Dear Ones: For over 35 years you have generously supported my efforts in some of the neediest village schools in Guatemala. Thank you. The delights and convulsions of school every year is delight, even when pitted in competition with agricultural Child Labor. Your gifts of supplies make their decision for education possible….as you know, a lost year almost certainly results in a childhood in the cabbage and strawberry fields. I will begin visiting each of the schools in Early January, and August, and am asking that you continue to partner with me to provide the basic school supplies for reading, writing (in Spanish), and basic mathematics. This also provides playtime, friendships, hygiene, and a simple but joyful childhood. The hardest part to get across to these children is the idea…the very idea that someone else, somewhere else, cares enough to give them a chance for an education. Guatemala has serious problems, but the answers will not come from an uneducated populace. My biggest task is getting to the schools before the corn harvest begins. I feel that most children who begin all-day farming will never return to the classrooms, and much of our cajoling to get girls in school will be lost as well. That does not mean that we do not still have a robust volunteer base in Guatemala, nor an agile delivery system to get me and the boxes up the mountains… it means that this gift request is special, and that your gifts carry the capacity to pivot the lives of these children toward a future with literacy and numeracy tools. For those of you unfamiliar with the project, the process is fairly simple, but I want you to understand where your money is going. Your gifts are gathered and carried by me personally to Guatemala, where the school supplies are purchased at huge discount, including delivery to the warehouse in Chichicastenango. I, and a group of Maya-speaking volunteers, visit each school and deliver the supplies personally. Every dollar goes to the purchase of supplies, and we only buy as much as we can afford. Everything else on the Guatemalan side is volunteer labor. I will thank you here, and update with photos, and every donor for whom I have a mailing address will get an additional thank you with a gift photo. I am trustworthy, and these children's futures are worthy of your sacrifice and effort. For the last 8 years, I have been able to negotiate 2 notebooks, crayons, 6 pencils, 3 pens, a vinyl eraser, a ruler, and a pencil sharpener for $2.04. I will not waste a cent you send, and these children will not waste the opportunity you can give them. Will you partner with me in this transformational project?
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