HOUSE REBUILDING - NATURAL DISASTER ASSISTANCE

Aug. 2006 The women on the committee of the Women's' Group asked if we would go to look at a house that was in great danger of collapsing. It was a very sad sight. The house was not even made of mud brick but just rammed mud. This is a very poor, large family. Their are eight children in the family. The husband works in fields, cleaning onions, he makes about $3.25 a day. They have no electricity. They do own the land that the house is on. Their beds are just made of planks with a few blankets. There is no other furniture. It is just one room and the other room is their kitchen. The whole house is listing to one side, if there is another huge storm like last year, their house will definitely fall over. They had to be rescued last year from the flood and it did a lot of damage to the house. It was not going t stand up to another one.

The eldest child is a boy, approx. 13yrs old, he goes to school in Panajachel. He is in 5th grade. He walks over an hour a day to get to school and about an hour an a half to come home - it is uphill on the way home ...more like up mountain. The other children are all girls, the eldest about 11 finished school in 3rd grade. Their are two other children in school now but they are in first and second grade. The father and mother try to give them all an education up till 3rd grade but after that they cannot afford the school supplies and the children have to drop out.

Feb. 2007 A very generous donation from a family who had adopted their son from Guatemala and wanted to do something to celebrate his first birthday in a meaningful fashion made this house possible for this family. We also received a donation from LAAF which helped complete this house.