One story, a hundred faces

There is the kind of displacement that becomes a refugee: for example, a hurricane stripping a home of its inhabitants, or a war chasing out those will not fight. It is a word representing the forced movement of a thing from one place to another. It evokes violence, resistance, and destructive change.

With reference to a person, it is a forced exile from their home to somewhere unfamiliar. We say they have been uprooted, like the wind tears out a tree from the ground.

Then there is another kind of displacement, a change most of us only gradually notice but for others, happens as violent or unexpected as a storm: age. Instead of being a victim of the time and place of your country, a person becomes a victim of the vehicle he uses to live in the world.

Guatemalan indigenous, if they have lived long enough, experience both kinds. They have experienced the displacement of natural disaster and war, where winds or bullets had forced them to seek refuge in the mountains or elsewhere. As they age, they may also feel a body’s betrayal, as their means for work, transportation and staying out of debt begins to fail. They become displaced in becoming unfamiliar, even useless, to themselves. Where do we go? What can we do? Says a refugee, lost somewhere not his home.

Many elderly are accustomed to carting large bundles of wood, food or water on their backs and heads. Others work in fields plucking seeds or leaves with fingers that will not close around them. Most walk to where the water is, to where they can get food, to where there is fuel for their fire. What can they do when their body slows? The slightest health problem incurs a debt too large to repay, since it is their very bodies which must work to pay to repair them.

And sometimes, to rely on the family they’d raised is to rely on the support of disaster relief housing after a landslide: the relief is not built to last, as the families, like the houses, can barely support themselves.

The indigenous elderly's ailments are great and means are few. It is one story with a hundred—thousands of faces. 

We are asking you to help us feed just one. The upcoming photos and bios will feature one human being displaced by time— a body become foreign in a familiar context--as one face in a world of faces.

We aim to provide nearly 80 people with one meal, once a day with a monthly sponsorship of $35. 

Please consider helping someone who does not have, nor will have, a way to help themselves. Visit www.mayanfamilies.org/donatenow 

Feed Just One.

Our Elderly Care program feeds about 70 people per day at our locations here in Panajachel and the neighboring village of San Jorge.

For most of them, this is the only meal they receive all day. Some stretch their portion by saving half for the evening. For some, they are the only members of their family who get to eat that day. Others save half their meal for their wife, husband or families at home.

When I ask what they’d eaten that day, or what they might eat later, many answer: a single tortilla with salt. A single egg.  A tomato. Nothing.

Some of our elderly live with their entire families in a single house. Some have nine children who have four or five children of their own. Food prices continue to soar, leaving those who cannot work in worse conditions than ever: the adults in the house must choose who gets to eat, their children or their parents. They must choose who gets to sleep in a bed, and who must sleep on the floor.

This should not have to be a choice. The Feeding Program provides a single meal a day to the elderly who otherwise would forfeit their food for the children, or who by their poor health would not otherwise be able to scavenge the trash for scraps or find other means to feed themselves.

Having spent their lives in desperate conditions during the last century of war, poverty, civil unrest and its constant repercussions, the elderly are still the last to receive relief in Guatemala. And having spent their lives struggling with the hope that someday things might get better, and being proven otherwise, they are grateful for even the smallest gift: one meal per day, five days a week.

By no means is one meal enough, but at the moment it is all Mayan Families can provide, and the program is in danger of being cut. Only those who are currently sponsored will continue receiving their one meal a day. The rest we will have to refuse; we will have to tell them that even this tiny, but necessary quantity of food will be taken from them, like so much has been taken from them throughout their lives.

Currently, only 13 of our elderly receive a monthly donation to help with food, medical costs, rent or other necessities. In an effort to ensure that all 70 of our elderly receive just one meal a day, not including purchased medicine, rent costs or other expenses, we are asking you to sponsor one for just $35 a month. We will continue to help our elderly for medicine and other needs per the extraneous donations we receive. However, $35 a month will provide one meal per day, five days a week, to one person who has no way to care for herself, whose family faces the daily impasse of feeding who they must raise or feeding who fought to raise them. 

If you would like to help to keep one person fed for one month, please visit www.mayanfamilies.org/donatenow and write "one month, one person'' in the Other box. 

Update: Manuel needs follow-up after his surgery

Manuel has been doing very well since his surgery.  It truly saved his life and he never would have been able to pay for it on his own.  He and his family are extremely grateful for the opportunity that Mayan Families gave them to save Manuel!  Thank you so much for contributing!

Now, Manuel is in need of follow-up care after the surgery.  For the procedure to maintain its full affect, Manuel must travel two hours to the hospital nearly every month and have adjustments made to the apparatus that was inserted.  Every time Manuel travels, he needs $67.  Without these check-ups, Manuel's condition will become extremely painful again and put his life at risk. 

Please consider helping Manuel and go to Donate Now and scroll down.  In the Other $ box, enter the amount of your donation.  In the Details box, enter Manuel Medical.  Thank you!
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Manuel, a 64 year old mute man in our elderly care program, is in need of an urgent life-saving surgery!  He was operated on in January for prostate problems and seemed to be doing fine, but recently has had extreme pain and has been urinating blood.  The complications from his previous surgery have now put his life in danger and we are worried that if he is not operated on immediately, he will day a very painful death.

Manuel's niece came to us today to ask us for help to send her uncle to a specialist who will do the procedure for $1200.  The public hospital is not equipped to provide Manuel with the care that would save his life.  Please consider helping cover the costs of Manuel's surgery!

Ramos Cumes Gonzalez

(A-8) Status: Sponsored for 1 year as of June 23, 2013!
Needs: water filter
UPDATE: September 12, 2012: Ramos received a new mattress!

UPDATE: September 12, 2013: Ramos was able to go see an opthalamologist for various evaluations to address his poor vision in both eyes. The doctor diagnosed Ramos  with an infection as well as an abnormal growth that is causing inflammation. Ramos also has very advanced cataracts but the doctor  does not recommend surgery because of his age and the risk that the surgery might not help and could even worsen his vision. The doctor recommended that Ramos wear sunglasses to protect his eyes from the sun, and also gave him some lubricating eye drops, as well as eye drops to address the infection. He also recommended that Ramos rinse his eyes each night with baby shampoo.

To donate one-time to his needs, click 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.  


Ramos sits on the curbside cradling his cane with one hand and holding out a small pan with his other. He looks at the street vacantly, as he cannot see well with his cataracts. He does not shake the pan with change in it, nor wear a sign stating his case. He sits alone, waiting, saying nothing and expecting little so that he might walk the long road up the mountain where he lives, where he might have something to eat that night.

Ramos, like many of the elderly here, walks on legs barely thicker than his bones. He walks a distance most would choose to drive, though the state of his body shouldn’t allow this. Many of our elderly, unable to work in their old age or with debilitated bodies-- without retirement funds, pensions or savings-- must resort to the least dignified of all professions when they are hungry: begging in the street. 

Where once Mayan elders were revered and cared for by their families and communities, today they must rely on the kindness of strangers to sustain themselves. Most of their families can barely provide for their own, and the elderly get pushed to the side, assumed to have lived out the need to be cared for. There is no work they can do, no nursing home where they might live to ensure that they’ll eat everyday, or have access to the medical attention they need, or have the assurance of a community that cares for them. 

As keepers of Mayan heritage, languages and history, the elders deserve more than a hot meal five days a week. They deserve the dignity and respect of those who have lived working to maintain Mayan identity through centuries of colonial and government order to repress it. Where no public program exists for them, Mayan Families Elderly Care program would like to continue providing food for those unable to work for it, or, often, walk for it.

Donations of any size provide food, medical care, or other necessities that cant be bought with dimes in a pan. Ramos is only one of many examples of a lifelong cycle of poverty in a country who turns a blind eye to those who built it.

If you would like to help in any way, visit www.mayanfamilies.org/donatenow and write "Elderly Care-- (food, general etc.)'' in the comment box.

Mayan Families Holiday Tamale Food Basket 2012!

Check out the Mayan Families Holiday Tamale Food Basket 2012 newsletter
Please read, post, Like and Share anywhere you can think of! Thank you, Feliz Navidad and Happy Holidays!

Support the Diabetes Club at Mayan Families

In Guatemala, diabetes has become a major issue in recent years as processed foods, infrequent exercise, and generally poor economic and social conditions contribute to its increasing prevalence. In addition, limited access to medical care or even knowledge about symptoms to look for accounts for many undiagnosed cases of the disease.

Gone untreated, diabetes can lead to diabetic neuropathy-- serious nerve damage that results in numbness and infection. In extreme cases, the consequence may be the amputation of a limb. Foregoing treatment may also lead to blindness, heart disease, stroke, and kidney disease, which in turn can cause an ugly death.

Many victims in Guatemala are unaware that they have it. Those who are aware often cannot afford treatment. The Diabetes Club supports 35 participants once a month at Mayan Families, offering counseling and minimal education on foods and drinks that would help them to control their illness. Participants recieve a check-up, a snack, educational talks and much-needed companionship with those suffering the same illness.

Without the money to buy healthy foods, many rely on starchy, sugary foods to sustain them: tortillas, potatoes, or bread. Having little financial means to control their diet adds insult to injury, as suffering the effects of back-breaking work or standing all day in smoke-filled kitchens worsens their symptoms. The Diabetes Club cannot afford to provide insulin to our participants, nor other basic medical necessities a patient may need, such as a glucometer or oral hypoglycemics.

Eventually, Mayan Families would like to provide patients with the access to the care they deserve, and the education necessary to help them control their diabetes, specifically in the extreme living conditions particular to the highlands of Guatemala. For now, our participants benefit from the community and care offered by the Diabetes Club.

Juana needs medicine and food!

Juana, a new member of our Elderly Care program, suffers from constant migraines. She was hit by a motorcyle earlier this year, leaving her with lesions on her feet and face. Despite being taken to the health center and receiving care after the accident she still experiences debilitating headaches.  She needs to take her medicine or the pain is excruciating.

Unfortunately, the little money she makes cleaning her neighbors house is not enough to cover the cost of the medicine, which is about $24 a month in addition to her rent, which is about $25 a month. She has four grown children who are unable to offer any support because of their own family costs: one is diabetic and has 14 children of her own, two others with 7 children each, and a son who has fallen out of contact. She separated from her husband about 35 years ago because of his drinking problem. She lives alone in a house without a water filter, chairs, a table or a closet for her clothes.

Like most of the other elderly in our program, Juana has worked her whole life to afford what little she has. After having dedicated her life to raising her children on her own, Juana deserves the same care in her time of need. However, the impoverished state of her family disallows them from returning her years of attention and care. She humbly eats her meals in her bed, the only piece of furniture she owns.

She is most in need of food and medicine. If you would like to help Juana cover the costs of the food and medicine she desperately needs, please go to DonateNow and scroll down.  In the Other $ box, indicate the amount of your donation.  In the Details box, enter A-90 and what you would like your donation to go towards (ex. A-90 medicine, A-90 food).