This Past Week for May 26 thru May 31

We have had another busy week and the wet season has started in full swing!

The latest Medrano shipment of MFC donations arrived!!!! There is so much wonderful things in it!!! The blue sheets for bedridden patients were just fantastic and we split them up amongst the people that are in desperate need of them, especially with the wet season here.

They typewriters all arrived! A blender! Blankets and lots of clothes and shoes and so many gifts for students! Thank you so much for all the hard work that was done by so many people to get these shipments here!!! I have no words to express how much these shipments mean to us and to the people who receive the donated goods. We have been busily unpacking the boxes and trying to get the gifts out to students as quickly as possible.

We had a group organized by Airline Ambassadors who brought us sewing machines , newborn baby kits and lots of other donations. They were able to give out the sewing machines to the graduation group from Tierra Linda. They gave out five sewing machines.

We distributed 10 chickens each to 20 families. 200 chickens – even the rain did not dampen everyones spirits.

We distributed the remainder of the Mothers Day baskets. 26 of them. These 26 baskets had the capacity to feed 284 people.

These families received beds……Students ##612, #611. #229,#297, #688, #687

Vitamins sent by sponsors were distributed to # #99, #455, #454,#665 and #453

Stoves were installed for students – #451/452/453 and #20.

Gifts from sponsors were recevied by students – #401,#125,#548, #240, #238,#316,and #286

Traditional clothes were received by the following students : #335,#336 and #338.

Food was gratefully received by the following students and their families :

#194,#195,#196,#200, #201, #676, #229 and #453

A water filter was provided to student #125.

Sandra, our secretary who is also studying to be a social worker, started her University project, with a group of fellow students, building a kitchen for one of our sponsored families. This family was in desperate need of having a kitchen built for them before the wet season really goes into full swing.

I was invited to give a talk to a group of social work students, from the U.S., who are doing placements in various areas around Lake Atitlan. They have been very supportive of Sandra and her fellow students project and have donated towards helping them.

We had a great visit with the group from Airline Ambassadors. We had a lunch with them and gave a talk about Mayan Families and our projects. They were here for the chicken distribution, for the sewing machine distribution and for the Mothers Day Baskets. Several of the members wanted to sponsor children and we arranged for them to meet two families that were in need of help with sponsorship. One was a single mother with 3 children who earns $68 US a month and pays $48 US in rent. The other was a family with 7 children in school. The group sponsored five children. Airline Ambassadors is hoping to send groups every month to visit us and to bring donations.

We had a death in the family for one of the Mayan Families employees . Olga , our social worker who works part time with us had the very sad situation of her mother dying. Her mother has been on diaylisis for some time. Her mother had been rushed to the city and died there. This was then very expensive for Olga, ( who is a single mother) and her sister to have the body transported back to Panajachel. The transportation and the coffin cost $800. We gave Olga a gift of $100 US and we gave her a loan of another $100 US to help towards paying the debt. We all attended the funeral and the burial at the cementary.

The very next day after the funeral Olga was called to the Family Court to appear before a case of child abuse that we have been working on. The court is trying to remove the child from the custody of the mother and we have been dealing with the mother as well. The mother was badly bitten by a dog and we have been helping her with medical treatment.

We also paid the accommodation for the mother as she had not paid her hostel account and was being thrown out. This case is still ongoing and we are still in the midst of it.

We received the xrays of the a little girl who has bow legs and we have organized that she will be seen by COTA when they come down in a few months.

We have been trying to help a 3 month old baby that needs to go to either Italy or the U.S.A. for a life saving operation. Her soft spot is closing over and the results for her are apparently fatal.

We have been working with COTA and contacting many other groups to try and organize a flight for her and her parents.

We have been asked to help a family of 6 orphans, the father died last year and the mother just died this week, they are now living with the grandparents who cannot afford to feed them. We have arranged for them to come to be interviewed on Monday.

Construction work is continuing on the Tierra Linda Community / Learning center and the San Jorge Community Learning Center. Work is also continuing on a house being built for a students family and the classroom for the school in San Jorge.

We received the first part of 450 water filters that are coming to us for distribution. We will be able to start distributing them this coming week.

We are still seeking help for the 9yr old boy with cancer who needs his medication to be sponsored.

We sent the baby who is having convulsions to the city to have the MRI – this was arranged with the help of COTA.

We paid the rent for the family that lost their mother last month. This family was two months behind in the rent. The grandmother , 75yrs old is the only one working. The children had all stopped going to school, except for the eldest. We are now working to get them all sponsored and back into school. We also gave them a supply of food as they do not have enough food to eat.

We had a visit from the Latin American Representative of the World Society for Protection of Animals. We are hoping to receive affiliation with WSPA. Selaine showed him our projects and explained the work that we have been doing. He was also able to visit the Spay and Neuter Clinic that was held yesterday.

There were another 27 dogs spayed or neutered at our monthly clinic. This is 27 more animals that will not be reproducing here! Other animals that are still too young to be sterilized were vaccinated.

The 14yr old girl had a successful cesarian and delivered a healthy baby boy.

Many other families were interviewed because they are trying to get help with food, clothing or school sponsorship.

We sent several people to the medical clinic and provided medicine to many others.

Thank you for all your help, this is really a group effort by all of us and we couldn’t do it without you!

Sharon