Pictures

This is Claudia. She is 14 and in the 6th grade. She has 2 brothers 15 and 7 and 2 sisters 10 and 5. She probably will not get to go to school next year unless she has a sponsor because she will be in the middle school and it is too expensive.

The girl in the blog above is Joselin and also in 6th grade. She also will not go next year without a sponsor. She has one sister and 3 brothers.

Anyone want to sponsor them. probably about $600. for the year will include school supplies and black shoes and transportation.

Pictures [I Hope]

if you need to contact me write to 20.vicki@gmail.com

We are moving forward

If you need to reach me or want to be added to the email group, write me at 20.vicki@gmail.com

Some pretty exciting things are happening. When my husband and I are in Guatemala in a couple of weeks, we are meeting with several groups/families and individuals.
here is a list of most of them:
1] Mercy Ships is meeting with us to discuss how they can help to get construction, dental, and medical teams to us thru 2010. They have very succesfully helped an orphanage and clinic and community programs in Honduras and we hope they will help us.
2] Pan en la Boca is meeting with us to see what we have accomplished since they sent a group of 30 people down in the summer of 2008. They were a tremendous help at that time and we hope they will want to help in the future.
3] An photojournalist for the US Airforce is coming to do a photojounal of what we are doing with our projects and the orphanage. This will be used for fundraising presentations.
4]We have a new full time volunteer for the next month who has many computer skills and also teaches karate. We hope to have him do files on all the families we are helping. Also he will teach karate at our afterschool program.
5] I have appts. with several individuals who live in Guatemala and are helping the poor. I will brainstorm with them on ideas that have been most effective.
6]Hope For Home visited us on Thurs. to look over our property and projects as a possible location for their home for disabled children. They have also promised to help send construction and doctor and dental teams.
7] My husband and I will meet with Anselmo's family whose son Alex is being sponsored by one of our families for a a middle school scholarship. We have been contacted by Anselmo, who has asked for work as he has no way of buying food for his 7 children. We will give the family a hugh food basket as well as some of the clothes and shoes that have been donated. We will also meet with the family of Anna, Diego and Abram, our beloved children from the orphanage. They will be given a hugh food basket as well as donated clothes and shoes. We hope to have them back with us soon.
8] One of the members of our email family has arranged for Luis to possibly come to the states as an exchange student. I will meet with Luis and his mom to see if she will give permission. They will also be given food and clothes.
9] I will hold a meeting with the women again and assess their needs. They now have an official name. It is the Relief Society. I hope to help them to help give relief to their neighbors in need. Our cook will provide food as it is probably the only treat they have had since the last time we met the end of June.
10] We will also have a big community party with lots of food and dedicate the house and dining room/ kitchen. I am sure this does not happen often.
11] Heart 4 children is collecting $30.00 times 56 to give a food basket to every family in our Los Robles community. They will give them out at a Christmas Party in Dec.

We have three groups doing fundraisers between now and Christmas. This is a great time of the year to get folks to do charitable donations.
1] Pan en la Boca is doing a dinner presentation in CA. My daughter Erin, who started the first feeding program back in March, will do the presentation.
2] Another group is putting a dinner presentation together in the Washington, DC area
3] I am initiating our "Pennies para Pan" program at A.B.Combs school. This school has been the leader and the example for Steven Covey's book " The Leader in Me " . This school has embraced the Seven Habits that Mr. Covey is so famous for. They have had wonderful success and been named the top US Elementary school. Part of the program involves them doing charitable work that all the students participate in. The school was named for my grandfather so I am very proud of it. Their 800 plus students will help us collect pennies for our feeding programs. If you want more info on the " Pennies para Pan " program to have schools you know do it, just write me.
that's all for now folks
Vicki
http://www.safehomesforchildren.org

WE PASSED

I can be reached at 20.vicki@gmail.com if you want to help or be on the email group.
The government finally sent the people to do our final supervision. It was quite a small crew. The head of the Central Salud, a nurse and a restaurant inspection person. They passed everything and liked what we are doing. Now they just send their report to the CNA and then they send it to someone and then we start taking kids. Hope it moves thru the channels fast.

Okay well the pictures did not show up. You will have to get on our email group to see them. Write me at 20.vicki@gmail.com and I will add you.

Pictures of the construction of our new road. We were given $2000.00 by Iso Mundo for the construciton of a road to connect the 3 levels of our property. We hired local men to dig it as we got more for our money this way and we gave work to families who desperately needed it. Hope the pictures show up.
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Starving Children in Guatemala

Many of you have probably seen the news reports on the starvation of people in Guatemala. I could write my own report on it as we witness it first hand in our village of Los Robles. We started out with a feeding/tutorial program for the 70 K thru 6th grade children in the school next to our orphanage building. As we feed and tutored the children, we met their moms and siblings. We learned that these children only got tortillas and maybe some beans or rice once or twice a day , if they were lucky. This program is 3 days a week and we would like to increase it to everyday. The children get a vegetable soup with a little meat and a piece of fruit. We then found out that a baby had died because the mom had no breast milk, so the next time we were in Guatemala, we met with the women of the community. A bunch had infants and no breast milk and no baby will die for lack of formula if I can do anything about it. Now we have 20 infants on formula. And more moms coming to us everyday. Now the moms want to know if we can feed their toddlers, so thru the generous donation of two women who are each giving a $100.00 a month, we have started our toddler feeding program. We need to increase the numbers on all the programs and reach more communities. But we need help. can you give anything? We are traveling to Guate the end of this month and if you send it this week, I will take it down with me. Read the news article:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/09/09/guatemala.calamity/

Hunger of Children in Guatemala

The following is an excellent article on the hunger of the Mayan children in Guatemala. We have increased our food programs and need more sponsors to keep them going. Right now we do lunch 3 times a week for 70 K to 6th graders, formula for about 20 infants whose mothers have no breast milk. We just started an incaparina program for 2 to 6 year olds. Gosh do we need sponsors. as the word spreads more and more people come to us. Read the article and then if you want to be on our Guatemalan email group email me at 20.vicki@gmail.com and I will gladly add you. I have pictures of all our programs I send to the email groups.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200908u/guatemala-hunger

Mayan poverty

the following is an interesting little quiz to give you an idea of what your life would be like if you lived in Los Robles where our facility is located or in any of the Mayan villages around the Lake. One. five million people live like this in Guatemala.

So few people really know what it is like to live in a third world country...so here's a little exercise in third world living...it makes me truly feel blessed...how about you???

1. Take out the furniture: leave a few old blankets, a kitchen table, maybe a wooden chair. You've never had a bed, remember?

2. Throw out your clothes. Each person in the family may keep the oldest suit or dress, a shirt or blouse. The head of the family has the only pair of shoes.

3. All kitchen appliances have vanished. Keep a box of matches, a small bag of flour, some sugar and salt, a handful of onions, a dish of dried beans. Rescue those moldy potatoes from the garbage can: those are tonight's meal.

4. Dismantle the bathroom, shut off the running water, take out the wiring and the lights and everything that runs by electricity.

5. Take away my house and move the family into the tool shed.

6. By now all the other houses in the neighborhood have disappeared; instead there are shanties - for the fortunate ones.

7. Cancel all the newspapers and magazines. Throw out the books. You won't miss them - you are now illiterate. One radio is now left for the whole shantytown.

8. No more postman, fireman, government services. The two- classroom school is 3 miles away, but only 2 of your 7 children attend anyway, and they walk.

9. No hospital, no doctor. The nearest clinic is now 10 miles away with a midwife in charge. You get there by bus or bicycle, if you're lucky enough to have one.

10, Throw out your bankbooks, stock certificates, pension plans, insurance policies. You now have a cash hoard of $5.

11. Get out and start cultivating your three acres. Try hard to raise $300 in cash crops because your landlord wants one-third and your moneylender 10 percent.

12. Find some way for your children to bring in a little extra money so you have something to eat most days. But it won't be enough to keep bodies healthy - so lop off 25 to 30 years of life.

Can you imagine? Unfortunately this a realty for so many living in Guatemala and countries around the world? Can you step up and out of the box to help be the change in the life of a child? Can you spare some change to feed a family? If so here's your chance. Click on the donate button and make a contribution so these children won't have to find work and they will still have a meal!!
Posted by Vanessa at 8:58 AM 4 comments
Friday, July 3, 2009
FFF--HOME

I hope this blog works. I just did 5 pictures from our June trip. I hope you can feel the need and want to help and pray for the people and for us. They are all from the women's meeting I had. One hundred plus women showed up on just a one day notice from our worker Jose spreading the word. The first picture is of the pregnant woman who has a bad case of herpes on her whole face and is going blind from it. She needs serious medical attention and a drug called cyclovar. Anyone want to help her?
The next is the elderly midwife for the community. She has given birth to 17 children, 9 of which are dead. She is a sweetheart and needs a birthing room to deliver in rather than the cold, wet dirt floors of the womens' houses. They can't use the bed because too many other people sleep there or probably because there is not a bed. Any takers here? Help a mom deliver in a nice clean bed in a nice clean room Next, I think is Edit, the 3 year old we found on her dirt floor. We got her to a doctor and got her a wheelchair. All told the visit cost us $100, but that included her monthly meds and Incaperina to improve her nutrition. Any sponsors for her? Last is one of the babies we are giving formula to because the mom has no breast milk. Any takers to save a babies life. Might look good on your resume someday. We have 15 now we give formula to once a week. A big can of formula that lasts two weeks costs $16.00. I think there is a fifth picture , but I can't remember what it is and right now it looks like goobly gook. Hope they look like pictures when they come thru.
My daughter Hannah is doing a lesson on nutrition and why veggies are good for you to the lunch kids tomorrow. We are going to start using Steven Covey's program from his book " The Leader In Me" in our tutorials. Hannah is having another women's meeting on Fri. I know the women will want to know have we forgotten them or are we progressing to help them. I got 40 more cans of formula this week and some meds from a great group. One of our lessons at church today was on charity. Please consider giving; give for the wonderful feeling it gives to you and because it maybe the most important thing you do next week.
Vicki

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I am trying to learn how to upload pictures

DONATIONS I NEED ASAP

Well I have booked our tickets and hubby and I are traveling June 10th to Guatemala for 2 weeks. I want to start my welfare program for the community while we are there and will give out needed donations one day a week as well as do a social/medical history on the family to see what ways they need help. Can you tell my degree is in social work? SO...... If you can send me donations to arrive by that date I can take them down with me. I especially want infant formula and over the counter meds for colds and flus. This is the rainy season and it is chilly and wet in an 8 by 8 room with a dirt floor and corncob or recycled tin walls. Also the kids need shoes really bad. We have a family of four boys who have lived in the orphanage and whose mother testified for us in court and who is sending the boys back to us as soon as we reopen. In the meantime, she has no clothes for them. I think we have clothes down there and will get them to her, but she has no shoes. There are not shoes there Pedro has already looked. She also needs money for food and for them to be enrolled in school.
Pedro has painted all the bunkbeds and now we need to buy the mattresses the courts want us to have. They are $20.00 each. We still need to build a kitchen/dining outside room. A friend is doing a online book sale that will give donated books to the elementary school we help. If you need her site let me know. And don't forget buying from ...shoptoearn.net/safehomesforchildren. It saves you wear and tear and earns us money. Any boys that want to do us as an Eagle Scout project write me and I will give you ideas of needed items to collect.
Sometimes I wonder if any one read these blogs because i don't get alot of immediate feedback. And I have a million other things I could be doing. But yesterday I had two great emails. One is from a young woman who has been on the blog for a while and has organized a group to come for a month and build us a building. the other is from a group that has almost [ they are $500.00 short ] raised the money to put a road in to connect the upper property with our lower property. Any way I hate to ask for your help, but need to to be able to help the children. Thanks so much for all you do.
thanks Vicki

Here is what Pedro sent me concerning what the courts want done before we reopen. I was actually pleasantly surprised. I think with the attorneys help we will get all our kids back except the ones who went home to their parents. And maybe some of them as Luis and Anna, Diego and Abram were awarded to us until 18 years old.Please pray about what part you may be able to do.

HI BOS THIS IS THE LIST OF THE JUDGE WANTH WE MAKE IN THE HOGAR THIS IS PRIORITY TO OPENED

BUILDING THE KITCHEN
BUILDING THE DINING ROOM
SECURITY ALL WINDOWS OF THE SECOND FLOOR
MATTRESSES NOT SPONGES
PILLOWS AND BEDDING
MORE LIGHT EXTERIOR

THIS IS THE LIS TO THE STAF WE NEED BEFORE TO APENED
ONE BABYSITTING
ONE COOK
ONE WASHERWOMAN
ONE NURSE
ONE PSYCHOLOGIST
ONE DOCTOR
ONE PROFESSOR
THIS IS FOR THE NUMBER THE CHILDRENS WE HAVE IN THE HOGAR IF WE HAVE A MANY WE NEED MORE STAF
THE CHILDRENS WE HAVE BEFORE CAN NOT GO BACK BECAUSE THE HALF BACK WITH THE FAMILY AND OTHERS GO TO OTHERS ORPHANAGE
THE ATTORNEY WANTH TO SALARI Q 5,000.00 AT MONTH AND HE TAKE THE LEGALY JOB
ANY QUESTION CALL ME

A picture from our new facility and our tutorial program.

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Word From Pedro on yesterday's court

Well looks like we can reopen after we have met many requirements. Most of these we knew;they just all cost money. But this is the next phase. Getting done what they want and bringing back the kids. We could also take some of the infants who are being left in cardboard boxes on the streets to die. Pedro is sending me the list today and I will forward it for everyone to see so you can see what you want to help with. If anyone could organise a work team to go down asap, it would be most helpful.We need to build the outside kitchen. Not hard to do. You would not need experience. Guatemala has only had one case in the City of swine flu so it is not a concern.
Pedro saw alot of the children yesterday. He saw three of the babies who are in the government orphanage Casa Alegria. Two are up for adoption. He was in court from 8 to 5 and called me at 7 his time on the way home. It was pouring down rain and we lost connection. So I missed which two. Luis was returned to his mother. Luis was very upset about this and fought with the judge until Pedro talked to him and told him as soon as we reopen he would try and get him to us. This is the same mom who left him when he was one and he was subsequently raped by all his male relatives. The same mom who never came to visit him in the 3 years he lived with us. I can see why he did not wish to return to her. I guess she could have changed. Anna, Diego and Abram were turned over to their grandparents. I happen to know the grandparents. We went to church with them in Santiago. They seemed concerned about the kids and loving towards them. But they were so poor and so frail, I do not know how they will be able to feed them, much less keep them safe from their dad who sells them to other people and the mom who is a major druggy and prostitute. They also had nothing to do with Abram. I will visit them when I go next month and see how we can help. I just remember when they came to us and Abram was a year and could not even sit up. His head was so flat from always laying. He had been hospitalized many times for malnutrition. And anytime anyone came near him he screamed. Two years later he could walk and talk and loved to be picked up and smiled at everyone. I woke this morning at 4am with a nightmare about those kids. The rest went back to their government orphanages.
Now the time has come to get working to get the things done so we can receive the kids back I will send the list, but know that we personally can not afford to do it all. So please see how you can help.
I will post a list of fundraising ideas, but if everyone earned a $100 it would go so far towards what we need. Or gave $25 each. Write me directly if you wish to help at 20.vicki@gmail.com instead of the comments page.
I need to make a retraction. Apparently I misheard JCICS saying they could help us if we paid part of the airfare. They do not work that way. So please overlook what I thought I heard.
Please do the shoptoearn. I found things I needed on there and it was cheaper than the store and the orphanage earned money. For instance I wanted some landscaping fabric. A 3 by 50 foot roll at Lowe's was $14.50. If I ordered it on ShopToEarn from Ace Hardware, it was $12.00 and they shipped free to any Ace store. The link again
is www.shoptoearn.net/safehomesforchildren.org. thanks for any and all help.

News Flash News Alert

Last week several significant things happened surrounding the issue of reopening and the kids coming back. Tuesday Pedro and our attorney go to the head court to meet with the judge and are grilled by her for 1.5 hours. He could not read her and did not know whether she was in favor or not.There he saw all the kids from our orphanage except the babies. As some of you have asked about Luis, he was there and is in the orphanage in Xela. Abram, Diego and Anna, Anna Esquit, Fernanda, Juan and his fam and all the others. I guess the judge was quizzing them also. Friday she asked for an appointment with Pedro and our attorney. She spoke with them for 7 hours. Some of her comments were: "We should have never been shut down in the first place. There absolutely no evidence of any wrong doing. It was criminal what was done to us." She asked Pedro to get affadavits for her as to people we bought food from and paid rent to and bought other things from. She told him some of the things we needed to change when we reopen such as having meat on the menu everyday. We will do this as we want the kids, but here in the states we don't have meat but a couple of times a week because we think it is healthier so we were trying to feed those kids like we do ours. Anyway that will be done. She wants a kitchen outside the residence building so we will do that. She wants doors on the upstairs rooms. Already in the works. And she said she will have the list of other things when he comes to court on WEDNESDAY the 13th of May. The kids will be there also. I think things will be settled and we are praying, hoping for the best. Please pray and think positive for us. Those kids are in such rotten circumstances. I fear for them. Pedro's brother is the chief of police in Chimaltenango and he told Pedro he is investigating a child trafficking thing going on there. I know what that is like for the child as it was part of my childhood.
We need help so much. I had two people volunteer with the website and am going to try and coordinate their efforts this week to get us more visible. I truly appreciate that.
I also need the funds to build the outside kitchen/dining area. It will be a cement slab with cinder block walls part way up. My husband figures if we have to have someone build it, it will run about $5000.00, but if I can get a team down there asap we can do it for just the materials. Either way, cash donations and work teams are much needed.
They want us to have a playground for the kids. That is another work team project.
My husband and I are going down for two weeks in June and can take donations. I would really like formula and newborn kits as I want to do a new mother day for the community of Mayan ladies while I am there.
Also dental and doctor teams and alternative health people. We need simple medical examining equipment and over the counter meds bad. I have an EMT young man who is volunteering for 6 weeks who could help the community alot with those simple things. I will take them when I go if you will send them to me.
I was at a Time Out For Women's conf. this past week end and got a big name musician to agree to do a concert which will be combined with a dinner for us if we do it in Utah where he lives. I need people to help organise this and put it together, but I believe we can make enough from this to build the next building.
Well enough of your time for now. Let me know if you feel prompted to help with any of these things and please pray for the outcome on Wednesday. And remember 100% of your donations go to Guate to take the children. My time and my husbands is totally volunteered. We only pay our in country staff.
Vicki

Mother's Day if you are an orphan

This is the first Mother's day I have been in the states in 4 years. The last four I have been in Guatemala running the orphanage. Mother's Day is even bigger in Guatemala than it is here. It is celebrated all week long and on Thursday of the week all the mothers attend school with their children and receive their presents. Our little children at the orphanage had either me, Olympia [ the social worker ], or Emma [ the cook ] to go with them to school. Don't get me wrong. we loved them, but every child wants a real mom there with them. Then they have to deal with the question, who do I give all this stuff I made to? I got alot of it and I loved all of it. But every time I shared the sorrow they had that there was not a real mom to give it to. And now this year with them all scattered to the wind at different orphanages, on the street, with abusive families, who do they take to school with them or are they even in school and if they are who do they trust enough to give their little paper crafts to? It makes me sad to ponder their fate.
My Mother's Day was great here in the states with kids and grandkids and a wonderful weekend off while my hubby watched the kids. But Mother's Day was hard for some of the people of the world like the little orphans.

Things are moving forward

Things seem to moving in a forward direction. We have had alot of positives.
1] We have had a former volunteer contact us about bringing a doctor group in Aug. so we can do a clinic.
2]The police have contacted us about putting a substation on our land so they can better protect the road. We have agreed. A perk of this will be better protection for our property and the people there.
3]A former volunteer has agreed to provide Christmas for the 70 kids we do lunch and tutorials for. I hope she will do it for the orphanage kids too when they return.
4]A large Christian organization is going to work with us providing work teams to help with construction projects. We are working on the details of this now.
5]We have two volunteers that each want to stay a month that are involved with medical stuff so I am hoping we can have clinics during July and Aug.
6] We had a member of this group send $500.00 for educational support for Pedro's children. Pedro was so moved that he started crying when I told him. Anselmo's children were able to enroll in school and attend because of the school support of another group member.
7] Another volunteer has paid the fee for Safe Homes to be on Shop To Earn. You can go on www.shoptoearn.net/safehomesforchildren and do all your shopping. Alot of the products are shipped free. There are tons of stores on here and everything you buy gives a financial return to Safe Homes. Wendy has volunteered to walk you thru shopping or if you want to sign up for your own store. SHFC gets $100.00 for everyone who signs up for their own store. Let me know and I will put you in contact with Wendy.
Here are some other things we can use volunteers for
a. website construction
b. construction,doctor and dental teams
c. people to just come work and love the kids.

The authority people came on Weds. A day early; I am sure to show power. Pedro called me and said there were 19 people there. He was so nervous. They liked the land and the house. Some were very pleased and obviously caught our vision for the orphaned children. Others he said were normal. Others wanted to know where the seperate building for the kitchen was and the playground. We promised them as soon as we got word we were reopened we would build them asap. No sense in spending the money otherwise as it can go into more feeding/ tutorial programs.

Which brings me to money to build those things. Please would you consider us for a financial donation. Any size is great. or organize a car wash, a bake sale, a golf tournament. Or a dinner at your church. Some groups have raised as much as $10,000.00 from this. If it is close enough I will come speak or find a volunteer near you who has been on site to come speak. My dad used me in child prostitution and pornography so I know first hand what some of these childrens' lives are like. I am unable to turn my back on them. I can't do it without you. 100% of all donations go to the children of Guatemala.

thanks so much for everyone's help
Vicki

GREAT NEWS

Monday Pedro and our attorney met with the judge for Solola who I guess will make the decision on us reopening. He said he saw no reason for us not to open that everything looked good. That he needed to talk with the PGN attorney and the judge in Panajachel.
Then today the judge in Solola called the attorney and wants to visit our facility next Thurs. in terms of us reopening. What a blessing if we could offer a safe homes to our children again. We have much work to do. Please pray, give money or send positive thoughts our way.
Plus if anyone can connect us to a doctor or dentist tema who is willing to come do community service; our Mayan community could sure use it.
Vicki

Children in Need

We received some upsetting news from Pedro. All the charges against us have been dropped and since we were only closed temporarily we should be able to reopen. In an effort to make this happen , Pedro visited one of our children Fernanda. She will testify to the courts in favor of us reopening. If you volunteers remember her, she is 15 and was one of my daughter 's good friends. We were paying for her to go to a private basico [ middle school ] and she was doing well. Her mom had been in prison and then shot by her drug gang and killed. We had to do suicide watch on Fernanda, but she handled it well. When the children were removed from our home, Fernanda went back to her grandfather. But then her father came and got her. When she was younger and lived with him, he had broken both her legs. When Pedro saw her a few days ago, she was covered with burns and said her dad had poured boiling oil on her. She wants to come home to us so bad and all we need to do it is to reopen. All the government orps will be closed at the end of this week and the children are being tossed to the wind. Some homeless, some abusive homes some other orps. Pedro is trying to keep track of them. The following is a report by the Joint Council on International Children Services. It explains the desperate straits of Guatemala's unwanted children. JCICS is willing to travel to Guatemala and plead our case for reopening asap if we pay their expenses.[ they are going thru a difficlut time financially right now ] Please help in anyway you can. Prayer, money, important contacts.
here is the report
http://www.jcics.org/Guatemala.pdf

thanks
Vicki