Tamales and more...

As we finish Thanksgiving here in the States, I feel overwhelmed by all we have. I know many of us have been touched by the economic downturn. This year I am hoping to be able to re-sponsor our students for the next school year. I am also hoping that all 7 students' families can receive a tamale basket this year. We have two sponsored so far. Please send me an email if you would like to contribute in any way. I would hate to not be able to keep these children in school.



You may also donate directly using the button below. If you need the donation to be tax deductible, please email me so that I can coordinate the contributions and make sure that the students are credited with the donation.



You can email me at givingtoguatemala@gmail.com



Thanks so much for a great year.

Shipment Update

Sorry to be out of the loop, but I know you guys understand. I got 8 large boxes sent down to go into the next Mayan Families shipment. Each of our sponsored students has a small package. I included things like: soap, dental hygeine items for the entire family, a toy, markers/crayons, and a new shirt (for everyone that wears Western type clothes). I also threw in a few other things that I can't remember off hand.

As you get ready for the holidays, please remember our sponsored students. One of the best gifts you can give someone is an education. I hope we can continue to sponsor all of our students in the coming year.

Kim

For Septemer Shipment

One of our wonderful members has taken care of backpacks and school supplies for our students. She is also done a wonderful job of fundraising for Mayan Families. Thank you so much for your hard work.

Since school supplies are covered, I am looking for things to go into Christmas packages for our students. The first thing that is really easy is Happy Meal toys. If your child gets Happy Meals, please consider collecting the toys and shipping them to Guatemala.

I am also wondering if you guys have anything that you would like to include in these packages. I thought a soccer ball for each family, sheets/blankets, what other ideas???

Thanks,
Kim

Please remember that you can email me at givingtoguatemala@gmail.com

New Donate buttons

I have placed new donate buttons under each additional student on the right. This allows you to more easily donate directly to a student's needs. Remember you can also donate directly to these students on the Mayan Families website. Please just email me for their student number in order for Mayan families to direct the funds.

School Supplies

Hi Everyone,
One of our wonderful "members" is travelling to Guatemala and has gotten together backpacks and school supplies for all of our sponsored students.
I will still continue funds for school supplies. These supplies will go into the general school supply donations for Mayan Families. A woman is collecting money and covering the shipping herself. You can donate via paypal. If you would like to send a check please email me for details. These donations will not be tax deductible.
Thanks,
Kim Santee

Back to School

For lots of us the Back to School sales are upon us, and there are great deals. I will be involved in a shipment to Guatemala in August/September. This shipment will include school supplies for the school year that will begin in January there AND toys for Christmas.

I am looking for people who would like to sponsor a backpack full of school supplies OR send school supplies with money for shipping. I am also looking for people interested in sending toys donation for distribution.

Lastly, I have a ton of donations that need to be shipped. The cost of shipping is $17/cubic foot. If anyone has extra money to help cover shipping please consider donating.

Updates

We have received a wonderful picture colored by one of our students. It is from Alejandro and he is full of gratitude for what we are doing for him. I will be posting scans in the next few days.

Still here

I am still here and trying to figure out ways to help the people of Guatemala.
I will try to update over the next several days.

Announcing our next project...

There is a lot to report on and I will be posting lots of new information over the next few days. Please watch for the great posts, including picture updates of our students.

Our next project will be water filters. This is a great project because using a matching grant through the rotary club... each $1 become $4. That equates to each $50 filter becoming 4. Each filter will last the average family in the area Mayan Famliies works in about 2 years. So we can affect about 30-40 people with a single $50 donation. Clean water is so important! I am working on several avenues to help get water filters to our sponsored families as well as other families in the area. There is severe need among the elderly.

I am also looking for families that would be interested in shipping items to Guatemala.

As always... you can email me at givingtoguatemala@gmail.com

Thanks,
Kim

No news

I haven't heard anything about what you guys are currently interested in, but I have been working hard.

I have been working with a lot of people collecting donations to send down to Guatemala. I will post pictures soon, but I have lots of toothbrushes, shoes, clothes, vitamins and toys for the new preschool that Mayan Families has opened. I am sending two boxes down on Saturday.

If you are interested in shipping donations to Guatemala, please let me know. Organizing a shipment or just sending something to Guatemala is a great way to give back.

I will be out of pocket starting on Friday (15th) until the following Sunday (24th). If you send me an email, I will get back ASAP.

Thanks for all of your ideas and support. We ARE making a difference.

What would you like to be part of?

I am looking for what you might be interested in being a part of, please post a comment telling me what you would like to be our next project.

1. WINGS

2. Water Filters

3. Onil Stoves

4. Other... please specify a program.

Our students that still need Mother's Day Baskets

The following students are waiting for the food basket sponsorship.

474 Rosa
963 Mayra
1025 Marcos
1029 Juan
972 Alejandro (this family did receive a Santa Semana Basket)

Please consider sponsoring a basket for one of these families. The cost is $35, and if it is sent directly to Mayan Families then it will be tax deductible. If you sponsor one of these students, please let me know so that I can take them off the list.

Adoptive Families Giving Back to Guatemala: Mother's Day Food Baskets

Mother's Day Food Baskets

Mayan Families Dia de la Madre - Mothers Day Food Baskets

It is Mothers Day and we would like to celebrate Dia de la Madre in Guatemala by giving as many mothers as possible a basket of food to share with their families.

In Guatemala a Mothers work is never done. When they are pregnant they very rarely can afford to see a doctor, when they give birth, it is often at home with an untrained midwife, they usually have more pregnancies than their bodies can cope with.
Daily, they often carry either water on their heads or heavy loads of firewood on their backs, walking for long distances, often with a swaddled baby on their bodies and another small child or two by their side. Once home, they chop wood, cook over an open fire, make tortillas by hand while attending to their families needs.
At the end of a long day, going to bed often means sleeping on a woven straw mat on a dirt floor.

This Mothers Day we would like to make life a little easier for them. Let's support these impoverished Women and their families by donating a Dia de la Madre Food Basket to them. You can donate a basket to the mother of your sponsored family or if you wish, you can donate a basket of food to a needy family ...please make your donation online at the Mayan Families Web site, a simple and safe way to donate.

Please follow this link http://www.mayanfamilies.org/DonateOnline and send your donation of $35 using the Family Aid section and note on it that it is for a Mothers Day Basket. If you would like to nominate a special family or a sponsored student to receive your basket please do so here and include the name or student number.

The mothers in Guatemala need all the help they can get to feed their children and families. Please help them now!

If you would like to pay by check please send your donation made out to Mayan Families to:

Mayan Families
2609 Hartford St.
San Diego, California 92110-2315

If you would like to give this gift in Honor of someone special, please send us an email to dwight@mayanfamilies.org giving us the details and we will put them on our IN HONOR OF Blog.

Best wishes and Happy Mothers Day,
Sharon Smart-Poage
MAYAN FAMILIES


P.S. Please help spread the word by forwarding this e-mail to your community or posting it on your personal blog, web page and your social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Hi5, Ning and any others that are appropriate.

Raffle Winner

The winner of the raffle is Michelle in TN. We raised $35 in the raffle. The family that will receive a food basket from the this raffle is Freddy's family.

Thanks for the continued support.

Who will beneift from this raffe? Laura?

Laura Yolanda is 10yrs old. She is in 3rd grade in 2009.Her birthday is May 3rd.
She lives in a small village above Solola.She lives with her father and her mother, and she has five sisters, one brother and one half brother.
The father works in a restaurant in Guatemala City. He earns $20 US per week.
The mother makes woven baskets out of reeds. She earns $2 US per week.
She is also ill, she has a lot of pain in her stomach, she has not
been able to pay for medical attention.One of her brothers works after school collecting firewood. He sells this and also keeps some for the home. He earns $3 US when he sells the firewood.

Please consider donating to help this family receive a food basket. What better gift to give another parent than to insure that her children are fed?

Please consider contributing to the raffle
Adoptive Families Giving Back to Guatemala: RAFFLE

________________________________________

Who will beneift from this raffle? Freddy?

The first student to be profiled is Freddy. He is one of the five students that will benefit from this raffle.
We are sponsoring him in school (he is in 5th grade this year) and we have sent this family vitamins. I currently have a request in for ways that we can help this family. His family is very poor and need our assistance desperately. This family did not receive an Easter food basket and I would LOVE to be able to provide the family with a Mother's Day food basket. You can donate and win a great piece of art.
Adoptive Families Giving Back to Guatemala: RAFFLE

Freddy is 11 yrs old. He lives with his mother and father and 3 siblings (12, 5, and almost 2). They do not own their own house, they are renting a house in Panajachel. They pay $22 a month for one room. The father is a builder's assistant. He makes $4.60 US a day. They have just one bed. They have a small kitchen that they have made out of tin sheets. They do not have any closets to mind their clothes, they keep all their possessions in a cardboard box. They cook over an open fire on the ground.
They lost their rented house and all their possession in the Hurricane Stan last year.

RAFFLE

Welcome to our first raffle to raise funds for Guatemalan causes. This campaign is to raise money for food baskets for Mother's Day in Guatemala. The baskets will go to our sponsored students' families. You do not have to participate in the raffle to donate money to this cause.

This raffle will end at midnight on April 25, 2009.

This raffle is for a personalized piece of artwork. The value is $50. This is an EXAMPLE:






You will work with the artist to specialize your piece.

The number of entries you receive will depend on the amount donated to this worthy cause $3 for one entry; $5 for two; and $10 for five entries. So the more you donate the greater chance you have to get a wonderful piece of art for your home (or that special mother in your life).

I will send an email out to the winning entry by noon on April 26, 2009.

These donations are not tax deductible

This is from a gracious mom who is not an adoptive parent, but interested in abolishing poverty.

Here is some info from her blog:
Initial Designs

Initial Designs is a business that has been in development for years, but finally came together in October of 2007. I am the owner and artist, Melissa Jackson, and I specialize in lettering and will create a custom piece of art on canvas for any room of your home or as a unique gift.

These are other examples of her work:

Hello Again

We hope to be changing the blog to blogger soon. Please bookmark both sites. The current domain name .... www.givingbacktoguatemala.org will be where you will find out new site. There will be a link to the blog on the new site.

I also will be hosting a raffle for mother's day. The proceeds will go towards Mother's Days baskets for sponsored students families.

If anyone would like to contribute to raffles or donate items to sell on the new site. I will give you 3 months free advertising for donating an item to sell or raffle.

Need Input???

I am looking for individuals or businesses interested in improving lives. There is advertising space that will be available on the new site for $5/month. I am also looking for anyone who would like to donate items to be sold or raffled for funds to be distributed in our next project.

Please contact me at givingtoguatemala@gmail.com

Easter Baskets for Sponsored Students

We have received assignments for 5 students and are still awaiting additional assignments. I am excited to extend an opportunity to enrich the lives of these families further.

Please consider giving to the Semana Santa Easter Basket Drive. If you would like to give directly to Mayan Families and make sure it goes to a sponsored student's familiy, please contact me at givingtoguatemala@gmail.com and I can give you the information you need. Please let me know if you are choosing to participate(in other words, prevent duplicates to some families and nothing to others). You can also donate directly here and I will aggregate the funds for donation.

(this will NOT be tax deductible).
Thanks,
Kim

You can find more information below:

Semana Santa Easter Food Baskets
3/15/2009 permalink tell a friend

This year we are a little late with getting our notice out about Semana Santa
( Easter ) food baskets.
Hopefully, we will have it sent out to everyone by next week.
But in the meantime, I wanted to let you know that we will be doing Easter baskets of sweet bread and chocolate.
At Semana Santa it is the tradition for families to eat sweet bread and have drinking chocolate. Many of the families that we work with cannot afford to share in this tradition.
Last year , I think, we gave out about 250 Easter baskets, I can't remember exactly and I don't have the information here with me in Australia....but I think it was close to that.

This year, because so many families are in need of food, we would like to increase the food basket, we will have the sweet bread, a block of chocolate to make hot chocolate, sugar but we will also include a dozen eggs, oatmeal and the vitamin enriched cereal, Incaparina. The food will be put into a plastic bucket that has many uses in a Guatemalan household.

If you would like to give a basket to your sponsored student or for any family in general ...please send your donation through our website and mark it for Semana Santa ...the baskets will cost $35 US.

If you would like to send a check, please send it to Mayan Families, 2609 Hartford St.,
San Diego. CA 92110.

The need for food is very critical for many of our families. If you would like to share this information on other websites or on your blog, please do so.
We would like to have as many families as possible be able to celebrate Semana Santa and to have a full belly!

Thanks,
Sharon

Great things are coming....

We have had a generous adoptive mom donate web hosting and her services to design a new website. It is in the works and is shaping up to be very exciting.

As we convert over to the new site, we will be using the blog for updates. I will tell you more about that when the changeover takes place.

There are several projects in the works and I am looking for more ideas. Some future projects include:
1. school supply drive
2. food baskets for student's families
3. water filter project

What other things would you like to be part of?

I am also trying to get a comprehensive list of organizations that work in Guatemala (no matter how large or small). Please let me know if you know of anyone who is working to improve the lives of Guatemalans. givingtoguatemala@gmail.com

Stay tuned as our efforts continue to grow.

News! News! News!

We have raised over $1500 for student sponsorship. This includes some monthly contributions. We have been assigned 4 students so far. If you would like the list of students that we are currently assigned to and how to view their information at mayanfamilies.org, please email me.

There is a new organization called Across All Borders. They are selling cookbooks for a fundraiser to help with start up costs and buy supplies for their first trip to Guatemala. They are also collecting supplies for trips in June, October, and December. Please consider collecting and sending supplies. You can check here for a list of things that they need.

I am planning on asking people to donate things at my children's birthday parties. You can purchase vitamins for about $2 a bottle at Dollar General Stores. If shipping is an issue consider purchasing items online and having them shipped directly to Across All Borders. This is a religious affiliated organization.

Lastly, but certainly not least is continued need for student sponsorship and emergency school supply assistance through Mayan Families. If you are interested in knowing how to assist students in Guatemala with much needed school supplies (via donations of school supplies or money) please email me.

Keep Watching!

We are starting to get our student assignments. I will be posting information ASAP and give our totals. Thank you all for you generosity.

Lots of Stuff!

There is still a great need for sponsorship. Continue to let people know about this great opportunity.

There is a huge need for school supplies in Guatemala right now. To help immediately you can donate directly to mayanfamilies.org. Under the donation right for Emergency School Supplies. Many schools have no paper! not to mention textbooks. I will be calling for supplies soon so stay posted.

Can you afford $10?

I am trying so hard to see more students sponsored. Could you afford an additional $10 or $20 this month? Maybe those of us already sponsoring at a maximum amount could come together and give a smaller amount to equal some sponsorships. It makes me so sad to see 10, 11, 12 year olds going unsponsored. Many of these children will never return to school as the family will be dependant on their small income. What a difference an education would make in their lives. Please let me know what you can do to help...
givingtoguatemala@gmail.com

Check out mayanfamilies.org

More Chances to Give BACK!

Lots of people are getting involved in this movement and I am so pleased with the response. There are many children that are still needing sponsorship through Mayan Families. There are still lots of ways to help.

1. Donate here...see MATCHING post below
2. Donate directly to Mayan Families In the extra notes please type in "Adoptive Families Giving Back to Guatemala" to aggregate funds.
3. Donate directly to Mayan Families and totally sponsor a student in a lump sum.
4. Donate directly to Mayan Families and totally sponsor a student on a payment plan. For less than $15 a month you can sponsor an elementary student (if you start payment in January)
5. Last but not least.... SPREAD THE WORD. Encourgage others to honor Guatemala and reach out to the third world by improving the life of a child.

As always, please keep me updated on what you are doing so that I can determine the reach of this campaign. Thanks so much for your generosity. Send questions to givingtoguatemala@gmail.com .
Thanks,
Kim

MATCHING!

I am challenging fellow families to get involved. I will personally donate $1 for every $2 donated to this cause (up to $200 in donations). To be part of this match, please donate directly to paypal (this will NOT be tax deductible). This will allow us to sponsor 2 more elementary school students. Can you spare the price of a cup of coffee to change a child's life? You can use credit cards through paypal.

Need More Help!

This is an urgent call for help. By donating with this campaign, literally no amount is too small. Please read this site for more information. Children need your assistance. Please consider donating. You can donate directly here. If you choose, you may let Sharon know that this is part of the "Adoptive Families Giving Back to Guatemala" campaign. You can do that in the comment area during your paypal check out or by emailing
studentassignment@mayanfamilies.org . Sharon is aggregating our funds to sponsor children and updates will be on this website. You can email me the total so that I have an updated total for this site. You can email me at givingtoguatemala@gmail.com

Grand Total

The current grand total is $740.00 towards student sponsorship. I am waiting to hear from Sharon concerning what students we have been assigned. I will post ASAP.

I am also looking for pictures from Guatemala to post on the site.