Dear Friends of MayaWorks,

First we want you all to know what incredible people you friends of MayaWorks are! You sent the most amazing messages in response to the first Disaster Update we sent! We passed those messages on to Mirian and Mirna, our staff in Guatemala and asked them to share your words with the artisans.

We learned on Thursday, October 14 that two of our beadworkers, the Quicain sisters, are the only survivors of their family. They lost eight members of their family, their home and all their belongings. They lived in Panabaj, the community that has been declared a mass graveyard. These young women, MayaWorks artisans, will need a tremendous amount of help.

Maria del Carmen, the group leader in San Marcos, has told us that the houses of five MayaWorks families in San Marcos filled with mud and rocks. They will eventually be able to return to their house but they have lost everything that was inside. (It is the San Marcos group that crochets and makes the colorful basket-liners.)

Our Guatemala Coordinator, Mirian Otzin, is working hard to bring us current information and plans to visit Santiago Atitlan and San Marcos as soon as it is safe to do so. She has already asked about money that will be available for immediate basic necessities like food, water and cooking utensils for the people she meets there.

We are coming to you now with a request for donations so that we can begin to help our MayaWorks friends, their families and their communities rebuild their lives.

Please send a generous donation now so we can help with the immediate needs. You can give either by sending a check to MayaWorks, 4421 N. Malden, 3N, Chicago, IL 60640 or with a credit card online at our secure website: www.mayaworks.org. The MayaWorks Board of Directors has already pledged $5000 from the organization’s reserve fund. We hope to raise another $5000 from foundations to match the $10,000 we hope to raise from individual donors making a total of $20,000 that we can make available to our friends in Guatemala.

Of course, another way we can all help is to make work for all our artisans by hosting MayaWorks Sales and purchasing MayaWorks products. Work means income for families who need it more than ever.

Within days we will add an update page to our website where we will post communications we receive from our Guatemala staff. We also have some photos that Diego Chavez has sent us. Please visit there often.

Thank you for your continuing support, for your good wishes for MayaWorks artisans and for being part of the MayaWorks family.

Please share this email with any of your friends or contacts who would be interested.