A Letter from Mary

December 1st, 2018

Dear Friends,

It is once again that time of  year, when I want to let all you wonderful supporters know how your contributions have been put to work in the little pueblo of San Antonio Palopó. It’s been a great year, with the learning centre/library expanding, our group of ancianas thriving, and a couple of new and exciting initiatives starting up.

Last December two supporters of our project left Victoria with suitcases full of library books, (thanks to Russell Books for their generous discount!). They were received with joy and gratitude; the books in the learning centre /library now total 895 – a significant increase from when we started out two years ago with 300 books!

Yesenia, the resourceful young learning centre coordinator, and her assistant Lidya, work closely with the principals and teachers of the two schools to ensure that the kids who need help the most receive learning assistance. This year, to reach more junior high students, they put together a small mobile library that one of them carries to the junior high each week, along with games and activities to help inspire the students to read. It is difficult for us Canadian readers to imagine a culture where children grow up without seeing a book other than the odd textbook at school. The impact of the learning centre/library – with its invitation to come in and either receive help with their work, or just choose a book and read – is amazing. Many of these children have never travelled even across the lake to other villages, and these books are their windows to the world. 

This year, we decided to tackle a problem that is endemic in most Mayan towns in Guatemala – the lack of jobs for young adults graduating from high school. Candelaria and Gregorio, the amazingly creative and dedicated couple who oversee the programs, designed a course for recent grads to help them with the skills they needed in order to find a job. This very motivated group of young adults, after their initial training, decided that the best way to find jobs was to create them! They are now, with the help of MAGA, an outreach program of the Guatemalan government, launching a mushroom-raising business. But the long-term vision of the group is to start a café – something currently missing in San Antonio – entirely run by youth. They have researched it, and are in the process of designing a business plan and finding a location. MAGA is now training them in the cooking skills and business skills they’ll need for this venture. We’re feeling very excited that this group of 15 highly-motivated young people (18-25) are finding their feet in the world of business, and becoming leaders in developing their community.

Meanwhile, the group of 25 ancianas (elderly widows), chosen because they are the poorest and most isolated in the village, come for lunch and activities twice a week. Last summer, Melina Castro, a young UVic sociology student, chose to do her co-op term at the Casita. She worked with the kids in the learning centre, and also with the ancianas, visiting them in their homes and talking about their lives. Melina reported to us that the home of one anciana was so small that she had to sit outside the door to talk to her – there was only room for one tiny bed. For these women, the chance to have a hearty meal, an opportunity to socialize and to participate in activities twice a week is a life-changer.

And in between all of these activities, other programs go on in our busy Casita:

·      Groups of adults meet twice a week for literacy courses. Olivia, their teacher (also one of our university scholarship students) is teaching them to use the sewing machines at the same time as they are learning to read and write in Spanish.

·      Our 7 scholarship students help out in a variety of ways in the casita: working in the garden (which produces some of the food for the lunches), helping prepare and serve lunches to the ancianas, and helping in the learning centre.

·      A group of very disabled children receive weekly language therapy, provided by therapists funded by another organization.

·      We continue to follow up with the stove program – the replacement of open-hearth fires by clean-burning stoves – checking the installed stoves, seeing what replacement parts are needed, and helping families to buy and install them.

And none of this could have happened without all of you - our wonderful supporters - a very heartfelt Gracias! 

So once again this holiday season, I’m wondering if you might choose to bypass the usual gifts, and instead give a donation in honour of friends and family, to help the San Antonio project continue.  We have new ¡Feliz Navidad! cards available, saying that a gift given in their name has provided books for the library, (and their names can be put on a bookplate in a book), or helped to feed an anciana; ($25 enables an anciana to come to the lunch program twice a week for a month), or support education and the Learning Centre. Let me know if any of these options appeals to you. (To see what the cards and bookplates look like, check below this blog.)

This January I’m heading off to San Antonio Palopó, along with several of our small band of volunteers and as always at our own expense. We’re stopping en route in Mexico City to buy books for the library (cheaper and more choice than ordering online in Canada), and will be taking part in all the Casita programs. We’ll be updating our blog as we go … keep tuned!

Thanks to all of you for your support - whether financial or otherwise. With your support, we have forever changed the lives of so many in the village of San Antonio Palopó.

With heartfelt gratitude ,

Mary Lynch

PS: We can issue income tax receipts for all donations. If you send a cheque, make it out to Innovative Communities Foundation (put San Antonio Education/Community on the memo line), and send it to Innovative Communities Foundation, 300 – 722 Cormorant St., Victoria, BC, V8W 1P8.

To donate online go to:

www.innovativecommunities.org/communities/Guatemala/san-antonio-education. On our new website, you can donate through Paypal just by clicking the donate button on our San Antonio page. Alternatively, if you’d prefer to donate through Canada Helps, go to the Canada Helps website – www.canadahelps.org — under Donate type in InnovativeCommunities.Org as your charity, and once you get to their page, select Guatemala – San Antonio Education/Community as the specific fund. Either way, donating online will get you a tax receipt you can print.  Remember, every penny you give goes to the project; we are all volunteers and there are no administrative costs.