Hunger in Guatemala

Good article on humger 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
20.vicki@gmail.com

Photographer

So in June, for a week, we had a professional photographer come and take pictures of the volunteers, donations, 100 plus homeless families, the bridge that went out. Then she made a photo of some of the children in our tutorial programs. The volunteer teens made frames and for the first time in their lives these little Mayan kids had a picture of themselves. Here are the 600 plus pictures if you want to look.

http://mjaramillo.photobiz.com/cart/photo_detail.cfm?photoID=5741851

thanks
Vicki
20.vicki@gmail.com

Needed Donations

I just found a great list from another group of the donations they need. They are the same ones we need so here it is.

Shoes and Clothing, etc (Used Clean is fine)
School Shoes
Tennis Shoes
Regular Shoes, Toddler - Adult not larger than Adult size 8
Underware and Socks Shirts and T shirts
Boys Jeans and Pants (All sizes)
Belts
Cardigan Sweaters (Button or zip fronts)
Jackets, Sweat Shirts
Baseball and Farm Caps
Rain Jackets, Rain Boots
Girls Hair Accessories
Barrettes, Ponytail Bands
Combs, Brushes

School Supplies
Back Packs
Black and Blue Pens
Pencils, Erasers
Colored Pencils
Pencil cases
Colors, Markers, Chalk,
Elmers white Glue, Glue Sticks
Molding Clay, (10 Color)
Paint
Scissors (child size, safety style preferred) and adult size
Pencil Sharpeners
Metric Rulers
Protractors
Scientific Calculators Grade 8
Calculators
Compasses
File Folders
Childrens Spanish Books and Learning Materials
Spanish Dictionaries
Educational Puzzles and Simple Games in Spanish
Maps, World Globes
Manual Typewriters
Computers
White Boards
Paper (for printers, copiers, drawing)
Microphone and Speakers
Book Shelves
Waste baskets
CD Radio or Cassette Players
TVs and VCRs
Desks and Chairs for Students
Desks and Chairs for Teachers
Musical Instruments
Simple Musical Instruments for younger students
Key Board Children and Adult
Used Sports Uniforms, Jerseys, Caps, Sport Shoes
Sports Equipment, Soccer Balls, Balls, Bats, Gloves, etc.
Sport Shoes
Used Uniforms, especially Soccer Uniforms

Medicine (Children and Adult)
Any Brand, Generic and buying in Bulk are Cheaper Chewable, Pill or Capsule
Tylenol/ Motrin Children and Adult
Aspirin
Ibuprofen Tablets and Suspension
Acetaminophen tabletsPain Relievers
Acetaminophen suspension
Fever Reducers
Medicine, First Aid
Cough Medicine
Decongestants
Anti-diarrhea
Imodium
Pepto-Bismol tablets
Antacids - Zantac, Prilosec, Tums
Antibiotics
Antibiotic Ointments
Hydrocortisone cream
Neosporin or generic equivalent
Skin Creams
Yeast infection treatments
Shampoo for Lice
Scabies Medicine (prescription)
(Small baggies to give out medicine)

Vitamins
Prenatal vitamins
Multi vitamins with iron
Multi vitamin drops for infants
Multi vitamins with iron and folic acid (adults)
Multi vitamins with iron (chewable)
Infant vitamins
Children's vitamins

Medical Supplies
Band-Aids
Diabetic SuppliesThermometers
Pregnancy tests
Otto scopes
Blood Pressure Machines
Digital Scales
Microscopes
Adhesive bandages
Ace Bandages (2" and 3")
Latex Exam Gloves
Air Mattresses
Slide Boards-Paraplegics
Wheel Chairs, Crutches
Walking Sticks, Walkers
Adult Diapers Blue Sheets
Adult Disposable Diapers

Baby Supplies
Blankets
Baby Clothes, etc
Sleepers
Under shirts
Socks
Stocking Caps
Disposable Diapers
Cloth Diapers
Baby Wipes
Diaper pins
Baby Bath
Diaper Rash Ointment
Baby Bottles with Nipples
Free Formula
Baby Tylenol Fever Reducers
Baby Decongestant

House Hold Supplies
Blankets All Sizes
Towels, Wash Cloths
Bed Sheets
Pillow Cases
Potholders
Pots and Pans,
Knives, Forks, Spoons
Electric Blenders
Umbrellas
Wind Up Flashlights
Clock Radios
Indoor Electric Extension Cord
Power Strips
Outdoor Electric Heavy duty Extension Cords 25-50 feet long

Sewing Supplies
Material any size or kind
Zippers, Buttons, Snaps
Elastic,
Rick Rack, Ribbon
Scissors
Thread and Needles
Sewing Machine Needles
Yarn, Embroidery Thread
Sewing Hoops
Sewing Machines (Singer and Brother are best because can get parts but will take any kind) ( Used is fine)
Irons

Building Tools
Saws, Electric Saws, Drills, etc.
Hammers
Pliers
Metric Measuring tapes
Cement trowels etc.
Wall Paint
Tools for our planned Trade School

Automotive
Carpentry
Construction
Power Tools in working condition

Miscellaneous Supplies
Ziploc Bags (all sizes)
Feminine/Maxi Pads (No Tampons)
Sun Glasses
Reading Glasses and Cases (For reading and sewing)
Tooth brushes, Adult and Child
Tooth paste
Shampoo and Conditioner
(Large Size And Hotel Samples are Great)
Bar Soap/Body Wash
Wrapping Paper for Gifts
Tape, (scotch, packing, duct & masking)
Black Markers
Laptop and desktop computers, Windows or Macs (When you or your workplace upgrade and get a New Laptop or Desktop computer, please donate your old one. We will be happy to wipe it clean and re-format it so that all personal information is removed). Windows XP or newer please.
Digital Cameras in working condition
Video Camcorders in working condition
Digital Memory Cards (4GB or larger please)
USB Memory sticks
GSM Cell Phones with Charger and any accessories:

Usually AT&T, T-Mobile etc.
(Before sending your old GSM phone, make a quick phone call to the service provider and ask them for the code to 'unlock' the cell phone. I have done this in the past, and it is quite easy. I tell them that I will be taking the phone out of the country to use with a SIM chip from the foreign country. They will usually provide you with the unlock code and even walk you through the steps of how to unlock the phone. The phone can now be used with any SIM chip (worldwide). It is possible to unlock phones in Guatemala, but as with anything, it takes time and money. An unlocked phone is able to be used as soon as it is received.)

Christmas Gifts and Toys for Children
(Ages Baby-10yrs (Boys and Girls )( Used Everything is fine!)
Educational Toys
Stuffed Animals, Bears, Beanie Babies, Dolls, etc
Puppets
Jump ropes, etc.
Baby Toys, Rattles
Cars, Match Box cars, etc
Action Figures
Any Boy or Girl toys
Soccer and Basket Balls, (Deflated)
Ball pump and needles
Bats, Balls
Jerseys
Watches
Wallets
Jewelry, Chains, Pendants
Perfume


thanks
Vicki
20.vicki@gmail.com

Pediatriciian's June Visit

Jerrilyn, our wonderful pediatrician, visited in June with her family. They worked out of our new clinic building, in a church in San Andres, another church in Panajachel and for a couple of preschools . At the same time, we had a dentist named Ralph visiting with his daughter's youth group so he did clinics with Jerrilyn.

You will see from her report that their has been much improvement in the health of the children from our lunch and formula and incaparina programs. This has made us want to expand these programs to other communities. Here is her report.

As for my report.
"When we left Guatemala last March we felt that we had helped many families. We had given out over 20,000 prenatal vitamins and had left over 5000 children's vitamins for the feeding outreach programs as well as giving out thousands of multivitamins and calcium supplements. We had given hundreds of doses of antibiotics. We had talked with families about when to get help if they didn't see an improvement. When we returned this last June we could see the difference those things had made.
We had seen at least a dozen babies last visit who were starving to death drinking just 6-8 ounces of formula a day and often that was diluted. We brought measuring bottles and formula to hand out to the mothers. We learned last visit that all the baby bottles we saw from Guatemala have a 50cc and a 100cc mark but infant formula is made by the ounce or 30cc so that is a set up to have mixing problems. The good news is we saw or where able to follow up with people who saw those babies and they are doing well. The little boy with cleft lip and palate who was not growing is now growing and will qualify to have his surgery next month. It was amazing to see these mothers in line waiting to be seen with their babies-beaming-so proud to show me their healthy baby. They obviously could see the difference. We saw many families back when we had our first clinic at Los Robles. We saw about 150 people. Many people returned with other family members-saying the ones I brought last time are better so now I'm bringing my others. We met with the midwife who is monitoring blood pressures at the orphanage and left her hundreds of flow sheets to track blood pressure along with hundreds of urine dipsticks to check their urine for infection and protein or glucose. Urinary tract infections are common with little clean water and sanitation issues. This can be much more serious during pregnancy. She was excited to have the tools she needed to help these women. We also distributed a handout on how to minimize bleeding around delivery that was very well accepted.
At our last visit in March we examined all the kids who come to the tutoring program. About 90% showed clinical signs of anemia, this was reduced to about 30% at this last visit. This is huge. Not only does this result in them feeling better but they have better concentration at school and we talked to their teacher Gil who confirmed this was true. We were also able to bring Gil integrated textbooks for his tutoring program. He was excited to have help with a curiculum as he is teaching so many grades.
We saw a 7 year old girl our last visit with seizures since 3 months of age after meningitis. By her family's report at last visit she was constantly having seizures or sleeping. We brought her a 3 month supply of seizure medication in March at our visit in June we learned that she is no longer having seizures. Rather than sleeping all day she is smiling, more interactive with her family, starting to talk and bearing weight to learn to walk. She has had much damage after years of seizures but has made impressive developmental gains in just a few months. We are hopeful this will continue.
We saw a women with corneal scarring and an infection around her eye. I had seen pictures prior to our March visit so I brought her eyedrops that I thought would be helpful. After examining her I was sure they would help, she was doubtful. She reported that she went to Solala and they said there was nothing to be done. She had vision loss. At this visit her eye had cleared about 90% and vision likewise improved. Really lifechanging for this family.
After our last visit I began to wonder if many of the eye complaints might be vitamin a deficiency which is treatable. For our last clinics we had a vitamin handout that we gave to all the families and talked to everyone about this since there are so many Mayan languages. We saw one woman who said she had type 2 diabetes diagnosed less than a year ago which they told her would be controlled by diet and now she said she lost all her vision. This doesn't make sense for such a rapid progression in vision loss so I asked her to describe her vision loss. It was classic vitamin a deficiency. According to the World Health Organization Vitamin A deficiency is worldwide a leading cause of preventable blindness. The vitamins are helping.
We had our second day of clinics at San Andreas. We also saw about 150 people at this clinic. We again saw many people back who were obviously much improved since last visit. Infections that are now gone, babies eating better, again we saw that vitamins and iron did make a difference. We also handed out 87 pairs of shoes to those we saw without shoes at the clinic that day.
Our third day of clinics we held at the LDS chapel in Pana. This was our busiest day. The Crannies who were organizing the crowds estimated that we saw between 250-300 people. We were able to work longer that day because we were in town. We saw lots of people with pneumonias, several very severe cases. It didn't seem like they could have gone on much longer without help. We saw many pregnant women and in all three days of clinics we talked to them about things they could do that would help them have a healthier pregnancy. We brought with us over 30,000 prenatal vitamins we distributed in these three days along with hundreds of doses of antibiotics and over 10,000 children's multivitamins. We also brought thousands of calcium supplements and we brought iodine to purify the water. We brought enough iodine to purify 25,000 liters of water. We brought 87 cans of infant formula and we gave out 300 packets of oatmeal and dried milk.
The last day of our trip we went to San Antonio. We were contacted by Mayan Families who started a preschool there for the families who lost their homes in the mudslides. There were several children there they were worried about. We saw many malnourished children and several with pneumonias. We were able to give them the antibiotics they needed and talk to their parents or grandparents about their care. They are also starting a vitamin supplementation program that we are sure will be as successful as the one at Los Robles.
It is impossible to describe how much hope feeling better has brought these people. Clearly it helps to have a medical problem solved but so many were fearful that it wasn't just an ear infection etc. Seeing their children or themselves feeling better was an overwhelming experience. It really does make a difference to help them get the help they need. We feel like our trip brought them medicine and better health but hopefully also hope and love."


We need financial donors for materials for a new building in Panamache where the men will give us the land to build on and provide the labor. We need dental and medical equipment for our very sparsely furnished clinic. We need teams for construction, medical, dental and love. Contact me to help or push the donate button.

thanks
Vicki
20.vicki@gmail.com
http://www.facebook.com/casadesion

1] one feeding program 3 days a week where we give lunch and vitamins to about 40 kids from the elementary school next door.
2] we provide volunteers to help at the elementary school next door teaching English
3] We provide a teacher to do tutorials at our facility after lunch for 3 hours
4] we work to provide student scholarships to children who can not afford to go on to middle school or high school
5] every Tues. we provide lunch for 50 Mayan mothers and 100 children under the age of 4.
6] Every Tues. we have a playgroup for the children, a child development class for the moms and a prenatal class for pregnant ladies. We send the pregnant ladies home with 8 eggs to help wit nutrition.
7] We have just built a clinic building and have a brithing room in it where the ladies can come with their midwife and deliver their baby in a clean environment.
8] Whenever we can get medical or dental staff we hold clinics in our facility and in the LDS church in San Andres
9] We have just had a team build us a 100 bird chicken house. When I am there in August , I will buy the laying chickens and this will increase our nutrtion program.
10] We have volunteers working on building veggie beds and compost bins for us to raise our own organic veggies for our programs.
11] We do social service work in the community. For instance we have two 5 year old boys that can not walk. We pay their physical therapy bills and leg braces and surgeries. We have a 13 year old living alone with youger sibs who was almost raped. We found safe housing for them. The mayor of our department came to us in June with 100 plus families/550 plus people who had been made homeless by Hurricane Agatha. Through my contacts [ HF being the best one], I was able to get Shelter Box tents for half of them and food from two different NGOs.
12] Every other Tues. we give out formula and incaparina to children who need it. This is about $500 dollars worth a month.

Areas we are currently working on to improve our services to the Mayans.
1] Raising the money to provide equipment for our clinic.
2] Taking our current feeding/tutorial program and adding to it: a preschool in the mornings, a library, and incorporating the Steven Covey Seven Hhabits into our tutorials to provide character training for the kids.
3] Taking the above program to other communities where the government provides the land for the building, the parents help build and we provdie the materials, teacher and out of pocket expenses
4] Continuing our help with the 100 homeless families as needed
5] Increasing our social service programs to be able to help more people.
6] Increasing our nutritional programs
7] building a playground
8] assessing the feasibility of opening an orphanage at this time since there is a hostile government in power


I want you to know that 100% of all donations go to our projects. My husband and I donate our time and our business pays all our expenses connected with the projects including our airfare

Picture nos.
1. chicken house
2. clinic
3. our lunch program
4. our distributions of food and clothing and formula
5. feeding the 100 homeless families
6. homeless people
7. my daughter loving on the kids


thanks
Vicki
20.vicki@gmail.com

Samuel, his mom and Marciscio

We are kind of at a crossroads in the work we do in Guatemala. We are starting to bring in more financial donations as well as material ones and it is time to grow. But how do we grow? especially when there is so much need? My husband and I have been debating this now for a couple of weeks and , of course, we don't agree. He wants to take our lunch/ tutorial/ incaparina, formula program, add a preschool in the mornings and give lunch to all the kids. During the tutorials we want to add the Steven Covey seven habits to the curriculum we teach so the kids are getting a character based education. Then we would do the same program in other communities. Have the government department donate the land and the villagers donate labor. I like this idea. But the question is, is this all we do? We say no to those who come to us with needs?. I having been meditating on this issue and this morning I got my answer. I love the up close and personal I love the children telling us when a man breaks in their home and tries to rape the 13 year old girl. I want to knw when they need us. I want to help make sure these little ones are safe. I like having them payback what they can as I think it is good for self esteem. So when Samuel's mom asked us to pay for the leg braces he needed, we agreed on the condition that she or Samuel's older sister help cook for our programs. They have been doing that. Sometimes we say no. Someone came to us to pay transportation when their mom was dying. We had to say no. My focus is the children. Recently Samuel's mom told us the braces cost more and we need to provide 700more Qs [ about $80.00 ]. Also she had to have a C-section with the last baby and then got a staph infection at the hospital. She needs about $45.00 to pay for the lab work they did for her. Would any of you like to help here? A total of $135.00 will take care of these needs.
A little story about Samuel's mom, Argentina, and me. I spent some quality time with her the last time I was there. No. 6 was due any day and she was terrified. Having an emergency, not making it to the hospital, getting sick afterwards. All the things that actually happened to her. And not having the money to pay. I totally related to her fear. When I was expecting my number 4, I had a placenta previa. I was able to live in an apt. right acrooss the street from the hospital, thanks to my mom and dad who paid the rent and my mom who came to keep the 2 and 1 year olds. I was terrified of the surgery, but knew the hospital was competent and had a lot of faith in my doctor. We were dirt poor and did not have the money to pay the hospital or the meds I needed, but the Hillburton paid my bill. Argentinia is me 30 years ago. If you don't want to help her, I will.
Another great story. The little boy in the blue and yellow shirt was posted on a blog about 6 months ago. His name is Mariscio. A man in TN had a dream about him the night before we posted the picture. The dream was so real that Bryson went on the internet the next day looking for a little boy in a blue anad yellow shirt from Guatemala. We were the third site he went to. He saw the picture I had posted the day before where Marciscio is standing there in his blue and yellow shirt big as life and knew he had come to the right place. Bryson leaves Thurs. to come volunteer with us for a few days and check us out for he and his family to do long term volunteering.
These are the things I like. The up close and personal faith promoting experiences. I would miss out on them if we just built programs and not people.
Vicki
20.vicki@gmail.com
http://www.safehomesforchildren.org
http://www.facebook.com.casadesion

Pictures from the bottom
1] 4 tents set up. There must be 4 people in each tent
2] men working on the tent
3] one happy and dry family
4] now they are happy and dry
5,6,7 ] More little ones who are now dry when it pours.

They still need help with food so click the donate button if you can help. The rains continue in Guate and the crops will be scarce. The families were required to clear the land and help set up the tents. We help with food, but expect the fmailies to help themselves as much as possible. If you want to help, click the donate button

17 families getting their tents

We have helped 3 groups of people made homeless by Hurricane Agatha. These pictures are of one group that had 17 families and over a hundred people. They had no where to live, but were givensome land by the muni and some tents by Shelter box and this is their story.
Pictures starting from the bottom
1] where they are going to live
2] road out to their new place
3] their new location
4] the tents arriving
5] starting to set them up
6] what they have been living under
7] where they have lived during all the pouring rain guate has had these last few weeks.

newspaper article.

Here is a newspaper article that was done about our work in Guatemala. Also included was one about our family. Some of info is incorrect.

http://www2.tricities.com/tri/news/local/article/hes_father_to_18/47816/