San Martin Jilotepeque                    March 2021

My name is Lucy Rosario Zamora Popol. I am 20 years old and I live in village called Varituc el Carmen in San Martin, Jilotepeque

My family is made up of four people. My 45-year-old father Baudilio Amado Zamora Atz, my little sister Karina, age 13, and my brother Rudy, 22 years old.  Mom passed away 10 years ago. I was 10, my brother was 12, and my sister was 3.

This  was a very difficult situation that we had to deal with in my family.  My dad had to take care of us because we were very young. My little sister got sick very often. My dad couldn’t go with any relatives because we didn’t have their support. My dad had to go out to work and take advantage of any work opportunities presented to him.  We would sleep with a neighbor because we we

re not used to being left alone.  As time went on we decided to stay home because we adapted to the idea that this is how we were going to live from now on.

My dream from a young age was to be able to study and have a good profession but I saw it was difficult because of the economic situation and the loss of my mother.  When I finished elementary school (6^th grade) my dad told me that I  had to support myself through 9^th grade.  So over the course of the road I made a decision and that decision was to go out to work. I was in 8^th grade when I managed to find a job working for a family in a house cleaning and doing laundry. It was harder because I had to work and study at the same time but I don’t care because my dreams were to be able to continue studying and I knew my dad couldn’t afford my monthly payments because he doesn’t have a steady job.

Along the way I was presented with obstacles because what I was earning was very little. I was paid only 20 quetzals a day ($2.67).  I had to help my dad with the expenses of the house and buy food. I’m still working in a house so now it also helps pay for my little sister’s monthly payments. She is in 8^th grade now.  I keep supporting my dad because there are days when he definite

ly doesn’t have a job. My brother has been my right-hand man because both he and I filled in all the expenses at home. My brother works in the fields and makes about 40 quetzals ($5.33).  It is amazing how God is always with us because he has never abandoned us.

In some of those moments of distress in my life I met a person to whom I told her about my situation and she told me about the Association of Men and Women in Action who supported young people who wanted to continue studying. I went to them and they subjected me to a process to see if I could acquire a scholarship. Throughout that testing process and interviews I asked God a lot to give me the opportunity to enter the scholarship program.

My greatest blessing came the day I was given the news that I was accepted into the scholarship program.

 I felt unexplained happiness. The year 2018 changed my life because it was the year I entered the scholarship program.

From that moment to now I have been very blessed.  In high school I studied business administration and I was able to earn my high school diploma.  Last year I was given the opportunity to start my law degree in college. I am now in my second year at the university. The Association has been my second home since it has cared about my family and me. We have been supported with food and cash to pay for the internet time. This year they supported me with a laptop to facilitate my studies since, as you know, the year 2020 the pandemic came to change our lives in a different way.

I am very happy to belong to the family of the Men and Women in Action Association because I have been taught not to give up when I am going through difficult situations in my life.  I will continue to fight to achieve my dreams and be able to be a successful professional. My goal is to one day be a judge.

I am very grateful to God and to you for helping me fulfill each of the dreams I set out as a child.

A strong embrace for each of you and may God continue to bless your lives.

Tranquilino and Maria Elena in San Miguel Choatulun at the celebration for the completion of the cement floor project.

“I am 65 years old and for the first time in my life I have a cement floor in my house.  Our community worked together to help each other mix  the cement and pour each other’s floor” said Tranquilino at the celebration in San Miguel, Choatulun, a remote village in the municipality of San Martin, Jilotepeque, on September 25, 2020.

“The women’s job was to feed the men” said Maria Elena, Tranquilino’s wife of 45 years.  “We can only express our gratitude with words and prayers because we have no way to repay this generosity.”  It was an emotional celebration for the entire community.

Thanks to a donation from Youthlink, an organization located in Salt Lake City, Utah,  22 families received cement floors.  Each family is required to help pay for the materials which meant a contribution of Q300 ($40).  Knowing the requirement and their situation due to the COVID pandemic they negotiated with us and agreed to pay one half now and one half in 2021, giving them time to save the remaining contribution.

Field Report Submitted by Amilcar Vielman, Director of Operations

 Hombres y Mujeres en Accion

This family is living in extreme poverty in Los Osorios. They lack running water, electricity, a vented stove, and risk starvation during Covid crisis.

Submitted by Blanca Batzibal, Social Worker

On June 30, July 1 and 2, 2020, food was delivered to 55 families in 10 remote communities and 3 communities near the center of San Martin.

The communities visited were, Lo de Silva, Los Magueyes, Los Osorios, El Rancho, El Sapito, Choatalun, Pacoxpon, Sauce Xejuyu, Las Escobas, El Molino, Barrio San Gaspar, Barrio El Guite and Barrio El Calvario.

In the words of one beneficiary: “I do not know the people who command this but even if I do not know them I ask God to bless them because they have a good heart that helps. You who have come here in my community with this disease that is beating us I ask God to protect you and not to get sick.”

Poverty – The delivery was made to the door of their home without prior notice which allowed us to observe the real conditions in which each family lives day by day.  Overcrowding, lack of basic services, location and housing structure makes the life of each member a challenge.

For all of the families the common denominator is POVERTY.  It is important to mention that this already existed for these families since long before the pandemic arrived in our country, however, the measures taken by the government made the situation more acute.

Loss of Work means no food – The way of generating income for all families is through agriculture from which they receive approximately Q50.00 per day, and approximately Q150 ($20) per week for three days of work.  This being their only income to meet all their needs. However, since the beginning of the restrictions in Guatemala, the little work that existed for these people decreased or ended.

The COVID19 crisis puts families in a state of greater vulnerability and threatens starvation because they do not have the resources to source food. Some families have been able to subsist only with corn (tortillas) and beans that were the products of their previous year’s planting and harvesting.

They have had to ration their food into small portions for the whole family for a longer period of time even if they have to starve.

This is the difficult situation that families are facing since the beginning of confinement, however, we were even more concerned about the situation in which most of the inhabitants of the community Los Osorios live. This villages is approximately 28 km from the center of San Martin.

Only boards for a bed and sleeping close to an open fire to stay warm.

Housing – Majority of the houses are in a state of deterioration and do not meet the necessary conditions to consider it a safe home.  There is no electricity, no drinking water and most homes are built with slab wood, adobe and corn stalks and have dirt floors. The beds are only boards built by themselves and there were no mattress.  This situation shows the deficiencies and the extreme poverty in which these families live. We observed the same scene in the majority of the houses – beds together and near the open fire.

I must mention that we entered the houses because we had to go through one house to get to the other and some houses consist only of one room so it was possible to observe the conditions. During our tour of the community we identified 26 other families living in these same conditions.

The Lo de Silva community of Patzaj village is approximately 11 kilometres from the center of San Martin.  The housing conditions and the poverty level of the families here are  similar to Los Osorios described above. The families we visited commented that most were out of work and have had to eat only salt or beans.  Our community tour identified 23 families needing help.

The food we delivered was a respite for the 55 families in the midst of this situation. They will be able to rest for a few days without the worry of not having enough food for their family every day.  Without selfishness and with a gesture of solidarity they asked us to support others in their village as well.

NERY TUY FAMILY

Nery holding the note and photo from the Reilly family on May 27 2020

Families Connect After reading about this family in our May 2020 newsletter, a family in Hartford, Connecticut responded with a gift.  Greg and Judy Reilly contributed $267 to pay off half of their loan and have pledged to pay the remaining half in three months.  Amilcar delivered the good news, Q2,000 from the Reilly’s to pay the loan, and Q1,300 from our critical care fund to reimburse Nery for his followup medical expenses.  Here’s the heartfelt note from the Reilly’s to the Tuy family:

First, Vidalia’s hip surgery

Vidalia, age 12, needed hip surgery in a hospital in Guatemala City.  Having no money for the surgery and worried about their daughter Nery Tuy, and his wife Ana Maria, approached the health clinic for help.  Our Critical Care Fund supported Vidalia and she was successfully operated on in July 2019.  Her recovery has progressed slowly and each trip to see the surgeon meant a painful ride over very rough roads from her village to the highway and then another two hours to reach Guatemala City.  She can not walk slowly using support from a walker.

PFG nurses delivered food to Nery and his family May 13 2020

For the Tuy family of five, life is a daily struggle.  Mom stays home to care for their three daughters.  Nery works in masonry and agriculture and earns about $6.50 a day. The family’s small income is spent on food with barely enough left to cover additional household expenses.

With restrictions in place due to the COVID-19 crisis, many people in Guatemala are now without work, so Nery was relieved to find a construction job earning enough money to buy food for his family.

Nery suffers an eye injury

After only a few weeks on the job Nery suffered a terrible accident. A piece of firewood sliced one of his eyes and he was taken by ambulance to the closest hospital. Unfortunately, they could not treat him so referred him to a hospital in Guatemala City. But Nery had no means of transportation to make the one-hour journey to the capital. He was in extreme pain, and as the 4 pm government curfew approached, he and his wife feared they would be detained by the police. The situation was now critical.

Because of the severity of his injury, Nery could not return home. His only option was to go a private hospital where he remained for two days, settling his account with Q 3,500 ($467), money his family had to borrow.  The doctors gave Nery instructions to rest and not return to work for several weeks; if not, he risked losing his eye. He is still out of work and the family has had to survive on a few food donations from their neighbors.

PFG nurses deliver food

Knowing the dire situation they family was in, our nurses delivered groceries and hygiene items on May 13, 2020.  When his bag of groceries was delivered Nery expressed his gratitude:  “For us, this is a work of God. He always listens to us and never abandons us. We have gone through great difficulties and there are times when I despair and cry, but God knows our needs and sends people to help us. I thank the people who made this possible, and hope that life rewards them greatly.”

Nery making the loan payment thanks to Grey and Judy Reilly, May 27 2020

Ana Maria stands next to her stove in the family kitchen

Tuy family poses together 

Danilo with his father, Edgar, July 2019

José Danilo Estrada Cusanero, 13 years old, attends 7^th grade. His father is Edgar Benjamin Estrada Yucute, 43 years old. His older sister is Claudia Elizabeth Estrada Cusanero, 15 years old.  They live in Santo Domingo Quimal Village.

On September 9, 2013, Danilo’s mother, very early in the morning, got up to prepare her children to go to school. In the same way, she prepared herself to travel to Chimaltenango to sell cheese, cream and butter.  She went to Chimaltenango every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to sell her merchandise and bring home food. Dad went to work in the field and mom happened to leave her two children at school giving them a kiss, a big hug and telling them “come back! I love you very much.”  Claudia was always attentive with her younger brother and made sure they returned home.

The mother of these two children took a bus from San Martin Jilotepeque to Chimaltenango to sell her merchandise and bring home some food. Unfortunately, the bus where she was going had a horrible accident on the road that led to Chimaltenango, where she and many people lost their lives.

A few hours passed when Danilo’s maternal grandmother came to school to bring him home to deliver the tragic news. From that day the life of Danilo took a total turn, the person who spoiled him, who took care of him, was no longer going to be by his side. The days passed by and for Edgar it was so difficult to get used to the idea that his wife, the woman who was fighting with him to get his family out ahead of him, was no longer at his side.

Edgar, Danilo and his sister Claudia always had the unconditional support of their aunt (sister of the father), her name is Marta Silvia Estrada, 41 years old.  From that day she has been caring for Danilo and his sister Claudia. More than three years passed after the loss of Danilo’s mother when his father decided to marry again. Thank God they have a good relationship with their father’s partner, but if Claudia and Danilo need anything, they go to their father or to their aunt Silvia who has been like a mother to them. Despite the affection and support that his aunt offers, Danilo mentions that the place that his mother has in his heart no one will occupy. Despite the absence of his mother, Danilo has struggled to continue studying, proof of this is that during the six years of elementary school he was an excellent student. In the month of June of the year 2018 Danilo and his aunt approached the Association Men and Women in Action to apply for a School Scholarship because his father could not cover all the expenses of the house and school, he did not have a stable job and earned only Q50.00 per day. Danilo carried out the process that the Association requests to enter the program and thank God he obtained his scholarship for the year 2019. He has stood out for being a responsible young boy, disciplined, honest and very attentive. Again he is an excellent student and has an average of 88%.

Danilo has many dreams but one of them is to become a Professional Nurse, because he knows that through that profession he will be able to calm the pain of many people.

Nursing students at Graceland University, Independence, Missouri campus, visited us in May 2018 for one week.  Their instructor, Sharon Stoetzel-Little, R.N., asked them to write a journal.  Here are exerpts from five of the students.