. It took some dedicated effort to teach them what to do with the brightly colored tables and chairs and the toys that were scattered all around. While my teacher Gil was struggling with this, I was telling the mamas what our plans were for the future in terms of the child development class. Basically we want them to help them learn some basic parenting skills including nutritional info.We also want to learn form them what they need and want. We then served lunch to all 150. First the mamas and then the kids. It was interesting. We had a chicken/vegetable dish over rice with a white roll. In the US this meal would have met with some resistance by the toddlers. Comments like "I want a hotdog" or " I don't like that" would have been heard. Here tho the mamas rushed their kids to the serving line, made sure they each got a bowl and made sure it was all eaten. I figure it was different because they are starving and so the US kid pickiness does not exist.This was my favorite thing to do while we were in guate and each tues. here in the US, I wish I were down there amidst all those kids and mamas.

More Updates on the Mayan victims of Agatha (Update from Vicki Dalia of Safe Homes for children)

2010-06-07T09:18:00.000-06:00

I have received more heartbreaking news from my daughter Hannah and friends who are in Panajachel. Hannah said all the lettuce crop is completely ruined from being under water so long and the coffee crop is ruined because of all the rain. Don't understand why that is, but this is the third time I have heard this.
The streets of Panajachel are still covered with mud and makes for a muddy mess when raining and a dusty walk or tuk tuk ride when sunny.. But lots of families are being forced to live in their broken down one roomers with 4 feet of mud covering all their belongings because they can not afford to do anything else.
All but one of the bridges in Panajachel is broken down including the brand new concrete bridge that the Korean's paid for after hurricane Stan. One bridge remains; the big yellow bridge that was built by the Army Corp of engineers in 1940. The bridge between Pana and San Andres went down and now you have to walk across the gorge. The result is that all the volunteer teams are helping those on the Pana side of the fallen bridge. The mayor of San Andres called us asking for help for the 121 homeless families above the bridge who have no clothes, blankets or food. Tuesday my volunteer team will investigate the needs around Los Robles, Godinez and the 121 homeless families. We are prepared to give out clothing and shoes and blankets where needed. These are the families that the mayor requested medicines for.
Some of you that have been on this blog for a long time will remember the small pueblo of Jabailito where Jody and I used to escape to Volcano Lodge when the stresses of living in a third world country and running an orphanage got to us.. I heard tonight that the entire community is being evacuated because of a crater above the town that is filling will water. Experts are afraid that the next good rain will bring a mudslide that will bury the entire community. The lodge itself is full of mud and water. And the indigenous people there were desperately poor.
So much pain and misery.
WE CAN HELP MORE AS YOU HELP MORE. Go to Guatemal Childrens Project and click on the donate button. Or contact us for more info infogcp@guatemalachildrensproject.org

PICTURES
1] The store where I used to buy my phone cards
2] The swinging bridge that my kids would walk on to go to the basketball court
3] my helper daughter in Guatemala

UPDATE ON CONDITIONS IN GUATEMALA (as posted by Vicki Dalia)

2010-06-07T09:11:00.000-06:00

My daughter, Hannah, arrived in Guatemala on Thursday morning and was met at the airport by our friend Antonio. He drove her out to Lake Atitlan by way of CA1. Hannah and Antonio both said there were only two lanes open as mud and rocks were on the other two.. They had to drive slow, but made it to Panajachel fine. Our volunteer house has water and Juana has made back and is cooking and cleaning for the next team that comes in tonight. There is much work for them to do.
One of the first things they will do is go check on Manuel and Rosa's family. We heard they had alot of mud and water destroyed the things in their house and all their food. So I guess they lost the blankets I took them as that was all they had. The team of Robert, my daughter Hannah and Debbie and the women who came with her are going to Manuels house. They are taking them food and see what esle they need. They are also going to talk to their mom and Manuel and Rosa and offer them the chance to move into a rented room near our facilities where they can come to our feeding and tutorial programs. We can make sure they have clothes and shoes and school supplies. I hope they see the benefits.
Pictures are of Hannah and Manuel and his brothers Rolando and Carlos.
Remember to Donate to get our orphanage opened and give kids like Manuel and his brothers a life. Go Guatemala Children's Project and click the donate button.

101 Families in San Andres area loose their homes (By Vicki June 3, 2010)

2010-06-03T12:45:00.000-06:00

101 families are living in shelters & schools in & around San Andres. Many have lung and intestinal problems. We have their wish list for meds

This is the email I got from Robert yesterday. The government has hired two social workers to visit all the pueblos and get the stats on what happened to them because of Hurricane Agatha. San Andres is our county so to speak. I have not gotten the official word yet on Los Robles as they were canvassing the families as he wrote this to me. In the meantime there are 101 Mayan families in our area that need help. We have people going to Guatemala to volunteer in June. If you can donate meds, let me know and I will have you send them to the closest person. Or it cost about $40 a month for the "house" the Mayans live in so if you want to help a family get back into housing, let me know. The social workers were going to collect half of what we had on hand in the way of meds at our clinic in Los Robles to take to the sick and injured.
You can donate thru our donate button at Guatemala Childrens Project or http://www.safehomesforchildren.org
or contact me for a mailing address. As always 100% goes to the people. and the projects.

ANOTHER REASON WE NEED THE ORPHANAGE (Post by Vicki Dalia June2, 2010

2010-06-03T12:41:00.000-06:00

The last day we were in Guatemala turned out to be pretty adventurous. Actually the whole trip was. This one tho struck the chords of my baby loving heart. I got a call from one of the midwives who comes to prenatal classes. She had delivered a baby the night before at the Solola hosp. for one of the families in our community. They were doing fine, but she had another situation she wanted to talk to me about. Another woman had delivered boy/girl twins by c-section the night before and was not able to take care of them. She had 5 other children and her husband had died that year. She had no money, not even enough to pay for the blood transfusions she needed and they would not give them to her until they were paid for. The midwife's husband had also died this past year and she wanted to take care of the babies she said. But she needed help with the formula and diapers and clothes that we give all newborns in our community so she was making sure she could get that. I told her we would make sure she had those things. I went to the hospital to see the babies and the mom before I had to fly back to the states. The mom was in terrible shape. I was worried she would die on the bed in front of me. I paid for her transfusions and meds there on the spot. The babies were adorable and weighed in at 6 and 7 pounds. The midwife has them now, but wants me to open the orphanage so they can go in there. I told her I was trying to.
YOU CAN HELP US DO THIS BY GOING TO http://www.safehomesforchildren.org and clicking on the paypal button to donate or sending my a check to
Safe Homes For Children
3303 Pond Mountain lane
Whitetop, VA 24292

We now have $650 a month committed and one time gifts of $750. So we are gradually getting there. The atty. to do the papers is $3000 and Evelyn has met with him. The monthly fee will be between $4000 and $5000 a month. 100% of your donation goes to where you want it to.
The pictures are of the family who gave birth from Godinez.They are so excited to be getting the basket of gifts we give new moms. Diapers, blankets and clothes. One picture is of the ob/gyn room. Six beds, no pillows, one thin ragged blanket. Then pictures of the babies. The boy. The girl . My daughter Scotia holding the boy who we fed as the mom could not even lift her head off the bed much less feed him.
Help us save lives literally.

More Damage Reports from Agatha

2010-06-03T12:28:00.000-06:00

I just talked to Robert and got a list of damages that immediately concern us.

1]No gas for the tuk tuks and pickups to run. The road has been cleared today to CA1 so tomorrow they are expecting gas
2] The mayor of San Andres [ the county seat for the area] called today and asked for as much medicine as we could give them. They had a lot of injured people from Agatha and not near enough medicine. We have some stock thanks to the big medical team that came in March and bought $2000.00 in meds. Gary and Sylvia, we need a medical team and more meds. We promised to give them half of all that we had.
3] The yard is washed out and needs a landscaping crew to repair gully's. The wooden retaining walls did not retain the dirt and it washed into the kitchen area. The big round cement bench washed into a gully. Our road to the next level needs massive repair work.

Our new chicken house is fine and Robert is sending pictures which I will post.

Vicki

Volcanoes and Hurricanes (posted by Vicki May 31, 2010)

2010-06-03T12:24:00.000-06:00

Many of you have asked about the natural disasters going on in Guatemala right now. My friend and supporter Evelyn is in Guatemala with a 15 member team that has been working on our projects. They checked into the Barcelona Thurs night to do some touristy stuff and were there when the volcano exploded. Three members of the team had thought to hike Pacaya on Thurs. and at the last minute changed their plans and went with the rest of the group to Chichi. They are stuck now at the Barcelona but were able to go to Antigua and then to Tikal by bus. The city is supposed to look awful with lots of black "snow". My friend Nancy, who lives in Antigua, said when the volcano blew her house shook like it has never shaken with an earthquake. Evelyn's group was told they can not fly home until Weds.
The first hurricane of the season is causing lots of trouble in Panajachel. If you google Bugle Basin , you might get to see a picture of the river between Pana and Jucanya. It is massive. The main bridge is closed to traffic and pedestrians. One foot bridge is destroyed.The bridge between Pana and San Andres ic closed to everything but pedestrian traffic.The combination of the 3 days so far days of massive rain and the volcanic ashe is making a cement like mud that is difficult to clean up and deadly to agricultural crops. The massive rains are flooding even more crops. Crops that are desperately needed for this food poor country as many of the people live on a subsistance basis.

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2010-06-03T12:20:00.000-06:00

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FIRST REPORT FROM THE PEDIATRICIAN

2010-03-31T10:50:00.000-06:00

As posted on http://casadesion.blogspot.com/

We are trying to organize our pictures and can definitely send you something within the next couple of days. We saw 487 people on the days that we counted. This is likely an underestimate as many asked for medical treatment and advice for family members that were at home. On the day that we didn't count because we didn't have any extra help we saw at least 60 additional people so the total would be 547. If we counted the people we sent food supplements home to-they said they came just for vitamins and food supplements, in addition to who was seen the number would be close to 600. We gave out all of the vitamins except those that we left with Dominqa and the iodine we left with her to purify the water and to help with iodine deficiency. We left 6387chewable children's multivitamins. We gave out over 10,000 prenatal vitamins and over 3,000 children's multivitamins. We also gave out thousands of iron supplements-we bought all the pharmacy had. I think most everyone is anemic. Nearly all the kids had scarred up eardrums and many with active infections, lots of pneumonia and skin infections. I think the ear infections may well be all the smoke they are exposed to and that of course contributes to the wheezing. We left some antibiotics but we gave out a lot with all the people that we saw. We did leave nearly 500 doses of the albuterol to use in the pulmoaide and did leave a nebulizer for you to use. We brought 120 lice combs that we gave out. I don't know if you are interested in keeping records of this but Colette did some fundraising with her nonprofit and spent at least $1500.00 in buying supplies-vitamins, meds etc. We gave out several hundred hand knit hats as well as hundreds of baby outfits. The combs, formula and some medications were donated. I can look into trying to find some prenatal cards for following blood pressure weights etc. We saw at least 20 women that had goiters-they all also had marked signs of hypothyroidism-very low heart rates, in the 40's with skin rashes, hair loss and they all described they could hardly get out of bed. It is amazing they got there. Likely this is due to iodine deficiency, we treated that. They really do need vitamins and they know they need vitamins. Obviously they need to increase protein/calorie intake but the vitamin deficiencies may be even more easily treated. You should think about giving the kids fluoride supplements-it decreases the cavities by 68% and the kids could definitely use that. Lots of people with obvious rickets-bowed legs etc so getting more calcium is huge. We gave out lots of tums, I think that is a good fit since so many have stomach issues to start with. I know I am rambling but I would really lean towards treating pain with tylenol not ibuprofen. I tried to look up if anyone has looked into the incidence of Vitamin K deficiency which would cause bleeding problems but I couldn't find anything. It is generally uncommon in the newborn period but with their very restricted diets it is a possibility. You aren't supposed to take it when you are pregnant because it affects the platelets so that right there cuts out lots of people. There were lots of common questions about puberty and child development. I know access to food is a huge issue but you aren't supposed to wait too long to at least introduce some solid foods or you get a tongue thrust and trouble with eating-we saw several kids with this. Several adults with ganglion cysts around their wrists-likely from the repetitive motion of weaving. This isn't dangerous but as you can imagine feeling a lump makes people nervous. We had one girl with tetany-treated her with magnesium and calcium and the missionaries were going to follow up with her. We had more than one person ask if their child was going to die. I guess unfortunately that is part of their experience but pneumonia should respond quickly to antibiotics as should skin infections. I realize that people do die from those problems when not treated but it was sad for them to think that maybe things wouldn't get better-hopefully they will.
I'll get you a more complete report soon. Thanks. Jerrilyn

Project Plan

2010-03-25T15:31:00.003-06:00

We have finally confirmed the dates of our next work trip to Guatemala. It will be April 7-14. Our plan for this trip will be to provide material and labor to build a new home for a family in the highlands of Guatemala. They are being evicted from their current home. This humble family is living in a small 1 room shack with dirt floors and an outhouse. Our plan is to help construct a larger new home with a concrete floor including a bathroom. This project is only partly funded with an additional $500 needed to complete. If anyone is able to help, no matter how much can be given, please visit our donation page and give whatever you can. Click here to donate now or click on the donate button at the top of the page. 100% of every donation is used in Guatemala to help children and their families.

Other activities will include a visit from "Penny Man" (reading super hero from Sunset Elementary school in St George Utah who promotes reading) to a small school to pass out books that have been donated. If time permits, we will also hold a gardening clinic in one of the villages to teach basic gardening skills to local families.

We need your help to make this project possible. Please donate today! Click here.

Medical team day 3

2010-03-04T09:33:00.000-07:00

Finally some pictures. The team worked yesterday in a community that never gets any medical teams. They saw 120 people. The mayor of San Andres was most helpful with spreading the word to the people. His assistant thinks they will have even more people today. They helped save more lives yesterday. A small baby who was very ill was treated and given an antibiotic. He will come back today to be checked again. Two women who had dangerously high blood pressure were treated and set up to receive more treatment at the clinic in Panajachel. The top picture is of the pharmacy they have set up where they can give out free meds. Another picture is of the team in the van on the way to the pueblo and another is of the people lining up to be seen.
My two favorite stories from yesterday are of Edit and Samuel. Edit is the little girl from Los Robles who has a shunt and who we thought was blind. We had $400.00 donated for her care and thought we would use it for a CAT scan and another test. She worked a lot with the physical therapist who says that she does not think she is totally blind. That she focused her eyes on the PT and reached out for toys that she put in front of her. She said that her spine is starting to curve from being carried all the time in the sling on her mom's back. That she needs to sit more. The PT put her on her stomach and said she thinks she has never been put on her stomach before. She wants us to work with her like that until she has the strength to prop on her elbows. Pedro is taking them her wheelchair with the broken wheel today so they can fix it. The PT thinks with some work she will be able to sit. Also she thinks the money we have had donated for her would be better spent on Pediasure to overcome the malnutrition.
Now Samuel. He is the 5 year old whose life with saved with the financial help of three people on this group. He has worked with the PT all 3 days so far. yesterday Pedro brought him and his mom to our new location and he did PT all day. The PT told me that she would do 30 to 45 minutes with him until he was sweating and then let him take a half hour break and then work again. When she first started with him, he could not put any weight on his legs at all. Yesterday he took his first two steps. It makes me cry writing it and made me cry when she told me. He went from a "normal" little boy back in Oct. to having spinal meningitis [ we think], to almost dying, to not being able to walk, to starting to walk again. The PT says he needs a walker.ANYBODY GOT ONE FOR A FIVE YEAR OLD? OR WANT TO DONATE THE BUCKS?
We are so grateful for this team and all they have done. One more precious life saving for these people. THANK YOU GARY AND SYLVIA and team.
Vicki Dalia
20.vicki@gmail.com

More on the medical team

2010-03-04T09:09:00.001-07:00

The report from the medical team yesterday was awesome. Not as many people. They saw 45 more in Los Robles. Pedro was afraid to spread the word too far as he did not want to have to turn people away. The team said they had a great day. It was slow enough that they got to do some educating as well as treating. They did have some great things happen and probably saved a couple of people's lives. One was an older woman. Her blood sugar was over the roof as was her blood pressure. Gary , the team leader, felt she needed more continuing help so he paid for her to go to Panajachel with one of the members of the team and be seen by a doctor who has a regular clinic there. Another life they might have saved was a child who had a seriously high fever and pneumonia. They did nebulizer treatments and gave him an antibiotic presription. None of these things could his family have afforded. They also did physical therapy on many people and other nebulizer treatments.
Today they are in a community about 25 minutes from Los Robles. One that never gets in medical care. The private school that my children went to when we lived in Panajachel provided us with 6 kids today and 3 tomorrow to act as translators. The kids are donating their services.
I am excited to hear how today went.
Yesterday I made contact with a very interesting person. She heads an organic gardening program in Chichi, Guate. They have a full blown garden and will work with Pedro and Jose for two whole days teaching them composting and raised beds and bug control without high powered chemicals and lots more. I have been talking to Pedro about what I want and he does not understand so this will be a wonderful aid. Plus if i can train Jose as our master gardener, I can raise his salary [ with more donations] and have someone to head the teams that want to work in this area.Pedro I know I have not told you about this yet as you have been too busy with the teams, but I will go over it in detail next week.
Vicki Dlaia
Safe Homes for Children

Fundraising!!!

2010-03-04T08:53:00.000-07:00

FUNDRAISING in on my mind right now. My husband informed me last night that when the orphanage reopens, [And it will happen some day], we will need a significant amount more money coming in or we will have to drop some of our programs. My response was NO WAY. What am I going to drop?. Feeding 70 elementary kids the only decent meal they get? Or the 275 kids who get the incaparina twice a month that makes a major difference in their nutritional level? Or the infant feeding program that saves these babies' lives? Or the emergency medical programs we do? Or the 3 hours of tutorials we do each day for the community kids? And what about the ones I want to start. The pregnant women's program I want to start where we educate them on nutrition,parenting skills, etc. And provide them with a birthing room where they can deliver in a clean and safe environment. I want to increase our community programs not eliminate them. And I sure do not want to not open the orphanage. So it means more fund raising. And more than a 60 year old woman with 18 kids and 17 grandkids can do by herself. SO I NEED YOUR HELP. Here is one example of what one couple is doing. They came and visited us in Nov. and then went home and put this together. I need everyone to pass the word to all they know. I need lots of people to do small or large fundraisers in their hometowns. i know we can do this together because I know dropping any of our existing programs is not an option.
thanks
Vicki
Safe Homes for Children

Medical team saw 141 people today!!

2010-03-02T09:55:00.000-07:00

This a post from Vicki at Safe Homes for Children.

The medical team, organized through Safe Homes for Children, saw 141 people today at Los Robles. They set up at the elementary school. There was no school this week anyway so it did not inconvenience the teachers. Pedro said when they opened there were 45 people waiting. I called the team tonight and asked for the best story. They gave me two. One group is mostly from Kentucky and the first person they saw was an elderly man. When they asked him to take his shirt off so they could examine him, he revealed an under t-shirt with the words KENTUCKY on it. It made the team feel like they were where they were supposed to be. The second story involved the physical therapist. She was worried there would not be anything for her to do. But the reality of it was that she, with Pedro as her translator, worked on 16 patients and taught them things they could do at home. They saw many moms and babies as well as older people. They brought a nebulizer and used it on several patients. The team was composed of 15 people from the US and 6 Guatemalan translators. Pedro told me everyone was so happy about how the day had gone.

INFANT FEEDING PROGRAM

2010-01-19T23:34:00.005-07:00

Blog post by Vicki Dalia

Our trip to Guatemala was very interesting. The Sat. after we arrived we had a milk distribution where we invited families from two pueblos. To receive milk or formula they had to have an income of less than $2.50 a day. Food costs more in Guatemala than in the states even if they only make $2.50 a day.We made a list of the children we distributed to. The total from Sat. and the ones who staggered in thru the next week was 275 children for incaparina and 30 infants for formula. Sat. we had over 300 women and children. One of our major donors for the formula/incaparina program was visiting the country and we wanted them to see where their money was going. They bought oranges and rolls to give out to the people who came and all the people there ate them like they were not getting much to eat at home.

Incaparina is a mix of soy and corn and a little sweeter. The kids drink it and it is very nutritious. We are giving a bag of incaparina twice a month to each child in the family. This gives them 1.5 cups a day for the whole month. The infants get a large can of formula. The program costs $550.00 for the incaparina monthly and $600.00 for the formula monthly. We don't have that much in our budget so we need donors to keep the program going. It is the only thing of nutrition the kids get. Usually they have a couple of tortillas and if lucky some beans.
We have had to cut off the numbers we can help as we are having Mayans from other pueblos coming to us for formula or incaparina. Until we get enough donors to satisfy the first 275 kids, we can't add more.

DO YOU WANT TO HELP WITH THIS PROGRAM/ FOR $25.00 a month you can give an infant a large can of formula. For $25.00 a month you can give 10 children incaparina for a month. HELP US TO KEEP THIS PROGRAM GOING AND TO BE ABLE TO ADD MORE CHILDREN. Click here to donate today!

Updates coming

2010-01-05T09:34:00.000-07:00

Volunteers have been in Guatemala this past week and will have updates soon regarding the food programs and orphanage.

Check back soon.

Feeding program update.

2009-10-23T09:43:00.001-06:00

While we were in Guatemala, we started our toddler feeding program. I will show you some pictures of it next blog. Some of the same moms with toddlers come to our infant feeding program. We have about 25 moms now getting formula for their babies and want to offer this in another community we know of that is struggling with starving infants. Here are 3 of the moms that get the infant formula and 3 of the precious babies.

My family is spending Christmas in Guatemala. We leave on the 15th and will be there for a month. While there we will give a Christmas Party for the kids. If you want to send donations, send them now so you don't have to do priority mail.

Update from Vicki (Safe Homes For Children)

2009-10-05T10:26:00.000-06:00

We are home. We accomplished so much. Here are some pictures of the kids from the tutorial program. They had a welcome time for us when we first got there on Fri. They had a bunch of pictures and sang us some songs. They love us and appreciate the help we are giving them. They are such sweet children; at least when I am around. We were tired that day so only stayed an hour. There is also a picture of the wonderful cabinets that Guatemala Children's Project made for us. They are full of the donations they gave us. If I had not had kids here in states that I love and precious grandchildren, I would have stayed down there.

Vicki
Director Safe Homes for Children

Casa de Sion PASSED inspection!!

2009-09-21T17:09:00.002-06:00

Great News!!! One of the orphanages (Casa de Sion) we are working with that has been trying to get it's doors open because they were waiting for government inspections has just been cleared by the inspectors. This is wonderful news that will allow them to open their doors very soon to take in neglected & unwanted children. With this news our need is greater then ever for financial support. If you are in a position to give any amount please do so today by clicking the donate button above.

Thanks for your support
Mike Mangum

Great News!

2009-09-02T16:28:00.001-06:00

Great news everyone, The baby malnutrition program has been in need of baby formula and it has been difficult to get it there because of the size and weight of it so we were going to send money to buy it at the super market but fortunately Ken has found a supplier in Guatemala that we can buy it from at a discounted price. This is great news because it will ensure they won’t run out. We have a lot of babies relying on our program, without it many would surely die of starvation since their mothers can not produce milk for them.

We appreciate all of the past support from many of you. Since we can purchase the formula in Guatemala for less then it costs here your financial support is more important then ever before. Please consider donating today.

New Logo!

2009-08-07T16:57:00.002-06:00

As part of the changes we are making to our organization we have changed our logo.

THANK YOU!

2009-08-04T16:33:00.001-06:00

Dear supporter of Guatemala Children’s Project. I would like to personally thank you for your generous contributions over this past year. Much good has been done and the lives of the children that have been abandoned in the orphanage have been changed forever. It is truly something to feel good about.

Guillermo and Mandy are currently managing, directing and running the orphanage 100% on their own. If you would like to contact them for any reason their contact information is. Info.gozo@gmail.com Niños de Guatemala hogar 03 avenida 05-68 zona 1 Quintas los Aposentos Chimaltenango, Guatemala 7839-2060.

We have transitioned away from the day to day involvement with the orphanage, still I am confident that the children are being cared for and are certainly much better off than so many others that are much less fortunate.

Also, we have been asked to help another organization with a most urgent need. Semillas de amour is a new orphanage under construction in the mountains near lake Atitlan. They have purchased property and erected a perimeter wall and the main building has been constructed with others in progress. They expect to have authorization to begin receiving children soon. We have already donated bunk beds, furniture and much needed supplies. We anticipate helping with future construction projects there. They have also initiated a community outreach program to help new mothers and infants who are unable to nurse, mostly because of malnutrition. When these mothers can’t produce breast milk the infants will die because of the lack of availability of formula.

We have been asked to help provide the necessary formula and have begun to do so. We would like to be able to continue to make a difference in this impoverished community. They are also currently providing lunch at the local school twice per week as most of the children do not live close and subsequently go without. It would be great to be able to help provide lunch every school day.

Now with our ability to help various organizations, when you help with donations I would like to ask you to please let us know where you would like your donation to go specifically. We feel a great responsibility to use your money to benefit the children of Guatemala exactly how you would like to. You can indicate which of the three projects you’d like to support.

Niños de Guatemala Hogar orphanage.
Semillas de amor orphanage.
Malnutrition community outreach program.
If you would like for us to determine where it is most needed you can indicate that or simply not specify and that is what we will do.

Again, thank you so much for your financial support. You are making a difference on the front lines where it is needed most.

Ken Mangum

GUATEMALA CHILDRENS PROJECT

THIS IS AN INTERESTING ARTICLE ON WHAT THESE CHILDREN FACE ON A DAILY BASIS;
Click on the image below or paste the link below in your browser.

http://www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/charity-news/guatemalachildrenfoodcrisis.htm

Update

2009-08-04T16:31:00.001-06:00

UPDATE: Guatemala Children's Project is expanding our reach. In an effort to help more children in Guatemala we are working with orphanages, schools and organizations that are in need of assistance. We are in the process of relocating our volunteer house to better serve the children we are helping. Because of this our "Volunteer Program" has been put on hold until further notice. We hope to have it going again sometime early 2010. Check back here for the latest news. If you are interested in volunteering in the future you may contact Debbie Clark (click on her name to send an email) for more details.

Volunteer Program posted by Debbie Clark

2009-06-08T08:49:00.003-06:00

Guatemala Children's Project is proud to announce the introduction of the “Volunteer Program” for the first time this year. We currently have three young women from CANADA.....Gina Primivera, Emily Schnoor and Becky Smith, who have selfishly given up their summer to come and volunteer their time to the children of “Niños De Guatemala”. All three girls arrived May 14, along with Kevin Callahan, President of the Board. We were so fortunate to have Mike and Ken Mangum (Board members) arrive a few days earlier and worked to get the Volunteer House clean and ready for the girl’s arrival. We are so fortunate to have these men on the Board.

I arrived Sunday, May 17th. I was there to train and teach the girls their “daily” responsibilities. Volunteering is a very hard job to do at times. You have to get up early everyday, be prepared with projects, games, etc...for the children. All at the same time teaching them to brush their teeth, clean their rooms and do chores. Oh...and give one on one attention...the kids LOVE attention. Even the babies demand your attention. Most days the volunteers are exhausted when it is time to leave. I can tell you while I was there seeing the girls in action, the joy, love and attention they gave non-stop, was amazing. They had to learn quickly and even do things that they have never done before. Oh...did I mention the girls are also responsible to keep the Volunteer House clean at all times. They cook their own meals, shop for food, wash their own clothes and keep track of all donations that are being taken up to the orphanage house. They have had to learn a lot of things in such a short period of time. The children oh my goodness....LOVE the girls...they don't like it if the girls are not there...the girls do get a day off once a week...to do site seeing, shop for souvenirs or if they want...just SLEEP all day.

Through the remainder of the summer we will have two other volunteers join the first three girls... Jamie Robinson from St. George, Utah and Rebecca Hainey from Washington, DC. Their journey will just begin...but, I have three girls who can teach them the ropes. As I left to go home to my family, Monday, June 1st…I felt like a mother who didn't have to walk her children to school anymore....they were ready to be on their own. We have been so blessed to have these three girls in our program. THANK YOU girls.

Baby update

2009-04-21T09:11:00.002-06:00

We are missing Joséctio since he went home, the orphanage is not the same without him. It was so much fun how much he was starting to talk and walk. But being home is what´s best for him.

Alejandra is learning to talk a little. She can say mama and papa and si and no. She is so much fun to play with and she laughs a lot.

Levi is starting to learn how to crawl and he can sit up all by himself now. He looks different with all his top teeth in. His mom came today and told us that she wants to keep him here until he is 18 years old. She says he has been raised here his whole life and he will have a better life here, where we will be able to take good care of
him and provide him with an education.

José is still as wild as ever. He is also going through this phase where he likes to take off his shoes and socks and walk around barefoot. Every chance he gets he takes them off. Also he has turned into an eating machine. As soon as he wakes up the first
thing he asks for is food. Whenever someone has food, even if José isn´t around, as soon as they open the package José magically appears asking for some. He is always eating.

Brandon is still doing great and still loves his music and singing. He is getting along well with the other kids and he loves having his sister here.

We took them all to the swimming pool the other day. It was a blast. José and Brandon had a ton of fun on the slides and swimming around. I took Alejandra into the water and she hated it. She cried and cried until I took her out. She spent most of the day playing in the shade. Levi loved the water. I swam around with him for hours and he never got tired of it. It was a lot of fun.

New update from Mandy

2009-04-15T08:38:00.000-06:00

Here is the latest update for you on the babies. This one is going to
have to be a bit quick...

Josécito went home to his family yesterday. It was really sad to see him go but I can tell his dad has changed and they all seemed really happy. I am glad for him and I hope he has a better life.

Alejandra is doing great and we are starting to teach her how to walk.

Levi is starting to sit up on his own. All of his top teeth have come in.

José is starting to talk more and more. He is learning to say the names of animals. I have a hard time getting him to pronounce things properly. I can tell he understands what I´m saying when I talk to him but he isn´t able to form the words. I am
going to have to start working with him a little more to get him talking.

Brandon is still a ton of fun. His family came to visit the other day and that was nice.

Baby update

2009-04-13T15:57:00.003-06:00

This an update from Mandy of the babies at the orphanage.

Josécito has learned some more words and the other day we taught him how to wave. Now when someone leaves the room we tell him goodbye and he waves to us. Also this week Aury and I were walking with him and he took his first steps by himself. It was pretty exciting. He will be walking soon.

Alejandra is starting to talk a little as well, she can say mama and papa. Lately she has started to scrunch her nose when she smiles and it is the most adorable thing ever. She has the cutest laugh.

Levi is pretty content. I am trying to teach him to sit up on his own. I have been noticing that whenever we play with him and stand him up it is hard to get him to bend his legs to sit down. He keeps them straight.

José loves trouble. But he is so affectionate and loves to give hugs. I taught him how to give butterfly kisses the other day and he loves it. Yesterday I put the radio on in the kitchen while I was cleaning and when José heard it he came running in and we danced around the kitchen. It was really cute.

Brandon is doing great, he is always happy and cheerful. We have a lot of fun with him. He loves it when we put on his music, Vicente Fernandez. He says it reminds him of his dad. He is always asking us to play it for him. The teacher took him swimming the other day and he had a blast.

There haven´t been any updates on the adoption laws. It is really too bad, because I know that there are good families that want to adopt the kids we have who will never go home.

Fun Kids- Post by Mandy

2009-02-24T19:35:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

This last week has been crazy...

The other day one of Guillermo´s kids, Mangy, drew ALL over Brandon´s and Jose´s faces and bodies with a permanent marker, then drew all over herself. It took me hours to scrub them all clean. At first I was mad, but Brandon and Jose thought it was so funny that I had to laugh too.

Last week someone in the ward here who sells diapers for his job gave us a call and told us that he would donate however many diapers we want or need every month. He also wanted to have a little party for all the kids in the orphanage with a piñata and cake and everything. So on Monday morning we were rushing to get all 15 kids and 6 babies and all the things we needed to bring ready, which was slightly stressful. Well, right as we were ready to leave (a little bit late), Brandon came up to me with a huge wad of gum in his hair. So it took us about another half an hour to get all the gum out and in the end we ended up having to cut all his hair off, poor kid.

Yesterday, we all made ice cream out of coconut and put them in little plastic bags to freeze. When they were done we gave one to each of the kids. Jose ate all of his ice cream...and he also ate the plastic bag.

The house is a little stressful sometimes with so many kids... but they are fun!

Monte Ricco- Post by Mandy

2009-02-24T19:34:00.000-07:00

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Yesterday we took all the kids in the orphanage to the beach, Monte Ricco. It was so much fun. The kids loved the the waves. I even took a couple of the babies into the water and they loved it. Levi didn´t have too much fun, it was pretty hot for him and he got sand in his diaper, but I gave him some watermelon and he was pretty content. I spent most of the time in the water with Jose, he loved the waves and he would stand there and hold my hands and wait for the waves, then he would scream and laugh when the wave came in. We gave Alejandra ice cream for the first time, and she loved it. By the time we went home she was covered in ice cream and sand. After we had played in the water for awhile, we all had a big game of soccer and by the end of the day the kids were all so tired that they fell asleep in the back of the car on the way home.

Christmas- Post by Mandy

2009-02-24T19:33:00.000-07:00

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Christmas was so much fun! I had such a good time with the kids. It was cool to spend Christmas with them. We had a big supper and we invited a family that was reunited a little while ago, the two children, Anita and Geovany, were two of the first children in the orphanage. It was so good to see them again. After supper we had a piñata and we hung it out in the street and broke it with all the neighbour kids and did fireworks. After that, at midnight, we went up to the Christmas Tree and opened presents. The kids were so excited to see their gifts. I missed my family a lot, and it was hard to be away from them, but was a good Christmas.

THANK YOU!!!!

2009-02-24T19:29:00.003-07:00

We are extremely grateful to Cody and Debbie Clark for funding the costs it took to fix little Jose's 4 teeth. They were infected and desperately needed to be pulled, and has since had them pulled and capped. He is now a much happier boy and cries less because his pain has subsided. We are so glad there are kind people willing to fix a little boy's mouth to improve his quality of life.
THANK YOU!!!!!

A letter from Volunteer Debbie Clark

2009-01-23T12:31:00.000-07:00

My thoughts and experience with the GCP organization:

I can’t believe that I can go on and on (those who know me, are saying, “No Deb, we know how you can go on and on.”J) about what I experienced in Guatemala in just 7 short days. I was amazed how quickly I fell in love with these children. I felt very fortunate to have Guillermo take the time and with his heart tell us their “stories”. One can only have the desire to do more and more once you know what is behind all those beautiful faces. I love how no matter what age a person is, doing service is such a learning experience. Here are a few of the lessons I learned:

“One’s junk is another’s treasure”….the children are so grateful and love anything you give them, brand names, sizes, colors are not a concern to them. It’s all WONDERFUL to them.
Hard, long hours of physical labor, and little sleep. Who would ever think that one can find joy and happiness in the following statement? “Whew…. We put in a good’s days work today!” The sorting, cleaning, and organizing never ends… Thank goodness.

The REWARD?…. the children. The “Icing on the cake” is to be wanted, loved, kissed, and hugged 24-7 by these children is the best feeling in the world. And did I mention “perks”? … the bond and friendship you make with the other volunteers is priceless and lasts a lifetime. It’s so amazing what we learn and see what we are capable of doing together, working for the same goal and all at the same time laughing, crying, and learning…….how blessed are we. Not to mention the example of showing that the love, hard work and having just plain fun is showing the children just how much they are worth. They know they are loved by someone and life can be good. We become the “light at the end of the tunnel” for them.

Guatemala…. I’ll be seeing you soon!

{Marta's Journal} Volunteer Trip: January 9-15th

2009-01-22T12:02:00.004-07:00

A week ago today, I returned from my trip to Guatemala. It seems like forever ago that I was there, but I wanted to take a moment to let everyone know what a wonderful trip it was for all that participated. I'm still not sure the best way to document the week, so here are excerps from my journal while I was there. In the following week or so, I will also be adding letters written by other volunteers that were with us telling about their experiences.

Journal Day 1-2: Friday and Saturday

Last night we arrived at the airport and we were met by Mandy, Guillermo, President Rivera, and his son Angel. We loaded our ba-zillion bags and headed for a Wendy's. It was alot of fun, and we were all a little wired with excitement.

Today was my very first day at the orphanage. I don't even know where to start. We're staying at the volunteer house down the street from the orphanage, and it's really small but I'm actually enjoying being able to step away from the chaos and decompress at the end of the night.

Today all the volunteers worked at the volunteer house setting it up for ourselves, and future volunteers. It's much more comfortable and feels very safe in the gated community which has a security guard at the entrance. So, while they were working here, I stayed behind to help at the orphanage with the children. It was crazy with a total of 18 kids, but it was great because it really gave me the opportunity to get to know all the new arrivals since my last trip.

Brian is still here. I was so happy to see him again, and give him a big hug. Abigail is also still here. She spends the majority of her day helping take care of the other kids. I was ecstatic to see Jose, and he is cute as ever!! He seems even happier than the last time. The most changed was baby Levi. When I was here last he was 5 days old....and SOOOO tiny!!! He's now 4 months old and the sweetest little thing I've ever seen. In fact, all of the babies are unbelievably good and cry very little.

It is incredibly hard work at the orphanage and I'm so drained. There are just so many children, and they all want your undivided attention. The language barrier is so frustrating, because even though they are children, they want to tell me all kinds of stuff, but I have no idea what it is they're trying to say. It's really exhausting piecing together the little spanish I know to make sense of it all.

I had lunch with the children today and it was some type of watery soup with noodles and green liquid. Alejandra prepared all of it herself, and it was really pretty good. Granted I was hungry soon after because I'm not used to such light meals yet, but that girl is such a great aid to those children. At only 15, she acts like a mother when Martita the cook is gone on the weekends.

Journal Day 3: Sunday

This morning we got up, Kevin and Jesse made us Breakfast and then we got ready for church. When we got to the orphanage almost all the kids were ready and they were anticipating our early arrival. We stayed there for a little while and took pictures with the kids and then we all left together to walk into town to go to church. Luckily it's almost all downhill, because we ended up having to carry some of the smaller kids. Every adult had a child hanging onto each of our hands, or one in our arms. Mario is one of the oldest boys and he is absolutely adorable. He immediately came to me and linked arms with me with Wilson holding my hand on the other side. They did it in such a loving brotherly way, I felt like they were my protectors. They did not let go until we walked onto the church grounds.

The kids were fairly good during Sacrament meeting. Like most kids it's a struggle for them to hold still and that one hour seems endless.
After church we gathered all the children and somehow got them home without any problems. They were pretty energized and were running everywhere. I only had a few moments of panic.

We invited Erica (She has been an orphan her entire life, but has recently moved out on her own) over to the house for lunch, and I gave her a bunch of school supplies to help get her through the next school year. She was really excited and I know it will help her alot.

Later that night, Kevin made stew and we took it all up to the orphanage to feed all the kids. They LOVED it!! He packed it full of vegetables and beef steak. It was really good. After dinner we played with the kids until bedtime, and then we headed back. Then we headed for home again, and while I made brownies everyone else cleaned up the mess from dinner.

We had a organization meeting while we ate our brownies. It went on for quite a while, and there were times when it got a little heated, but we all have opinions about the way we think it should be done. It's hard sometimes when there are so many adults, but it's good because everyone's input is valuable and it's great for brainstorming. We all have different experience and different skills to bring to the table. It all ended on a good note, but I was so tired I was having a hard time thinking straight. I think I'll have to inquire about it later.

Journal Day 4: Monday

This morning we went to the orphanage at about 8am. We helped them do their chores, swept the whole orphanage and courtyard, played games and read to the children. Kari and I opened the little school room and got a few of the games out. They will sit down forever with us and play a simple game. I think they love the one on one attention. We read books, and I was happy to see that they really enjoy reading.

Erica called at about noon and asked if we could take her to the College to register for school. Kari is the only other one who speaks spanish, and I'm the only other person she knows.....so we took the 4-Runner with Erica and off we went. Kari did a great job driving, because I would have been freaking out. The absence of stop lights makes it total chaos on the roads. Erica's school is near Antigua and it's a pretty drive about 45 minutes away from the orphanage. The school is very nice....in fact much nicer than I anticipated. She got herself registered, and she's basically good to go now.

Lunch Time: Ahhhh....my favorite activity. We worked so hard all the time that it seemed like we were hungry all the time. Kevin, Jesse, Kari and I went to the corner Tienda to get Tortillas. Ummm....they were sooo delicious. We walked in and this adorable little old lady was making them as fast as she could and we wanted to give her some business so we asked for 100 tortillas, thinking this would be a great profit for her. When we asked how much they were about 20 quetzales, which is about $2.50 in U.S. dollars. WHAAAT??? That seemed so cheap it was almost cruel. It would take a long time to make 100 tortillas. Not to mention tortillas are bought daily, so she would never get orders that big. We told her we wanted 100, and she was really excited. She couldn't figure out the math though, so when she gave us our order, Jesse handed her about 55 quetzales which is about $7.00 in U.S. Dollars. She was soooo happy, and it made us feel good too!! Just think about many orders ahead that small $7.00 put her for the day. It's crazy!

After lunch, everything that was received from the cargo box was packed up from the orphanage and taken to the volunteer house. It was so awesome to see all the things we collected here in Las Vegas.....there in Guatemala. I would say at least 80% of what was there was from Las Vegas. That felt great, and I know I have a responsibility to show everyone that donated supplies, the results of their generosity.

After that, Jesse got ready to be "Penny Man" for the kids. (A little background on the "Penny Man" costume. Sunset Elementary did a fundraiser for the orphanage. To jump start the program they had an assembly with all of the children and explained to the kids about these orphans living in Guatemala, who don't have the luxury of living in a place where an education is something that is giving to everyone. They explained that Knowledge is Power, and they can help provide books for these kids so they can learn too. So in the assembly they had "Penny Man" run out and get everyone pumped up and excited about the program. Over the course of I think 4-5 weeks, the kids were to bring One Penny for EVERY page that they read. They raised $1,200 dollars....just from reading!!! It was AMAZING, and with that money they got Brand new books, school supplies, and different kinds of educational material. So.... we made a little video with Penny Man to show at an assembly so the kids can see it on the receiving end and feel good about helping others.) So, Jesse gets in his costume, drawing attention from all the neighborhood kids.....they thought it was soooo great that a super hero was in their neighborhood!! We had all the kids waiting for him to come in the house, and he sat them down and explained what the kids at Sunset Elementary had done for them. They were in awe of how much money was raised. Then "Penny Man" passed the books out and they were esctatic!! Brand new books for each of them!! Then he read them a story, and called it good. The kids thought it was awesome, and they were going crazy. I think it was like Christmas for them!

After "Penny Man" I pulled Alejandra aside with her books and I gave her school supplies that I had brought for her. I have her an organizer, folders, pencils, erasers, stapler, pens, staples, paperclips, notecards, sharpener, and a few misc. items. It was soo cute. Every time I would hand her something she would gasp and say " Oh, Thank yOU!!!". When we were done, she turned to me, put her hand on me and exclaimed, "This is like a DREAM!!!". It was so cute I wanted to cry. I have never known a 15 year old to be so excited about books and school supplies. It was really humbling.

For diner Kevin made us tacos. THis was his recipe for the ground beef. *1 pound Hamburger Meat. * 1 cup Chili Powder. He thought it was like taco seasoning.....he was wrong. We all had heartburn for the rest of the night.

Journal Day 5: Tuesday

This morning Kari and I stayed at the Volunteer house to sort, organize, inventory, and put away all of the donation items that were needing to be stored. This turned out to be a much bigger project than I had anticipated, but it was great because I have a REALLY good idea of what we have, and what we still need.

We worked hard until noon, and then everyone returned so we could run to the market and get the things that we need to continue working. We went first to the Guatemalan Wal-mart. I didn't even realize that it was wal-mart until I saw the logo below one of the signs. It was a stange store, but like the wal-mart here....it carries a little of everything. We were able to find the things for the orphanage inventory, and needed baby supplies. One of the previous baby stores was trying to rip us off, probably because we were a big group of white people who maybe looked like we have money. So we got the baby stuff, and then I was pushing the cart with all the toilet paper. We were able to fit 16 x 24rolls of toilet paper in my cart. So here I am, pushing this cart full of T.P., and everyone in the store is laughing at me. At first I didn't even notice it, but then I was like, hey, why is everyone laughing at me? It's not like I this is all for me? Is it really necessary to stop, point, and laugh??? It's a good thing I have a sense of humor, because I was drawing alot of attention. Jesse said when he bought the bathroom plunger at the outdoor market, little kids were pointing and laughing at him, and they even started following him. Soo....maybe bathroom supplies just just create that kind of reaction in Guatemala.

ANyway, we loaded it all up in the car, and we didn't have room for ourselves. We had to literally pile in , and drive home clown car style to unload.

After unloading and eating, we headed back out to the outdoor market. It was the first time I had ever been there, so it was fun for me. It was indeed a little dirty, smelly, the meat was laid out on the tables with flies on them.....it was basically salmonella city. However the vegetables looked INCREDIBLE!!! I have never seen such fresh and yummy looking produce.

There was a little of everything at that market, and we saw it all. A few things at the market that surprised me:

Box Baby: A mother had her BABY in one of the pretzal carts with the glass sliding boxes on top. Well, instead of having pretzales in the box, she had her baby inside the glass case and then she slid the door shut after handing her something to play with.....wow....

There was an adorable little girl sitting in the gutter next to her oblivious mother surrounded by filthy pools of contaminated water with flies all over her face.

One of the women selling produce used a contaminated pool of water in the gutter to wash an apple that was dirty. She dried it off and set it back on the apple pile to sell to the next customer.*cringe* (That is precisely the reason why Debbie Bleached all of the produce that we purchased before eating)

We found what we were looking for, bought our produce, and headed home again. Kari and I immediately started back into the organizing of orphanage supplies. We knew this was going to be a long project. Luckily Kevin and Jesse had built us locking cabinets for one of the hallways where we're storing it all. They had them knocked out pretty quick, and I was glad to see so much progress. It motivated us to work harder. Kari and I worked until after 10:00. We could hardly think straight by the end, and we literally collapsed into bed.

While we were at the volunteer house, everyone else was at the orphanage cleaning, organizing, sorting....the works. They kicked butt too. Dang we make a great team!!!

Journal Day 6: Wednesday

First thing Wednesday morning, Kari and I finished putting away the supplies. Unfortunately, we had to leave a little early because we were waiting on Kevin and Jesse to finish the shelves. Thanks to those who finished that for us!!! By 11:00 we were heading back up MOunt Everest to the orphanage to spend the last day with the kids. It was hard for me because I had been unable to spend much time bonding with the kids because we spent so much time working to set up systems and structure for future long term volunteers and help stabilize the orphanage. It was incredibly important work, but I definitely didn't get the opportunity to know the kids like I did on the last trip. At least on Wednesday I knew it was my last day and I really wanted to be with the kids. I sat alone with the babies for a few hours while everyone else went to lunch. Kari and Jesica went with ALejandra to her school to get her registered. Alejandra was so nervous because she didn't know whether or not she was going to have the funding for the next year's tuition. They had to wait for the Dean, and when he showed up he informed them that all of her tuition, books, and misc. items had been paid for in full. She was ready to start the following day. She could not have been a happier girl. She was jumping up and down, and smiling from ear to ear. She starting crying when she saw her friends and the best part of it all.....is that she got to be a kid. She was able to be a 15 year old, and I think school has become her outlet for her childhood. School is where she gets to be a kid, and I think that's fantastic!! ( I found out that Elder Jones who is in the Quorom of the Seventy. He pays not only for HER tuition, but books, bus fare, whatever she needs...but he pays for Erica as well. Erica said that he does this for many of the youth in Guatemala. I do not know him....but I have an immense respect for what he is doing for these kids.)

After Lunch I made 3 batches of Rice Crispy treats for for everyone. When we got back to the orphanage we ordered pizza from Dominos. Let me tell you...I think we made their year. They were going crazy with excitement!!! After dinner, everyone went outside in the courtyard and had rice crispies. They stuffed themselves silly. When they all had their fill, they started grabbing ziplock bags and stuffing them with slices of pizza and rice crispy treats and running to their rooms to hide them so they could eat it later. It was really humbling to see such excitement over something like pizza and rice crispies.

Jimmy turned on the music and we all had a dance party outside in the courtyard. The boys and Jesse were showing off their skillz, and Tanya was surprisingly a very good dancer. I went out on the dance floor and got her to show me her moves, and we were all clapping and cheering. The kids were having a fabulous time, and really being kids without problems.

At the end of the evening, Guillermo gathered all the volunteers and children together in the kitchen. He told everyone thank you and asked if anyone wanted to say anything. I had a feeling that we were going to do this again, so this time I jotted down a few words earlier that day so I could think about it a little more. I was the first to go, and here's what I told them with Jesse Translating:

Dear Children,

It's my last day, and I just wanted to take a moment and thank you. This has been a wonderful experience, and I want you to know that it's an honor to be here. I fell in love with all of you before I even arrived, and now I'm getting ready to leave. I wish I could stay longer to spend more time with you instead of working. I want you to know that we love you, we worry about you, and we want what's best for you.

I want you to know that when I leave here, I'm not going to forget about you. I will continue to help, and I will tell others about you back home. You are all amazing children, and your strength and courage inspires me to be a better person.

I also want you to remember to be kind and love one another. Be good examples for eath other, because your friendship and love will affect and influence those around you.

Remember that Heavenly Father Loves you. He worries about you, and he watches over you. Say your prayers, and feel his love. I want you to know that I won't forget you, and you'll always be in my heart.

During the meeting Abigail sat next to me and sobbed on my shoulder. She didn't want to let go. She just clings to those that show her love and affection. We don't have much information about her, and it makes you wonder what her previous life was like before the orphanage. The most touching part was when Jimmy got up. He is this 12 year old "tough guy". He is the last person in that room I would have expected to get up in front of everyone. He told us thank you, for cleaning their rooms, and giving them shampoo and lotion. For taking care of them this week, and really making this home a better place to live. He was trying his best to hold it together, and then he broke down.....and then WE ALL BROKE DOWN. I cannot say this enough. I am realizing that children are children, and no matter who they are, how old they are, and where they come from....they need to FEEL loved, and have the opportunity to GIVE love. It was a really special moment for me to listen to him speak. At the end I gave all of the children a picture of Chris and I, and on the back I had a nice postcard of Las Vegas so they could see where I live. They all wanted 2 and 3 copies to keep for themselves. I thought it was really sweet, and I hope they will remember me and know that I really do love them.

That night, after all the kids were in bed, Guillermo came over to the house to tell us all about the children and their histories. It's important we have the accurate stories, and we also need to keep records of things like this. I have to say I thought I was prepared to hear it all, but nothing can prepare you to accept the things these kids have been through. My heart literally ached and he went through each story of the children in great detail. Most of the information is really personal, and to protect the children, won't be used on the website. I have no words to express the things that they have endured. I am so inspired by them, and I know that their stories inspire others. That is why we do what we do. We do it for them. They have been dealt a crappy lot in life, and maybe, just maybe, we can help undo some of the injustices that have been forced upon them at such an innocent age. That is our goal. I know that we may lose some along the way, 100% success is never guaranteed. However, I feel that with the right spirit and hard work, there will be some along the way that are saved and even one child makes it worth it. Everyone deserves at least the chance for success, and what they do with it is up to them.

Journal Day 7: Thursday

This morning Guillermo picked us up at at 5:30 to head to the airport. Kari sat up front with him and pretty much translated the whole way. It was way too early for me to really say a whole lot, so I just did alot of listening. Guillermo played us 2 yr old Brandon's favorite song. I think his parents used to play it alot at home because he knows all the words and sings along. He said that every time they get in the car, he says "Play my song, play my song!" and then Guillermo will put it on and he'll sing his little heart out. He also said that when all the kids are in the car and they're being naughty, and fighting with each other, all he has to do is turn on Brandon's Favorite song and they all calm down and start singing along because they all know the words from playing it so many times. For some reason that really was such a sweet picture in my head of all the kids that morning.

It's strange to be back in the states. A mere 24 hours ago, everyone was speaking spanish around me, and it was dirty and dusty, and I was with the kids. Now, here I am, in a nice car, in my beautiful home, eating takeout. I'm always shocked by the reality check it gives me. How much I take for granted. I thought more than once how grateful I am to be born to the family I was born to, in the United States. What tremendous blessings and opportunities I have been given almost from birth! What a blessing NOT to have to raise children in a third world country. I don't know how these women even do it.

When people come up to me and ask, "How was your trip?!" Honestly, how the heck am I supposed to sum up all these experiences and all these feelings into a few senteces? I don't even know where to start or what to say. How can I possibly convey my feelings, my experiences? How can a simple, "It was great!!" sum it all up? That's the hard part. I LOVE talking about it. I LOVE telling people about the kids. I owe it to the kids to share their stories and let people know how they can help. But where the heck do I start? It's changed my life, and my perspective on life....that's just the beginning.....

Photo Gallery Update

2009-01-21T22:39:00.004-07:00

The photo gallery has been updated to include pictures from the volunteer trip Jan 9-16, 2009.

Click here to visit the gallery.

Facebook!

2009-01-14T10:30:00.002-07:00

We are now on Facebook. Please stop by and join our cause.

Click below
Guatemala Children's Project Facebook Cause

Trip update

2009-01-14T10:29:00.000-07:00

The volunteers, Kevin Callahan, Jesse Callahan, Marta Tyler, Jesica Mangum, Kari Nash, Debbie Clark, and Kirsten Winters, have been very busy cleaning and preparing the volunteer house. They have had a great time with the children at the orphanage and on Monday they took Penny Man, a reading super hero at Sunset Elementary in St George Utah, and presented all of the books the kids at Sunset were able to earn. The orphanage was overjoyed and loved getting these new books. Penny Man was a big hit and even attracted 7 or 8 neighbor kids who were also given a book to take home. Jesica will be taking additional funds the kids at Sunset have earned and purchase badly needed diapers and formula for the infants. The money these kids have earned will help keep the infants in dry diapers that actually fit. Previous to this the only size of diaper was newborn and had to be used on all of the kids that still needed to wear diaper. We appreciate the efforts of the kids at Sunset Elementary as well as everyone else who has and will continue to financially help. We can not continue this project without donations from great people who care. If you have not been able help with this cause yet, please do whatever you can.

NEW EXPEDITION

2009-01-09T16:45:00.002-07:00

We just sent off the latest group of volunteers this morning to the orphanage. The group consists of Kevin Callahan, Jesse Callahan, Marta Tyler, Jesica Mangum, Debbie Clark, Kari Nash and Kirsten Winters. They will be delivering as much baby formula as they could pack in their bags, some toys, books provided by Sunset Elementary and other supplies. As soon as we receive pictures from this trip they will be posted in our gallery.

New pictures in the gallery

2008-12-31T10:57:00.002-07:00

Just added pictures in the gallery of the trip Dr Dave Barnett and Dr Mike Wilson made to the orphanage in Novemeber. They took their kids Charlie, Haley and Nathan with them. They worked on Charlies Eagle Project by purchasing material and building bunk beds for the volunteer house. They also purchased mattresses for them.
Click here to view.

Update from Guillermo 16DEC08

2008-12-24T13:57:00.002-07:00

A new volunteer arrived on Dec 13th from Utah and will be here for one week. We are getting ready for Christmas and just put up the Christmas tree. We have 16 children right now and everyone is happy. We will have a Christmas party on Dec 24th and we will invite all of the families that have been reunited to dinner. We will be having Martita's famous tamales and warm fruit drink. All of the children are very excited.

The chickens are now producing eggs and we are enjoying them.

As you can see everything is going good here. Thanks for everything.

Guilermo

Front Page article in The Spectrum

2008-12-01T11:39:00.006-07:00

The Guatamala Children's Project has been chosen as a feature story in The Spectrum. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to reach out to a large community, and show them what this organization is all about. We have already begun to see a generated interest, and we really hope the exposure helps us to fulfill our goals for these children. To read the article printed in The Spectrum, please click here.

New Arrivals

2008-11-20T15:11:00.006-07:00

Jimmy is 12 years-old, and for the past 3 years, has cared and protected his two younger sisters. When the governmental organization came to pick up his two sisters, he said that he had to go with them wherever they sent them. Jimmy is in third grade and likes to play soccer and swim.

Mangy : 8 years-old. She has problems hearing and speaking. She likes to play with dolls.

Tania: 6 years-old. She likes to swim.

Oscar: 4 years-old. He’s very happy and likes to play quietly.

Their mother died in 2005. Grandma is too old to work , and cannot take care of them. As of yet, Guillermo has been unable to successfully locate other family members for these children. Until then, the children will remain under his care and GCP provide the safe and stable environment they need.

Happy Children

2008-11-07T17:51:00.008-07:00

We received an update on the 3 children that have returned to family. They are living with their loving Grandmother, and she is doing everything she can to provide for them. Every night she reads to the children out of the Book of Mormon that Doug gave them when he was there volunteering. Guillermo says there is lots of love in the home and the kids are happy with their grandma.
On a side not: One day Deanna and Estuardo were outside when they saw two missionaries walk by. They yelled out and ran over to say hi. They told them that they went to the mormon church when they were in Chimaltenango at the orphanage. They begged the missionaries to come to their home to meet their grandma. She is now taking the discussions and both she and the oldest child plan to be baptized very soon!!

We are so happy to hear the kids are doing well and their Grandma loves them so much. Guillermo will continue to follow up with their progress for many months to come. We look forward to those updates!!

School Support

2008-10-20T15:39:00.005-06:00

Hey everyone,

Ken and I just got back from Sunset Elementary in St George where Ken did a presentation on the orphanage. It lasted about 20 minutes where he reviewed pictures of the children at the orphanage and told how life is for them in Guatemala. Sorry I forgot to take pictures. The whole purpose of him doing the presentation was to help introduce a new reading program the PTA is doing designed to help the orphanage. It is called "Pennies by the Page". Each classroom will have a bank where the students can deposit 1 penny for every page they read. To help motivate them to read, prizes will be given as well. I was very impressed by the work the PTA has gone to in doing this project. If anyone is interested in doing something like this for their local schools please email me at infogcp@guatemalachildrensproject.org and I can give more details.

In addition to this project the Sunset PTA is also partnered with Scholastic Books and the "One for Books" program that helps raise money through donations to purchase books and other supplies for the orphanage.

Thank you to the Sunset Elementary PTA for all their support. They have really stepped up and are doing all they can to support our cause.

Ken also did a presentation at SunFirst Bank (click the link to see locations) in St George to see if they would use Guatemala Children's Project as their annual charity project. They accepted and have established an account that people can deposit money into that will then be given to the orphanage.

Great things are happening here in St George and I'm glad to a part of this adventure.

Mike

One story at a time...

2008-10-17T09:38:00.003-06:00

I think it's important that we hear the experiences of those who have been to the orphanage, and met the children. It brings the project to life, and allows those who cannot be there, share in the experiences of those who can.
Here is an experience of one single girl who visited the orphanage:

So I haven´t been as good about doing updates as I´ve wanted to have been. And I only have a few minutes now so I want to share a neat experience I had the other day at a foster care place we work at called ¨The Guatemalan Children´s Project.¨ In Guatemala, there really isn´t foster care, only orphanages. The government takes these children from their parents and puts them in orphanages and they never see each other again. It´s for a good reason, because the fathers are alcoholics and the mothers are prostitutes and they´re addicted to drugs. The children are mistreated, not fed, abused physically and sexually, burned, you name it. The worst kinds of things you can imagine. So the director of this organization, Guatemalan Children´s Project, petitions the judges to get children sent to his orphanage. He finds out from the judge where the children came from and what their stories are. Then, (Guillermo is his name,) goes to the place the judge said the child was from and asks around about the child. Anyway, long story short, he talks with the parents and, if they´re interested, he has them set goals and change their lives so their child or children can come back to live with them. He said the mothers usually cry when he explains this, because, like I said, they have no way of finding their children. Guillermo uses the LDS church to help them change thier lives. He teaches them about the Proclamation on the Family and the Word of Wisdom, and checks up on them to make sure they´re making progress. What he basically does is reunite families. Anyway, it´s a pretty revolutionary idea here.
I went one day to meet with him and then give a lesson to one of the children. I taught her letters and numbers, colors and shapes, and then I asked her if she wanted to sing a song. As soon as she saw me pulling out the church songbook from my bag she grabbed it from me and started leafing through it. I had chosen a few fun songs beforehand but decided to let her choose. I had specifically chosen songs about nature or other fun songs and skipped the ones about family, because I thought that might be emotional or difficult for her. The song she wanted to sing is the one that starts, I see my mother kneeling with her family each day... It´s about a family and how the mother prays with her children and asks God to protect them. The second verse talks about, well I´ll just put the words here:

I see my mother kneeling with her family each day.
I hear the words she whispers as she bows her head to pray.
Her plea to the Father quiets all my fears,
and I am thankful love is spoken here.

Mine is a home where every hour
is blessed by the strength of priesthood power.
With father and mother leading the way,
teaching me how to trust and obey,
and the things they teach are crystal clear,
for love is spoken here.

It´s a beautiful song and I was really touched that of all the songs she picked that one. That she was thinking of her family and wanted what the song talked about. She had me sing it in english first and then wanted to sing it herself in spanish. The experience reconfirmed to me that the most important thing is family and the relationships we have with the people we love. That in the end, nothing else matters. Not what grades I got or what title I have at work or where I´ve traveled or done or how many people I´ve helped. What really matters and what really lasts is how I treat my family and the people around me and that I always have time for the most important thing. It was a really beautiful experience.
One of the children in the orphanage, Guillermo said when she arrived she was almost dead. The doctors gave her one week to live. Guillermo said all he could do was love her, and he did, and now she´s a healthy screaming toddler. (Man, can she scream!) Another girl, the toddler´s older sister, actually, when she came, the entire side of her face was burned and even now her hair is still growing back. Anyway, so these children come from very difficult backgrounds, and to be taught such a profound lesson about family by one of them way very humbling

New Contacts

2008-10-16T10:55:00.003-06:00

This week we were contacted by a Mother-Daughter pair who are very interested in helping us with a fundraiser for the orphanage. The daughter would like to volunteer in Guatemala, and her mother would like to organize a drive with the Stake Young Womens, and make this their annual service project! This stake consists of about 150 girls, and could really make an impact on the orphanage! She is also a pre-school teacher, and has been speaking with our educational director, Ken Mangum, about what we need. We're so grateful for her enthusiasm, and it's a blessing that she finally found us. She told me she had scoured the internet for weeks trying to find my contact information. Then at 2am, Monday morning, she found my blog. I find it interesting because it's relatively easy to find our info through a google search, but she didn't make contact until right AFTER we had all come together, assigned responsibilies, and had a clear direction. If she had called 4 days earlier, it would have been disorganized, and she most likely would have been put on some type of contact list for later. I'm finding that things just seem to work out, and it humbles me.

Ken Mangum also gave a presentation to Sun First Bank, and they would like to do a fundraiser with their employees. It's so exciting to see other people get excited about something you're passionate about! Great job Ken!

Coming Together

2008-10-12T12:09:00.007-06:00

Saturday October 11, 2008 was the first official meeting for the volunteers of the Guatemala Children's Project. It's been a long time coming, and it was time that we all come together to unite our efforts and start making progress as a group. The meeting began at 8am, and finished at almost 2pm. We made some very important decisions, and I know that we will really start to see progress now. It was wonderful to finally meet everyone face to face, and bring our knowledge and ideas to the table. Tasks and assignments were delegated and everyone has a direction in which they are now clear. We've eliminated the excess tasks, and streamlined processes.
We also were blessed to have Guillermo here from Guatemala to attend the meeting. We are grateful for his example, and know he loves the children and takes great care if their needs. It's excited to be working with such wonderful individuals, and know that much good will come out of this small group of volunteers.

Guatemala Children's Project Board of Directors:

President: Kevin Callahan
Vice President/ Educational Director: Ken Mangum
Field Office Coordinator: Doug
Fundraising Director: Marta Tyler
Marketing/ P.R.: Emily Reynolds
Volunteer Coordinator: Debbie Clark
Executive Secretary: Candice Chandler
Executive Director: Guillermo Rangel
On-Site Coordinator/ Nursery Director: Mandy Brooks
I.T. Specialist: Mike Mangum

Mayerly (Post by Mandy 1OCT08)

2008-10-01T15:34:00.000-06:00

On Monday one of Guillermo´s kids, Mayerly, went back home to her family. It was so sad but good at the same time. She seemed happier. I know what Guillermo means when he says that you can tell when a family has changed. As soon as I saw Mayerly´s dad put his arms around her, I felt the spirit so strong and I felt so good about them. I am so glad she will have the chance to have a better life with her family.
Next week, one of my babies, Paola, goes back to her family with her brother Estuardo and her sister Diana. I will miss them so much but it really is better for them to be with their family than in an orphanage if their family treats them well.
Jose Daniel has changed since his first day here. He is a lot more calm and we have gotten him to start eating a little. He doesn´t cry as much anymore. I was worried about him with his head injury but he seems to be getting better.

New way to help!

2008-10-01T11:38:00.004-06:00

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BUSY (Posted by Mandy on 27 Sept 08

2008-09-29T16:48:00.001-06:00

Things have been busy around here, as usual. I got a new baby yesterday, his name is Jose Daniel and he is 6 months old. The police brought him because he was being abused and he had a fractured skull. He has not stopped crying since he got here. I think the head injury just barely happened and the reason he keeps crying is because his head hurts.I have 6 babies now, Jose Daniel, Levi, Alejandra, Paola, Jose, and Brandon. Besides Jose Daniel, they are all doing great. Levi is a month old now and he is growing so fast. Alejandra started to smile and laugh this week, and it is adorable. I love to tickle her because her laugh is so cute. Paola and Jose are still as much fun as ever, they love to dance and give kisses to everyone. Brandon is a little older and we just started trying to potty train him this week...we´ll see how that goes. I got a call from the government 2 days ago and they asked me to take in a baby that was born that day. I told them to bring him over, but they still haven´t brought him so I´m not sure what´s going on with that. They might be waiting until he is a few days older or something.We have been working non stop to find out where all the kids from the orphanage that shut down went to. It seems like we have been to government buildings here in Chimaltenango and in Guatemala City almost every day. But yesterday we FINALLY found the papers for a couple of the kids so we could put in the request with the government to have them come to our orphanage. So hopefully we will hear something about that soon.The cargo box finally came yesterday. It took two months to get here. We are sure it took such a long time because the guy who was in charge of the shipping here in Guatemala got more money for every day it was in the port. Every day he told us it would be leaving the port the next day. But then he would call with another charge and we ended up paying A LOT of money for it. But we went to the company yesterday and asked to talk to this guy´s boss and we told him everything that had been happening, how much money we had spent and how long it had taken to get the shipment. He was really apologetic about it, and he said he didn´t know why it had taken so long or what any of the charges had been for. He told us if we come back on Monday he will do something about all the payments we have had to make. Anyway, it was awesome to finally get it! I saw it before I came here but I forgot how many donations were in it. There were enough supplies to last us for probably a year or more, plus clothes and a car and two clothes dryers, along with some other things. Guillermo and I are both so thankful for everything that everyone donated.

Received!

2008-09-28T12:14:00.000-06:00

Kevin called me yesterday with the official news that the cargo box full of donations has been received!!! It has been quite the ordeal getting it released, and thanks to the stake president there in Chimalt, he took action out of frustration and got the wheels turning. It has Officially been released, and received by the orphanage!! I cannot put into words the relief felt by all after this frustrating experience. They will now all have their supplies, 4-Runner, and household goods. When we arrive in January, the volunteers will have the opportunity to organize, and distribute everything to it's proper place. We are so grateful to finally have it in our possession, and look forward to replenishing their chronically low stock of supplies. This will undoubtedly change their lives, at least for a little while.

Plane Tickets

2008-09-18T12:15:00.000-06:00

Plane Tickets

Plane tickets are currently being purchased by those individuals who are traveling to Guatemala for the next volunteer trip. Volunteers can go from January 9th - 16th, 2009. We are so excited to finally be able to start planning the next project, and we can't wait to get down there and see the kids again!!

Kevin has officially leased a building for which the volunteers will stay at during their trips. This will help alleviate some of the stress and work that is required of Martita when large groups come to the orphanage. I know it must be so hard for her cooking 3 times a day for so many people. She literally spends the entire day in the kitchen and doing laundry. It will also help us divide the work into shifts easier, giving each volunteer a break, and better set schedule.

Great strides are being made for the welfare of these children, but the financial burden is getting heavy. We are needing to find individuals who can help sponsor, and help raise money. There are so many good people who want to help these children, and we know once we gather all the information, compile it, and distribute to those willing to help......we can really get the ball rolling.
We'll try and keep everyone as informed as possible in the upcoming months.

News

2008-09-15T09:18:00.001-06:00

Entry from Mandy on Sept 13, 2008

I got some interesting news yesterday. I learned that the orphanage that I worked in here in Guatemala in December, the one with the terrible conditions, was closed down. Apparantly the police had been investigating them for months. I had written a letter in December right when I got home from that orphanage talking about the living conditions, and distributed it to as many organizations as I could in the States. It hadn´t made any difference. But I had sent a copy to Guillermo as well, and he distributed it to organizations here in Guatemala causing the police to go into that orphanage several times to view the conditions and the way that the employees treated the children. The other day a baby girl died there because of neglect, and this made the police investigate even further and finally they found that the orphanage was illegal and not authorized to be here, and that they had been taking in children and adopting them out illegally. The first thing I was concerned about was where all the children would go. There are 40 children there and I know that I know most of them. Guillermo and I spent all day yesterday trying to find out where they got sent to. We have been talking to the government and we are hopefully going to be able to take in all the babies and a few of the older children.

Levi

2008-09-15T09:16:00.000-06:00

Entry from Mandy on Sept 10, 2008

Well, I love the kids more and more every day. I wish I could be here forever. Yesterday Levi´s mom came. She wanted to take him away to sell him, and since that was her intent we refused to let her take him. After she found out that she couldn´t take him she decided that she wanted to put him up for adoption. She clearly only wants money for him, and she says that she can´t take care of him which is sad when she has four other children that she can´t bring herself to leave in an orphanage. I guess the good thing about this all is that we were there to take Levi instead of another orphanage, because I hate to think what would have happened to him if someone else had taken him. I am sure, from what I have experienced and seen in other orphanages here, that other places would have been willing to sell him as well for a cut of the money and who knows what would have happened to him after he was sold. Thank goodness he came to us. The other kids are doing great. Alejandra has become much more calm since she got here, and the two older babies are a ton of fun as always. We blessed all the babies on Sunday and that was a great experience.

New Kids

2008-09-15T09:09:00.001-06:00

This is an entry from Mandy's blog on Sept 5, 2008

It has been a long time since I´ve written anything, since things have been so busy! I have been back in Guatemala since the beginning of August. I finally got the last of the legal work done and I now have four babies in the nursery. Levi was the first baby I recieved, and he was 7 days old when I got him. He is about 3 weeks old now. His mom had an affair while her husband was in the States working, and she had Levi. Now her husband is coming back and she doesn´t want him to find out so she gave Levi up. He is about the cutest thing I have ever seen.Alejandra is 3 months old. She is a fatty but she is cute too. She had an older brother and 3 cousins come here with her, who live downstairs. Their story is a little scary. Both of their families were living in the same house together, and all of their parents were part of a gang. I read in the newspaper about the gang, and what they do is they kidnap people and then they tie them up and negotiate with them how they want to die. Within the next 48 hours they kill them and leave them in public places for everyone to see. So the parents had kidnapped this little 3 year old girl, and they were keeping her hostage in the house for money from her family. Last Thursday the police broke into their house and killed all of the parents, in order to rescue the little girl. The scary thing was that all their kids were in the house and saw their parents die. The good thing is that I don´t think the kids know what their parents were doing.Paola is about 1 year old (we´re not sure) and her dad was a gang leader. One day her brother and sister were left alone at home with her, and I´m not sure how it happened but their house caught on fire. Their parents never came home for them and the older brother took care of her and her sister on the streets for a few months before the police found them and brought them here. Her brother and sister live downstairs. Jose is about 1 year old as well. His dad beat him so badly that when we found him he was in the hospital with broken ribs. He still has dark bruises all over his back, and he has been here for almost a month. There were 2 other newborn babies. They died last week. One of them was premature and the other was really sick. That was really hard. I am still so sad about it. But one of the hard things about this is that we never know what kind of condition the babies are going to be in. There are a lot of sad things that we have to deal with, but I still love it here. It is worth everything to be able to take care of the babies and the kids that have been abandoned and to give them the love they deserve. Since I´ve gotten here we also hired someone to be the caregiver for the babies while I am gone. She has started already and she has been awesome. I know she will do a great job.

Home

2008-08-23T12:18:00.000-06:00

Well...it's 6:30 on a Saturday morning and I can't sleep. I've been tossing and turning for a while now. I can't stop thinking about the kids in the orphanage and it's been a week since I've returned home. I just received an email from Mandy last night. They were supposed to receive 3 newborns this week. Unfortunately, 2 of them have already died. I feel so sad that they left this earth without the opportunity to be loved...every infant deserves at least that. However, I also feel grateful that they have been blessed and will avoid the inevitable heartache and pain that is present in so many of these orphans lives.
The orphanage also received another little girl yesterday. We don't know how old she is, but the guesstimate is around 6 years. She is frightened and totally out of her element. Her dad died, and her alcoholic mom abandoned her. There is also a 2 month old sibling, they're working on getting her too.
Jaquelyn arrived absolutely filthy, and with a horrible case of head lice. So bad that they have started to burrow themselves into her scalp. They immediately applied the lice medicine, but it isn't helping. They had to go get her hair cut, and we're hoping they with more treatments it will go away.
It kills me to hear about these kids and not be there to hug and love them. I am considering going back to the orphanage in December. I NEED to go back. I love every single one of them and all the worldly cares go away when I'm helping them. When I'm there, it's not about me, I don't even care about things as gross as lice!! They have helped show me what's truly important. I'm also so much more aware of how blessed I am, and I'm so grateful for the good in my life. I have so much to be grateful for.
Mandy said Levi is sick. I'm a little worried about him. They don't have good healthcare there, and I hope he can just get better on his own. That's the hard part about being an inexperienced mom, you're not really sure when to let the kids ride out an illness and when they need to see a doctor. I hope he starts feeling better soon.

As for me...I'm finally starting to feel better. I got sick on the last day of my trip, and I've spent most of my week home in bed. From what I've heard, every single person went home sick....so I'm not alone in the sicky department. That might be another reason why I'm struggling to get back into my life again...I haven't been able to get back into my routine. Hopefully next week will be a more productive and normal week.

Update: The new girl Jaquelyn ran away from the orphanage. No one has seen or heard from her since. We are all worried about her, and hope she is okay. We will keep looking for her.

Love Notes

2008-08-18T12:19:00.000-06:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I received a couple hand written notes from the kids. Some were hidden, and tucked away for me to find later. They are so cute, and special...I thought I'd post them so I can always see them.

I also received an email from Alejandra. It made me cry, and I wish I could adopt her...even if she is 14. She is an incredibly good girl...and is amazing in so many ways.

hola! martita
espero que estes bien quiero que sepas que te quiero mucho y que nunca te voy ha
olvidar tueres una persona muy especial para mi y para el hogar espero que regreses muy pronto
porque te bamos estar esperando te quiero mucho muchooooooooooooooooooooooooo
eres una buena amiga para mi y espero que tengas exito en tu vida y que tus beibis esten bien
I miss you and I am sad for you because you is very especial and I am happy with you
thanks for your hep in the orphanege

ale

Journal: Day 8

2008-08-17T12:23:00.000-06:00

Last night was our final evening. We made hot dogs and nachos for all the kids. They all thought it was awesome! We even planned on roasting smores over a campfire, but it started pouring rain as soon as it was time. We took one final group picture, and happily played for the rest of the eve ning.
Before bedtime, Guillermo gathered everyone together in the kitchen for one last meeting. H e wanted to let everyone know how much he appreciated all the work and support we've been able to give. He also said that he knew we would go back home and tell our family and friends about our experiences here, and that they would be inspired to help through our enthusiasm. He said that the support of the volunteers is what helps the m keep going each day. He then asked if some of the volunteers would say a few words about the experiences they've had. I offered to speak first and I asked Mari yah to translate for me. I told them I loved them I didn't exactly know why I was here, because I've never done anything like this before. I felt lead by the spirit to help, and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be a part of the experience. I was nervous when I arrived, b ut I was welcomed with su ch friendship and love. I told each of the children that I love them, and that being a part of their lives has deeply affected me, and changed who I am. I told them I will never forget the m, and I will continue to be a part of their lives.
It was a very emotional meeting, and everyone held it together until Ken spoke. He is an incredible guy, and showed such love for both volunteers and children. By the time he finished, not o nly were the adults all in tears....so were all the children. Some of the kids wanted to say something to all of us....but could not get any words out b ecause they were crying so hard. The genuine sadness of the children literally broke my heart.
After the meeting was over I hugged Alejandra, and we cried for a few minutes. T hen Abigail, Mayerlli , Jennifer, and Deanna all hu gged me at the same time and were sobbing, telling me they loved me, and asking me not to forget them. I was especially surprised to see Abigail showing such emotion. She is so emotionall y closed off from everyone, and I d idn't think we had really connected. Wh at I learned was that we connected, but she attac hes herself to others in a different way. She doesn't verbally communicate with me, but she watches, sees, and feels everything. All I could do was tell them over and over "I love You" while we hugged and cried. We lef t the house at 4:00 am to m ake it to the airport on time. It's going to be an extremely long flight, and I'm dreading it a lready. I can't believe I'm going to be home in my own bed tonight. I miss the kids already, and I'm worried I'll never see them again. How am I going to make this experience s omethi ng more than just another event in a scrapbook? I must ponder this week extensively over the next coup le days.

Sadly, the cargo box never arrived. It was finally released on Thursday fro m the port, but not in time for us. Friday is a capitol holiday, and Saturday and Sunday they are closed. So....it's being del ivered on Monday. I'm so sad I wasn't able to help receive it, b ut regardless it's going to help them tremend ously. I hope I can communicate to eve ryone w ho helped donate items and supplies h ow appreciated a nd desperately needed t hey are. The beds a nd sheets we slept on w ere horrible! We had NO extra sh eets, pillow, or blankets. We were especially pa ranoid with the lice incident....but there wasn't anything we co uld do about it. The toilet paper was basically sand paper, and the towels never felt clean. Everyo ne is so excited for the supplies to arrive becaus e everything is in shortage there. Most importantly....NONE of the volunteers got lice. Go Marta and Mandy!!!!

I'm on the plane finally, heading to Miami. I won't arrive home until about 10 pm. All I want to do it sleep. Kevin is still feeling terrible and probably will need to see a doctor when he gets home. I'm so grateful for the chance to travel with him and get to know him better. His heart is huge, and he makes so many sacrifices. He is changing the lives of these kids, and helping to provide them a life full of opportunity. I can't believe it's over.......

Final Group Photo

2008-08-17T12:22:00.000-06:00

Journal: Day 7

2008-08-16T12:33:00.000-06:00

Eating Lunch at Pana

The kids are doing great. They are starting to realize that we leave soon, and are so sad. I can't even think about saying goodbye to them. Last night we had a dinner at the church with all the members of their ward. The food was incredible, and everyone had tons of f un. The Stake President is an awesome guy, and has helped Kevin out so much. We're really grateful for all his suppor t. On the way home, the president gave all of us a ride in the ba ck of his truck. Kids and all. It was one dangerous ride, b ut the kids had a blast and were laughing and screaming all the way home.
Kevin got sick. He looks and feels awful. I don't know how he's goin g to make it all the way home on Sunday. He can hardly stand, and can't eat any food. I gave him so medicine, and ken gave him his antibiotics. I really hope it helps him, because as of right now he's pretty nonfunctional. If you know Kevin, then you know that it really must be bad. I've never seen a more dedicated person who selflessly gives so much.
Today a wo man from the capitol called to check on Baby Levi. She also told us the real reason his mother gave him up. Apparently she does indeed have a husband, and they even ha ve 4 children together. Her husband has been living and working in the United States for the past 2 years. While he's been away, she had an affair, and got pregnant. L evi was the result of that affair. She didn't want her husband to find out, so she decided to give him up and force her other 4 children to kee p the secret. The orphanage has also been asked by the capitol to receive 5 more newborns!! We don't have the room, s o we can only accept 3 of the infants. They will arrive early next week, and I'm so excited for them !

Today we went to see what they say are the 'Waters Of Mormon'. It's absolutely beautiful, and sooo big! We got l ucky with a beautiful clear day, so we were able to see everything. On the way there we were all dying from the winding mountainous r oads, not to mention the gargantuan pot holes and crazy driving ala bus driver. We even had to pull over to let Lindsay and Skylar throw up multiple times. It was not pretty, and we w ere all grateful there were no accidents in the car. We also went shopping in Pana. I got myself a few little things. Jewelry, bags, bini, stuff like that. It was fun but felt really strange about leavi ng on our last day so we could go sightse eing. I feel like maybe I should have just stayed home with the kids. However, I do think it's been a long week, and I needed a little break. The kids missed us tons and greeted us at the door with hugs and kisses. It's amazing how attached they've gotten to us. They are amazing kids.

Journal: Day 5

2008-08-13T12:38:00.000-06:00

It's been a busy day. Mandy and I rearranged th e nursery, playroom, nanny bedroom, and the boys rooms. I am exhausted! That was a huge project, but I think everyone's happy with the resu lts.
We got horrible news about the cargo box. It's still being released from the port and we will NOT receive it before the time we leave on Sunday. I'm just sick about it, and Kevin feels worse. When we were talking about it, I could tell he was trying to keep his emotions in check. He's done everything, a nd anything he can possibly do, and still...no success. At this point, we just have to let it go, and continue to look at the bigge r picture. It will undoubtedly be released into possession of the orphanage.....just not while we're here to help. Ah....it makes me sick. I guess when you're trying so hard to do something good, you have to know that there will always be o pposition in all things.
I gave little Jo se a bath today. He was absolutely filthy, and we had so much fun! I lathered him up, was hed his hair, and I eve n let little Paula help. She was so excited! Then I noticed the bruises up and down his back from earlier physical ab use. I love that little boy. His mother came to visit a little bit ago, and when she tried to pic k him up, he started to cry and was scared of her. He has this heartbreaking look on his fa ce when he is scared or thinks he is in trouble. It is a face of GENUINE fear. How could a parent beat a child? I pray that he is too y oung to r emember what his life was like.
I a lso l ear ned that Mayerlli was left in an outdoor market, and her moth er told her to forget she ha s a family. She was left to fend for herself like a stray dog. Today she is sweet, and gentle, and loves an y one who will love her back. She has suc h a wonderful disposition, and seems genuinely h appy at the orphanage. I love her smile a nd how she radiates when she laughs!!
I have observ ed so much aggression in some of the kids. Paula actually bit Deanna on the arm today making her bleed and bruise. It's obv ious where this behavior is learned because t hey tell us that t h eir parents used to beat them all the tim e. When they love, they love with their wh ole heart. When they're angry, it's aggressive a nd mean. Esduardo , Deanna, and Paula are such great k ids and it makes me sick that they've had such adversity in their lives. I'm so glad they have each other for support. I love them all.

It's been a little bit of a strange day for me . I've felt very emotional and had to put my feeling in check more than once to keep my emotions under control. At dinner tonight, I found myself tearing up as I was watching how happy and well t aken care of they are here. They are so lucky to have a person like Kevin in their lives. I t's so cute how they love him. Every single child calls him Papa Oso which in english means Papa Bear. He h as more lov e for them than they will ever comprehend. Ken has also been an awesome support to these kids. He is sooo good
w ith them a nd he is such a good example. I c an see that they really look up to him.
M artita made tamales for Ken tonight. I love that little lady! She takes such good care of everyone, an d she was so excited to make a special dinner. She spent all day preparin g them, and then cook ing them over a fire in the backyard. She even dressed up for th e occasion. Martita is AWESOME!

The chicken coop is done!! I can't be lieve what an incredible job Ken and Kevin have done. They practically the whole thing themselves. It's more of an chicken mansion!! It will house up to 5 0 chickens, and they have every luxury any chicken would like! It's actually nicer than some people's house s that I saw there!
I can't believe it's Friday tomorrow. Where has the week gone? I love hanging out with Mandy. We get along so well, and both are Nazi's. I'm also getting to know Lindsay as well too. She's a really sweet person, and has been awes ome about helping with the kids. I really appreciate her willingness to help with the kids! I'm so tired all the time, and it's hard work....surprisingly hard. I'm sooo tired of washing dishes , and cleaning the kitchen. It's a NEVER ENDING PROCESS! I have no idea how thes e women live like this their entire lives!!I truly am so blessed!!!

Journal: Day 4

2008-08-12T12:40:00.000-06:00

It's been an overwhelming 2 days. We received our first infant yesterday. We got him from the capitol when Guillermo and Mandy went to drop off more paperwork. The mother had just arrived and was in the next office ready to hand over the baby. When Mandy went in the room to take her baby she said that the Mother was crying and so were the other ch ildren she had brought with her. She said she was a single mother, and already had 3 children to care for. She said that it would be impossible to keep him. Her son is 8 days old , and his name is Levi. He is soo tiny, so sweet, and he never cries. Late last night as I was rocking him, I was overwhelmed by the situation. I couldn't imagine how it must feel to sit at home with empty arms, wondering what would become o f my child. Here I am, with HER baby in MY arms, wondering how in the world I got here. Levi will never know his mother and father. Levi may very will spend the rest of his young life in an orphanage. My heart aches for the things they will never know or have.
I don't have a clue about how to care for an 8 day old baby. He has so many needs, but he's unbelievably good. The majority of responsibility falls on Mandy, and she's doing an awesome job with him. I help her out a lot because I think I'm the only one she trusts him with, and we wor k really well as a team . I think sharing the responsibilty of Levi makes it not so scar y. The kids love him, and always want to touch him. We have to remind them that they're not allowed to touch him with their hands, but Mandy lets them give him kisses. They love showing him love.

I just have to make a quick vent and then I'm done. I am deeply disappointed with some o f the other volunteers that are here. They have proved to be more of a burden than an asset to the orphanage. I'm embarrassed by their lack of work ethic, and respect for what is being done here. It should not be treated as a vacation or sightseeing trip. I am trying no t to let their laziness affect me, but I'm so frustrated with their lack of respect and consideration for other people. It's made me realize how much I've grown up in the last couple years, and reminded me of why I'm so selective with friends. I just have to focus on the children, and I'm reminded why I'm here. Volunteering isn't glamorous....it's REALLY hard work!! It shouldn't be treated as this 'token' humanitarian effort, where you make it look like you really did something great, but then the minute the picture's taken... you're done. ANYWAY...that's it... I'm done...I've said my piece.....back to the good stuff.
The cargo box should arrive tomorrow with all the donations. I can't wait, and we have so much work to do when it arrives. I hope there aren't any more problems.

Journal: Day 3

2008-08-11T12:42:00.000-06:00

It's been a very long and busy day for me. I started off the day with a delicious breakfast of beans and eggs. The cook Martita is back, and she is awesome!! I pig out on her food, and she loves me for it. I'm determined to get her black bean recipe, and pancake recipe!!

The Baby Nursery

Mandy and I organized the nursery today. It took about 3-4 hours, and I'm really pleased with our progress. We're very meticulous about how we do it, so it doesn't create more work in the long run. Still....there's so much work to be done.
We discovered one of the little girls has lice....only to discover ALL the girls have lic e....only to discover that the entire place is covered in them! We took each of the children and applied, set, washed, and combed their hair. Mandy and I did almost every step. We were even the lucky ones to comb out the lice. It was actually pretty horrific. I couldn't believe how big they were, and so many!!! It took 4 long hours, and I'm still not sure we got rid of them. I have a feeling they may have come from one of the new arrivals that were living on the streets. Hers was one of the worst. By the time we finished, my skin was crawling, BUT...I could feel their gratitude. It made me feel good to do something that no one else wanted to do. They kept hugging me and saying "Thank You" with their faces pressed to my stomach. I'm so attached to them, even when they're being naughty, and sometimes I start to tear up with I think about having to say goodbye. How will I ever do it??
I had a wonderful opportunity for the first time to have some one-on-one time with Erica and Alejandra. These are beautiful and amazing girls. Alejandra is 14 and wants to be a surgeon. She graduates from high school next year when she turns 15, and will apply to her intermediate school right away. Erica is 19 and has one year left of her bilingual secretarial program. She spends so many hours at school, and t hen has lots of homework. Then she spends the rest of the day cooking and cleaning for everyone. She is amazing and I have soooo much respect for both of them. I have promised before the week is over to pay for all their school supplies to get them through the next school year. As the 2 oldest children, I really want to see them succeed and make their own way. I have also promised to keep in touch with them by email, and asked that they let me know if they are in need of anything. Education is soo important for these girls, and they deserve the opportunity.

Journal: Day 2

2008-08-10T12:45:00.000-06:00

We arrived late last night. Guillermo rented a van to pick us up, along with our luggage. Some of the kids were waiting for us to arrive, they were all very excited. There are also an additional 4 volunteers here that we weren't expect ing, nor were they expecting us! It was a little awkward, and took a little while to sort through the confusion, but we have united and combined our efforts.
I only got ab out 5 hours sleep last night, and then we woke up ea rly, got ready, ate breakfast, and walked to church. The children are adorable, and it was my opportunity to get to know them a little better. I carried little J ose in my arms the entire way with Jennifer holding my other hand. The children are so loving, and only want to be hugged, and loved by us. All during Sacrament Meeting I had about 3 kids glued to my side. It amazes me how quickly they trust and attach themselves to us.
The orphanage building itself is wonderful. This is an amazing and safe place for them. They truly are s o lucky to have t he opportunity to live here. They all seem genuinely happy to be here.

There are now 10 children here. Jose is the newest of the bunch. He is about 1 1/2 years old, and arrived about 2 week s ago. H is Step Father was physically abusing him, and in the process broke his ribs and c racked his skull. He was brought here by the pol ice. I cannot comprehend how things like this occur to children.

Brian, another new boy, was adopted out by a Guatemalan couple because they believed they c ouldn't have children of their own. The woman eventually conceiv ed a child with her husband, and th ey promptly put him back in the system. They adopted him when he was 3, and kept him for 4 years!!! (He's now 7) Brian is adapting well, but you see his sadness when he thinks no one is looking. He's desperate to please, and find loving acceptance. He's a wonderful littl e boy and his intelligence level surprises me. He's got lots of potential.
Esduardo , Deanna, and Paula are all siblings. The youngest, Paula, was only given 3 days to live due to malnutr ition. She has thrived at the orphanage because of the love and care that has been given. Her mother was a prostitute and would leave the children unattended for days on end, eventually abandoning them leaving Esduardo (7) to care for his younger sisters Deanna(4) and Paula(1 1/2). There was a fire in the home and it burned down their house, and left Deanna with her hair burned off on one side of her head. It's still growing back. This left the children homele ss. Esduardo cared for his 2 sist ers for 3 months on the streets before being found. Th e police brought them to the
orphanage. Esduardo , is one of the most affectionate boys I've ever met. He just glows when given one-on-one time, and needs so much to be hugged. You can literally feel him melting u nder the embrace of a simple hug. I think he's still understandably dealing with residual emotional and anger issues from their past, but is learning to work through them the best that they can. They are sweet children and all 3 have a very close bond with each other.
Every single one of the kids has a story. All of them are ones ful l of heartache and disappointments , but in spite of it all they display an incredible amount of strength and trus t. I can't wait to get to know them better and observe them a little more.

*Cargo box is still at the Port, with no official release date. We MUST have it by Wednesday. Kevin and ken are going first thing in the morning to bribe them at the dock so we can expedite the already delayed shipment. I guess that's just how they roll here in Guatemala.

Journal: Day 1

2008-08-09T12:45:00.000-06:00

I'm sitting on the airplane flying high above the clouds, and I'm finally on my way. We will arrive in Guatemala City in about an hou r. I'm already exhausted, but anticipating our adventure. I'm traveling with Kevin, Mandy, and Mariyah . Kevin is President of the organization, and has a bigger heart than anyone I know. He's incredibly devoted to this organization, and the children. It motivates me to do more. Mandy is the girl who originally got this all started. She is an incredibly sweet girl and I enjoy getting to know her. I hope that we can grow together this week, and have s ome fun experiences together. Mariyah is the other volunteer. She just returned from a mission in Guatemala, and is very excited to return to the city and people she loves so much. She 's really outgoing and we hit it off immediately. I'm glad she laughs and jokes a lot with us.
My voice is raw because the 4 of us have essentially been talking for the last 12 hours. We have been brainstorming ideas to he lp the children from long term goals to short term goals. Education opportunities....fundraising ideas...anything you can think of..we've discussed. I think we may have come up with some really great ideas and we'll just have to do some research and analysis. There's still so much that has to be done, it's overwhelming, but in the end can help make their lives better.
The steel box with the donations, and the 4-Runner had some delays at the port. We won't receive it until the middle of next week. That means...I'm not entirely sure how we're getting to the orphanage. I heard something about a truck, and sitting in back with the luggage. I'm not sure. I'm only hope it's not true. Either way, from what I hear about the suicidal driving that goes on, it should be 45 minutes of white knuckling fun!! Lets get this started!

IT"S DONE!!!

2008-07-01T12:48:00.000-06:00

THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!!

I am overwhelmed by the generosity and service received during this collection for the Gozo Orphanage in Guatemala. Every single tube of toothpaste, bar of soap, blanket, and pillow will be received by those children who call the orphanage home. The items that all of you so willingly gave will change their lives and provide for them the basic necessities that we all crave.
I will be staying at this same orphanage for 8 days in August to receive the shipment. I will let them know that these items were sent with love and generosity. I will give them hugs and kisses, sing songs, and play games with them for all who would like to, but cannot be a part of this trip. I know they will feel your love, and everyday their lives will be a little bit easier because of your donations. Thanks again, and below is a rough count of everything that was collected in the

Las Vegas area.

We ended up with about 30 boxes FULL of supplies.

Twin Sheet Sets: 65

Queen Sheet Sets: 9

Crib Sheets: 24

Blankets: 24
Brand New Comforter Sets: 7

Pillows: 15

Crib liners: 12

Towels: 110

Hand Towels: 50

Wash Cloths: 100

Shampoo: 70

Soap: 120

Toothpaste: 100

Baby Powder: 20
Baby Shampoo: 50

Baby Oil: 35

Diaper Rash Ointment: 40
Tons of Diaper Wipes

Monetary Donations: $365.00

We also received enough medicine that should last about 8-12 months!!!!!

I'm also grateful for all the Misc. items we received like hair brushes, portable cribs, craft items, receiving blankets, etc...

This Exceeded nearly ALL goals set for the collection. You guys are awesome and would not have been possible without your willingness to serve!!!!

A special thanks goes out to Kari Nash and Maggie Goebel who were an integral part of the success!! Thank you for opening your hearts and time to this project!!! I love you guys!!

I'm So Grateful!

2008-06-28T12:51:00.000-06:00

This is Kari and I at the Dollar store spending the money donated to the orphanage, we had $125 dollars and we used every last cent!! It was alot of fun, and got a TON for the money!! I'm so gra teful to those who have supported this project!!

There are about 15 boxed FULL of items sitting around us....not all are visible....but it's a full house!!!

For the past couple weeks Kari and I have been collecting items for an orphanage in Guatemala. I contacted everyone I know, and asking for a small donation to help these children. Wow...I'm blown away by the generosity that I have received from people. I'm so amazed that people I hardly know, or have never met...have been giving so generously just because I asked them to. I had goals for each of the items that I need, and I've either exceeded, or expecting to exceed that goal by Sunday!!! I don't know when it happened, but the items just seemed to be multiplying! I can't wait to get everything down there and set it up. Last night I spoke with kevin, (he's the one coordinating the cargo box) and he's given me an extra motivation to get supplies.

I thought that the babies would not be arriving at the orphanage until after we had flown back to the states. I found out last night that one of our main goals upon arrival in Guatemala....is to pick up at least 3 babies that we'll begin caring for. I was completely overwhelmed by this knowledge, and very humbled to think that I'll get to be a part of that experience. To be honest, I'm nervous about it all. I'm sure it'll be very emotional, because we can only take 3, and there will be hundreds to choose from. I hope the decisions will already be made by the time we get there. I could NOT choose a baby when there are so many. It would be unfair. With this knowledge and anticipation, I am going to do whatever it takes to get the nursery ready. This responsibility is unreal, and not likely one I'll ever experience again. I'm ready to dive in and help. Even if that means late night baby soothing, and diaper duty. Neither of which am I particularly good at, but I'm sure anything is better than what they're used to!!

Thanks again to everyone who has donated, and I promise to reportback as soon as I return!!

Chimaltenango, Guatemala

2008-06-10T12:53:00.000-06:00

Have you ever heard about something, and known immediately that you needed to be a part of it? Last week I had just this experience. A friend of ours recently returned from a trip as a volunteer in an orphanage. As I was hearing about it, my heart just opened up. The more I learned, the more I felt compelled to help.

The orphanage in Chimaltenango, Guatemala, was started by an LDS return missionary Guillermo Rangel, and a 21 year old SUU student, Mandy Brooks. Both saw a country full of children in desperate need of help, and they knew they couldn't ignore it. Adoption has been banned by the government in Guatemala. Horrible things were happening to these children. Things I don't even want to talk about. Things NO CHILD should ever have to endure. Instead of reworking the adoption laws to protect these children, the government decided it would just be better to ban it altogether. Due to the new law, that leaves an estimated 4,000 babies homeless each year. Many come from abusive homes, drug addicted parents, or just simply parents that can't or don't want to take care of them anymore. Infants are left in the streets, and in hospitals. There's nowhere for them to go.

That's how this project all started. Guillermo and Mandy's orphanage is called Gozo, which means "Joy", in Spanish. That's exactly what they give them every day. They've changed the lives of these children who are fortunate enough to live at this orphanage. They are given love and the basic necessities. Things some have never experienced before. Gozo currently houses 6 children ages 1-14. In October they will be receiving 6 more infants, ages 0-6 months.
I know that as their organization grows, so will her ability to help more children.

I really admire their strength and bravery it takes to start a project like this. When I heard their story, I knew I had to help. In August I will be flying to Guatemala along with a couple other volunteers to the orphanage. At that time we will work to get the facility in better running condition, and help prepare the nursery to receive the infants.

If you would like to hear Guillermo Ranger's story read HERE .If you would like to hear Mandy Brook's story read HERE .

To help Mandy and Guillermo in their endeavors, Kari Nash and I are organizing a collection for items that will be sent to Guatemala by boat.

If you would like more information about donating, please leave a comment, or send me an email at martatyler81@yahoo.com

100% of donations go to orphanage and children!!!

Note: Kari has been an unbelievable help to me. When I first spoke to her about it, she didn't even hesitate to jump on board and help organize this project. I appreciate her willingness to serve, and her BIG HEART!! I could NOT have taken on this huge task without her!!