The mission of Semillas de Amor Children's Village is to provide care, high-level education, and solid futures for Guatemala's at-risk children. In addition to consisting of a home for children who are unable to remain with their families, plans for the children's village include a school, a clinic, and a daycare facility for working mothers. The facility is in the early stages of construction. We are currently seeking donors and volunteers interested in helping make this dream a reality.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Who is Left of the Guatemala 5000 and All The Others Left Behind
One thousand plus children still remain in Guatemala with their adoptions pending. We need our congressional members and Embassy to support these children's families in order to bring them home.
Semillas de Amor has over 40 children that are in process of adoption and need to be able to go home to their families. We have over 16 children without families and without any means to support these children. Many children's homes have closed as the Guatemalan government tries to squeeze the life out of us. Of the 16 children "left behind" most of them have known no other life than their lives with us. To close our doors and dump them somewhere else is not an option for me. We need help to continue on with our work with Guatemalan children. Please don't let an ineffective, corrupt governmental system, like Guatemala's, take over the responsibility and care of these children. They have never had any interest in them before they received large amounts of money from UNICEF and now everyone appears to be worried. Money talks loud and clear in Guatemala.
I believe that one of the most important things we can do with the children, who are in our care, is to work with them on their socialization. Learning to say, please and thank you. Learning to care for books, going to a restaurant and having good manners. Everyday things for children who live with families but when you live in an institution that doesn't happen. Our children have had water color art classes for over two years. The children's work is wonderful. Three of our children go to horse back riding lessons every week. They are learning show jumping. We can't keep children behind guarded gates, never leave and then expect them to do well in social situations. So when I have the chance to take the oldest kids with me I do. I want them to see more of the world than they know. I want them to eat Chinese food and try chopsticks. I want them to see a kid, who looks just like them, win awards for her riding amongst groups of white people. I want them to learn they are as good as all those other people that might look down on them. And so on Saturday I took our three horse back riders from the children's home and my two horse back riders to the dressage competition on Saturday and Sunday. My daughter, Gaby was competing both days with her horse, Cornucopia. Gaby is in second place, in the training level for dressage, for Guatemala. She has not been dressage rider previously but started adding dressage to her show jumping to be a better rounded rider.
After the competition we went to lunch at a new Chinese restaurant. I figured we'd forget about the manners because I knew they would love the chopsticks.
It was a fun day for all of us. The kids came home with me and they watched several movies and then went home for the night. Such great kids, all of them.
The children of Semillas de Amor were the fortunate recipients of a generous donation of Spanish books from Linda Smith, founder and president, of the non profit Reading Village in Boulder, Colorado. What a treat for all of us. Books are pure magic for so many of our children. Our older kids read to the youngest children daily. It works well because the older kids practice reading out loud and the little ones get to hear stories.
Our future goal for the children's village is to build a library that will be available for our children as well as children in the surrounding areas.
Thank you Linda and the Reading Village for your generous donation!! To read more about the Reading Village you can go to their blog at http://www.readingvillage.org
Weekends can seem really long for our older kids. The teachers are gone as are all the office staff so they get pretty bored. As we work on a plan to keep the older kids busy and stimulated I picked up our four oldest this weekend and took them 4-wheel driving in our little KIA truck through the coffee farm where I live. All five of our dogs went with us which made the drive all the more fun and gave us the chance to play frisbee.
Last week we had a glimmer of sun come out, a nice change from all the rain we have had, and gave the kids and opportunity to get into their swimsuits and go for a swim.
The mission of Semillas de Amor Children's Village is to provide care, high-level education, and solid futures for Guatemala's at-risk children. In addition to consisting of a home for children who are unable to remain with their families, plans for the children's village include a school, a clinic, and a daycare facility for working mothers. The facility is in the early stages of construction. We are currently seeking donors and volunteers interested in helping make this dream a reality.
