Guatemala – 2011
Thanks to everyone that helped with donations of money, supplies for our trip to Guatemala.
We were high in the mountains so we froze at night and got burnt during the day.
We were facilitating the location of a community centre in a remote town of about 5000 of Saquil Grande people which will provide training for local people plus provide small loans to start businesses.
This program is only for women – they can borrow up to $200 and it has had a 96% success rate in other countries.
This is all initiated by local people and training will be provided in sewing, computers, mechanics and various course.
In this area there is no way of dealing with sewage or garbage and the hydro power is very limited, however they do have reasonable wireless internet due to the location of a tower nearby.
The local schools in this town have dirt floors, walls made of rough wooden boards and very thin tin roofs ( cannot teach when raining – too much noise)
Most of the children coming to school are malnourished and find it difficult to concentrate in class. Before Grade 6 there is a large drop out rate as children are often also expected to work to support the family. During school vacations – even the youngest children work. The only economy is subsistence farming at the moment – growing enough to feed their families.
They are looking to start building the community centre on donated land in late spring. The Micro Finance program will be starting before the end of the year — Over 50 women showed up for a meeting and waited even though we were nearly 2 hours late – Rough, unpaved roads and various delays are common.
We helped build a greenhouse and had a soccer tournament for both boys and girls — The winners got soccer uniforms from Canada and the losers got school supplies. We also fed all participants at the end with a cooked meal of an egg, rice, tortilla and some orange juice —-
There was so much more — but thank you again.
We plan to go back early in 2012 – Martin and Nancy Foster