3142 NE 45th Avenue, Portland, OR 97213 USA ▪ 503.936.3487 ▪ info@todos-juntos.org
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2005 Year End Report |
Organization
The Llano del Pinal Day
Care Center now goes by the name Guarderia Todos Juntos, meaning "all
together", a fitting name considering the diverse elements that make it
work. The staff and the children who attend come from (or near) the Mayan
village of Llano del Pinal; the Spanish Language school Pop Wuj in nearby
Quetzaltanago (Xela) administers the center; and Foundation Todos Juntos,
the tax exempt foundation in California, provides the bulk of its
financial support through contributions from people in North America and
Europe (mostly the US and Norway).
The Children
Between 35 and 40
children, from toddlers to early teen-agers, attended the center regularly
in 2005. The youngest need diaper changes, toilet training, and just to be
looked after. They begin to learn basic things like washing hands and
brushing teeth. The five-year-olds spend the morning with a certified
preschool teacher, a position added to the staff in late 2004. It is a
luxury for these kids to have a half-day with a good teacher, a chance to
combine learning with play and other activities. It vastly improves their
chances of not becoming part of the one-third of first-graders in the
country as a whole who have to repeat that grade. (Illiteracy among
parents, a culture lacking a tradition for formal education, malnutrition,
and poorly trained teachers are some of the reasons for that shocking
statistic). All of these preschool children spend the whole day at the
center, from 8 to 5. In addition, kids ranging in age from 6 to about 13
come to the center when their regular school classes are finished shortly
after noon. They get help with homework, have a secure place to stay, and
participate in some organized activities, including music, dance, sports,
etc. The older ones have their own discussion group on topics such as
health and nutrition, sexuality, drug and alcohol addiction, and family
violence. A few older teenagers come to the center in the afternoon to
help with the supervision of the younger kids. All of the children receive
a nutritious meal in the early afternoon, and a snack later in the day.
The small ones have something warm and filling in the morning as well.
They all get a medical check-up a few times a year.
The Staff
There are four salaried
personnel: doña Delfina, in charge of buying and preparing food (the
center is located in her house); Lidia (Delfina's daughter), coordinator
of activities for the older children; Lety (Delfina's daughter-in-law),
who looks after the smallest children; and Yajaira, a certified preschool
teacher who works mornings. In addition, there are volunteers, both short-
and long-term, often from Spanish schools in the area (including Pop
Wuj). Members of Delfina's family and extended family who are not
part of the paid staff often help out with whatever needs to be
done.
The Mothers Group
Carmen, who has overall
responsibility for the center (she is in charge of all Pop Wuj projects),
has worked long to establish a stable mothers' group. Realizing that much
of the work to inculcate good hygienic and nutritional habits at the
center were undermined if they weren't practiced at home, she began to
invite mothers to meet weekly for sessions on those themes. It wasn't
easy. For example, some mothers believe that bathing children causes
influenza and wouldn't allow their little ones near a tub. Carmen won
their confidence and motivated them to come and serve food and create a
comfortable social atmosphere. Soon the group was cooking food together.
Pop Wuj built efficient wood-burning stoves (one of the school's
long-standing projects) for families that didn't have them. Discussion
topics for the meetings expanded to include family planning, alcoholism,
family violence and more. This too was slow going; many taboos stood in
the way. Now mothers' meetings are a firm Thursday morning institution.
This year the group has been working hard to learn to read and write. In
addition, from May through July the group planted trees on Tuesday
mornings, about two thousand seedlings in all. The kids helped too, along
with volunteers from Pop Wuj. This project grew out of a small
(two-hundred-tree) planting project we did last year with the kids. Now
there is interest in starting a tree nursery in the village. It is too
soon to tell whether there will be sufficient money and organization to
pull it off, but at least a large part of the community is serious about
improving conditions environmentally and economically. Much of the damage
caused by Hurricane Stan was aided and abetted by deforestation, and
families use wood as fuel for cooking.
Physical Improvements
Two new physical improvements
were added to the center early in the year. During the Christmas-New Year
vacation, Lidia's husband and an Italian man who volunteered full-time for
many months at the center built two flush toilets to replace the single
old latrine that had served all the kids, staff, volunteers, and Delfina's
extended family. Margot (and others) had spent a lot of time standing in
line holding little hands whose bodies were waiting to do their business.
Often they couldn't wait long enough. (My job was to wash Margot's
clothes.) Everybody appreciates the new toilets. Volunteers seem more
willing to stay longer. We don't know where the brown water goes, but at
least there was no sign of it in August when we last visited.
A short time later, a young Pop Wuj Spanish student from the US set in motion a project to build playground equipment. Delfina gave up a piece of her corn field and the student (Michael) organized fundraising to pay for materials. He also did most of the carpentry work for the project. Other students painted the equipment. (See the photo with The Kids) Todos Juntos in action.
Budget
The center operated on a
budget of $12,000, provided by contributions sent via Foundation Todos
Juntos. That covered salaries for the staff, food, fuel, rent, and school
supplies. Pop Wuj provided Carmen. Additional funds for special things
like the toilets, playground equipment, tree seedlings, and Christmas and
birthday presents for the kids, came from ad hoc fundraising by Pop Wuj
students and teachers, and contributions from people in the village. As we
have said many times, a little money goes a long way.
Hurricane Stan
Hurricane Stan hit
Guatemala about October 1, devastating some parts of the country and
taking many lives (hundreds in a single village near Santiago, across Lago
Atitlán from where we lived from January through August). Fortunately, it
caused no serious damage to the day care center, nor was anyone associated
with the center killed or hurt. But the storm left its mark, turning the
whole village into a sea of mud. Houses and furniture were ruined, crops
destroyed, electricity and water cut off, and people who had jobs couldn't
get to them for weeks (no unemployment insurance or sick leave here). Food
shortages, sky rocketing prices, sickness, depression, and fear added to
the woes. It meant that nothing went on as usual during the last month of
the school year (vacation begins at the end of October), but it went on.
The day care center was a rallying point.
Looking
Ahead
Todos Juntos Day Care
Center has come a long way since it was threatened with extinction three
years ago because the agency that funded it at that time had run out of
money. That's when we first appealed to most of you to pitch in and save
the day. That you did, in big and small ways. Not only did you keep the
center open; you have paved the way for many improvements and more secure
funding for the future. The improvements have been noted in this and
previous reports. We and everyone associated with the center have seen the
results where it counts; the development of the kids. That in turn has
improved the center's funding base, which consists simply of people who
have been to the center, or heard about it by word of mouth (or the
internet) from people who know it directly. People who have experienced
those rosy cheeked, smiling kids climbing up on their laps, or seen them
radiating with pride as they show off their latest crayon drawings, are
moved. They want to contribute, to be part of it. (All the more thanks to
you who have done so without such direct rewards.) A special example of
this deserves to be noted. A man from California, Richard Martin, has
organized a small tour group to visit Guatemala for several years. He
donates the profits from each tour to a cause in Guatemala which he deems
worthy. After visiting the day care center in 2004, he decided to make it
the beneficiary of his efforts that year. The dozen people who came with
him in November were impressed enough to make additional donations. One of
them set up a web-site (www.sellin.com/TodosJuntos), in case you want to
see more pictures of the kids. Richard has just finished taking another
group this year. And so support grows, making it possible to increase the
budget, improve the program, and pay better (but still woefully low)
salaries. That improved financial stability has made it easier for us this
year to channel some of our personal support into disaster relief for
Stan.
Although the funding base for the center has improved considerably, it could and should be much better. New students who come into contact with the center through Pop Wuj and other language schools number in the hundreds. Their contacts multiply that number many fold. Thus far that potential has gone largely untapped. The administration at Pop Wuj has (understandably) focused on program at the center, not fund-raising. That must change, and we have been suggesting ways to make that happen. We personally don't plan to come back every year forever asking you for more money. But we are asking you to contribute now, this year. Help guarantee full-funding for 2006 (we are well on our way already), with a solid base for 2007. We have promised the people at Pop Wuj to reach that goal, with the understanding that they work to institutionalize fund-raising at their end. We will continue supporting the day care center (and other projects) after we return to Norway. You may want to as well. But for now our aim is simple and immediate: To urge you to write check to Foundation Todos Juntos, Inc., earmark it for the day care center (la guardería), and send it to the address listed below. Remember: contributions are tax-exempt; the competent people at Todos Juntos work pro bono; overhead is miniscule; and dollars go a long way in Guatemala.
3142 NE 45th Avenue, Portland, OR 97213 USA ▪ 503.936.3487