ImageElmbrook Rotarian Erik Moeser shared the following information with details on how you can adopt a student in Guatemala and keep kids in school. This allows us to deepen our involvement in Guatemala and with Common Hope.

 

One way we can all be involved in our efforts with Common Hope is to "adopt" or sponsor a Guatemalan child. We now have 20 children under our sponsorship, including 4 from the Port Washington/Saukville Rotary Club. Erik has dossiers on 6 more kids, and while photos may help, it's more important to learn about their backgrounds first and if you have interest, please contact Erik and he can get a photo to you. If you're never able to get to Guatemala, you can be assured that members of our team will visit and spend time your kid.This is a big deal for them - and for us! 

  1. Ana Rosario Salama Lopez -
    Rosario is almost 7 years old and in 1st grade in the partner school we helped in San Miguel Milpas Altas. Her mother and father are 31 and 33 years old respectively and she has two sisters (2 and 8) and an 11 year old brother. The family income is $78 per month, and they produce corn, have two goats, two ducks and some chickens. Their home as no electricity and they use wood and an open fire for cooking. Little Rosario wants to stay in school.

  2. Anderson Gabriel Cucuj Aragon -
    Gabriel is 12 years old and in 6th grade, also in San Miguel Milpas Altas. His parents are 33 and 32 years old and he has two sisters, ages 5 and 10.  The family income is $234 per month, and they are "well off" by local standards.  They raise 2500 pounds of vegetables per year and sell chickens and eggs. Their house is concrete block, has electricity and a wood stove.  There is great peer pressure on Gabriel to leave school to work in the fields with his dad but he wants to stay in school.

  3. Alex Estuardo Subuyuj Avila -
    Estuardo is an 8 year-old 2nd grader at the Mayan village school in San Rafael.  Both parents are 35 and there are five older siblings, four of them girls, ranging from 10 to 18 years old. Their family income is $110 per month and they raise a few chickens and have a block house. Like all the families, they have no indoor plumbing but use a communal outhouse in the neighborhood. They do have running water on their property and have a wood stove.  Being one of two boys in the family the pressure to drop out of school is already intense.  Estuardo wants to stay in school.

  4. Maria Ana Cristina Guamuch Coronado -
    Ana is 13 years old and in the San Rafael school, currently in 5th grade. Her parents are 34 and 31, and there are 5 siblings from age 1 to 10, four of them boys. The family income is $117 per month and they  have similar living conditions to Gabriel and Estuardo listed above. They have one pig and 13 chickens to produce food and to earn income. Ana has a chance of staying in school but needs help to ensure that she does.

  5. Axel Santiago Salama Chacon - 
    Santiago is just 5 years old, in kindergarten in San Miguel Milpas Altas. Believe it or not, he can be put to work in the production of corn and black beans that the family sells and depends on for income. His mother and father are 31 and 37 years old and there are two sisters and two brothers from only 2 years old to 14. The family income of $176 per month helps them live above the average community standard, but by our standards they are simply poor.  Good natured, happy, but without school, Axel will be destined to the kind of hard life without opportunity that his family has led. They have worked hard to earn a gas stove, and are very unusual  in that they have a flush type toilet facility.  Santiago wants to stay in school!

  6. Edin Lopez Coronado -
    Lopez is an 11 year old 4th grader in the Escuela Rural San Rafael, like  Rosario and Estuardo, he has a "single mom" who is 37 years old, raising him along with two sisters,  ages 13 and 16. They grow beans and corn and have only $78 per month which makes school attendance all but impossible without the support of Common Hope and sponsorships. Lopez wants to go to school and grow beyond the boundaries which he inherited.

Like all the kids, the 20 we now help and the many more we hope to help in the future as we spread the word to other Rotary Clubs, want a better life. Most importantly, their parents want a better life for them as well, and struggle to make ends meet because they don't have the resources to have their kids attend school, things that we take for granted.

Please contact Erik or anyone else involved in the program for more information and an explanation of how this aid is not a "hand out" but requires certain actions on the parts of the family members to maintain affiliation with Common Hope.  Visit the Common Hope website at www.commonhope.org.  

The cost of a full sponsorship is $60 per month and "guiding" sponsorship $30, or two or three people can join together to help one of these kids and split up the costs. 

Erik Moeser
emmcsm77@wi.rr.com
262-252-3693



 
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