Our intern out at the Lake and our director there met with the judge and social worker at Solola and told them about the new program we are starting where we take malnourished infants and babies and nurse them back to health. These do not have to be orphans. They were very excited about the program and are going to start keeping their eyes open for children who need these services. Also the mama of Manuel's sib group [ we already are housing and schooling the four oldest sibs ] is considering letting her 3 youngest, [ 3,1, and newborn] come into the program as they are very malnourished. We are thinking we will hire Jacinta [ the mama] to be one of the nannies for the program. That way she can be with her babies and also earn a little.
I NEED PEOPLE TO SPONSOR THIS PROGRAM. TO START OUT I NEED $100.00 a month for Jacinta's salary [ she will board with us ] and $100.00 a month for formula. No amount of money is too small. $10.00 a month by 20 people will get us going.There is much need here.
My daughter Sarah , who is the director of the Guatemala program, just came home from a vacation with her husband's people. They went to South Africa for 2 weeks. While there she visited a daycare set up in a really poor village. I felt prompted the last time we were in Guate to set up a daycare in the really poor village the orphanage is in. We have the facilities so would just need to hire the staff and pay for the extra food. Right now the Guate mamas have to decide between working [ for a $1.00 a day ] and thus being able to afford to give their children beans and tortillas or not working and not feeding the kids. The problem is when they work they leave their toddlers locked in their shanties all day. A daycare would free the mamas to work and not have to worry about the kids. The daycare inAfrica was setup for this reason. They have 200 children from infants to 6 years of age. An added benefit is the kids would get 3 meals a day, very unusual in this pueblo.
We are splitting the services of a security guard with the hospitalito in Santiago. My intern met with them on Sat. The hospitalito is run by volunteer doctors from all over the world. Some very famous. I had my intern ask them about doing a free clinic on the orphanage grounds once a month for the pueblo of Cerro de Oro that we are located in. They were very excited about the idea. I hope it works out as many of the people in this pueblo are too poor to be able to afford the 3Qs [ about $.40 cents ] that is takes to take the pickup to the free clinics in other bigger cities. Not to mention being able to afford the meds they need.
Thank you everyone for any help you are giving us. One agency in the NW has collected 55 bookbags for the kids and will be delivering them in Oct. A father and son team are going down this month to put in organic gardens that will enable us to be much more self-sufficient. A family that adopted from Guate 18 years ago is down there now and took many needed donations with them. This is what enables us to stay open.
Vicki Dalia
Director of http://www.safehomesforchildren.org

We have had many family events this week and I had no time to write. First, my husband and myself helped out daughter, son-in-law and new granddaughter move in their new home in Pittsburgh. Second we helped our son with a custody battle for his baby girl. He won custody of her.
Also my American interns who are at the orphanages in Guate and who keep me posted on the happenings there were on a tourist trip to Tikal. They returned yesterday.
Our new 14 year old boy at the lake Luis had to have an emergency appendectomy and is still in the hospital. Someone from the staff is supposed to be with him at all times. So that has been kind of rough. He is doing well tho.
The intern in the city met with the supervisor of the group who did the orphanage inspections. They did about 30 orphanages. I had him go over the list of things they want us to improve with her. Most of the list I agree with and they would have already been done if I was down there. He told her we were now in compliance with 3/4ths of the list and would be 100% within the month. I can't wait to get down there so we can get things running on a better program.
Our family flies down the end of this month. We will have our at home children in a private school in Panajachel. They will take the boat over there each day. Seth our downs son will go to a special ed school in Santiago that two of the children from the Lake orphanage are already attending. We are trying to be in Guate 9 months out of the year. I will miss my four young granddaughters. Four of them under the age of 3.
The two men who are going to get our gardens going at the lake orphanage go down in 2 weeks as does my daughter who will train our new American interns. One intern is going by El Salvador first and visiting the home there for malnourished children. She is supposed to learn all she can so we can start taking these types of children. I have been corresponding with the owner of this facility and he has been most helpful.
Vicki Dalia
http://www.safehomesforchildren.org

It has been an eventful two days at the orphanages. First a group of court official came through the orphanage in the city as they did many other orphanages. It was the first time this has been done. They listed all the things we were not up to par on. Lots of little things that just seem part and parcel of living with so many kids. But we have told them we will correct them and get things like they want. One thing we need to do is paint so if anyone wants to go down and paint let me know.
At the lake, we are loosing one of our most valued employees. Juana is 60 and has some heart problems so is quitting the end of this month. Very sad for us. We have four children at the lake who are sibs. They have parents, but they couldn't afford to feed them anything some days and couldn't pay their school fees at all. So they live with us and we feed and school them. Their mom came to us and said she needed to take the 9 year old girl back with her as she is expecting a baby anyday and needs her to watch the 1 and 3 years olds when she goes to the hospital. Now you have to understand, the mom lives on a plantation that is a 2 hour walk from the raod and once at the road she catches a pick up truck to go to the hospital. She had no one to watch the two little ones when she had to go. The Dad is working somewhere esle and is not there. My staff got her to leave the two little ones with us so Rosa could stay in school. I am thinking of hiring the mom to replace Juana. Then that will be four more people who get fed. I have wanted to start taking malnourished babies and here are three of them. I need formula. Please anyone who wants to contribute this let me know.
I have booked our tickets to return to Guate for the next 9 months. Sort of scary. Our kids will go to school down there.
Vicki
Director of http://www.safehomesforchildren.org