A Few of the Many Stories of Hope and a Better Quality of Life – Realized Through Helping Guatemala’s Poor Help Themselves
Success Stories from Remote Guatemala
These Ixil Maya women are learning to feed their families through sustainable agriculture training and distribution of seeds. Miracles in Action supports this fascinating project through Michael Ewens and The Ripple Effect. Michael treks through the jungles for days, carrying seed and fencing on mules, to reach families so grateful for his agricultural knowledge in setting up bountiful gardens. For more “Success Stories” and “The Adventures of Michael”, visit The Ripple Effect.
Help in starting personal gardens is helping these families with better nutrition.
Besides bringing seeds and knowledge, Michael Ewens delivers quilts donated by American Airlines
(recycled First Class quilts)
– a warm gift for cold nights in the mountains.
Who’s getting the pigs?
A supporter recently asked if donations actually get to the projects and impoverished families. With Miracles in Action, we can assure you that they do – 100%. When someone donates to a stove, a woman gets a stove. Donations for pigs or chickens (our animal fund) results in a women getting the animal of their choice, which is sometimes a pig, a goat, or a flock of chickens. We recently received a report from our partner non-profit, The Ripple Effect, updating us on their recent return to the village of Nueve Puntos, a remote village, 3 days travel from Guatemala City (including a mule ride for the last part of the journey.) This village received funds from us for animals. They sent us a document from the women signing off on receiving their animal with a commitment to care for it. Most signatures were thumb prints because they can not write, having never been to school. If you want to learn more about our partner non-profit in this project, take a look at their blog with the story on how they transported all the supplies of aid. We collected the aid in Naples, carted it to Guatemala, then sent it out to these remote villages through TRE. It is a wonderful heart-warming story. Visit their website
Replacing a cold, dark shack with a new building and warmth…
This dirt floor shack (photo below, left) with no windows or electric was used for a school in the remote village of Capcincito in Huehuetenango. It is a very cold area in the mountains at 9,000′. Many children wore towels or blankets because they are too poor to buy a sweater or jackets. Most children had chapped and sunburned faces and hands. The shack was replaced by School of Miracles #18. In photo below, right, children are holding the 1st class American Airlines quilts donated to us to take to the new school. This school was a gift of AA Flight Attendant Marla Zell in memory of her educator parents Ed and Maureen Talton.
Answering a plea for help…
We experienced first hand how difficult and time consuming it is to transport water in jugs carried on your head. For this village in Patzun, carrying water is a daily activity – 1 hour each way to the spring and home, with steep slopes to climb balancing 34 lbs of water on your head. An elderly village woman begged us to help them build a water system. She said her bones ached from years of carrying heavy jugs of water. "I don't want my grandchildren to suffer as I have". We heard her plea and with the help of the men caring these jugs of water, our partner non-profit and the community, a water system now brings spring water to their homes.
Parent Commitment
to Education
Nebaj is an area of Guatemala where the Mayan people were gravely impacted by the 36 year civil war. The parents in this community committed to help build a 2 room school for their children. Often parents do not know how to read and write themselves, so they must have important documents read to them, and then sign with their thumbprint. These parents were willing to do backbreaking manual labor so that their children will be able to read and write. Their school was completed and inaugurated in August 2010.
