A letter and update from our Founder and US Director, Diane NesselhufDear Friends, Most of us have choices. This week, I chose to have my grandkids come and visit. They are 7 and 3. As they get older they will have activities and more friends and might not want to spend this time with Grandma. I have decided that I will be very careful in my life. I won’t go to a place where there are crowds; I will wear my mask when I go out in public, and I will keep on sanitizing. I won’t, however, be fearful. I won’t give up seeing people who make my heart happy. As I think about these choices that many of us have, I think about our friends in Guatemala. I have been in correspondence with many NGO’s (non-government organizations) that are there. Many of these groups are doing food distributions. This is really important. Guatemala has had a national lock down several times and may have one coming up for 15 days. In a country where so many people live in poverty, this will be devastating for many families. Many of these families have no choice except to ask for food. I think the artisans we work with in many communities do have choices. They have choices, because we are offering them work. Our philosophy at Sharing the Dream is to give work, not handouts, but in this time of turmoil and starvation what do we do? It would be easy to start handing out food bags. Is this the right thing for us? This question has been on our minds for weeks. This past week, the Guatemalan staff asked if we should start distributing food, as so many people are hungry. It would be so easy to do this. It is hard to decide, so we stepped back and did some research. We contacted several friends in communities where we have programs. We learned that there is a lot of food distribution going on, and that like any tragedy, most of the resources come immediately. What we need to do for long-term sustainability for families is to keep on giving people work. Through the generous donations we have received, we have been able to do just that. It is difficult for our Guatemalan staff to get the orders and money to the artisans, but they have been working very hard to do it. We have been able to purchase from eight groups. This week, we will have a shipment come up that includes ceramic mugs, jewelry, and scarves. These orders were all done during the past several weeks. People are eager for work. I think we may have to reevaluate what we are doing every week. This week, the staff took food to our elders again. We have asked them to look at the elders’ extended families to see how they are doing and if they are able to get food. We are also looking at our scholarship students’ families. In Guatemala, like in many places, when the food first comes it goes to people who know how to work the system and the people who really need it don’t receive it. There may come a time when most of the other organizations that do food distributions leave and we may have to step up. We will be there then. We will do it with thought and with preparation, but for now we will stick to our philosophy of giving work. Sharing the Dream is in these communities permanently, and we don’t want to be seen as the hand out organization. We want the local people to know that we believe in them and we expect accountability. That may be in the form of a good artisan product or our scholarship students doing their volunteer work. We want people to move forward, and I think the best way to do that is to believe they have worth and merit and can sustain their families. We can’t deviate from our mission, which is to create long term sustainability. This is really hard now. We are so thankful for all of you who have donated and bought items in our online store. We could not do this without you. Because of all of your help, we are able to stick with our mission. We will be reopening our Vermillion store and Sioux Falls Marketplace on June 4th. We will start by opening Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I don’t foresee us having lots of customers. If there is another surge in the virus, we may have to close again. We want our volunteers and customers to be safe. We are really counting on our online sales at this point, so we thank everyone who has done an order and who has passed the information on to friends and family. I would also like to do a big thank you to many of you who gave part or all of your stimulus check to us. I know there are many organizations who need our help right now, so thank you for believing in Sharing the Dream. With your continued support we can continue to provide work for our Guatemalan friends and partners. We will keep you updated. Until then be safe, wear a mask and love those people dear to you. Diane Nesselhuf Founder/Director Sharing the Dream in Guatemala Opportunities:
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A letter and update from our Founder and US Director, Diane NesselhufDear Friends, We are all in this together. I have lived for seven decades, and I have never experienced what we are experiencing now. Many times in my life I have seen different parts of the world go through a traumatic event. There have been wars, natural disasters, shootings, and other awful things. When this happens, people circle around those who have experienced the terror and are able to comfort and help them. Who circles around us now? The whole world is within the circle. This seem insurmountable. It is up to us to reach within the circle and help each other. Just like every place in the world, our friends in Guatemala are in the circle. In a country where poverty is already an everyday occurrence, the pandemic only adds to the people having to live day to day. Here in the U.S. most of us can buy food for weeks as we have refrigerators and freezers. Our friends in Guatemala rely on the local markets to buy much of their food every day. Many of these markets are now closed. There are several organizations that are handing out food. This is a blessing for many families. Our philosophy at Sharing the Dream is different. Of course we give food to our elders, as they have no other way of receiving food. We have continued delivering food to them the past several months and will continue to do so. We have been placing product orders with our artisans. It has become more and more difficult for the artisans, as many cannot travel out of their communities to buy the materials they need to fulfill the orders. Our staff has had to rethink how they do their day-to-day tasks. How do we get money to our artisans when we sometimes can’t get to the bank and artisans can’t get out of the village to receive it? In Santiago where we have many programs, the government has shut down the village so that people cannot go in or out. We have asked our staff there to stay home for two weeks. This is difficult for them, as they really want to go to the office to get things done. Their health is important to us. We will continue to place orders, and as things clear up in certain areas of the country, we will be able to get the orders and the money to our artisans. This takes creative thinking. This takes all of us together to reach each other in the circle. You don’t have to be physically present with another person to touch them. Many of you have already done this by your orders from our online store and your donations. We are truly thankful for all of you who have contributed and ordered from our website. You are making a difference. Since our two brick and mortar stores are still closed, ordering online is important. I love this quote from Harriet Tubman. “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” You may think that it doesn’t seem like much when you give an order or a donation. It does make a difference. It makes a difference to the artisan who now has money to feed their family. It makes a difference to the elder who has a meal. It makes a difference to our Guatemalan staff who can quarantine themselves tor two weeks knowing that they are not losing their jobs. All of us together can continue to reach for the stars to change the world. We have added to our online store, and we are offering a spring sale. Please check out our sale page online. There are some great deals. Thanks again for being a dreamer. Thanks for reaching out in our world circle and making a difference. Be safe. Wear that mask and keep the physical distance. Diane Nesselhuf Founder/Director Sharing the Dream in Guatemal Opportunities:
 Artisans work to make beaded jewelry at the Elder Center and Bead Shop in Santiago A Letter and Update from our Founder and US Director, Diane NesselhufDear Friends, Tuesday is Giving Tuesday Now. I wanted to write a note, but I didn’t want to just ask for a donation. I wanted it to be meaningful to all of the people who have been so generous. I have heard the expression, what goes around comes around. I wasn’t always sure what that meant. Sometimes I have seen it in negative terms. I now see it very positively with Sharing the Dream. Many of you have given donations and bought items from our online store. Does it make a difference? How does it come around? I saw that happen last week. Because of your giving and buying, we have money to buy artisan products so that the artisans can buy food and feed their families. Seven of the artisans groups we work with have benefited. Who are these people? We ordered fabric from a foot loom group high up in the mountains of Guatemala. This group is one of the poorest groups we work with in Guatemala. We will be using this fabric for newly designed kitchen items. Who will sew these products? A group of sewers we work with in Chichicastenago. We ordered baskets from two different groups; the pine needle baskets will come from a group in the mountains called Adelanto. Our volunteer in Guatemala, Oonagh, is working with this group to design beautiful baskets with thread in them. You can see some of these baskets online, and new designs will be coming soon. We are giving orders to two of the back strap weaving groups to make matching table runners. These will be beautiful. We also ordered fabric and scarves from these groups. The second basket group is in the jungle. It is called Amasaja and is a group of over 50 women in two villages in Chiquimula. They use palm and coconut leaves to weave baskets. We gave them a large order, too. We ordered ceramic mugs from a group that is around Lake Atitlan. They gave us samples of new designs and we ordered over 50 mugs. This will help them to survive. We gave a big order to the Sharing the Dream bead group for jewelry. They were lacking orders and had been working on new designs. The eight workers will be filling this order from their homes. It takes a lot of work to coordinate all these activities while still making sure that the elders are getting food and hygiene supplies and our scholarship students are being tutored. That is where the staff in Guatemala comes in. Your donations help us to continue to pay their salaries so that they can keep doing good work and help their families and the hundreds of families that we work with to sustain themselves. So what goes around comes around. You have donated or bought products. That money is used to order items from our artisan groups. When we receive these products, we will sell them and have more money to continue to buy more products. You are not giving a one-time gift. Your gift multiplies over and over. We have many other groups in Guatemala we want to order from right now and who need the orders. With your support we will be able to do this. These times can be the worst of times or the best of times. It is how we look at it. I hope there is a silver lining for each and every one of you. Stay healthy, practice social distancing and if you are out, please wear a mask. Diane Nesselhuf Founder/Director Sharing the Dream in Guatemala Opportunities:
 An artisan from the pine needle basket group Adelanto works on a basket for Sharing the Dream A letter and update from our Founder and US Director, Diane NesselhufDear Friends, Life is hard. Yes, life is hard. I think we are all feeling that at different levels. It reminds me of a story I just heard from a man who had recently arrived in Guatemala. The man said he had been in Guatemala for a few months when he was invited to a Guatemalan’s home. The local man introduced him to his family, which included sisters, brothers and his mother. The newly arrived man saw a faded brown photo of an older man on the wall. When the local saw him staring at the photo he said, “That is my father. He is dead.” The man said, “I am so sorry,” and the local man replied, “Life is hard.” How many of us would say that after someone sees a photo of one of our loved ones? I don’t think I would nor would most people. So, what does that mean to me? It means that most of us are very fortunate in this country. (Not all of us, I understand that). We are now facing a time in our lives where we might be reevaluating our priorities. We might be saying, what really counts in life? What am I living for? How do I make a difference? These are all good thoughts. They make us more humane, they make us better people. The organization Sharing the Dream, like families, also needs to reevaluate our mission. Our mission statement is, “Friends of Sharing the Dream in Guatemala is a volunteer based fair trade organization that reduces poverty in Guatemala through collaborative partnerships with Guatemalans.” I don’t think our mission has changed right now. How do we collaborate and work with our elders and artisans? Many times when hard times hit, our first response is to give out food. We must do this with our elders as they have no other means of support. What about our artisans? I was visiting with our Guatemalan director, Lauren, the other day, and we were talking about how we work WITH our artisans. How do we work so they feel equal? We decided that giving out food wasn’t the answer. If we truly want to be in partnership, we must give them work. Many of our artisans have been asking us for work. We need to prioritize the needs of each group and also see what crafts we need here in the U.S. This is where you come in, our American partners. I want to thank all of you who have given a donation and/or bought items from our online store. We have seen great results. I was looking at the results from our online store from March 1 to April 25 last year and compared it to this year. We have sold 10 times more than last year online. Hurray!!!! This is vitally important since our two stores are closed and we don’t have any outside sales. What about our donations using the same comparisons? We have taken in 3 times more than last year. What does this mean? It means we can give our artisans work. Our jewelry makers were out of work, but we are giving them a big order. We can order fall fabric so that our weaving groups have work. A basket group in the jungle needs work desperately, so we are going to order baskets. We always give the artisans 50% upfront so they will have money to start the order and money for their families. Your orders and donations are having immediate results. We are not giving handouts; we are giving work. Thank you, and thank you from the artisans in Guatemala. Our volunteers here in the states are working, too, from home. They have been helping us write some postcards that we were able to purchase thanks to a Thrivent grant. Please continue to think about our Guatemalan friends. Please refer your friends and family to our online store and tell them about our mission. Your donations and purchases are making a huge difference. Diane Founder/Director Sharing the Dream in Guatemala Opportunities:
 Your support makes a difference in the lives of our Guatemalan partners A letter and update from our Founder and US Director, Diane NesselhufDear Friends, I hope you are all staying safe and practicing social distancing. We are all on an unfamiliar road and not sure what the future holds. I know that Sharing the Dream will survive. We have hundreds of people in Guatemala counting on us, and we will do what we can to keep our programs and our staff. We will look for OPPORTUNTIES. Here are a few changes that we are experiencing. We were doing really well with our two brick and mortar stores but have now temporarily closed them. We have transitioned to strictly online sales for the foreseeable future. We rely on our outside sales for the spring and summer, but all of them have been canceled. This is a challenge, but we need to see it as an OPPORTUNITY to really ramp up our online store. Please shop and pass the word on about our online presence at: www.sharingthedream.org. Because Coronavirus is a pandemic, we are seeing the affects in Guatemala, too. There is a shutdown of all transportation and the airport is closed. Guatemala relies on the tourist industry, and that has been decimated. There is a 4PM curfew and everyone must be in their homes at that time. This makes it challenging for people to live and work. We are thinking outside of the box in regards to how we are doing our programs in Guatemala and how we can maintain our staff. Our 60 elders have been told to stay at home, and the staff has educated them on hand washing and given them soap and bleach. The staff has taken food to them twice now. The food will last them several weeks. Without this help our elders would go hungry. We need to look at this as an OPPORTUNITY to work more on sanitation with the elders. In order to sustain their families, our artisans need to have work. The jewelry artisans have finished up an order for us, and we are hoping to give them another order soon. They are working from their homes. The weavers are working on samples for our fall order. We are looking at this as an OPPORTUNITY for the artisans to come up with new designs and think about new markets. Although our scholarship students are not in school, we do not want them to fall behind. Our tutors are using phones and other ways of communicating with the students to keep them educationally active. This is an OPPORTUNITY for our students to learn that education is more than a classroom. In Guatemala, it is sometimes difficult to think outside the box. Most available jobs are pretty black and white, and the school system does not promote creativity. We are working with the staff and reminding them that this is an OPPORTUNITY to be creative. This is a steep learning curve but will help the organization in the long-run. Thank you for being a part of the Sharing the Dream family. We have some OPPORTUNITIES for you. We know that your family comes first, so please know that we are not putting any pressure on you. Again, we just want to give you some options to help.
Again, thank you for your help, and please stay safe. Diane Nesselhuf Founder/Director Sharing the Dream in Guatemala  Take the opportunity to make a difference in the life of an artisan, elder, or scholarship student in Guatemala An update on the COVID-19 Crisis in Guatemala from Guatemala Director, Lauren VaskeDear friends, I hope that this email finds you safe and healthy. I know these past few weeks have been challenging for everyone. Know that we are in this together, and that despite all of the bad news, positive things are still happening. We are so grateful for your support for the people of Guatemala during these challenging times, and we want to keep you abreast of what’s been going on. As of Tuesday night, Guatemala is up to 168 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and it is now community spread. The restrictions scheduled to expire this past Sunday have been extended until the end of the month. This means that the 4pm curfew is still in place, all public transportation has been suspended, and many towns have decided to close their borders to non-residents. Despite all of the restrictions, some positive things are happening. One of the positive things that has come out of this situation is that people are thinking outside of the box. Our staff in Guatemala is no exception. Creativity is not stressed in the Guatemalan school system, so asking the staff to be creative in their work has been challenging for some of them, but everyone is doing a great job. I want to share one such story with you, Antonio. Antonio is one of our tutors. Since he is no longer able to do in-person tutoring, he has been doing virtual tutoring sessions. He is also now offering story hours for families in his community and providing tutoring to struggling students from the local elementary school, all the while following proper social distancing guidelines. It’s thanks to your support that Antonio is able to continue working and receiving a salary so that he can support his family. Here are some more positive things that have been happening thanks to your support.
Best wishes, Lauren Vaske Director in Guatemala  An Elder Center staff member packs food to be delivered to the elders A letter and update from our Founder and US Director, Diane NesselhufI would like to thank everyone who has donated and bought items from our online store. It is really helping and will make a difference. I am not hearing good news from Guatemala. As the pandemic goes on, more people there are diagnosed, and there is a shutdown of all transportation and almost all businesses. The people have to be off the streets at 4PM. When you already live day to day, shutting down the country means people will not be able to survive. Lauren, our director in Guatemala, has temporarily left the country. She was notified by the State Department that she should return to the US. She did not make one of the six charter flights from the State Department but was able to book a flight on Eastern Airlines, which was the only flight other than the State Department’s flights that left Guatemala. The State Department prioritized families and older people first. Leaving Guatemala was a difficult decision, and she spent 4 hours outside the airport waiting to get in and then 3 hours waiting for the flight to get cleared so they could depart. Lauren will spend 15 days in self-quarantine, and then we are hoping she can come to Vermillion and help out here. The staff is working hard in Guatemala to keep everything going, and Lauren communicates with them many times daily via phone and Skype. We must keep paying our staff and financing our programs. I know it is difficult here, too. We are all feeling the strains of being housebound, and many people here have lost their income. Our prayers go out to people all over the world. I am going to make a pledge, and I am hoping those of you who are able to will also make the pledge. I am going to pledge my government stimulus payment check to Sharing the Dream to help the people in Guatemala. I realize not everyone can do this, and I don’t want people to feel guilty when they need their stimulus check for their family or others in need. Please join me if you can. Diane Nesselhuf Founder/Director Sharing the Dream in Guatemala Please donate via the website at or send a check to: Sharing the Dream 10 W. Main Vermillion, SD 57069 Can you help? We have temporarily closed our two non-profit fair trade stores in South Dakota. Our off site spring sales have been canceled. During this difficult time, we are maintaining our programs and paying our staff in Guatemala. Without this help, our elders would go hungry and our staff would not have an income. There are no safety nets in Guatemala. Sharing the Dream in Guatemala is their safety net. This is a huge responsibility. We need to have income of about $15,000.00 per month to keep things going in Guatemalan and here in the states. How can you help?
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