Amelia is the first point of health care for the children at Casa Guatemala, as well as community members from the surrounding villages.  As the health care provider, Amelia is responsible for everything from administering first aid to accompanying patients to the nearest public clinic down the river for more serious cases.  In April, Amelia spent a lot of time administering first aid to the children who suffered from minor accidents.  Children can play rough sometimes, and there are lots of scrapes and cuts to be treated.  Amelia is also responsible for treating common ailments, such as stomach aches and ear infections. When a treatment is given to a patient, Amelia works with the heads of the houses at Casa Guatemala to ensure that they understand instructions and that the treatment is being carried out as prescribed. 

Part of Amelia's job is to ensure that not just the curative needs of the children at Casa Guatemala are met, but that preventive measure are taken to ensure a better overall health.  In April, Amelia helped to host a workshop for all of the school children at Casa Guatemala.  The workshop was given by students studying medicine at a local university and focused on the importance of handwashing.  Amelia also gave a workshop to the children at Casa Guatemala in April on viral illnesses, such as colds and chicken pox.  The workshop helped the students to identify the causes of the illnesses,  symptoms, treatment, and prevention.  Amelia was able to tie in this workshop with the handwashing workshop given earlier in the month by the medical students.  

In April, Amelia also helped to apply flouride to all of the children and staff members at Casa Guatemala.  Amelia works with the students and staff at Casa Guatemala to promote good dental hygiene amongst the students, and flouride is an important part of those good dental practices.

The children at Casa Guatemala had a special treat in April- a trip to the Castillo San Felipe, a Spanish colonial fort at the mouth of Lake Izabal and the Rio Dulce.  Amelia helped to prepare the first aid kit and chaperoned the students on the field trip. 

​Please help us to support this life-saving work by making a donation to Sharing the Dream for Amelia's salary. https://www.sharingthedream.org/donate.html. For $20, you can sponsor a day of Amelia’s important work, or for $400 you can sponsor a full month of health care.

Sharing the Dream in Guatemala provides the salary for Amelia, the health promoter at Casa Guatemala.  As the health promoter, Amelia is responsible for health care for all of the children at Casa Guatemala, as well as the surrounding villages.  Her care is essential for the wellbeing of the children and the surrounding communities. Read her March report!

Amelia's position at Casa Guatemala requires a mix of short-term care and education interventions.  This month, Amelia not only treated the sick patients at Casa Guatemala's school and the surrounding communities, but she focused on education with the children and their parents and gave several workshops and talks.  

Her first workshop in March was with the parents of the school children on the topic of family planning.  During the workshop, Amelia explained the importance of family planning, the various methods, and the pros and cons of each method.  In total, 23 mothers attended the workshop. 

Amelia's second workshop in March was with the school children in kindergarten through sixth grade on proper nutrition and nutrients.  So that the children could practice what they learned with a hands-on activity, they made fruit baskets afterwards.  

Another focus of Amelia's work in March was improving communication, both verbal and non-verbal.  She gave several workshops on this topic, one of which was with the older boys and girls at the school and their teachers. The workshop focused on communication, human relations, interpersonal relations, and courtesy.   Amelia also gave a talk to the parents of the school children on improving communication within the family and the effect it has on the family.  Finally, in an effort to improve communication among everyone at Casa Guatemala, Amelia wrote out some rules for communication, which were posted in the school cafeteria.  

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Amelia also accompanied five students from the Casa Guatemala school to a local dentist for follow up care after being seen by a visiting group of dentists.  The students received teeth cleanings, fillings, extractions, and sealants.  Thanks to Amelia, these students were able to not only be seen by the visiting dentists, but they were able to get the follow-up care that they needed after the dentists left.  

​In March, Amelia's duties didn't just consist of providing health care. She was chosen as one of the judges for the school's Mister and Miss Summer contest.   

Please help us to support this life-saving work by making a donation to Sharing the Dream to support Amelia's salary. https://www.sharingthedream.org/donate.html. For $20, you can sponsor a day of Amelia’s important work, or for $400 you can sponsor a full month of health care.

Don't forget, the entire month of May, Sharing the Dream will donate 10% of total orders of $50 or more in our online store to Casa Guatemala's Education program.   Shop now and help to support education in Guatemala.  https://www.sharingthedream.org/online-store.html

For the past several years, Sharing the Dream in Guatemala has sponsored the salary for a health promoter through our partner organization Casa Guatemala. Casa Guatemala is located on the Rio Dulce (sweet river), an eight hour trip away from our offices on Lake Atitlan. The health promoter, Amelia, is responsible for health care for all of the children at Casa Guatemala's school, as well as the surrounding communities. The children from Casa Guatemala come from remote villages and live on-site during the week. Some children stay over the weekends as well due to long travel times. Her care is essential for the wellbeing of the children and the surrounding communities.

Amelia’s position is not just curative health care, but preventative as well. She does workshops with the children and community members on different topics that will help the participants to improve their health and wellness. In February, Amelia held a workshop with the fourth, fifth, and sixth graders about hygiene. The workshop will hopefully help the students to not only have proper hygiene, but to prevent the illnesses that poor hygiene causes.

​Another of Amelia’s responsibilities is to help coordinate visiting medical groups and their activities. In February, Amelia coordinated and accompanied a visiting group of doctors as they held clinics for the school children and some of the surrounding communities. Amelia not only accompanied the visiting group, but she was essential in ensuring that the necessary follow up care was given afterwards.

​In February, Amelia also accompanied sick patients to the local health center down the river to be seen by the doctor there, as well as the nearest laboratory for exams. One of the patients she accompanied to the local health center this month was a young boy who cut his heel. The cut was deep, and the boy ended up receiving 14 stitches in total. Amelia was responsible for overseeing the healing process, and she visited him several times this month to make sure that the injury was clean, correctly dressed, and healing properly.

Please help us to support this life-saving work by making a donation to Sharing the Dream to support Amelia's salary. https://www.sharingthedream.org/donate.html. For $20, you can sponsor a day of Amelia’s important work, or for $400 you can sponsor a full month of health care.
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You can read more about Casa Guatemala's work on their website.

Today is International Women’s Day, a day dedicated to celebrating women and their achievements worldwide.

Sharing the Dream is fortunate to work with many amazing women across our programs. Many of the artisans are women, the elders at the Elder Center are primarily women, the majority of the scholarship students are girls and young women, and Sharing the Dream is led by women.  We have found that by working with women, it improves their self-esteem. This improved self-esteem means that their entire family, including their husband, looks at them differently, and oftentimes treat them with more respect and equality.  Woman also invest in the health, education, and general well-being of their children and family, which leads to positive changes in future generations.

Today we want to share the story of one of the amazing women that we are so fortunate to work with, Concepcion Quieju.Concepcion is one of Sharing the Dream’s elders. Concepcion is a war widow, and her husband and two of her sons were kidnapped and disappeared by the military during the Guatemalan Civil War when they were on their way out to work in the fields. Even though the family searched extensively, their bodies were never found.

As a widow, Concepcion had to work very hard in order to provide for the family. She wove the traditional clothing of Santiago Atitlan, and she broke down gender barriers by going out to collect firewood in the mountains- a task traditionally considered men’s work.

Concepcion’s family was again affected during the mudslide from Hurricane Stan in 2005 when her daughter was buried under the mud. The family also lost their house and had to live in a temporary housing settlement for many years while the Guatemalan government built new houses for the survivors.

Despite the hardships and suffering that Concepcion has endured, she continues to fight for herself, her family, and others.  Concepcion is active at the Elder Center, where she participates on the advisory council, and she regularly volunteers to help out making lunch for her peers. She has been active in helping out with the land title for the new Elder Center, and her dream is to see the new Elder Center completed.
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Please consider making a donation to the Elder Center Construction Fund to help make Concepcion’s dream come true. 

https://www.sharingthedream.org/donate.html

CEDEC is a weaving group from the Guatemalan state of San Marcos, high in the mountains close to the Mexican border.  This talented group of weavers works on the foot loom to make fabric that can later be used for bags and purses.   

​​In the early 80’s, Aurelia was invited to participate in some workshops about women’s rights and indigenous rights in a town a few hours away. After attending the workshops, she was so moved by what she learned that she returned to her village and began to tell other women about all of her new knowledge. The women then formed together to create the Community Development Center (Centro de Desarrollo Comunitario-CEDEC) . In the days when the group started, there were 45 members. That was more than 30 years ago, and now the group has dwindled down to seven dedicated members who spend their time making typical fabric for the region where they live. They generally sell their products in the market in the nearest town which is about an hour away by microbus. Buses only come in and out of the village sporadically and many people walk if they have somewhere they need to be. The small village where the women live is very rural. It’s located in the western mountains of Guatemala and surrounded by beautiful panoramic views of the Guatemalan countryside.

​The women are fortunate to have a weaving center, which was built in 2009 with financial support from Sharing the Dream and some wonderful donors. The center now holds nine foot looms where the women work. The center offers a quiet, focused workspace where the women can weave in comparison to the often hectic environment of the home.

Recently, we visited the women at the weaving center to do a workshop to them about quality control and combining colors. Part of the focus of the Artisan Development program is to give workshops to our various artisan groups about various topics which will be helpful for their work. Our goal is to ensure that all of our artisan groups have the capacity to find new clients and produce quality products so that they receive repeat orders. 

The women in the weaving group have, on average, five children each. One of the encouraging things that we heard was that even though the highest level of education among the women is 4th grade, almost all of their children have studied and earned their high school degrees.  Some have even gone on to study university courses. In a country where only 48% of males and 44% of females attend secondary school, it was encouraging to hear that the women have made education a priority for their children (“At a glance: Guatemala, 2013).

You can purchase products made with fabric from Cedec in our stores and in our online store  soon!

Meet Copavic.  Copavic is an artisan owned cooperative in Cantel, Quetzaltenango.  They make beautiful glassware using recycled glass. Copavic was founded in 1976 as a way to provide income for young people during the 36 year civil war.  The cooperative was founded by a glass blower who was looking for a new opportunity after the glass factory where he worked closed.  Together with other interested artisans, they built the ovens and the factory little by little.  Now, the cooperative has 20 members and provides work for up to 38 artisans when they are in production.  Due to the high costs of heating the ovens and the difficulty in finding clients, the group only produces their beautiful glassware a handful of times a year.  When the artisans aren't producing beautiful glassware, they dedicate themselves to working in the fields or to weaving cortes, the traditional skirts, using large foot looms.  
The products are made from all recycled glass.  People drop off glass at the factory year round, which gets cleaned up, the label removed, and broken in to smaller pieces that can be melted down.  

After the glass has been prepped and is melted down, the artisans begin to form it in to their unique products.  There are seven stations in total, and each station has a master artisans and two apprentices.  The group provides all of the training on-site, and they are excited to say that they are once again drawing interest from young people who want to learn the art of glass blowing.  The artisans move around each other in what appears to be a well-choreographed dance, moving between the ovens and their work stations to blow, mold, and form the glass product.  

Once the item has been formed, the artisans fire it under a modified blow torch and place it in a large brick oven to be fired at the end of production.  The products get fired for 24 hours before they are finished.  Once they are done, they are left with a one-of-a-kind glass, cup, or pitcher.  

To see Copavic's glass pieces, stop in to visit us at one of our brick and mortar stores in South Dakota.  
You can read more about our partner artisan groups on the Our Partners page of our website.  

Meet Adelanto.  Adelanto is a group of women artisans from the rural highlands of Guatemala.  They make decorative pine needle baskets that are so beautiful they could be considered works of art.  Adelanto was originally founded by a group of war widows and orphans after Guatemala's bloody 36 year civil war as a way to support themselves.  The group started by making and selling woven bracelets.  They have since learned the art of pine needle basket making.  New members have integrated over the years, and the group is now 17 women strong.  
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In order to weave their baskets, the women must first gather pine needles. After gathering the needles, the women put them to dry. Once the pine needles are sufficiently dry, the group removes the ends of the needles.  Using plastic raffia, the group begins to wrap the needles and raffia together in to the desired shape.  

You can see Adelanto's work in our online store or by stopping in to one of brick in mortar stores.  

Last Friday, the Open Door School and Library, La Puerta Abierta in Spanish, hosted the elders from the Elder Center at their school.  The school children planned a day of activities for the elders, including arts and crafts, games, songs, and a snack.  The day provided many opportunities for inter-generational sharing, and smiles and laughter abounded.  It was great to see the elders enjoy themselves and forget about their worries.  Thank you to La Puerta Abierta for the great day!  

October 1st is the International Day of Older Persons, a day established to fight discrimination against the aging and to raise awareness of the situations of older people. In Guatemala, as in many countries around the world, older persons are often forgotten about or are left to fend for themselves. Without families who are able to care for them, many elders are forced to continue to do hard labor or to beg on the street in order to survive. Many elders never leave their houses, and when they do, they remain invisible while the rest of society rushes around them. Our elders face similar conditions in life. The Elder Center is a place where these forgotten persons can feel like human beings again. It's a place where they can receive nutritious meals that so many depend on to survive, access to the medical care that they so desperately need but are unable to pay for, and social interaction. Help us to continue to provide this essential care by sponsoring an elder or making a donation to the Elder Center. ​