Juana Buch Chumil

Juana's eye began to whiten, clouding so there was no light.
She went to a doctor, who hemmed and hawed.
He said I will charge you more than you have to save your eye.
She did not have the money to save her eye. The eye closed.
Now she sees with just the one; a white cloud is beginning to form over the color.


(A-47) Status: Sponsored as of March 20, 2013! Thank you!
Needs: food assistance (apart from lunch,) chairs, table, mattress, electricity, ceiling repairs
To help, 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.  
UPDATE June 19, 2013:

Her two adolescent grandchildren and one daughter are living with Juana in the small space. Juana shares a bed with the granddaughter; they prop it up with a board because it is broken, and they have no mattress on the bed. Juana has been vomiting and experiencing dizziness. She is taking medications for colic.
Because it is now the rainy season, and because their roof is ill-constructed lamina, water is entering the house. They have hung a small tarp between the bed and ceiling so the bed will not get soaked, but this does not help much. The dirt floors turn to mud when this happens.
Despite her age, poor eyesight and other health issues, Juana is the only one making an income in the house, as her son-in-law left the family. He sends money occasionally, but Juana's weaving, which she sells in the market, is what sustains them. 

Paulina Perez Coroxon

(A-45) Status: Not Sponsored
Needs: Onil stove, water filter, chairs, table, bed, mattress

Paulina has one grandson, and one son who does not work.
She has nothing else besides.
No radio, no TV, no blender, no fridge.
No walls that meet the roof, no stove, no floor, no water filter.
No bathroom, no chairs, no table, no closet.
No mattress, no bed.
She can no longer see, and wears dark glasses to cover her eyes.

Felipa Ramos Bocel

(A-38) Status: Sponsored as of January 23, 2013! 
UPDATES: January 30, 2013 Felipa now has a water filter, bed and mattress, thank you!
UPDATE: August 28, 2013 Felipa received a food basket! She was so thankful!
Needs update: September 3, 2013: firewood, medical care, food (maiz),  blankets, sheets, a pillow, thick socks and sweaters, roof repair.
UPDATE: September 12, 2013: Felipa received much needed firewood, corn, blankets, and a pillow!

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.

Felipa sleeps on wooden boards laid on her dirt floor.

She did not go to school.

She had one child who died when he was born.

She had another, who died when she was born.

She had another child, and he died when he was born. 

After this, she and her husband stopped trying, and had no more.

Her husband died some years ago; she passes the time threading bracelets to sell in the street. 

He left some things, which she sells so she can eat.

Sabina Bocel

(A-51) Status: Not Sponsored
Needs: Onil stove, water filter, bed and 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. 

Sabina's spouse is missing an eye; she is missing a row of teeth.
He sleeps on the wooden boards on the floor, she on a cot in the kitchen.
While they should both come to eat, only Sabina makes it.
Her husband does not want to leave the house, surrounded in tall crops and grass, as he cannot see well.
She takes half her food to her husband.
Their child drinks and does not work.

Past stories about Sabina: click here.

Maria Felipa Coroz

(A-30) Status: Sponsored

Needs: food, electricity, drainage, medicines
Past stories about Maria: click here.
UPDATE June 19, 2013: "If I suddenly die," Maria says, "where would they put these things?" She explains why she does not ask for anything. The problem now is the trail to her house, which is long and treacherous. The rain makes it worse, so she cannot leave to come to the dining center to eat. She says she tries to visit her son who lives nearby each day, since if she doesn't, it is a sign that something is wrong. Her son comes to the house to check on her then, if she's sick or has fallen. While Mayan Families had given her a stove, she rarely cooks, subsisting on the food brought from the dining center. Her kids have no money to give her, nor does she have a way to make her own. She uses a latrine shielded only by PVC pipe and some sheets.
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Maria Felipa lives alone, high on a hill, taking a hour to get to from town. 

Like many of the women here she has outlived her husband by at least a decade; her children are too poor to look after her. 

She lives without a shower, or a sink. 

She waits for the neighbor child to bring her a barrel of water per week. 

She lives without a table, or chairs. She eats in the bed that was a gift. 

She lives without a floor; four wooden, rotted walls surround the dirt. 

When she cooks, she kneels on arthritic knees and blows on the open fire.

Rosa Guit Ramos

(A-32) Status: Sponsored as of Nov 9, 2012!
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.  

Rosa saves a little lunch for later. 

Today she could come to eat her lunch, yesterday, no. 

Her feet swell and sometimes she must stay in bed. 

Where once she'd sold food at the market or door to door, piling fruit into baskets to weigh on her head, now she must wait for someone to wait on her.

Her daughter is getting on in age as well: at 60 she washes other's clothes and sells in a store.
She makes enough to feed her own family, but not her mother, who depends on the lunch she receives.

When I ask Rosa what she needs she says food, sugar, beans. 

Luciana Simion Buch

Update Dec 4, 2012: Luciana has received a generous donation of shoes, food, and a blanket! She is so grateful, thank you!

(A-43) Status: Not Sponsored
Needs: water filter

Luciana asks for a pair of shoes, vitamins.
Once she wove great reams of fabric; she spun the threads by hand.
Now her bones swell inside their skin and she does not weave.
She hardly walks.
Her son and her grandson are builders, whose work is never steady.
They cannot afford to drink pure water, so drink from the tap.
Because of this Luciana vomits and has diarrhea all day.
But she does not complain of her body's disobedience, nor her arthritis, the bad water or that she does not have blankets on her bed.
She asks for shoes, vitamins.