December 1st fund raising sale

Make your Christmas shopping a win win.
The Guatemala Daycare Project will be selling Jewellery and crafts from Guatemala in order to fund the building and maintenance of  current and future projects.
When: Saturday Decmber 1st. 10am to 3pm
Where: Chelsea Elementary school Scott Rd Chelsea Quebec

Slide show presentation Thursday Nov 22nd

Thursday, November 22-  at the Kemptville library, 1:30- 3:00 p.m.

Sheila and Brian will give a slide  presentation on Guatemala and their Guatemala Daycare Project to be followed by an exhibition and craft sale of handicrafts in support of the daycares. 

Wakefield fund raiser May 2012

Fair trade show May 2012 Wakefield community centre

Fundraising Sale December 1st

Make your Christmas shopping a win win.
The Guatemala Daycare Project will be selling Jewellery and crafts from Guatemala in order to fund the building and maintenance of  current and future projects.
When: Saturday Decmber 1st. 10am to 3pm
Where: Chelsea Elementary school Scott Rd Chelsea Quebec

Fundraising for 2013

                                 GUATEMALA     DAYCARE

     Fall triggers our preparation time for our return to the Central Highlands of Guatemala. This will be our 13^th year volunteering for this project that is run by a group of dedicated, hardworking Mayan women whose mission is to improve the family situations in these remote communities.  Our role is to provide the much needed financial and educational support. We started with one center and now we support 12 with the centers improving each year.

                                       

                                                  HOLA  Y  GRACIAS

   We were incredibly busy last year and here were some of the highlights we would like to share with you. The kids were pretty happy as you can see and we hope that you are as well.

1)      At Chacap, we built a new classroom out of used plastic bottles stuffed with dry garbage and covered with adobe. This was an exciting project that had children, parents and “gringo” volunteers doing the work to accommodate the growing enrollment at this site. The new class was built in back of the existing center. In addition, the kitchen that had been in an adobe outbuilding was moved into the main center to make cooking for the children easier. A cement floor was installed in the adobe building so it could be used as another classroom. Brian then wired the house for plugs and lights. Solar lights made of plastic bottles filled with water and chlorine were installed over the existing bathroom and washing area to provide good, cheap light in an otherwise dark area during daylight hours. After we left, mothers and other volunteers built playground structures out of old tires. This center is now a thriving beehive with more than 55 children receiving the benefits. Following are pictures showing the transformations at this site.

       

               

2)      At Punyebar, two toilets with running water were built at the edge of the daycare site. They held kid sized plastic toilets and had doors for privacy. Prior to this the children had to walk 5 minutes along a road with an adult to another house, to use a bathroom. Imagine that.                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

3)      At Palestina, we built a playground structure complete with a slide and sandbox. Both the kids and teachers went nuts over this!!!!!

                                                                                                                       

4)      At Fe Y Vida we installed a chimney for a stove in the kitchen so that the smoke went outside. Prior to this, the kitchen filled with smoke that escaped only via a small gap between the pole rafters and the metal roof. The poor cook suffered for a whole year.

         

5)      At Neuvo Amanacer, a new bathroom, complete with kid sized plastic toilet, was built on site to eliminate the kids having to walk quite a distance to a crumbling concrete toilet, much too large for the little kids, in an outhouse with no door.

6)      All centers received an equal share of a shipment of toys, shoes, school supplies, clothing and musical instruments - donations that were shipped by container boat courtesy of a Quebec Volunteer Organization that works in our area. They generously paid for the shipping which was over a $600 saving to our program.

These projects are funded by three methods:

1)      The selling of local Guatemala Crafts which we buy in the communities where we work  around Lake Atitlan and then they are sold at craft sales in the Wakefield area.

2)      The Wakefield School does an incredible Christmas fundraiser for us.

3)      You, our friends, with your generous donations, provide the greatest support for this endeavor, without it, this project would not function to the level that it does.

  We are once again asking you to participate in our Guatemala Daycare Project through a donation. We are happy to receive any amount of donation however for any donation of $50 and over a tax receipt will be issued in your name. For donations under $50 please make your checks out to Sheila Silver, attention Guatemala Daycare Project, for all others make them out to Paso por Paso. Send all checks to Sheila Silver, Box 566, Wakefield, QC J0X3G0. Paso por Paso is a charitable organization run by a group of retired teachers in Orillia ON who are building elementary schools in the same area in which we work. Fortunately for us, they have agreed to give receipts to donators for our program. Once we receive your donation we send it on to this group with a stamped, self-addressed envelope and they issue your receipt, directly. They transfer all your donations to their account in Panajachel, this is the same bank in which we have our program account. When we arrive in Panajachel they simply transfer the monies to our account. They do not charge one cent for this service, it is their contribution to our project. We want you to remember that every cent of your donation goes directly to the project, in fact we personally do all the buying of materials right down to the cement and even the nails.

    WE will be in Guatemala from January through March and the projects this year are:

1)      The big project will be the building of another classroom and a kitchen in Punyebar. This is one of the first centers we began supporting 11 years ago, it has been so successful in the community that they just do not have the adequate space for the children. Work has also begun to establish a community garden to provide vegetables for this center which will be tended by the mothers.

2)      This will be our third year partnership with Heritage College who sends nursing and early childhood education students and their teachers for one week to do training workshops and medical assessments in the daycares.

3)      Another important connection established last year continues with an organization called Rising Minds which provides volunteers ( travellers from other countries) to work on our daycare projects in an attempt to ensure the volunteers have culturally meaningful experiences while interacting with local Mayans, in much needed community projects.

This year we have a website created and donated to us by friends where we will post information and pictures of our adventures as they unfold. You can access this site by  going to guatemaladaycareproject in google search. It is up and running now and chronicles the work we have done over the last 12 years.

We and the children of the daycares thank you in advance for any assistance you can give to this much needed project.                                                           Sheila Silver & Brian Swan

                                                                                         The Swan’s Nest  280 Wakefield Hts

NOTE: PLEASE SEND YOUR CHECKS BEFORE NOV. 15, AS IT TAKES A LOT OF TIME TO PROCESS ALL OF THIS AND HAVE THE MONEY IN OUR ACCOUNT FOR THE FIRST WEEK OF JANUARY, ALSO INCLUDE YOUR ADDRESS

Chacap

On route to daycare looking back at San Juan

side view of new classroom (Chacap)

Playstructure designred  and  built by mothers
at (Chacap)

Daycare classrooms completed

Mums at work on the bottle classroom - Chacap

Interior of the new classroom

Side window of bottles allows lots of light.

End view of the new classroom

Front view of the new classroom

Mum and baby at work filling bottles with
dry garbage to use for wall .

Opening day for the new classroom at Chacap.
Everyone was really happy and had lots of fun.

The new playstructure designed and built by the mums
at Chacap. What a beauty.

Solar Lights

solar light over the sink

so bright now!

Hi guys- thought you would enjoy these shots- The solar light that Brian made from a plastic bottle has been installed over a dark sink area at our Chacap daycare - and wow what a difference!! We will definitely be installing more of these next year. The solar lights are made from a plastic coke bottle filled with water and one capful of chlorine. It is inserted into a metal collar that matches the roof contour of the house. It is then inserted into a hole in the roof with one third of the bottle exposed to the sun and two thirds of  the bottle hangs in the room and provides the equivalent light of a 35 watt light bulb.

Delivery and installation of play structures

<Delivery

        Construction on pad>

Hello everyone- We are so excited!!! Brian with the help of our great friend Mateo finished, delivered and installed the first playstructure today to Palestina! A special thanks to Richard for providing the impetus to get this going. The kids were so incredibly excited. It will provide hours and hours of fun for these little kids. THANK YOU . The structure was designed and built by Brian in a friend's workshop in San Pablo, then taken apart and transported away up above San Juan to Palestina, where with the help of Mateo and his dad and friends, it was reassembled and installed. The pics show it on the truck going uphill; the view; the unloading and the reconstructing.

<Final assembly

                                     Initial trial>

.<Final product

                                             View of lake

The best part of this little project was watching the sheer joy that the kids had playing on it. They had never seen a structure like this. Even the teacher got on it!!!
The teams of nurses and early childhood educators have been amazing! The various communities have embraced them whole heartedly and lasting friendships have been established. The Heritage staff and students worked so hard and did a fantastic job. Well Done.  Enjoy the photos- we all have one more big day of medical assessments and teaching, again tomorrow over  above Solola and a new hospital visit before our work is finished and the group leaves for home. Brian and I can not thank you enough for all your hard work and the friendship and fellowship we have enjoyed with you here in Guatemala. More of you must come.  More photos soon. Sheila and Brian

Preparing for visit from Heritage college students

 

Jo-anne Stewart with class 


            Class in progress>     




                                                  
   Toothpaste and brushes                                                                       New supplies

Hola everyone! Since our last communication many things have taken place.

Jo-Anne Stuart arrived for a few days from Long Island, Maine where she teaches 3/4 grade. She got out to several daycares with us and brought down bags of small toothbrushes and boxes of toothpaste for the kids which was much needed and appreciated. She pitched right in to haul things out on the chicken buses, up dusty roads and down through cornfields to get to the centres. Then she played games, sang and read to the little kids who really enjoyed her enthusiasm.

                The Lake











Construction day at Chacap with crew from Habitat and Jo-Anne













          <Lower walls finished >

Another day our friends from Habitat crossed the lake to join us for a construction day at Chacap where we are building a classroom using discarded bottles and dry garbage with adobe and cement. They also brought us shoes to distribute at Chacap. Jo-Anne joined in to. We had a fun but dirty day and then enjoyed a delicious lunch afterwards in San Pedro before everyone dispersed 

back to Pana.

           <  Tecum Uman Day >











   Suden continues to help us immensely!! We cross the lake each weekend to Pana to buy additional supplies from their well equipped store. We have needed a great many small pairs of shoes and warm sweaters and track pants this year. The staff at Suden is so helpful and pleasant and the goods that are available are fantastic for the needs of the daycares. One of their staff member, Gervaise trained me how to sew reuseable diaper pants. What a wonderful idea and it creates work for mothers and offers a necessary product here. I now can train someone at Infantiles SOS and they can help their mothers start a little business.
     Tecum Uman Day was last Monday. It is the day all school children parade in the streets wearing their traditional regional attire. Trucks are decorated  with ferns and flowers as floats bearing boys and girls of different regions in their variety of their specific costumes all embroidered and  so beautiful. I was in Pana to witness this wonderful event. Everyone looks so groomed and beautiful.





       <Classes in progress>












           <Classes in progress>



   
















                      <Kitchen>

                 

 




                     New washroom>








   Now we are geering up for the arrival of the Heritage College delegation of nurses and early childhood educators who arrive Saturday.We have booked interpreters and tansportation to the first day workshop across the lake and then to various daycare visits on both sides of the lake during their stay here. We are bringing together all the daycare staff to learn about first aid and programming strategies for the little ones. Then we break into smaller groups to spend time with the kids in the daycares. It promises to be an exciting time for everyone.

     On Thursday evening, we are helping to organize an open house at a new hospital opening in Panajachel. This facility will cater to everyone in the region, including Mayans. It is beautiful inside and is wonderful to have such a place so close at hand. Patients in the past have often died having to make the long trek to Xela or Guatemala City for much neded medical care.Brian and I toured the place a couple of weeks ago and can' wait for more folks to know about it. So when our medical teram is here, we will hold the "Open House".

Like so many things down here, money was donated to build the faciltiy but there is little to stock and run the place.

     Our time here is getting short- only a few more weeks. But presently we are in talks with local village metal and wood workers to design play structures for a few daycares. We only hope we can get everything done before we have to leave.

     Enjoy the pictures!!   Thanks for all your support to help these kids.       Gracias de Sheila and Brian

Building and decorating daycares Feb 16th 2012

                                         

<Classroom with decorations
Teachers with new posters >                                                                                                 
                                                                                        


                                                 
                                  
                                                                     

<Classroom with teachers >.                                 
Sheila with students >

 <
New shelving with plastic containers
                                                  >
Class in progress


Hola everyone- it has been awhile since we have sent you an update, but we have been busy.
     We have been back and forth across the lake many times moving supplies out to various daycares and completing assessments of their needs.
Now we are working with numerous volunteers on several projects of interest. Nearly all the goods we brought down have been given out , I have been translating puzzles,books and games in the last couple of days. Brian is offering an English class 2 nights a week to some local Mayans here in san Juan which keeps him busy but has been fun, too. The various construction projects are confirmed and we now are trying to complete as many as we can.
Thanks to all the teachers who donated bulletin board trim and posters last year. Paty and I took a couple of days to decorate dull classrooms in several daycares and what an incredible difference it made!! The hanging plastic organizers came in handy for toothbrushes, cards- all manner of things and the tupperware containers ensure that supplies and toys are neatly secured and will stay dry. Brian was even able to hook up lighting at Chacap for a classroom and the kitchen.
    We are working with daycare parents and travelling volunteers at Chacap to put up an additional classroom using plastic bottles stuffed with garbage and  held in place with wire and adobe mixed with cement. A group of friends who work for Habitat for Humanity are lending a hand next week as well. Another class at Chacap was created when we changed a large kitchen for a small class area, then cemented the floor in the adobe building to create a bigger classroom.
< Filling empty water bottles with garbage.

Wiring bottles into wood frame >

 < Completed section before putting on cement.

Mixing cement for walls   >




< Covering wall with cement

Finished lower wall           >





 Two different groups made special one piece knit dolls for the daycares. A few have been handed out and what a hit they were. Thank you to those ladies who put so much love into every stitch for these little kids in Guatemala! The musical instruments, too create quite a stir here. The kids love to sing and have music in their day.
     A kitchen needs to be improved at Fe Y Vida where someone installed a chimney pipe with no vent, thereby creating a terribly smoky kitchen. A small window inserted into the kitchen at Neuvo Amanecer will provide much needed ventilation and a metal door will give quick and easy access to newly constructed bathrooms just a stone's throw from the classroom. Last year these little kids had to walk over a block to a terribly run down bathroom. Brian and I hope to complete these things in the next few days.
     The San Juan daycare needs some additional shelving- we have only to buy and cut the lumber and get it delivered. Yesterday, we installed   backpack hooks at Palestina and took out  big plastic bins to several daycares to help organized their supplies. Programming materials have been copied, some need to be laminated and then can be distributed.
We are excited to have the teams arrive from Heritage College in about 3 weeks and are busy making final arrangements for interpreters, vans, and daycare visits.
     The pictures show the botle classroom construction. Mums fill bottles with garbage. Then the bottles are set in between the supports and wired into place. Mud is then mixed and patted over and around the bottles- mums helped. The final wall is left to dry. The last shot is our whole team of volunteers! Quite a wonderful crew.
Thanks again to all of you who help in this venture in the daycares. We could not do what we do without You!!   Al the best-  Sheila and Brian

Volunteers