From Kathleen Morkert:

We are absolutely pleased to be able to share with you that, as of today, $21,099 has been donated to the Relief Fund to help our artisan friends and their families in Guatemala. The response to our appeal was overwhelming. Many, many thanks to each of you who responded so quickly and so generously. Every dollar will be well used and impact the lives of a Maya family.

As you can see from Mirian’s most recent report below, the needs continue to be great. The U.N. is saying that the food situation in Guatemala is “catastrophic” since so much of the farmland was flooded and so much harvest lost. This means the need for food will be critical in the coming months.

In addition to the support we are providing during these days of recovery, MayaWorks will do all we can to ensure that our friends have food for their table: we will do this both by selling their work and providing income, and by providing financial and material help as appropriate.

From Mirian Otzin:

Greetings.

We visited Santiago again.  Thank heaven they are getting better step by step.

Basically almost everything is similar to the first visit. They have the same needs and of course they need more food.

They are still waiting to move to the new shelters offered by the government.  We visited these new shelters and they are still building them.  We saw a lot of people and machinery working hard, but still is not ready. However if we give them the things they need now, when they have to move to the shelters they will all they need with them. (Note: photos of the temporary housing have been added to the Photo Album accessible through the link on the Update page.)

We bought most of the clothes we needed for the women.  We will deliver these clothes next week.  We will also deliver the beds and kitchen's utensils.

Regarding the Quicain sisters, they are very thankful with the support they will receive.  Emotionally they are feeling better.  However financially they are still having troubles.  They can walk a little.

We visited the place where they are living, and even though the family is willing to help them (letting them stay at their home) it is a small house and there's not enough room.  The sisters won't move to the new shelters because they are afraid that a new mudslide can affect them (considering that the shelters are being constructed very close to the place where they lived before).

The Quicain sisters, don Diego and I were talking for more than one hour about their main needs and they are the following: clothes, beds and kitchen utensils.  Unfortunately they don't have a place to stay. (Note: the new photos mentioned above also have a picture of the Quicain sisters.)

So the plan is the following:

From next week on (the day MayaWorks delivers things) they'll live in one of the MayaWorks Study Center's room.  They'll have their own space.  It was obvious they are not comfortable with the family where they are right now due to the lack of room.  They will need more or less Q1000 and Q1500 (US $135- $200) for their monthly expenses. The time they have to rest, according to the doctor's opinion, will be 6 months.

Their request for MayaWorks is to discuss the possibility of supporting them through the purchase of a piece of land and construction of a humble house.  I talked with don Diego about it and he said he could find a nice piece of land for Q10,000.  (more or less US $1350) without construction.  According to the calculation I sent last week, for 2 rooms and 1 kitchen, we'll need Q20,000 (US $2700). Of course we're talking about a formal construction.  Don Diego thinks that if MayaWorks supports at least the purchase of the land, he could find other ways to support the construction.

Written by: Mirian Otzín

November 3, 2005