Elderly Info

The food crisis in Guatemala is having a devastating effect on the elderly. Without enough to eat, many older people are becoming weak and malnourished, leaving them more vulnerable to illnesses that they cannot afford medical care for. They are unable to provide for even their most basic needs. In many cases, family members are unable to help as they struggle to feed themselves and their own children, leaving the elderly without any form of support and often living in heartbreaking conditions.

Please help us bring them the life-sustaining food and medical care that they so desperately need. General donations are used to ensure that we always have an adequate supply of food, medicine, and funds for meals, necessary medical treatment, and transportation. Monthly sponsorship would help feed one person, once a day for five days a week. Via blog and web album, we'll show you exactly where your aid is going and help you get to know the men and women whose lives you are changing.

If you would like to sponsor an elderly person for $35 a month, please click here and write "monthly sponsorship'' in the Other box. To make a one-time donation for medicine, rent, or other costs, please click here and enter "Elderly Care Program" in the Other box. Any questions can be directed to Amy at amy@mayanfamilies.org


Media on Mayan Families Elderly

Book:
Ancianos : Megan Gette + photos by Rob Bain, Nisa East, Rhett Hammerton and Hiroko Tanaka

Videos:
Mayan Families- Ancianos Stories : Nisa East

Mayan Families Elderly Feeding Care Program : Rhett Hammerton

Facing Hunger: Elderly in Rural Guatemala



Dec 4, 2012

Felipa Ramos Pocop






































(A-54) Status: Not Sponsored
Needs: food, Onil stove, water filter
UPDATE Dec 21, 2012: Felipa has received the gift of a blanket and sweater!
To help Felipa with these needs, click here. To sponsor her in the Feeding Program, click here
UPDATE May 21, 2013: Felipa received a full mattress!  
For more stories and photos of the ancianos in the Feeding Program, please consider purchasing a book compiled of our participants. All profits go to the Elderly. You can preview the book here.  

Having been widowed, and therefore left acceptably, but unwillingly alone, my Kaqchiquel translator tells me: It might be me one day. My children will leave. My husband’s gone; things here aren’t like they are for you where you come from, there’s no place for us to go when we grow old.
Felipa had been married 40 years when her spouse died: we were supposed to walk to our deaths together, and now it's just me in this house alone.
10 months ago she suffered a hemorrhage in her brain. Now one eye doesn’t work and one side of her body is asleep.
Her four kids have their own families, so they no longer care for her. One son gives her a little food when he can, though his work isn't steady and there are days he doesn't come.
She goes without eating if no one brings her food. 

The interior of Felipa's home

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