Please bear with me as I try to convey our experiences down in Guatemala. Meeting with people who have been subject to the most horrible atrocities this world has ever seen is not an easy experience to describe. However they were moving and I will do my best to shine some light on what we went through.
Our first day of the trip consisted of travel and a brief orientation to Guatemala. We spent the first night locked inside our hotel in Guatemala City. We later learned why were asked to stay inside... it's not the safest city in the world.
The next morning started out early as we hit the roads for Chichicastenango. After dropping our luggage off at our hotel we took a van ride to the town of Chontola and met up with a minister from a local sector of the Methodist church.
Ho took us to a woman's cooperative that started during the 1980s. During this time there was a lot of violence in the area and many women lost their husbands. Children became orphaned and had no place to go. The women tried to take children in but soon realized they didn't have the money or resources to provide the most basic of necessities including food. They went the the church and begged for food but the minister was not allowed to give it out. Giving the women food for today was not solving the problems of tomorrow so he asked them if they would be willing to work. They responded by saying yes and he was able to get them 100lbs of thread. Their plan was the weave it into material, then create finished projects and sell them. From there they could buy more and live off of the small earnings they made.
The project which is now known as Ruth and Naomi has helped find homes for children, build several clinics and schools and created programs to work with women.
Unfortunately this community continues to struggle as they try to solve problems. It seems like each time they solve a problem another one is created. For example they were finally able to provide food to the children and as the children grew up they began to work and support the community. However the adults realized these children were very good at their trade but couldn't read or write. They didn't want to go to school because it was time spent away from working and they wouldn't make as much money. To solve this the group said the children could work during the day but they had to attend classes at night.
From there they ran into problems with gangs. Young men would go to Guatemala City in hopes of finding a good paying job, but when they arrived they realized a different reality. There were no jobs for them and they wound up getting into drugs and drinking. Soon the young men who grew up without fathers became members of gangs and made money through drug trafficking. The women didn't know what to do.
With the aid of a woman from California, the co-op sold enough product to buy land in Chichicastenago. They built a small home for the men to stay in and were able to obtain four used sewing machines for the men to become tailors. Here is a brief clip of them doing embroidery by machine.
Our first day of the trip consisted of travel and a brief orientation to Guatemala. We spent the first night locked inside our hotel in Guatemala City. We later learned why were asked to stay inside... it's not the safest city in the world.
The next morning started out early as we hit the roads for Chichicastenango. After dropping our luggage off at our hotel we took a van ride to the town of Chontola and met up with a minister from a local sector of the Methodist church.
Ho took us to a woman's cooperative that started during the 1980s. During this time there was a lot of violence in the area and many women lost their husbands. Children became orphaned and had no place to go. The women tried to take children in but soon realized they didn't have the money or resources to provide the most basic of necessities including food. They went the the church and begged for food but the minister was not allowed to give it out. Giving the women food for today was not solving the problems of tomorrow so he asked them if they would be willing to work. They responded by saying yes and he was able to get them 100lbs of thread. Their plan was the weave it into material, then create finished projects and sell them. From there they could buy more and live off of the small earnings they made.
The project which is now known as Ruth and Naomi has helped find homes for children, build several clinics and schools and created programs to work with women.
Unfortunately this community continues to struggle as they try to solve problems. It seems like each time they solve a problem another one is created. For example they were finally able to provide food to the children and as the children grew up they began to work and support the community. However the adults realized these children were very good at their trade but couldn't read or write. They didn't want to go to school because it was time spent away from working and they wouldn't make as much money. To solve this the group said the children could work during the day but they had to attend classes at night.
From there they ran into problems with gangs. Young men would go to Guatemala City in hopes of finding a good paying job, but when they arrived they realized a different reality. There were no jobs for them and they wound up getting into drugs and drinking. Soon the young men who grew up without fathers became members of gangs and made money through drug trafficking. The women didn't know what to do.
With the aid of a woman from California, the co-op sold enough product to buy land in Chichicastenago. They built a small home for the men to stay in and were able to obtain four used sewing machines for the men to become tailors. Here is a brief clip of them doing embroidery by machine.
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