Thursday, August 13, 2015

July Projects for THE CHULUC VILLAGE SCHOOL & for Projects in Santa Cruz Verapaz and Coban

Click here to understand better the Foundation:
 Video #18 The Complete History of the Guatemalan Foundation

Click here for :  SPANISH TRANSLATION--EN ESPAÑOL

UPDATE August 11, 2015
SCROLL DOWN FOR THE COBAN-SANTA CRUZ VERAPAZ ACTIVITIES

Click here for: NEWSLETTER #8-2015 July Projects at "Ariel & Ines Andersen" Chuluc School, and Projects in Santa Cruz Verapaz and Coban

THE "ARIEL and INES ANDERSEN"   CHULUC VILLAGE SCHOOL

July activities at the school & community:

1.  Medication was provided for a previous student at the school who sadly is now a terminal cancer victim.

2.  The Foundation's  friend and community leader, Don Maximo, who in recent years has become crippled,  was provided with medication. 

We still have hopes by Christmas of having enough money to provide him with an electric chair/cart to help make his life a lot better.  $700 of extra funds are needed for this--a small reward for this wonderful community leader who led the effort in 1986-87 to build the school and who has dedicated his life helping his rural community.
In this photograph we see don Maximo with our Regional Director, Mario, who is one of the teachers at the school, whose wage is paid by the Foundation, and for whom we provide a scholarship so he can continue his education on weekends.  He has been a dedicated volunteer with the Foundation for 16 years, during which time we helped him achieve his Teaching Certificate, and we feel it is a great investment for Guatemala to help him one more year and achieve his Law degree. 

A WISE COMMUNITY DECISION: 
3.  Mario and the community leaders had a decision to make  concerning available Foundation and community donations:  Rather than give into political pressure to donate to the Municipal Fair,  their decision was to provide medicines for the above two points, and then, after paying the  bills for electricity and the Nutrition Program,  spend the rest  providing a needed  lice treatment for all the students.  We don't have a picture of what was done, so we'll insert a photograph from a few years ago when the Foundation provided antibiotics to treat students sick with dysentery--due to their only water source being contaminated.
As some of you might recall, this eventually led to the Foundation helping them create a safe potable water system, with a 55 meter deep hand-dug well,  submersible pump, etc.,  the first flush toilets and septic tank system in the village,  and electric installation in the entire community. 
To remind us of these efforts, here are a few of the photographs of those life saving/enhancing efforts of the Guatemala Foundation. Thanks again to all of those caring contributors who made all of these efforts possible for this needy area.

BELOW CONTINUES THE BRIEF PREVIOUS POST ABOUT CHULUC

The Foundation pays Mario's wage as a teacher, provides his monthly scholarship to continue his studies,  matches the community's contribution to pay the electric bill, help with  the daily Nutrition Program, and a scholarship program for graduates.

This smiling face is of one of the many children who are grateful for all we are doing.

PLEASE HELP AS MUCH AS YOU CAN TO CONTINUE CONVERTING THIS SCHOOL INTO A 
"MODEL RURAL SCHOOL"


THE PROJECTS FROM SANTA CRUZ VERAPAZ and COBAN

Following is the somewhat modified previous report.
SCROLL down to see photographs of new progress in our projects.....

We have provided sufficient funds to finish repairing, and painting all the desks, & tables, plus the computers donated to Santa Cruz by our previous director from Patzicia, Professor Humberto Xicay.  
Following is the first distribution of desks that went to a special school for rural students that has been meeting in another school's auditorium, and needed desks. 

Federico's 1987 Toyota pickup with a reconstructed diesel motor....
.....NOW LOADED and READY TO DELIVER!
Ready to make the trip to the
 INSTITUTE OF DIVERSIFIED EDUCATION. 





NEXT: 
  PROJECT TO RECONSTRUCT "DON BENITO'S" SHACK, 
 TURNING IT INTO A "HOME" FOR HIM, WIFE AND LITTLE CHILDREN

This project is to help Don Benito, a father, who became an invalid due to an accident 7 years ago. Federico is seen providing him with new crutches.  We now need to help improve his very poor home where he lives with his wife and several small children you see below.  We will need additional funds to get that project started and then help him find a way to provide for his family better.
Wood has been ordered at a local sawmill to get the job of reconstruction underway.  

NOTE:  Due to normal donations for July being low, we were a bit slow in transferring  funds to finish purchasing construction materials and actually get the project going.  A fairly large donation from one of our trustees made it possible to accomplish finally getting started on a simple home for Benito and his young family....the project should be through by mid August.



As we are seeing,  this stage of the construction follows traditional methods using wood uprights of wood that won't rot in the humidity, and eventually will have a cement floor and porch.


No electricity in the area, and even if there were, hand tools are the only tools had by native carpenters.

Sand, cement  and rocks were also paid for and ready to create a cleanable cement floor for the home.  By month's end we will have a photographic report of the finished project.

The report below is from the previous post but sadly we also had to help with another funeral for the son of Pedro Cho from the Pancalax Village who lost his life in an accident.

PROVIDING COMFORT TO A WIDOW and HER CHILDREN
We were able to help in the funeral of a young man from the Valparaiso Community who died tragically in a cave-in  where construction materials are mined.

Another of so many such sad cases where a young mother and tiny children are left alone.

Thanks for helping make it possible to provide some comfort when a family feels very alone and confused about their future.

LAST OF ALL...
SCHOLARSHIP HELP FOR AURA
Aura, seen below to the right in a blue blouse, is the adopted daughter of the Foundation's Executive Director.  In her first 18 months of life she was saved twice from sure death and then raised by Cordell and eventually adopted legally in 1996, along with Mahana.  When Cordell moved back to the U.S. in 2002 she wasn't able to automatically come as she was already 21 years old. 

 So eventually her Residence Visa was applied for which she 
waited 10 years for when disappointingly bureaucratic mistakes had it cancelled, which was devastating for her and the family.  Appeals were unsuccessful.
During this long period Cordell helped her get a university education with a degree in Social Work.  The above photograph shows her and other students working with a group of rural Mayan mothers.  

She is now doing an internship working towards her Master's Degree, and has appealed to the Foundation for the help she needs to finish.....a situation very similar to that of Mario, our Regional Director from the Patzicia/Chuluc area.

These kinds of higher educational degrees in Guatemala are only realistically available to the children of wealthy families....thus the need of Foundation scholarship help.

We see her above working in her part-time job with a national newspaper trying to cover  her living  expenses, but desperately needs Foundation help to make it through her final 11 months.

As mentioned, in the case of Mario, the Foundation believes that helping these kinds of  Guatemalans can be a great blessing for their people and the country.

I am only one, but I am one.
I can't do everything, but I can do something.
What I can do, I ought to do,
And...
What I ought to do.....
...by the grace of God, I SHALL DO!
By Edward Everett Hale

PLEASE HELP ALL YOU CAN
At the head of the page click on DONATE...or
Send your donations to:

THE GUATEMALAN FOUNDATION
P.O. Box 1296

American Fork, UTAH  84003

No comments:

Post a Comment