You believed in us and we are changing the story for women in our coffee villages! We are asking you to believe in our daughters.
Educate the Girls!! We need donors for tuition, supplies and travel expenses to the nearest schools. From April 3rd to April 7th, GlobalGiving will match donations up to $50 at 50% Will you join us? Every donation is important and received with heartfelt gratitude. Your donation of $10 to $50 will be matched by 50% and change the life of a girl in our village. There are 2 opportunities to support our daughters’ passion for an education:
Girl Gardens Grow Scholars Guatemala
https://www.globalgiving.org/microprojects/girl-gardens-grown-scholars/
Vocational Scholarships for Maya Ixil Youth Guatemala
https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/vocational-scholarships-youth-maya-ixil-guatemala/
This report has been given orally in Maya Ixil, translated to Spanish and then translated to English so we can ask Global Giving donors to support an education for our daughters and thank our donors. We want our partner donors to know that we are working hard to honor them by making a better life in our villages.
We have organized into teams, with women helping women, and an elected leader of the team. Our coffee plots are small, and many women must walk 2 hours each way from home to the coffee plot. We are planting our vegetable gardens close to the coffee plots, for the best use of our time, land, water and resources. Our coffee is our long range source of a cash income. Our vegetable plots are for our food. We are strong women and we can work very hard.
This project funding has brought us seeds for the vegetable gardens. We have worm compost projects in two villages, so we are using the worm compost to organically fertilize our vegetable and coffee seedlings .
Your donations have enabled us to buy supplies and coffee seeds that are officially certified resistant to the Roya. It is the fungus that destroyed 80% of our coffee trees and left us with no coffee crop to sell. In 4 years we will have vigorous coffee trees that bear good coffee beans. These are expensive seeds that we could not buy without your help.
We are learning how to better grow our vegetables and hope to have good crops to eat and sell until our coffee trees have coffee berries to harvest. Our agriculture technician teacher speaks Maya Ixil, which is our own language. We are learning many of the traditional Maya organic farming methods we did not know. We are also learning new methods for better crops. A nutrition teacher will come to our village and teach all of the women about clean kitchens, how to prepare many vegetables and how to make nutritious meals for our children.
Please look at the photos, so you can see our worm compost project, the first vegetables, and the women sharing a celebration for the arrival of the Fungus resistant coffee seeds.
If you have questions or want more information, please contact Janet Bourque jfbourque@roadrunner.com
Links:
WE ARE THE FUTURE. WE WILL SOW THE SEEDS OF SUCCESS
Our Global Giving Donors have opened the door to the opportunity to not only survive, but open the possibilities for our children to have a better life.
PLEASE HELP US BY DONATING TO FULLY FUND THIS PROJECT SO WE CAN INCLUDE THE MANY WOMEN ON THE WAITING LIST. WE WILL START THIS PROJECT THE SECOND WEEK OF FEBRUARY 2017
Juana tells the donors: “We have no tools, and use sticks or our hands to prepare the soil. We have no seeds, or worms to make organic fertilizer. We know how to weave, to cook on the open fires in our homes, and wash the clothes in the river. We want to learn how to raise vegetables so our children have enough to eat. We will give a portion to families that do not have a garden. Maybe we will have a good harvest and have some extra money to pay for medicine or school tuition.”
Josefa says “ Ta'antiixh" Thank You. I want to give our gratitude and blessings to the donors supporting our women’s agriculture project. Our villages are very very poor. We are families of elders, parents, mothers, children and grandchildren all living together in one small house for each large family. We are villages of mostly widows, abandoned mothers, and families left behind as the older boys and men go to other parts of Guatemala to work as laborers. “
Juana and Josefa are the leaders from two of the women’s s agriculture project villages and do not read or write. They speak only the local language of Ixil Maya. They are on the Board of Directors for the ASO-Ixil Farmers Association that sponsors this project. Juana and Josefa have spoken in Ixil to an IXIL/Spanish interpreter. Their messages to the donors have been translated from Spanish to English for this report.
We have organized for education and leadership development of women
The agriculture technician that will instruct the Team Leaders and Assistants and monitor the projects in each village is the President of the ASO-Ixil Farmer’s Association and a professional in agriculture for this high mountain region.
WOMEN'S TEAMS
Team Leader 1 Josefa (ASO-Ixil Farmers Association Board member) Josefa will have 5 female assistants in managing the project of all the women of the project village 1
Team Leader 2 Juana (ASO-Ixil Farmers Association Board member) Juana will have 5 female assistants in managing the project of all the women of the project village 2
Team Leader Rosa. ---------- (ASO-Ixil Farmers Association member). Rosa will have 5 female assistants in managing the project of all the women of the project village 3
Skype with us
Would you like to Skype with Rosa? We will arrange for Ixil/Spanish and English interpreters for a scheduled Skype. Please contact Janet Bourque brightstargrants2@yahoo.com
Please help us reach our funding goal so that we can buy some tools and seeds for more women who want to be in this project.
https://www.globalgiving.org/microprojects/guatemala-women-farmers-support-a-village/
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