Happy christmas to everyone who has supported me in anyway and allowed me to act as captain planet over here (as Mick put it). The money is essential of course but the people who read the blog and wish well are equally as important. I know money isnt that flush at home so I really do appreciate it, and the people who cant afford to give money I also appreciate your support just as much. Thank you and a this story is my christmas present and thanks to you.
As you know, I took 2,100 of your money with me to Guatemala. I intitailly planned to spend it solely on construction projects in La Cumbre. I however have decided to give 700 of it to a very worthy cause. I hope you will all agree. I am really happy about it and im sure you will be too.
First im gonna get the sad bit out of the way so that we can end on a happy note. Pretty much most people in Guatemala have a sad story of hardships. This one touched me especially though. Sylvia is a 14 year old girl from Chiantla. Currently she works in the nearest city Huehuetnango as a live in cook, cleaner and general dogsbody for an elderly woman for the grand sum of twenty euro per month. Now I have to state the woman is generally nice to Sylvia and she has no complaints in her treatment but she is a 14 year old girl working 24 hours a day without any days off for 20 euro a month. We are going to change this though becuase we are sending Sylvia to school next year. Starting from January she is going to attend the boarding school in chiantla and hopefully in 6 years time Sylvia is going to become a qualified national school teacher. Thats what she plans on becoming anyway.
 | ||||
| Im a little tea pot pose from me. Not sure what thats all about. This is me with the 3 youngest kids the first day we visited the house. Mother was working and Sylvia was in Huehue. O yes and the oldest son is 16 he works in Huehue in construction for 30 euro a month. Hopefully gonna have a bit of work for him with sheeps wool and a bit of construction in new year up in la cumbre, if he wants it that is. |
 | |
| Cooking lunch | . |
Now there is no guarantees and to be fair to Walter when I asked him about any disaster stories he told me out straight. Seeds of help have given children the opportunity to go to school and it has been thrown back in their face. One girl left half way through the first year because she wanted to get married at 12, others who have been caught stealing from other kids in the school and there are plenty who just arent willing to put the effort in. So there are no guarantees. But, when I seen Sylvia crying with joy because she is getting the chance to go to school its hard not to be excited. It is pretty humbling too. I thought she was crying because we were putting too much pressure on her but she was genuinely crying with joy. It is going to be really hard for her especially in the first year. At the moment she can just about spell her name but thats it, so she has a lot of learning to do just to catch up with the other kids never mind the whole experience of starting secondary school. Its hard not to be optimistic though becuase I hav met the family and they seem like such good people. Fairly out of luck it must be said though.
 |
| Family photo including puppies.......... |
Without getting too bogged down with depression, here is a little backround on Sylvia and her family. Her mother comes from a Mayan family, her own mother died when she was 2, her father later remarried and started a new family, so from the age of 5 she moved to the capital where she learned Spanish and grew up pretty much on the streets. She got married herself and moved to Huehuetenango where she had 5 buetiful children. Her husband, Sylvias father, died and she was left to raise the 5 kids by herself. Because the only school in Huehue was fee paying the kids rarely got to attend school as there was never enough money. An uncle from America offered to lend them some land in Chiantla for them to build a house so Sylvias mother accepted the offer and moved the family here.
Now before you judge a mother sending her eldest daughter to work at 14 consider this perdicament. She is currently 38 and going through hormonal changes. She requires medicine but it costs money that she doesnt have. She gets some work washing clothes but no where enough to pay for medicine. The only option for her is to go to the USA or Mexico to earn enough money. It is not an option to bring the kids with her so she has to leave them at home. A different uncle, than the one who gave the land lives next door. He has tried to sexually abuse Sylia already so she is too afraid to leave her at home minding the kids while she goes to Mexico. This uncle also torments the younger kids throwing rocks at the house etc... when the mother isnt there. (It costs 15 dollars to have somebody killed in Guatemala just in case your wondering at this point. Seriously though, he has a young family too so how ye go about justifying that even if he is such an arsehole). So a big part of the reason that Sylvia started work in huehue was for her own safety not just for the money. The younger kids went to live with an aunt, but they were beatin for no reason and treated really badly. So that didnt last too long before they had to return home. So it was back to square one again for the family. I felt pretty bad asking all these questions and having her tell me the story because the poor woman got pretty emotional but I needed to be sure about where I was giving the money too.
 |
| The family house |
 |
| The kids and Brenda. |
Right so the good bit now. Because they live close to the boarding school Sylvia is goin to live at home and attend classes during the day. So the family stays together. The money that normally would go on living accomodation etc goes to the family instead. There will hopefully be enough for medicine too. Sylvia goes to school and gets a chance of becoming a teacher and earning a decent wage, improving the families fortunes and also gains the self respect that education allows.
From the outset I had one condition of sponsoring Sylvia and I have been pretty insistant with both Sylvia and her mother. Once a month we will meet up and do a posting on the blog while I am in Guatemala and then Sylvia will do it herself when I leave. This is for two reasons. Firstly you deserve to be kept informed of your investment. If there are any questions you have feel free to ask. Write a comment on the blog or send me an e mail there is no problem.
The second reason is that the e700 pays for one year. Hopefully she is going to be studying for 6 so next year and the year after etc 700 will be requires. This could be 70 people paying one euro a month or 7 people paying 10 euro a month but we can decide this later and I will gladly worry about it next christmas when Sylvia is starting her second year. I guaranteed her as long as she tries her best and also keeps us informed of how she is getting on, that the money will be there.
Fair play to you man
ReplyDeleteJimbo