Elderly Support in Latin America

With 2020 well into it’s second month we want to share with you our plans for the coming year.

As we introduce more family sustainable income plans in the communities, we are placing particular attention on the elderly in the households. The income derived from the plans will help to purchase medicines, extra food and warmer clothes, especially in the highlands where we work. In Guatemala we are hoping to organise doctor visits each month to the houses of the elderly, as the majority are house-bound and supply simple medicines. For those who need further treatment we will help them with other more medical-specific programs in the region.

As ever in Ecuador, the special guests of the Christmas Party were the elderly and they were indeed the centre of attention as everyone enjoyed food, dance and song. 

Thank you so much to everyone who has donated so far to our 2020 Appeal. We are just $3,500 and 250 trees short of our target of 10% of our budget for 2020 so if you still wanted to donate, please do so by donating to this page.

The teams are building for our Charity Challenges in Perú and Ecuador in May and June 2020. Whilst our Inca Trail challenge is now full we will be opening up a tandem group via Salkantay to reach Machu Picchu on the same day. For those of you wondering what to do in 2021, we will be taking on one of our hardest challenges yet, Cotopaxi Volcano in Ecuador (which includes some glacier training!) in February and also the Inca Trail once again in May. Please do contact us by following the link to the Challenges below if you want to get involved in any of these events in 2020 or 2021 and help us reach our goals for the decade.

Have a great February and we will keep you updated in a couple of months!

Cheers

Links:

• Charity Challenges in 2020

This year we have made huge advances thanks to donations to this page for the elderly populations in our countries and we are getting ready to introduce further programs in 2020 including regular doctor visits direct to their homes. Many old people cannot make it to a doctor as many live miles away so bringing the doctor to them will make so much difference. Due to our connections in the countries, we can help in case the doctor recommends further treatment.

We will also be extending the food program for the elderly in conjunction with sustainable plans which will provide basic vegetables and other foods for them on a regular basis. Next month we will be celebrating Christmas in Ecuador, an event started last year with huge success.

On 3^rd December Global Giving will be adding bonuses to all donations whilst funds last as part of their #GivingTuesday campaign so if you can donate, please donate early and thank you very much in advance! All donations made will go towards our Christmas Appeal which aims to raise $15,000 towards our local teachers’ salaries and University scholarships, sustainable income plans for local families, fruit and food, school materials and celebrations during 2020.

We will also be planting one tree for every $15 donated in our effort to help offset the problems of deforestation and the effects of climate change as trees help reduce carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Thank you so much for any donation you can make to the Appeal and 2020 and all the best for the upcoming festive season!

We recently hosted a team from Whole Foods Market who helped and funded building a kitchen for an elderly family near Lake Atitlán. Their even more elderly great grand-mother watched all day and was fascinated. Their kitchen before was just a cane room with mud flooring and cooking over an open fire. Once the kitchen is finished the whole family will benefit, especially the elderly.

Equally in Honduras, as part of the college course our students teach adult literacy to member of several communities. Many of their "students" are over 60 years old, a tremendous effort by all. We will also soon be embarking on a major project of sustainable income plans directly for the individual families and their elderly relatives to provide more income for medicines, food and clothing.

Finally in Ecuador, the communities, both old and young, conducted a "minga" whereby they dug trenches and laid piping for water to their houses. Seeing people of over 70 years doing their part was a tremendous site and the benefits will be felt by all. 

Business can play a huge role in education, employment generation and supporting communities and is an area where we, as Phoenix, would like to explore further over the coming years to benefit the countries in Latin America – not just our projects though other communities as well. If you would like more information on how your company could get involved in the future please do contact me on dom@thephoenixprojects.org

Our recent Whole Foods Market trip in Guatemala saw them visiting their micro-credit partners in Huehuetenango, funding and helping to build a kitchen for a family at Lake Atitlán and reforesting an area on Pacaya Volcano.

Following on from our excellent Phoenix Charity Challenges in Perú and Ecuador we will be doing it all again in 2020 with the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu dates from Saturday 23^rd-30^th May and Ecuador volcanoes from Saturday 30^th May-6^th June. It is a fantastic way to economically tick off Machu Picchu and volcano hiking from your bucket list whilst raising funds for Phoenix! We will need confirmations of places for the Inca Trail by the end of September so if you are interested please follow the link below and please do contact us soon so you don’t miss out as there are limited places on the trail.

Links:

• Inca Trail and Machu Picchu Charity Challenge in Peru 2020

I hope all is well with you. Over the next five years we aim to continue investing in family sustainable income plans which help cover the costs of further education, medical costs and of course income for food for the whole family, especially the elderly. Some of the income will go towards covering the projects’ costs too as we aim to increase our work in all the countries! Examples of successful plans include Plan Moo (cows), Plan Huerto (vegetable gardens), Plan Pollo (chickens) and Plan Negocio (small businesses). Hundreds of families have benefited from the plans over the past few years and we plan to triple this numbers over the next few years.

We completed our two Charity Challenges in the past couple of weeks for all our projects, completing the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu in Perú followed by climbing volcanoes in Ecuador, each a week long. We managed to raise some fantastic funds for the projects and will be repeating the challenges next year with the Perú challenge in the week of 25^th May and Ecuador in the week of 1^st June 2020. If you are interested in joining us please do contact me on dom@thephoenixprojects.org and it will be great to have you on board!

Thank you and all the best for the next few months and let us know if you are interested in joining us on the Charity Challenges next year in Ecuador and Perú!

Cheers

I hope all is well with you. We’re almost at the end of the first quarter of 2019; time is flying by! We are now in the second phase of our 25-year cycle; 1) introducing education, 2) introducing sustainable plans to help cover costs of the projects whilst continuing to cover the costs through donations and 3) with the projects sustainable we will concentrate on employment generation for the graduates.

For many years we have introduced education to hundreds of children and seen them continue from primary school, through secondary school and college so for us now to be in the stage where are adding in sustainable plans whilst continuing to cover costs is a huge advance from when we started. Thank you to you all for helping us get this far and for continuing to support us in the future.

It is Charity Challenge season once again and we will be heading to Perú and Ecuador in May to raise funds for all our projects so please do support the challenge by donating to this page.

During this year we hope to increase our coverage for help with the elderly in all our countries, including Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador and Perú. Not just welcoming them in to communal events (they tend to stay at home) though getting them involved in easy sustainable plans, generally medicinal plants and small gardens, so they can be self-sustainable, grow what they need and any extra cango towards buying essential items that cannot be grown.

Thank you and all the best for the next few months and we will update you on the goings on, especially the Perú and Ecuador challenges! Cheers