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Sponsored Students
Student Sponsorship Program
There are still new students awaiting sponsors for the upcoming 2011 school year. To read their stories, go to our Sponsor a Student page,
Click here!
and help give a child the gift of an education.

Web Site work!

Our Web Site is

 getting a much needed tune up! We have a new web master. We have a number of projects for them including the Elderly Care Sponsorship Page, the Family Aid Sponsorship Page and others. They have fixed the Monthly Sponsorship page so you can now go in and Sponsor a Student with Monthly Installments at

Monthly Sponsorship
January 2011 Monthly
e-Newsletter
Greetings!

Happy New Year ! It has been a busy and exciting start to the 2011 year!

BacktoSchoolBACK TO SCHOOL
Student going back to School

The Guatemalan school year runs from January to October.

Thanks to all our wonderful supporters we have sent over 1,600 Guatemalan children back to school this month! It has been a very busy time giving out back packs, school shoes, and school supplies. The past year, 2010  has been difficult for Guatemalans,  volcano eruptions, mudslides, flooding, sink holes, low tourism resulting in many job losses and rising prices. Families that could afford to send children before are struggling and unable to do so. We still have many, many children waiting and hoping for sponsorship ...it is not too late to sponsor a child. 
NEW JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL OPENS  IN TIERRA LINDA. 
Computer Class 

Mayan Families working with the Dept. of Education has opened the first ever, long anticipated, Junior High school in Tierra Linda this month. 

This school is going to allow many students to be able to continue their education. Thank you to so many people for making this possible especially Connexiones de Canada and the Rotary Club 3694 of Upper Arlington, Ohio! 

MAYAN FAMILIES PARTNERING WITH MISSION GUATEMALA OPENS PRE-SCHOOL AND FEEDING PROGRAM IN SAN ANDRES SEMEBETAJ.   

San Andres Preschool 

Student
This much needed pre-school opened this month. 38 children are attending the morning pre-school where they have a hot breakfast, brush their teeth, take a vitamin tablet, take classes from a qualified teacher which will give them a head start to go to school and then have a healthy snack before they head home. They will be able to receive medical attention from the clinic that Mission Guatemala has opened on the same large grounds as the pre-school. These children were selected to attend the pre-school because they all come from homes that do not have enough food to feed them, often the father is ill or out of work or it is a single mother household.    

THE ELDERLY CARE AND ORPHAN CARE PROGRAM IN SAN JORGE LA LAGUNA OPENS!! 
Elderly Care in San Jorge

Thanks to a very kind donation from an anonymous donor we have been able to open a small center to care for 40 elderly people 5 days a  week. Most of them come to the center to share their hot lunch time meal but about 10 of them are not mobile and we deliver the lunch to their home.The elderly are so happy to receive  a regular meal a day...often they had only one tortilla for breakfast and one for lunch and nothing for dinner.  We also give lunch to 14 children who have lost their mothers and who do not have anyone to cook a meal for them during the day. These children also had no one to wash their clothes or to remind them to wash their hair. They were looking very dirty and uncared for ..and were being teased. So we have someone at the center who washes their clothes twice a week and who supervises washing their hair.   

One of the great side benefits of this program is that it is providing two jobs, one to a single mother and the other to a recently widowed mother who has 6 children and no way to support them. They are both thrilled to have jobs and to be able to help their community. 
JANUARY AND FEBRUARY ARE CLEAN WATER MONTHS AT MAYAN FAMILIES.   

If you have given a water filter to your sponsored family more than a year ago...it is time to replace the ceramic filters....they cost $40 US a pair . If you would like to give the gift of clean drinking water to a family, we can supply a filter for $50 US that will last the whole year...approx. $0.14cents US per day for clean drinking water. 
Click here to donate for a water filter or replacement ceramic filters

MandAneedfoodMaria and Alejandra need food

Maria and Alejandra












Maria is 78 years old and she is still caring for her daughter full time. Her daughter Alejandra is 44 and suffers from a disease that has been undiagnosed because Maria has never had the money to take her to a specialist doctor. Alejandra was a 'normal', more or less healthy child up until she contracted a fever when she was 8 years old. The fever went on for 3 months and her whole body became red and inflamed. Her mother took her to the doctor who prescribed some medicine. They gave her the medicine and this reduced the inflammation and the redness but after several days on this medication Alejandra starting bleeding from her ears and she started suffering attacks. The fever reduced but Alejandra was never the same again.Since then she needs to be cared for constantly. Her mother dresses her and bathes her and has to endure her attacks. When Alejandra has an 'attack' she punches, kicks and screams, she doesn't remember who anyone is, she gets very agitated and violent. This sometimes happens just once a day, sometimes it happens several times a day. When Maria's husband was alive, the family was very poor but they at least had somewhere to live. Since he died 10 years ago Maria and Alejandra have relied on the kindness of neighbours for accommodation, often squeezing into overcrowded rooms, sleeping on the floor because there are no beds. They only eat when Maria sells some of the clothing that she makes by hand on a belt loom.
 
Alejandra

 
Although she has some neighbours that have taken them in and shared what little space they have, there are other neighbours who do not tolerate Alejandra's violent behaviour. Some have been known to hit her and punish her for her behaviour during attacks. Maria at 78 years old no longer has the strength to restrain Alejandra from doing harm to others or to herself, nor does she have the strength to stop neighbours from hitting out at Alejandra. The situation is really difficult and painful for her.
If you can offer any financial assistance to these two women - what they need most is regular food. We sent them to a doctor Mayan Families trusts to find out what he recommends as treatment for Alejandra. We would like to try and assist these two women with an appointment with a doctor who can diagnose and treat her condition. We don't know how much this will cost at present. However even more pressing than this is just that they have sufficient food. If you can assist please go to the donate now page, scroll down to the other box and enter FA 94. If you would like to make a regular donation please click on donate monthly, scroll down to the other programs box and enter FA 94. Please read the Mayan Families Family Aid Blog here.Visit our blog
MFmakeshistoryMayan Families makes History in Guatemala! 1st ever Animal Rights Rally and March!
Hope for the Animals

January has been historic for Mayan Families Hope for the Animals Program!
Mayan Families made history on Sunday January-30-2011 by being a part of the 1st ever, 1st Annual Animal Rights March and Rally in Guatemala City, Guatemala! We had 10 people come along with us and we joined thousands in the March and Rally! This was the first Rally of this size for Animal Rights! Numerous small groups were in attendance, however, only Mayan Families, as a group, was invited to speak up on stage! Our Indigenous Mayan representatives, Rosa, her friends and family were invited up onto the stage that moments before had a popular Guatemalan Rock Group Playing. Rosa spoke to the crowd in Spanish to great woofs and loud applause! Rosa, our spokesperson and Mayan Families were later interviewed on Guatemala local T.V. and by the Presna Libre Newspaper. The Mayan Families program " Hope for the Animals" or Esperanza para las Animales" holds a monthly spay and neuter clinic. Saturday 30th we held a very successful clinic and sterilized 54 dogs and cats. 

We had to stop accepting animals at 10:30 am, because we had so many. We had a grand total of 54 dogs and cats! So many that we have decided to have another sterilization clinic next week, where we will probably have another 40!!

Marching for Animal Rights!
Click here for more photos of the Rally!
We had a number of students working with us on Saturday.
Omi 1662, his brother Heriberto 1663, Juan Jose 740, Felix 901. It was a pleasure to work with them! They are all hard workers and enjoyed what they did at the clinic. This is a great experience and gives them a view of what an education can provide! They can now see what being a Vet is all about and maybe become one some day! 

It is just $20 US to spay or neuter an animal and prevent a lot of future suffering.
Click here to see more photos of the January Dog and Cat Sterilization Clinic 

TierralindaCelebrating the Inauguration of two classrooms in Tierra Linda Elementary school.
Tierra Linda

Thanks to the wonderful efforts of Paso por Paso, a Canadian charity partnering with Mayan Families much of the Tierra Linda Elementary school has been renovated or new classrooms built.  This past week we celebrated the opening of two new classrooms ....one is home to the 1st graders and the other classroom will be a library and will also have space for an office for the school director.

The teachers and the children were so happy to have these new classrooms. 

If you would like to help Mayan Families gain more support, please consider forwarding this e-mail to your friends, family, and colleagues. You can do a Facebook or Twitter posting, put up posters, shout from mountain tops -- get creative! Spreading the word is free, and lets the world know you think Mayan Families is doing a good job and deserves their support. It is a huge help to us and introduces our programs to people who would never hear about them otherwise.
Thank you again for your support!
 
To make a contribution please go to our website
http://mayanfamilies.org/DonateOnline
and go the General Donation section to send a donation.
If you would like to pay by check please send your donation made out to Mayan Families to:

Mayan Families
P.O. Box 52
Claremont, N.C. 28610
 
If you would like to give this gift in Honor of someone special, please send us an email at dwight@mayanfamilies.org
giving us the details and we will put them on our IN HONOR OF web page.....to have an e-mail sent to the person you are honoring - please send us their email address.
 
Please, dig deep down into your hearts and make the most generous gift you can today. Then please forward this e-mail to family, friends and contacts, asking them to do the same. In 2011, as thousands of children and families have their dreams come true, it will be because of you. 
Thank you for your kindness! 
 
ABOUT US:
Mayan Families is a small non-profit group working in the Highlands of Guatemala. We are a registered 501(c)(3) Non Profit Charity of the Internal Revenue Code.
Your donation is tax deductible.
Can you organize a fundraiser in your community?
 
Every little bit helps! 
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Thank you once again for supporting Mayan Families!
 
Sincerely,
Sharon Smart-Poage
Mayan Families
www.mayanfamilies.org
Tel: 619-550-2608