Adrian is sleeping on a piece of wood

Mr. Adrian is the newest elderly in our Elderly Care Program. He is 86 years old and lives in a family compound with his daughter, granddaughter, and their families.

His daughter and granddaughter are his sole caregivers, but they both struggle to support their own families. They are really anxious and worried that they cannot take care of Adrian as well as they would like to.


Since Tuesday this week, when his family came to the office to ask for help, Adrian is receiving one nutritious meal per day through the Mayan Families Feeding Program. The family is so relieved that he is eating well at least once a day, because he had been losing a lot of weight and getting sick due to malnutrition.

We went to visit Adrian's house and it was very upsetting to see that he is sleeping on a piece of wood (a door, actually) that the family borrowed from a neighbor. Furthermore, it is more upsetting to know that as bad as it seems to be sleeping on a piece of wood, Adrian is just glad he isn't sleeping on the floor.

If you can help Adrian be more comfortable by giving him a bed with a mattress, please go to  Donate Now and scroll down.  Enter $170 in the "Other $" box.  In the "Details" box, write "A79 Bed and Mattress". If you want to help Adrian with food or medicine, enter your donation in the "Other $" box and write A79 in the "Details" box. Any amount will help Adrian tremendously! Thank you so much!

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."

Great News!

Adrian with his new bed (his correct number is A-79)

Thank you so much to everyone who donated for a bed for Adrian! We are so happy to report that we received enough donations and Adrian now has his new, wooden bed and a mattress! This will make a huge difference in his life as he is able to sleep comfortably and he knows that there are people around the world who care for him! Thank you so much to everyone!

Read Adrian's story here.

Medical Needs for Ancianos

We are still seeking donations, especially monthly sponsorship, for our Elderly Care program. For most, the meal they get with Mayan Families is the only meal they get per day. Please consider sponsoring an elderly person to eat at least once a day, five days a week. A monthly sponsorship costs $35. 

Even by their own families, the elderly are ignored, thought to have lived out their need to be cared for. Their sons and daughters are often so poor they must choose between feeding their parents or feeding their children. Please help us to provide this small but necessary contribution to their lives.

There are several more who need more than just one meal, of course, and if you would like to make a one-time donation or consider sponsoring an elderly person's medical costs, please review the extra needs below. Remember that these costs are in addition to the cost of their lunch per month, at $35.

A-2 Tereso Ajcojon needs vitamins monthly, at $13.

A-10 Maria Lucas needs a monthly supply of Ensure, at $32.

A-70 Dolores Leja needs medicine and milk each month, which cost $78.

A-85 Casimiro Leja needs a monthly supply of Ensure, at $32.

A-75 Santiago Bocel needs medicine and Ensure at $104.35 a month.

A-79 Adrian Motta needs Ensure at $32 a month.

A-82 Fidelia Pinzon needs medicine and diapers at $62 a month.

A-88 Petrona Pablo needs medicine at $10 a month.

and A-84 Felipa Xingo needs medicine at $4 a month.






Go to www.mayanfamilies.org/donatenow and write "Elderly Care Sponsorship" or list the number and need (for example A-91, vitamins $13) in the Other box. For any questions you may have, or for more information on a particular Anciano, please email familyaid@mayanfamilies.org.

Thank you so much for your help! A link to more information can be found here.