My host mom, Kathy Wall, and her son, Zachary, took me on a 5 mile walk around their neighborhood so I could get a feel for the area. My family lives in a gated community that is much better off than most of the Guatemalans living in the city and even country. Something that surprised me was all the walls and fences. Every house has one with either barbed wire, electric wires, broken glass or all of the above topping them for security purposes. 
In addition to that, everyone here has a dog, not as a pet necessarily, but as a guard. Strays are also common and you can see them roaming the city streets in packs (I saw one with 11 in it today). But above all else I was in shock at the complete beauty of the city. 
Today we woke around 6am to prepare for our day. We left around 7 to pick up the food from the warehouse needed for our deliveries. We delivered to five orphanages in San Lucas Sacatepeque today:
-Kids Alive: an all girl orphanage that focuses specifically on victims of rape and sexual abuse with Christian counseling. They have approximately 40 girls of all ages living there. They also have plans to grow with more buildings for young rape victims that have become pregnant.
-Village of Hope: an "all girl" orphanage started about 3 years ago for children that are HIV positive, pregnant teens, and ex-prostitutes trying to lead new lives so they can keep their children. They have between 30 and 40 orphans and are run by a young American couple.
-Amor de Patricia: a beautifully run orphanage with about 15-20 boys and girls. This is where I met mi amigo Antonio, who jumped and hugged me right before this picture. 
-Rosa de Amor: an orphanage for boys and girls ages 7-17. They have about 20-30 kids and are run by Rosita Zed. Unfortunately she isn't very well organized and tends to have more financial issues than she should, but she has a huge heart and takes in any child that comes her way.
-Home of Angels: actually no longer an orphanage as of a few months ago. They are now a home for young girls that wish to become nuns. This was ORI's last delivery there since they are no longer an orphanage.
I have had a tremendous amount of information thrown at me in the past day or so but here are some important highlights I have found:
-The Wall family delivers black beans, rice, milk, sugar, and mezeca(used to make tortillas) to 48 different orphanages through ORI. They deliver once a month to every orphanage.
-The budget for each month is $7,900 US dollars for all of the 48 orphanages.
-"Minimum wage" in Guatemala is 16 quetzales (or 2 US dollars) an hour, although most don't even get paid this much.
-There are approximately 370 thousand orphans in Guatemala. Although it is important to point out that foster children and orphans are one in the same. Most orphanages have both.
-The Guatemalan government is very proud to say that they don't have very many orphans at all, and the programs that they have are working wonderfully for the "few" orphans there are.
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ReplyDeleteThis sounds like an amazing project! It seems that children in Guatemala, like many places in the world, are struggling to get the care they need. What motivated you to help out with this specific issue? Can you relate what you've seen so far in Guatemala to any experiences you've had here in the US?
ReplyDeleteWell I have always had a love for children, but I became aware of Guatemala's orphan problem through some people at my church. So really i just stumbled upon this specific developing country. You are correct in that many countries in the world are in a similar situation as Guatemala. Every country has starvation, poverty, and sickness or disease. That is part of reality. This becomes much more horrific when it becomes accepted. I relate a lot of my experiences here back to my homelessness course I took earlier this year, and compare a lot to the U.S. In America we have programs and plans such as shelters, and food banks. In Guatemala these programs don't exist. A majority of the population actually lives in tin shacks with dirt floors. One more difference that I should point out is that most children are not educated or cannot be educated for many reasons. First being that all school, even government run, cost money and most families pick food and shelter before education(which is completely understandable). Second is that children born into very extreme poverty are often not registered(being registered is like having a birth certificate) and you can't attend school if you weren't registered at birth. The last reason is simply that some areas don't have schools and children work as soon as they are able.
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