Vamos a la Mini-Feria! Celebrating Independence Day at the Family Support Center

Text by Amy Scheuren
Photos by Marta Escobar

Thursday September 13th featured the 7th Annual Mini-Feria at the Family Support Center in Llanos del Pinal! It was a marvelous day full of music, dancing, a haunted house, games, and huge amounts of food.

Family Support Center staff, Pop Wuj staff, students, and volunteers, and the participants' mothers all contributed to make it a wonderful day for the children.  Every year the participants' mother prepare "fair food" including elotes locos (crazy corn on the cob).  The children played games, won prizes, and gobbled up the brightly colored cotton candy.

Family Support Center and Pop Wuj staff inaugurate the feria!

Carmencita preparing the prize table

Serving delicious fair food

Let the games begin!

"Buenas Tardes" from the Family Support Center

Text by Amy Scheuren
Photos by Santos Istazuy Perez

For most of our international Pop Wuj students and volunteers, visiting the Family Support Center is one of the memorable experiences in Guatemala. Although every year brings new changes and new participants, the Family Support Center always provides nutritious food, academic support, and a safe place for children to learn, grow, and play. We’d like to share what’s new!

At the end of 2017 we said goodbye to four long-time Family Support Center participants who graduated from both primary school and the project. These students continue to receive scholarships from Pop Wuj, and Family Support Center’s staff and materials are available to support their education as needed.

In 2018 the Family Support Center is serving 30 children—a big jump from 25 the last two years!

In March we were all excited for the buildup to Semana Santa and Easter. The children made bunny masks and enjoyed an Easter egg hunt.  Each year we incorporate aspects of Easter celebrations from Guatemala and other countries around the world into our celebration. Our snack stayed on theme with a hard-boiled egg!

One activity reviewed some of the themes of Easter (clockwise from top left): resurrection, reproduction, happiness, reflection, life, fertility, and spring.

Three bunnies chow down on hard-boiled eggs at the Family Support Center Easter celebration.

With all the children in the masks they decorated, the Family Support Center was full of colorful bunnies.

More bunnies enjoy their eggs. Our snacks are on-theme!

This year we also launched Buenas Tardes activities every afternoon.  During Buenas Tardes, we gather all the children and staff in the yard to greet each other and share news about upcoming activities at the Family Support Center.  We also teach about values using games and dynamic activities.

Buenas Tardes is an opportunity not only to share with each other but also to strengthen language development. Everyone speaks Spanish in the project, but some staff also speak English and/or K'iche', the local indigenous Mayan language. Despite K'iche' being a required class in primary school, usually only older adults in the community speak it in their daily lives. At Buenas Tardes Family Support Ccenter staff introduce new words in English and K'iche' in an easy, fun, and meaningful way.

One afternoon the children played a racing game. Each pair had to use communication and teamwork skills to race with the balloon between them—and also had a great time.

Moving a balloon is harder with no hands!

Whatever its teamwork and communication-building merits, balloon racing was also a great time.

Stayed tuned for more updates from the Family Support Center.  If you'd like to support the 30 children who participate in the project, please donate to our US partner, Foundation Todos Juntos, and indicate that you would like your donation to support the Family Support Center.

"Hasta Luego," not "Adios"

Text by Emily Rempel and photos as noted

General Projects Coordinator Emily Rempel  finished her 3 months of intensive volunteering at Pop Wuj on May 5.

How does one properly reflect on a life-changing, four-month-long experience in one single blog post? It simply doesn’t seem possible.

I arrived in Xela the evening of Saturday, January 7^th and to be honest, I was terrified. The sun had already gone down, my terrible sense of direction was failing me completely, and I had spent the day subsisting on the few remaining power bars that I had in my backpack. Looking back on the “what the heck am I doing here” messages I had sent to my mom (like the proper almost 23-year-old adult I am), I can’t help but laugh and be completely amazed by how much has happened since then and how much I’ve experienced.

During my time at Asociación Pop Wuj I helped build numerous stoves, I interviewed families for our current group of stove recipients, I got to see our “compra” day where we bought and delivered enough materials for some 11 stoves. I listened to Carmelina, our stove boss, explain to every group of volunteers just how big of an impact our safe stove project has on the families of Llanos del Pinal, Xecaracoj, etc. I was welcomed into the homes of so many families.

Carmelina and I on my last day of stove building (Photo by student volunteer)

I also got to participate in all of our medical projects, which is a life experience I never expected to have. I got to help measure and weigh babies in our Nutrition Prgoram and learned all about the different supplements we use to help combat varying degrees of malnutrition. Through my own research for the blog, I also learned way more about the pervasive problem of malnutrition in Guatemala, how it self-perpetuates and is compounded by intersecting social, political and institutional oppressions. I spent a week working in the medical brigade with Pop Wuj and Timmy Global Health and learned the Spanish names of countless medications that I had never even heard of in English. I helped translate during triage in our Pop Wuj cCc, so that our medical volunteers could provide the high level of care that Pop Wuj promises.

A favourite photo from a Nutrition day in La Victoria (Photo by Emily Rempel)

I also spent a lot of time working in our Scholarship Program and Family Support Center, two projects that focus on providing opportunities for education. Meetings in our Scholarship Program always amaze me. First, every participant there (usually mothers of scholarship recipients) greets us and welcomes us to their community. Then, we discuss the progress of our becados (scholarship students), challenges faced in school and at home, so that the educational journey of each of our becados is something shared and supported by the entire group. At my last scholarship meeting, with our group from Chirijquiac, we also discussed human rights: what are our human rights, examples of how human rights are being denied, and the barriers that exist in demanding our rights. The scholarship meetings always remind me that it is the participants in our projects, usually women, who are leading the struggle for human rights. It’s been an honour to work with Pop Wuj in helping to support this struggle.

My last meeting with the scholarship group from Chirijquiac (Photo by Carmen de Alvarado)

By far the most fun part of my internship was my afternoons at the Family Support Center. The kids there are just SO GREAT. Each one is so full of energy, so full of kindness, so full of potential. The FSC is a vital part of the community of Llanos del Pinal. It provides a safe place for these wonderful children to be nurtured, to explore, to grow. Saying goodbye to the kiddoes there was incredibly hard, but I look forward to following their growth through future posts on this blog - like this one!

All smiles with Rosemari and Yadira (Photo by Emily Rempel)

Packed into our casita with the pequeños, Yosvin, Daniel, Emmanuel, Yadira, Andrea, and Daniela (Photo by Ashley Aue)

Yadira and Daniela running circles around me (Photo by Elizabeth Barnes)

Pop Wuj is a labour of love. It’s a project of passion. It’s sustained through constant, non-stop work. In a country marked with institutional weakness, pervasive corruption, that continues to be robbed of its resources, that has been, and continues to be, so thoroughly affected by colonialism, it’s grassroots organizations like Pop Wuj that help realize the human rights of the most marginalized Guatemalans. The opportunity to be a part of this human rights work has been, by far, the best thing that I have ever done in my life. I am eternally grateful for my time here and look forward to supporting Pop Wuj from afar, in whatever way I can. A Pop Wuj - gracias y nos vemos otra vez.

Emily's internship at Pop Wuj was the final requirement for her Bachelor of Arts in Human Rights at the University of Winnipeg, and she graduates this semester. ¡Gracias por todo, Emily, y que te vayas bien!

You can read more blog posts written by Emily or spotlighting her by clicking here.

El Día de la Madre 2017

Text and photos by Elizabeth Barnes

May 10 is el Día de la Madre in Guatemala. The annual Día de la Madre celebration at the Family Support Center always requires lots of forethought and preparation.

Director of the Family Support Center Shaaron Hurtado welcomes everyone to the Día de la Madre event. This year seven students from Butler University who will be participating in a Timmy Global Health brigade attended.

This year our FSC staff had to set up the new site for the festivities with the possibility of early rainy season showers. Our chef, Kevin, had to cook a special dinner for more than a dozen extra people. The teachers planned mini competitions for the mothers to be interspersed throughout the Día de la Madre presentations by the kids.

The most challenging competition requires mothers to beat an egg into a foam so thick that it stays in the bowl when you turn it upside down! Doña Silvia (fourth from right) won the competition. She is the afternoon teacher of the youngest kids at the Family Support Center and the mother of Santos, teacher of the middle group of kids (third from right).

Most importantly, the FSC kids had to make gifts for their moms and learn choreography for Mother’s Day performances.

The girls of the oldest class kicked off the dances with marimba music they'd chosen themselves.

Later they'd return to the stage for a Top 40 hit: "Despacito."

The boys of the oldest class incorporated some classic 90s boy band moves into their routine.

Some dancers in the youngest group favored a more improvisational style.

Santos's class of the youngest school-age kids started with a cowboy-themed number.

After a costume change, they reappeared for their own dance to typical Guatemalan marimba music.

The last pair of dancers, Jonathan and Zulmy, exit the stage. In the tradition of proud moms with cameras everywhere, Zulmy's mom Doña Sofia was up front to capture the moment!

Pop Wuj collaborates with dozens of mothers who continually advocate for the health, education, and wellbeing of their families. We couldn’t work with the children at the Family Support Center without their parents’ active participation, and we’re proud to count many women in Llanos del Pinal among our partners. ¡Feliz día de la madre!

Fiesta at the FSC

Text and photos by Emily Rempel

On Thursday, April 27 we threw a birthday party for all of the Family Support Center participants who had birthdays between January and April of this year. We had 7 birthday kids for this party: Arturo (13), Jonathan (8), Ingrid (10), Zulmy (8), Moises (7), Brandon (7), and Miguel Angel (11). To celebrate, we brought two piñatas (one for the bigger kids and one for the littler kids), party favours, presents for the birthday kids, and two cakes. The party started off with the piñata for our youngest group of kids!

Yadira and Daniela giving Mario a farewell hug before the piñata fun begins! 

Luis takes a hard swing ... 

...and breaks the stick!

The pequeños scrambling to collect their candy

Rosemeri shows off her loot!

Brandon and Carlos scored big!

Once the candy from the first piñata had all been scooped up by the kids, we strung up the second piñata for our older kids!

Birthday girl Ingrid takes her turn

It's a swing and a miss for Arturo!

Damaris getting ready to take her first swing 

Evelyn shows Mario some muscle!

Sisters Damaris and Zulmy pack up their candy  

After the excitement of the piñatas, we all went inside for presents and cake. First we handed out the party favours; each kid got a little backpack with a couple of treats, a sticker set, and a fun eraser.

Handing out the party favours

Then it was time for cake! Carmen led us all in a round of "Happy Birthday" before the birthday kids blew out their candles and everyone dug into their pieces of cake.

Carmen leads the group in singing "Happy Birthday"

Daniel is too busy enjoying his cake to care about the icing all over his chin!

Yadira follows Daniel's example and doesn't worry about the icing on her eyebrow

Daniel's smile says it all - the party was a sugar-filled blast! Our Family Support Center kids are truly the most wonderful young people. It's so special and so important to celebrate each and every one of them by marking their birthdays with a fiesta. We can't wait until next time, when we celebrate the May to August birthdays!

Daniel's all smiles

A Very Feliz Día de la Tierra

Text and photos by Emily Rempel

Happy Earth Day and ¡Feliz Día de la Tierra! Although I'm a few days late with this post, Earth Day is something that Pop Wuj celebrates every day. This year the international campaign for Earth Day was focused on Environment & Climate Literacy.

"Education is the foundation for progress. We need to build a global citizenry fluent in the concepts of climate change and aware of its unprecedented threat to our planet. We need to empower everyone with the knowledge to inspire action in defence of environmental protection."
- EarthDay.org

Environmental protection is fundamental to the work of Pop Wuj, as indigenous Guatemalans suffer the brunt of climate change. The problems of disease, poverty, and malnutrition that our communities face are compounded by a lack of safe and clean water flowing through our rivers, nutrient‐rich soils to support crops, and pollution‐free air to breathe. Our communities are also left vulnerable to irregular weather patterns, such as severe storms and late rainy seasons. In addition to the physical importance of environmental protection, the health of the natural world is also paramount to the spiritual health of many indigenous communities.

At Pop Wuj we work with our communities to help build knowledge of the effects of climate change as well as strategies for combatting it. In our Safe Stove Project we discuss the dangers of burning plastic, including its effects on bodily and environmental health. With every new stove that is built Pop Wuj stresses to the family the importance of not using plastic and other trash as a fuel for cooking.

We also offer an alternative to burning plastic ‐ recycling! Our recycling program collects plastic, tin, paper, and other recyclable materials from our Spanish School and Family Support Center. We also encourage families in our Safe Stove Project to bring their recycling to the Family Support Center.

Once we have enough recycling stocked up we head out to the recycling plant. Our last recycling day was in March, and while being a bit impromptu, it was a success nevertheless. Former Environmental Projects Coordinator Mary and I spent the morning repacking all of the recycling (as some of the costales had broken down) and bringing it down into the school. Then, with the help of Carmelina and our Student Coordinator Elizabeth, we packed the many bags of recycling into the back of our rented moving truck and headed out to the recycling plant.

The moving truck packed tight with costales full of recycling

Interns Emily and Mary hard at work 

At the recycling plant the workers compiled our smaller costales into giant bags, which were then attached to a hook and manually held up, so they could be weighed. We were paid a certain price per pound of recycling, depending on the type. For example, the thick plastic medication bottles from our medical programs were worth more than thin plastic drink bottles.

Student Coordinator Elizabeth scoping out the grounds

Any extra money that we receive from the recycling day (after paying for the cost of the moving truck) is invested back into the projects. Unfortunately this day, because we were asked to deal with our recycling before we had saved up enough, we did not make up the loss on the moving truck. Nonetheless, the unfortunate amount of waste that we had generated though the projects will now be repurposed instead of sitting in a landfill or on the side of the road.

Having the recycling project active at the Family Support Center is another important strategy for supporting "environment and climate literacy." By teaching the Center participants about the principles of "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" and the impacts of waste on the environment, we're helping to foster a cultural change in the attitudes and behaviours of the kids in our project and their families. To encourage the kids to continue recycling we held a small prize ceremony. Kids that brought in recycling from their homes during the month of March were able to pick out a fun pencil and eraser set. While the prizes were simple, it helped to reinforce the value of recycling at home as well as in the Center. As you can see by their faces, the kids were very happy to pick out their new writing tools.

Teacher Santos begins the recycling prize ceremony

Zulmy brought in the most recycling for the month and was allowed to take the first pick of pencils and erasers!

Jonathan choosing his prize

Rosemeri's turn!

With the rainy season shortly approaching, we will also be starting our reforestation project soon. Our Pop Wuj environmental projects, while simple, help to create cultural change around how we interact with our environment. By promoting recycling, disseminating information about the dangers of the common practice of burning plastic, and working towards reforestation, we can help make small improvements in the health of our world.