Mother's Day Baskets, Panajachel Guatemala

Every year Mayan Families Organization sponsors Mothers Day Baskets for local mothers.

Guatemala has the highest rate of malnutrition in Latin America and ranks sixth in the world for chronic malnutrition. More than 1 million children under the age of five suffer from chronic malnutrition. An estimated 69.5 percent are indigenous children. An estimated 53 percent of children who die under the age of five die as a result of complications linked to malnutrition.

In Guatemala a Mothers work is never done. When they are pregnant they very rarely can afford to see a doctor, when they give birth, it is often at home with an untrained midwife, they usually have more pregnancies than their bodies can cope with.Daily, they often carry either water on their heads or heavy loads of firewood on their backs, walking for long distances, often with a swaddled baby on their bodies and another small child or two by their side. Once home, they chop wood, cook over an open fire, make tortillas by hand while attending to their families needs. At the end of a long day, going to bed often means sleeping on a woven straw mat on a dirt floor. On Mothers Day Mayan Families Org. donors help to make mothers lives a little easier by giving as many as possible a basket of food for a wonderful family dinner and many additional meals. This year they assembled 300 baskets.

The basket assembly:

Some happy recipients:

This year the mothers were given a barbequed chicken instead of a raw one so they would have to spend less time cooking.

You can see more photos here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mayanfamilies/MAYANFAMILIESMothersDayFoodBasketsMay82009?feat=directlink#

Sponsor a Student:

It's too late to send a Mother's Day Basket but its not too late to sponsor a student in a local school. There are currently two students awaiting sponsorship: a 5 year old boy and a 14 year old girl

http://www.mayanfamilies.org/SponsoraStuden

The organization also sponsors families, sewing classes and organized other baskets at Christmas and Easter.

www.mayanfamilies.org