Thursday, January 22, 2015

Photo/Essay Report on 2014 Projects--Newsletter #1 Jan 2015--2014 Financial Reports--History YouTube video--Urgent bulletin: PARNERSHIP WITH AMAZON.SMILE

Feb. 7, 2015..........NEW ADDITIONS TO
FOUNDATION LEADERSHIP

URGENT NEWSLETTER Jan. 22, 2015
How to Help the Foundation With a Click of Your Mouse?
PARTNERSHIP WITH AMAZON SMILE


Click  to see the YouTube video recommended to understand the Foundation :  HISTORY VIDEO

Click for  2014 FINANCIAL REPORTS

Click for Newsletter #1 Jan. 2015 Email combo printed 
"Success by any standards."  and  "2014 Summary & 2015 Kickoff"

Click for PREVIOUS POSTS

FOLLOWING is  the 
DETAILED PHOTO/ESSAY REPORT:

"Success by any standards."  &  "2014 Summary & 2015 Kickoff"

The "SCHOOL SUPPLIES PROJECT"
for ALL RURAL SCHOOLS IN SANTA CRUZ VERAPAZ
We put this project first for 2014 as it was up and running even before the school year began in January,  so that the thousands of children in the remote village government schools, as well as the Patzicia and Chuluc Schools, would have the basic supplies needed to begin learning....rather than wait for the government to fulfill their promise for such...always several months late into the school year.
   
The GUATEMALAN FOUNDATION spent $2,651 on this project just for Santa Cruz Verapaz, with expenditures for the same included in the amounts mentioned for the two schools in the Central Highlands....the grand total coming to over $3,000.

THE PATZICIA SCHOOL

During 2014 the Foundation's main project was THE PATZICIA SCHOOL that we have supported since 1982.  Below is a farewell montage of this year's activity as circumstances made it impossible for us to continue.  We are grateful for the opportunity of serving the people of Patzicia for 32 years and will have in our prayers the many thousands of children whose lives have been blessed with a quality education, many hundreds having gone on to higher education and becoming physicians, veterinarians, lawyers, teachers, policemen, mayors, priests, missionaries, bishops, etc.

The Foundation's expenditure to help the school during 2014 was $27,536 

The ARIEL & INES ANDERSEN CHULUC VILLAGE SCHOOL
This government school, 5 miles northwest of Patzicia in the Chuluc Village, was constructed by the Foundation in 1986-87 with $20,000 that was raised to honor my parents after their passing as they had organized the Foundation for Indian Development (now the Guatemalan Foundation) in December 1969 and managed it as non-paid volunteers for the last 14 years of their lives, as well as being during that time the primary donors.  It was then donated to the government to operate,  but we have continued to help the school and village over these 28 years with emergency aid, installation of electricity in the entire village, additions to the school, development of a safe potable water system at the school, and for most of the time paying the wage of one teacher each year.

The Guatemalan Foundation's expenditure for the school during 2014 was $4,412 

Below is a montage representing the school which was part of a Foundation Calendar in 2006.
NOTE:  As you will see when we get to 2015 Projects, the Ariel & Ines Andersen Chuluc School will be our primary focus with the goal of transforming it into a
"MODEL RURAL SCHOOL"

SUPPORT for the  INDIAN FOLKLORE FESTIVAL

In all the Mayan indigenous areas of Guatemala each year, local Folklore Festivals are held to choose the young lady who will represent them in the National Folklore Festival held each year the last Saturday of July in Coban, Alta Verapaz.  In that activity the Indian Queen of Guatemala is chosen....or as they call her, 
"THE DAUGHTER OF THE KING" or "The DAUGHTER OF THE LORD" 

The Foundation helps support this activity that strives to perpetuate all the positive aspects of the Mayan Indigenous cultures (with 23 distinct languages, etc.).  In the past we donated a significant amount for the National Folklore Festival...pictured below....but then realized the local Festival in Santa Cruz Verapaz needed our support more so for 14 consecutive years we were the sponsor of that local event as well as contributing to other local Festivals in Patzicia and other areas of Guatemala.  We hope to become more prominent again in continuing significant contributions to these events and be able to be of greater influence as in the past.  
$261 was donated to help during 2014. We hope to be able to help more during 2015.

 Here you see the group of candidates gathered in Coban in 2014....each wearing the traditional clothing from their areas.  Some have called it
  "The most colorful Indigenous event in the American hemisphere!"



The three children we see above lost both mother and father tragically and were taken in by their 70 year old grandparents who already had other grandchildren in their small, dirt floored home. Federico Veliz, our Regional Director for the Santa Cruz Verapaz area, took charge of helping by constructing a needed home next to the grandparents home.
The Foundation spent $6,327 on this home.  We will continue to help to make sure they get a good education.


Above we see them a few months afterwards working to take care of their home when torrential rains created a problem that luckily was taken care of by them with help from neighbors.

THE CHIQUIGUITAL VILLAGE SCHOOL PROJECT

The Project at the Chiquiguital Village entailed Federico hauling the building materials to the end of the road in his 1987 pickup, where teams of villagers were waiting to haul on their backs, and with tump-lines,  the materials over mountaineous trails on a normally 2 hour hike to Chiquiguital.  

For other details see the previous reports, where I described having slept in the old school with my armed team trying to track down cattle rustlers back in the 70's.  That school was  afterwards burned down by the Communist Guerrillas.  The government finally helped rebuild the school, but there was need of doubling the classrooms, so we went to work helping them help themselves.


The project was dedicated in October and is ready for use in the new school year beginning in now  January.


The Foundation invested $6,077 in the Chiquiguital Project that added to the government school a new building with two classrooms, plus remodeling and modernizing the sanitary facilties.

The Valparaiso Plantation is where all the Foundation work started. Note:  Above is seen the front page of a 46 page long photographic history of the plantation and it's cooperation with the Foundation.   It eventually became known as 
THE CENTER FOR INDIAN DEVELOPMENT.....
....with a comprehensive educational program that was interrupted by the Guerrilla War in 1981 when it had to be suspended.  At that time a 2 acre section of land from the plantation was donated to the government, the Foundation provided construction materials, and the people did the work of constructing  a government school.... the building on the left.  From there it has multiplied with Foundation help to become one of the most unique rural schools in the entire country.
For details, see past reports & Success Stories.

Several pictures below show the progress and then get to the 
VALPARAISO/RIO FRIO SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS for 2014.




Down on the river level another large classroom building was constructed, recently added to.



In 2012 the "Julie Memorial Classroom" was built along with remodeling the kitchen.




With the leadership of our Regional Director, retired-professor Federico Veliz, a Junior High School was organized using the same buildings in the afternoons.  In 2014 youth from 7 villages in the area attended with a total of 97 in the student body.

VALPARAISO/RIO FRIO SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS for 2014.


The project began with the construction of a secure storage room on the upper level adding it on to the main school complex as seen directly below.

The Project included creating a retention wall and courtyard area on the main level with secure wall as seen above.  Then s stairway to join the upper level with the area down along the Caohobon River,  with a drainage gutter to guide run-off from the frequent torrential rains around the lower level buildings. 



New sanitary facilities were built along with 3 washing facilities to wash hands, and dishes, as seen  above.
$6,601 was spent on these projects.

The SANTA CRUZ VERAPAZ CHRISTMAS PROJECT FOR THE NEEDY


Numbers 1-10 were at the remote Chiquiguital Village.  1. & 2. The villagers gathered in the Catholic Chapel where Federico gave a short speech on the "true meaning of Christmas" focusing on the birth of Jesus Christ;  3. Federico then began passing out simple gifts for the children;  4.  Federico's wife also made the 2 hour hike and helped in the celebration;  5. & 6.  Passing out gifts to happy children, with boys in one line, girls in another;  7.  Then mother's with babes in arms lined up to get something for their babies;  9. & 10.  The celebration then moved outside where even Santa Claus dropped by, and participated in some fun activities...like the traditional piñata. Then the long hike back to civilization to attend to the needy in Santa Cruz.

In numbers 11. thru 16. many needy in Santa Cruz' urban center were provided with items of great need, like blankets. 
 In number 17. we see Federico giving gifts to Cordell Andersen Sep Xicol, his brother, Armando, and their mother, gifts provided by  Santa Claus (Cordell M Andersen)!

The amount spent  on this Christmas project and the one at the Chuluc Village is included in the $5,571 listed as Emergency Aid.



Our Continuing Aid to  the
Ariel & Ines Andersen CHULUC VILLAGE SCHOOL

Our aid to the school, beginning with a CHRISTMAS PARTY on December 19th, and on into 2015,  comes  from one of those graduating from the Patzicia School.  It was Mario de la Cruz who thereafter continued his education,  and fifteen years ago  became a volunteer and then secretary of the school and was a crucial influence to keep the school going all those years.  At the same time, with  a Foundation scholarship,  he studied on the weekends acquiring his teaching degree, and is now in his last year to become a lawyer.  We feel honored to have him  now  as the Foundation's  Regional Director, and teacher at the Ariel & Ines Andersen Chuluc School for 2015.    Below I'll insert a photograph of Mario with his young family.

CHRISTMAS AT THE 
ARIEL & INES ANDERSEN CHULUC VILLAGE SCHOOL
 & OUR MAIN PROJECT FOR 2015

1.  A typical view of the Chuluc Village area where agriculture is the activity of the villagers, mainly corn, harvested in December as you see in this picture, but they also grow for export, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, coliflor, etc.;   2.  A typical little girl from Chuluc where no child has ever been able to continue their education past the 6th grade;  3.  Toby Pingree visiting the school, soon after its construction and inauguration in 1987;  4.  The school as seen from the street, seeing a new front door, and we'll see all the classrooms also with new doors, and a new paint job--all acquired by the villager's initiative being successful requesting this improvement from a Evangelical Church with a U.S. connection;  5.  The school showing the new doors and paint job;  6.-9.  The children gathered for the Christmas Celebration, directed by Mario, each child receiving a gift from the Foundation; 

10. The women from the village, with one of the teachers, preparing refreshments for all;  11. A happy student eating his tamale;  12. A happy mother, with her children, who knows that they face a brighter future with the Foundation dedicating its efforts from here on to helping the villagers help themselves.
13.  Mario de la Cruz, our new Regional Director, and teacher at the school, paid by the Foundation, visiting with Don Maximo, who was the village leader in 1987 and still recognized as the village patriarch. 

 Happy with the prospect of even improving more his village with a program for 2015 in which all aspects of improvement will come from a fund into which children and adults will contribute, and have their donations matched by the Foundation, including a Scholarship Fund which will make possible for the first time qualified and interested graduates continuing their education after the 6th grade.

The amount spent  on this Christmas project and the one at Santa Cruz Verapaz  is included in the $5,571 listed as Emergency Aid.

From our Year End Balance, funds have already been transferred to Mario to get the Chuluc School started right.  By month's end and on through the year, we need donations to meet our commitments with the school & village.

The "SCHOOL SUPPLIES PROJECT" 
in the Village Schools of Santa Cruz Verapaz

As for the Chuluc Village School, from the Year End Balance, money has been transferred to Federico and he is acquiring the materials to be distributed on January 19th.  An additional $2,000 is needed to meet our goal of providing each rural student with the basics needed to get a good start.  PLEASE HELP US GET THIS PROJECT COMPLETED.

This photograph is the same used in te beginning of this post--from the 2014 project.


As you can see, as described by our Co-Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Toby Pingree, 2014 was:

A successful year by anyone's standards.  We should all feel proud!"

PLEASE HELP US ALSO MAKE 2015 JUST AS SUCCESSFUL...
..AND MAYBE A LITTLE MORE...

....by donating as much as you can as often as possible, and help also by getting a friend or two on board.

You can donate easily clicking on DONATE at the head of each page, or send your donations to:

The GUATEMALAN FOUNDATION
Cordell M Andersen
Executive Director
P.O. Box 1296
American Fork, UTAH  84003

Tel. 801-489-1272

A NEW PARTNERSHIP WITH AMAZON

READ THE URGENT BULLETIN-- HOW TO HELP WITH A CLICK OF YOUR MOUSE:
 Page 2