Proof of this was in India. We were commonly propositioned by children who asked for Rupees for food

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The premise of this was twofold. Firstly we feel that we take so much from a country by way of experience that we are compelled to give something back. Secondly the level of poverty that we generally see is hard and most people would want to help, if only out of compassion. The problem is how? We are commonly confronted by beggars however everywhere we read advises against airline ticket reservations giving money as you don t know where the money goes and probably more importantly it is unsustainable.
Proof of this was in India. We were commonly propositioned by children who asked for Rupees for food. To enable us to respond we carried airline ticket reservations a packed of crackers and gave children a couple of biscuits in responses. On a couple of occassions the kids looked at the biscuits, threw them on the ground putting their hand back out asking for Rupee again.
airline ticket reservations Staff The centre is mostly staffed by volunteers and is treated as a medical centre in the case of this particular orphanage it was creating sustainable change educating the children up to masters degrees.
So.... our plan was the same with central America however this time we didn t do it alone. Generally we have around 10kg of luggage each. We were lucky enough that a small group of our friends and family gave mostly per loved clothes and small toys which we used to fill the rest of the space in our packs.
Maybe not a good thing however we don t tend to research where we might give the items before we go to a country. We have instead relied on asking around with the locals airline ticket reservations which has worked so far. This time one of our guides in Antigua recomended a project. In the end however we found two great projects and split the donation in two. The drivers were good enough not only to show us where they were on the way home but to let us go in briefly to make sure it was ok to come back tomorrow.... so here we go.
kids1 that attend the school are mostly from the outlying rural area of Antigua and the families cannot afford airline ticket reservations to send the kids to school. The children are also fed 2 meals a day which for most was all they receive.
To qualify to come to the school familes can apply however the project has a team of social workers who visit each qualified application to screen them against poverty criteria to ensure they really are in need. We also found out that they are planning to open a homeless shelter. So we left these guys with some rice and half of the clothes we had.
Having popped in briefly the day before we also went out and collected some more items for their in need list . The items included around 200 napies, 10kg of rice, 5kg of sugar and an assortment of baby wipes and soap. Our entire assortment plus the clothes and toys we carried from NZ completly filled Jane s main luggage bag and my day pack and weighed
The centre is a residential centre so once kids are admitted they remain their until they are healthy. The goal of the centre is firstly to return children to a healthy condition and weight. Secondly and probably more important is to work with parents or caregivers to ensure that the children don t slip back into this condition. Once children are released they are monitored in association with government social workers and it is not uncommon for children airline ticket reservations to be returned to caregivers in the same village instead of the parents.
airline ticket reservations Interestly the centre was run and managed by Guatemalian nationals although it relied heavily on international volunteers. The second thing that we liked was that the centre was not dependant on international aid and in contrast were very pro-active raising support from local businesses mostly for supplies.
The centre has capacity (beds) for around 20 kids however there were only 8 in residence when we went in. In total the centre helped 61 children last year. Kids can come to the centre at any age up to 12.
10kg of rice and 5kg of sugar all of the local hospitals know the centre. If children are brought in for another reason and the doctors make a secondary diagnosis of malnutrition they refer the parents to the centre. The staff at the centre did say that for the better part parents are very loving airline ticket reservations and the circumstance is situational vs intentional. This means that the parents are generally very willing airline ticket reservations to try and make changes once they understand the severity of the circumstance.
airline ticket reservations It is logical to assume that if children are in this state and parents are willing to try and change that they might not have the resources to do this by themselves. We saw several examples where familes had been helped to move, provided new housing or received other support the make changes.
The second way in which children arrive at the centres is more or less through children being removed from familes and delivered to the centres. The most heartbreaking story we heard was one where police found three children locked in a home (where they had been for some time). All were lying in bed and one had passed away. We can report the two are healthy and living
We haven t put up photos of the worst we saw however to paint a picture while we were their we saw a 10 year old who weighed 7kg. He was unable to support his own weight and had very limited muscular movement.
This was not uncommon and we saw children at all stages of recovery at the centre and heard stories of the same. Probably the special bit was the success stories of the children who are now not only better but are continuing to do well.
When we made the donation they have to issue a receipt and we were required to tell them the value of what we were giving. As most of the stuff was donated to us we didn t have a value however a nominal value was given to each toy and each piece of clothing. Combined with the extra supplies there was nearly $400US worth of stuff given to a good cause!
The experience is pretty awesome for us but as I said we had some help from a few friends. A big thanks to Jo Fahey, Cam and Emma Kerr, Terry & Ayla, Richard and Larissa, Amber & John, Ellie and Kati & Mike.
... full info Joined November 22nd 2011 Trips 2 Last Login February 13th 2013 Followers 0 Status BLOGGER Follows 0 Blogs 16 Guestbook 9 Photos 141 Forum Posts 0 [blog=768654] [blogger=222799] Blog Options Private Message Subscribe Blog Map Comment Follow + (0) Print Version Guatemala The Maya civilization flourished in Guatemala and surrounding regions during the first millennium A.D. After almost three centuries as a Spanish colony, Guatemala won its independence in 1821. During the second half of the 20th century, it experience... more info