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



Jun 20, 2013

Adrian Motta



(A-79) Status: Not Sponsored
Needs: materials to construct a room, water filter, meal sponsorship, Ensure
To provide meal sponsorship or Ensure for Adrian at $35 each a month, click here.
Read previous stories about Adrian here.
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.  

UPDATE September 16, 2013:  Adrian's daughter was able to purchase a lot of land in a nearby town of San Andres so she will be moving soon. They would like to move Adrian with them to San Andres, otherwise he will be left alone with no one to care for him.Unfortunately, they do not have enough money to construct an additional room for him on their new land. The cost for materials and building of this room is around $770. If Adrian is able to move to San Andres with his daughter he will be too far away to commute daily to receive his meal from Mayan Families as the trip is too far and too expensive. However his daughter would be able to provide him some food and we would like to provide him with a monthly donation of Ensure.

"Thank god he isn't sick right now, thank god," says Adrian's daughter. She lives with her father, son, sister and brother-in-law in the same complex. "When we asked Mayan Families for help some years ago, he was so thin. So thin. Really malnourished. So they entered him in the program and now at least he's getting a meal once a day. They got him taking Ensure and he started putting on weight. Even so he loses it all really fast-- he just doesn't want to eat a lot of the time."

Adrian had been living elsewhere, sleeping and spending most of his day on an old door, without so much as a few blankets to soften it. Thanks to donations he now has a bed and mattress, and is now living with his family. He doesn't hear well nor speak much these days, and his daughter walks to the office to get his food each day. 

"I wash clothes for a living, but it's hardly enough. My son works waiting tables. My brother-in-law is diabetic and walks around on crutches because of the pain in his legs. I was, am so sad sometimes for my Papa. He just can't do anything for himself anymore. He was so thin. But thank god he isn't sick, there are no medicines to buy."


2 comments:

  1. It is high time that you too contribute your share to help the unfortunate as well as poor... this can be done by giving money to online charity organizations. When you have selected the organization you would like to donate money to, you can contribute through your credit card as well as your debit card.
    So, make an online donation to the cause you feel you are more attached to including geriatric care and more. Log on to http://goo.gl/ua0CV7 and help poor elderly.

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