Guatemala

 VOLCANO DE FUEGO ERUPTION – JUNE 2018

We grieve with Guatemalans.  The survivors  have nothing to return to.  The land they owned is uninhabitable.  They have lost their home, tools, animals and are often mourning loved ones.   Join us in helping them rebuild their lives.  We have a mission going to Guatemala this month and will be scheduling others.   Please contact us if you want to participate: travel@global-legacy.org

WICHITA EAST HIGH SERVICE TRIP 2017

WICHITA EAST HIGH STUDENTS ON SERVICE TRIP TO GUATEMALA

Summer vacation is the time when we welcome high school seniors on our service trips. The participants on the first trip spent 2 days doing service work in Guatemala and were consequently only able to visit and work with charities in the Antigua area.  Though the time they spent was small their impact was tremendous as they transported and delivered a much needed cardiogram to a health center, a wheelchair, walker, 50 sets of bed linens and medical supplies to Hogar Santa Maria, home to 45 elderly residents from intensely poor families.   They also visited  Open Windows learning center where they joined the children’s activities and delivered shoes collected by Wichita East High students

David Shelly, Spanish teacher at Wichita East High  brought 14 of his senior students on what has become a traditional two week trip exposing their young eyes to the beauty and culture of Guatemala while also doing good

The first day was spent visiting Cabecidas de Algodon an old age home in Antigua that had been adopted by Catholic Charities’s senior home in Wichita.  The latter’s residents have been knitting, sewing, and collecting aid that the students transport each year onon their mission to Guatemala.   Bath towels donated by a South Beach hotel were also donated to the home.

 

The group joined the children eating at Casa Santa Maria’s free kitchen and donated $200,00 towards future purchase of groceries.   They spent the entire afternoon playing with the children or helping them with their homework.

Armed with paint and brushes our mission participants put the final touch to the house built for Violeta, recipient of our December Make a Difference campaign.  All three rooms were painted and a happy Violeta was hugged by all.

That evening,  after a lovely buffet dinner at the hotel, Sue Patterson, director of Behrhorst Partners for Development and former Consul general of the USA in Guatemala offered a talk that included some general information about the history of Guatemala, the struggle of the indigenous population, the work of BPD and the reason why the support of foundations such as BPD and GLP is needed to provide essential things that make the difference, at times, between life and death.

This talk prepared our valiant volunteers for the next day’s activities: delivering and vaccinating goats in a rural village and constructing vented stoves in the homes of five families.  Vented stoves replace the traditional floor fire responsible for many smoke related illnesses.

The next few days were spent in Panajachel.    After delivering 15 sewing machines to the graduates of a sewing course at Mayan Families Foundation our volunteers were treated to a charming performance by the children.   Before the group was finally able to relax and enjoy cruising and plunging into Lake Atitlan  they also visited an orphanage and painted the interior of a school.

Fun time started with a zip line excursion that turned out a lot more thrilling than expected.   Much shopping was done at the Sunday craft market in Chichicastenango before driving to Iximshe for  a visit to the Mayan rruins.   A day of leisure in Antigua for those who did not join  a volcano climb , a trip to to the beach at Monterico, and a relaxing day at a mountain spa before attending to one last good deed: visiting the Corazon de Ninos health center in San Pedro Las Huertas.   The group offered backpacks they had collected to the children, a cardiogram donated by Jean Pierre Levy MD (Hallandale, Fla)  and a check of $300.00 for medical needs.

Thank you Wichita High East! The entire school supported this mission not only through   donations of almost-new backpacks and shoes but also by shopping generously at a Guatemalan craft sale manned by the mission participants and  allowed by the school.

 

We want more schools to join our missions,.  Please contact us at travel@global-legacy.org for more information on our itineraries and ways that funds can be raised in order to maintain the tax deductible travel fee at  $375.00

February 2017

By Karen Carrolan

Having participated in two missions to Peru organised by GPL for Southwest Airlines employees   I was truly  elated when I was invited  to recruit SWA participants and lead the first Southwest airlines/GLP  trip to Guatemala this past January

The first thing we all learned was that we each would be receiving a sewing machine to transport. The machines were to be distributed in Panajachel to a group of women who had completed a sewing course offered by the Mayan Families Foundation. This $100.00 tool would serve to lift these women out of intense poverty by giving them a chance to create things they could sell. Blankets and other useful items donated by individuals and charities supporting our mission were divided among all participants for transport.

Participants  met in beautiful colonial Antigua on January 21st. Our activities began promptly the next morning when we traveled to Alotenango, a hamlet in a coffee growing district, to paint a house built by GLP for a poor family. A house? That modest abode consisting of three small rooms in cinder blocks? To make us understand why the house represented to Violetta and her children an almost impossible dream come true we were shown a house similar to the one that preceded it: walls made of scrap material, dirt floor, a rusty corrugated tin roof…Something we would not even put our animals into. We only painted the exterior of the house but students from Wichita High East coming in July will stucco and paint the inside. A few days later, when deciding how to distribute our mission fund (we each made a $400.00 donation to participate) we decided to purchase bunk beds for the children and a small dresser.

Covered with paint we were rewarded with a well earned delicious lunch at typical restaurant before we visited a home for poor elderly with no resources. GLP has created a sisterhood between this needy home and one for more fortunate elderly residents in Bel Aire, KS (Catholic Care Center); they  sent with us. hats, socks, hygiene supplies and other necessities that we delivered along with smiles and chats as almost everyone on our team spoke Spanish. We were delighted to hear that another foundation would be donating  new beds to replace the miserably sagging ones we saw.

But our day had not ended yet. Purchasing school supplies for three children starting school the next day was on the agenda. School is free but many children do not go to school because the family cannot purchase the school supplies for any or for all of their children. Without the supplies requested by each teacher the children are not admitted. These three kids lost their sponsor and we responded to the appeal by providing all they needed.

The trip took a more adventurous tone the next day as we traveled to the highlands to deliver very pregnant milk producing goats to families with infants. Goats produce 3 glasses of milk a day and they are part of GLP’s project to fight malnutrition in very young children. No matter how well fed they are in later years, children who do not get the proper nutrition during their first three years of life never recover either physically or mentally from that lack . We also put the finishing touch to the construction of vented wood burning stoves that replace the indoor floor fire traditionally used for cooking. Women who are always working around the floor fire are the ones who suffer the most from respiratory diseases caused by smoke inhalation. The families receiving goats and stoves are selected by the villagers themselves. Goat recipients must give the first female born to another family.

In beautiful Panajachel on Lake Atitlan we spent a morning at Mayan Families Foundation to present sewing machines as graduation gifts to nine women graduates of the sewing program. A tour of the facilities revealed the extent of that foundation’s multiple activities in the area of health, education and the advancement of Mayan women living in rural communities. Our day ended at “Eagle’s nest” orphanage where we delivered baby blankets and other supplies and treats.

Lake Atitlan is one of the world’s marvel. The deepest volcanic crater in Central America! We took a day to enjoy a cruise followed by a brutal climb and harrowing decent on a zip line  Panajachel is a handcraft shoppers’ paradise but we saved our money for the trip in Chichicastenango where a huge crafts market takes place on Thursdays and Sundays. Another extra was the stop in Iximshe on the way back to Antigua to view the superb Mayan ruins.

Back in Antigua we shopped and brought food staples to the nuns at Holy Family for their use in feeding the homeless and after school programs.
Holy family is supported by GLP who sponsors one day a week medical services offered to the poor. Our trip ended with a lovely farewell dinner during which we discussed what to do with the 2 round trips on SWA we had earned through SWA ticket for time. It was decided we would raffle them and raise $2,000 by selling 200 tickets at $10.00. The funds will cover the cost of sheets for the old age home, food for the free kitchen, more sewing machines and goats!

I really hope that this trip will join the Peru trip in becoming a travel to do good tradition for SWA employees!  I encourage everyone to join either trips.

 MARCH 2016

WATER IS LIFE!!!  AGUA ES VIDA!!!!

By Mireille Hanna

I recently attended the inaugural of a potable water system in a village in Patzun, Guatemala. It took six months to complete this wonderful project making water available at the turn of a faucet in each of the homes of the 90 families in that community. The water is directed from a well to a large tank where it is filtered and disinfected before it is channelled to each home.
Thirty one Rotary clubs and Coup de Coeur (Quebec) helped raise the funds needed for this project. Global Legacy Programs sponsored the “eradicate malnutrition” project in that same village, giving a milk producing goat to each family with infants. Our volunteers also helped build vented stoves now installed in all homes and constructed  dry latrines during our  last July mission. Our modest contribution to the water project was an offering to Rotary Club of two donated Southwest Airlines tickets that produced over $6,000 when raffled at one of the club’s events.  Guatemala’s Berhorst Partners for Development (Aldea in the USA)  supervised all aspect of the project and will continue with educational training for its maintenance. This is  a wonderful example of how collaboration between several ONG pooling their resources and concentrating on one village can result in a significant improvement in the health and quality of life for an entire community.

 The women were all smiles. Imagine, no longer having to make that long slippery walk down the hill to the well and then treck up for an hour with a heavy container precariously perched on one’s head and a baby on one’s back. Such joy!

January 2016

Thank you to all the assisted living residents at Catholic Care Center in
Bel Aire, Kansas, who took the time to make lovely, colourful blankets they sent us for each of the elderly at Guatemala’s Cabecidas de Algodon (Antigua), a home for poor abandoned seniors.  The blankets were a wonderful addition to our Christmas celebration at the home.

Dona Sebastiana with blanket

 December 2015

Thank you MOGUATE families!

MOGUATE (http://www.moguate.com) is group of 45 families with adopted Guatemalan  children.  They reunite each year at a resort for a weekend of fun and sharing.  During this summer’s event they raffled two Southwest Airlines tickets that we donated and raised, with the help of matching funds from Feed the Dream, all that was needed to provide each of 70 families in the Guatemalan highland village of Xepanil with an elevated wood burning stove.

Xepanil is a community from Santa Apolonia that for many years has had no access to basic services, like water or sanitation facilities. Women cook using open fires and this makes the concentration of smoke very high inside, in some cases, in the entire house because they only have one room. Smoke causes serious respiratory and eyes diseases, affecting mainly  women and girls who are the family members who spend hours in the kitchen every day. Also, the use of open fires reduces very quickly the extension of the forests around the communities because large amounts of wood are needed.

To evaluate the results , ABPD measured the CO concentration, one of the most harmful components of the smoke to the human health. Concentration prior to the new stove was 37.8.  Recent measurements indicate an average of 4.8.

The $10,000 project was realized in September by Guatemala ONG Behrhorst Partners for Development.  It included

Trainings in diseases caused by the smoke and the benefits from an efficient stove.
Training in measurement of carbon monoxide (CO) concentration.
Trainings in environment conservation.
Training in construction and maintenance of the stoves.

The Southwest Airlines tickets were donated to us as a result of SWA program that matches employees’ volunteer hours with tickets.

Quote from a recipient of the stoves

Juana Chonay said the stove improved the financial situation of her family. She used an open fire to cook in the past and had to buy a lot of firewood for this, 18 pieces every day. She uses now only 3 pieces of wood for each meal, seeing an important reduction of the money she needs and also an improvement in her health and her family’s health.
.

July 2015

Fifteen Wichita High East senior students, led by Spanish teacher, David Shelly participated in our July mission to Guatemala. Enthusiastic, hard working and talented, they brought song, dance, as well as much needed aid to a home for the elderly poor in Antigua and to the children at a learning center in Duenas and an orphanage in Solola.

On the way to Panajachel, a day was spent in a rural village distributing milk producing goats to families with infants and building stoves and dry latrines.

In Panajachel, fourteen women awaited excitedly the arrival of our team. They were the graduates of a sewing program offered by Mayan Families Foundation for whom we brought new sewing machines thanks to a personal donation made by David Shelly in memory of his dear mother Viola who loved to sew. The celebration was moving as the women told us they considered the machine to be a life changing tool. At each of these distributions, former recipients come to tell us how the machines have allowed them to earn a proper living and keep their children well fed and in school. It is truly amazing to witness the difference that a $100.00 donation can make in the life of a entire family.

MAY 2015

Angelito being fitted for prosthetic and with temporary one.

There many children awaiting prosthetics.  Please donate to that fund so more children are able to gain mobility and lead normal lives.

JUNE 2014

Wichita High returns to Guatemala

Led by Spanish teacher David Shelley, a group of students from Wichita high returned to Guatemala June 9th for two weeks of service and fun.   The group spent time in Santa Apolonia district distributing 25 goats to families with small children.  The goats will impove the children’s diet by providing them with milk .

The group also spent an afternoon  building vented stoves in private homes to replace the floor fires that cause so many burn injuries in children and smoke that poisons the entire family’s lungs.  In Panajachel they attended the graduation ceremony of women who completed the sewing course offered by Mayan Families Foundation and gave each of the graduates a new sewing machine so that they could put to use what they had learned and earn an income that will support their families.

The group included many talented performers who sang, danced and entertained children at Open Windows, a learning center and library in the coffee growing region of Duenas where they also delivered school supplies.

But time was also  taken to horseback ride up the volcano Pacaya, swim in Lake Atitlan, visit archeological sites, and enjoy strolling through colonial Antigua.

Thank you David for bringing such a wonderful and energetic group to Guatemala!  And thank you to all Wichita High students for the support you gave all year to the project.

 Mission to Guatemala

April 2013 

Your donations, the fundraising done by the fifth graders at West Yellowstone School, and donations by the sixteen U32 students and teachers who participated in our April mission to Guatemala  resulted  in our delivering fifteen female and two male goats to families in the community of Saquiya.   Fundraising continues so we can reach our goal and offer ten more goats by July.

  December 2012

Guatemala :: 2013 Campaign ::

A common problem in the rural areas of Guatemala has to do with little access to food containing key vitamins, proteins and other micronutrients. That is one reason why 60% of Guatemalan children under five in Guatemala’s highland communities are chronically malnourished.

Our hope is to solve this problem in one single community this year. We are partnering with Associacion BPD in adopting the community of Saquiya to jointly pool efforts and resources to offer 100 families the chance to have the healthier and better life they deserve. To be sustainable the project consists of four components:

• Water and environmental sanitation: funds for this portion have been secured for providing potable water, grey water filters, and latrines.

• Food security: seeds and training in family gardens towards a more efficient production of basic grains and for raising goats.

• Nutrition education: to provide skills to mothers in nutrition education, mainly in nutritious food, food preparation, hygiene when cooking, breastfeeding and weaning.

• Family planning: access to family planning methods helps families space their children, reducing malnutrition rates by providing more and better foods to both mothers and children.

In addition, each family will receive a high efficiency wood burning stove to replace the traditional floor fire. This will eliminate the burn injuries and smoke related illnesses affecting children and adults. Our participation in this project is to provide funds for the goat raising program and some of the stoves costing $130.00 each. This spring and summer, the students participating in our missions will build stoves and deliver goats. Here is the budget and our fund raising goal:

• 25 adult goats (purchased at $153.00 each): $3,825.00

• 2 male goats (purchased at $153.00 each): $306.00

• Newborn animal health inputs: $482.00

• Newborn animal food supplements: $170.00

• 25 Fodder: $641.00

• Training material: $84.00

• 27 Stable material: $380.00

• Program Total: $5,888.00

How you can help:

Volunteer with your friends, families, co-workers, church or school group to visit Saquiya and build stoves, deliver goats, befriend its people and discover their beautiful country. Contact us at missions@global-legacy.org to plan a GLP trip that can include work and fun. A tax-deductible $350.00 donation will cover hotels and most meals during a one week sojourn as well as include the cost of donations.

Donate:

$130.00 for one wood burning stove
$218.00 for one goat and related expenses.

Any amount you wish to donate will be gratefully received. You can also make a donation in lieu of a gift. Global Legacy Programs will send a gift card (with one of the photos from this page) to those in whose honor you have donated.

July 4, 2012
by Mireille Hanna

Guatemalan Sewing Course Graduates

We were thrilled to hear that a $100.00 sewing machine offered by Global Legacy Programs to these and other Guatemalan mothers who completed the sewing course given by our partner, Mayan Families Foundation, made the difference between living in extreme poverty and being able to give their family a decent living. Besides making blouses and aprons they sell at markets, some of our graduates are now making skirts for the Oh My Maya website http://ohmymaya.org and diaper bags that Madison Women’s Health-Weave of Hope offers newly pregnant patients in Madison WI “It is thanks to GLP  that this program has been able to survive and so many women have been able to receive sewing machines” Sharon Smart Poage Founder, Mayan Families Foundation We would like more women to have the same opportunity.  Those donating a sewing machine receive a photo of the recipient and a personal note.  Click here to donate and change a mother’s life.  You are also welcome to join one of our many missions to Guatemala and experience the personal satisfaction of providing a sewing machine and meeting the woman whose life you will lift out of misery.  For more information, send an eMail to missions@global-legacy.org

January 2012 Message:

We are joining forces with French ONG “Les Trois Quarts du Monde” to support their newly founded Guatemala City hostel, “City of Joy”, where 45 girls from isolated villages will live while attending secondary school.  The girls are chosen based on extreme poverty along with the desire and ability on the part of the student to pursue studies beyond primary school.  Besides food, lodging, uniforms and school supplies, the girls hosted at City of Joy also receive:

• A high level of education at a good school and tutoring at the hostel

• Safe transportation to and from school

• A good diet to remediate chronic malnutrition

• Medical and dental care

• Psychological support when needed

• Cultural and physical activities

• Periodic visits to their village and families.

Participants in our 2012 missions to Guatemala will visit this hostel and deliver new sewing machines to the graduates of a sewing course in  Lake Atitlan area.  They will also spend two days painting a house built with funds they raised.

You can help with these projects :

1. Sponsor one student : $30.00 per month

2. Co-sponsor  one student : $15.00 per month

3. Sewing machine : $90.00