THE COMMUNITY CENTER

July 2008.- Progress of the Community Center.









April 5, 2008.- This is the beginning of the work for the learning center in Tierra Linda!! The community has really been pitching in to help unload the materials and carry them to the building site. They are very excited about this project and all the possibilities that it will have for their community!

THE TIERRA LINDA WOMEN'S GROUP

THE WOMEN'S GROUP IN TIERRA LINDA:

This is a group of 150 Indigenous women who mostly work in agriculture. Through their efforts we became aware of the needs of the school in Tierra Linda. Most of these woman do not speak Spanish, they speak a Mayan dialect called Kaqchikel.

We have distributed clothing, blankets, baby clothes, sweaters, pants etc to this group.

We also distributed food that was donated and medical supplies.

The women helped organize the medical teams that we brought to the school in Tierra Linda.

We organized a chicken project for them.

TIERRA LINDA

A view of Tierra Linda


There are not paved street, just dirt road and foot paths.

Tierra Linda is a very traditional agricultural village. Most of the people in this village do not speak Spanish, nor know how to read and write. It has a population of 826 people – and no real economy. It is at the end of the road, no through traffic. There isn’t enough land and many of the subsistence farmers are forced to rent land at high prices far from the village. The village members live in very small homes, mostly adobe brick that are connected by dirt roads and foot paths. There is no medical clinic, no dentists; the closest medical attention is an hour’s walk to Sololá.

Guatemala is the most populous country in Central America and struggles with some of the lowest social indicators in the hemisphere. It is still suffering the effect of the 36 year old civil war that ended in 1996. It suffers from extreme income inequality — 56 percent of the population lives in poverty, one in five in extreme poverty. Infant mortality is among the worst in the region (39 per 1,000 live births), maternal mortality is extremely high (153 per 100,000 births) and chronic malnutrition remains a serious problem (49 percent)
In the Department of Sololá, where Tierra Linda is located, 76% of the population lives in poverty – living on less than $2 per day. Fifty five% of the children are chronically malnourished.

Malnutrition is a chronic problem. The basic diet for many children is bread and coffee in the morning - this is a very watered down sugary coffee. Tortillas, beans and rice for lunch and often, bread and coffee for dinner again. For many children from poor families their diet often consists of tortillas and salt. Many children go hungry.

View of the lake from Tierra Linda.

PEOPLE AND HOMES OF TIERRA LINDA