Sponsor's update from Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

Child sponsorship update from the SOS Children's Village Quetzaltenango, Guatemala from Summer 2008.

Dear Friend:

It is a pleasure to communicate with you again and at the same time we send you greetings on behalf of the children, youth and co workers of the SOS Children´s Village Quetzaltenango.

We hope that each one of you is healthy and that all your activities are being developed according to your plans and at the same time we hope you have a wonderful summer full of joy and good energy.

During these months in our community several events had happen which gave us joy and satisfaction, the first one is that as of January two new homes were opened and nowadays we have 14 SOS families, 2 youth communities for boys and 1 youth community for girls, so 70 girls, 51 boys and 30 youth are taken cared by our Programmes.

The other special event is that during these months 13 boys and 15 girls have being welcomed and incorporated to different families, but mainly in families 13 and 14 as they were formed at the beginning of the year, even when the adapting process is difficult for the new boys and girls, the mothers and co workers have done their best effort to make them feel happy with their new family, as living in a place that gives them love and the feeling of being safe is their right.

At the beginning of the year 4 youth moved to live at the youth community, they were concerned for the change as they felt very good being with their SOS mother and family, bur finally understood that moving to the youth community would help them to start their independence process. At the same time 4 young men and 3 young girls became independent and 3 of them are studying in the university, they all have assumed their independent life responsibility with a lot of optimism and responsibility.

Providing love to orphaned and abandoned children

From all the population only 4 children do not go to school as they do not have the age (3 years of age); 13 are in preschool, 84 in elementary school, 30 in high school, 14 in technical studies, 3 in the university and 3 in preliminary technical studies training.

In accordance to the process of autonomy the SOS mothers had been responsible of searching for the more appropriate school for their children according to their skills. When the children are going to school it is very nice to see them walk to school, in some cases it is tough for them to wake up but their SOS mother makes many efforts to make them go pleasantly and enjoy this educational time.

In regard to their health, the Children and youth from the different families and Youth communities are doing fine, as every child sometimes they have respiratory or digestive problems, but the SOS mothers immediately take them to the doctor and thanks God we had not have any serious disease.

The only bad news is that Irma from family 10 has not improved from the disease of nephritic syndrome (kidney failure) as every month we take her to a pediatrician who is specialized in disease, and according to the report she gave us the medicine taken at the beginning helped her very much, but after few months there have not been any improvements so it is necessary to search for another medical treatment, we have hope that with the new treatment her kidneys respond normally.

Events at Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

For the Holy Week celebration the children had vacation for one week, which allowed the mothers to organise recreational activities, many families went to the beach, and others to pools and the rest took the children to their communities of origin.

On April we had the visit of Damián López, a young man from Argentina that is traveling around the World in a bicycle, he started his trip in Alaska and will finish it in Argentina, the objective with this trip is to let people around the world know about the labor SOS Children's Villages does. In Guatemala he only visited the SOS Children's Village of Quetzaltenango, his visit was very special as he shared with the children of the 14 families and several media wrote articles about him and the SOS Children's Villages.

Recently the Committee of Coordination of the Village, conformed by 4 SOS Mothers, 1 Youth Leader, the social worker and the Director had the opportunity to visit the SOS Children´s Village of Santa Elena in El Salvador, the visit had 2 main purposes: First to motivate the people who integrate the committee of the Village as they are responsible of leading the Village to a good path, and the second purpose was to learn the good practices of SOS Children's Villages in El Salvador which supports the integral development of the children and youth. So this was a visit to share experiences and to learn from each other.

These are the news that we can give you so far about our programme. We want you to know that we feel grateful for all your help and support given in order to provide these children a home where they feel respected, loved, educated and safe.

Sincerely yours,

Mario Morales
Director of SOS Children´s Village Quetzaltenango