Visit to a Samer area in Tärnaby

Hello everyone!!


It's been some time since we last informed you about our activities.
In July our projects' coordinator visited the north of Sweden to start preparing for a project between the Maya peoples of Guatemala and the Samer from Sweden (and Norway, Findland and Russia).
We've been interested in such a project since we met Mr. Ola Gorek, a Samer representative who in the early 90's, participated in one of our projects in Lund.
Our new Coordinator for Youth Projects, Stina Jacobsson, will continue with these contacts next year and if everything goes according to our plans we'll have something concrete by 2011.
On the 3rd of October we elected a new Board of Directors. Pictures of the Annual Meeting and the names of the new Board will be posted within short.
Best and warmest regards,
THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Our project coordinator Dina Bern & her husband Tomas











Our host Lars-Jonas












The Samer flag

The Sayaxché, Petén counterpart of our youth project

Greetings all!
Here are the promised pictures of the three young ladies from Sayaxché, Petén, who will be visiting us in Sweden if the young members of the Guatemalan Association of Lund succeed in getting their exchange project approved.

We hope that they come in December 2009. The Swedish counterpart (Dayana, Juan and Jairo), will visit Guatemala in March or April 2010.

From left to right: Yesenia Mérida (19 years old), Marta Cifuentes (17 years old) and Doris Pérez (19 years old).

We'll keep you informed of the progress of this project.

So long for now! - The Board of Directors.

One of our representatives visits Guatemala in April '09

Dina Bern, our projects' coordinator and one of the founders of this organization, visited Guatemala this April of 2009 to evaluate some of our projects and cooperations as well as to revive old contacts. The pictures here show some of our Guatemalan partners.

First row, left to right: Teacher Daniel Cholotio from high school Liceo Sistemático Integral (LISI).
Cantel's Major Miguel Tixal Colop, his assistant Abraham García and our projects' coordinator Dina Bern. Lemá's members at a math class. Second row, left to right: Teacher Yolanda in action. Lemá's members of different generations share knowledge.

The report and evaluation of this visit resulted in the following:

1. We will continue cooperating with CIEP (Centro de Investigación y Educación Popular) through a project aimed at benefitting 290 women in 8 different regions.

2. We will continue cooperating with LEMÀ (Maya womens' organization) through a project aimed at benefitting 50 women and their families, a total of 210 persons including children, in the regions of Palestina and San Juan La Laguna in Sololá province.

3. Cooperation with Oxlajuj-È, a maya women's oganization in Sololá will be possible three-ways, with CIEP included. Specifically we have in mind publication of a book on Oxlajuj-È's project with medicinal plants.

4. Daniel Cholotio of LISI (Liceo Sistemático Integral) of San Juan a Laguna presented us with an interesting recycling project which we intend to study further. So far it seem like a good project for other regions of Guatemala as well.

5. Cooperation with Cantel in Quetzaltenango will continue. The major of Cantel thanked us profusely for the dental chair we donated to his municipality for the benefit of poor children in public schools. He wants us to continue our cooperation to benefit this same target group, which we will gladly do as soon as he presents us with his ideas.

6. We will try to cooperate more in depth with Niños de Jesús, in particular with projects to help the mothers of the children placed in the care of Carmen, the woman in charge of running the home for the children and the organization itself.

7. Our cooperation with Cooperative Nuevo Horizonte, a village founded by ex-guerrilla combatants and their families after the signature of the peace accord of 1996 will continue. Faustino Serseño, the new president of Cooperativa Nuevo Horizonte, is interested in educational projects in the form of study circles for Nuevo Horizonte and for Aldea El Juleque, a nearby village.

8. Our young members will work to initite an exchange project with the organization Jóvenes de Sayaxché (Youth of Sayaxché), the youth wing of the Asociación Servicios, Oxígeno y Salud a la Biodiversidad (Association of services, oxygen and health to biodiversity) of Petén province. Pictures and more information on the participants will be posted within short.

9. We will initiate a pilot project consisting of the donation of 150 laying hens to the Asociación Servicios, Oxígeno y Salud a la Biodiversidad.

10. We will seek resources to initiate a project similar to those in Sololá to cooperate with the organization Empresa Campesina Asociativa Emanuel of Nuevo Progreso in San Marcos (an indigenous peasant cooperative).

Further, we deem Sayaxché and Santa Ana in Petén province and Nuevo Progreso in San Marcos province, three regions in need where strong cooperation through educational projects can be successfully developed.

Best regards,
The Board

Our most recent visitors from Guatemala

In March of this year we implemented a project thanks to the assistance of Forum Syd. Two pupils from Escuela Normal Privada Sololá, Victoria García and Edgar Guerquez came to Sweden to inform about their life as young students in Guatemala and to learn about Sweden. Mauricio Picasso of Medborgarskolan gave them certificates for their participation in courses about Swedish history and society. Among the activities of Victoria and Edgar were visits to schools in the south of Sweden, participation in conferences and a trip to Stockholm which included visits to Forum Syd and the Guatemalan Embassy. Here are some pictures of Victoria and Edgar in Sweden.

From left to right.
First row: (1)At the Guatemalan Embassy. (2)At Forum Syd (both in Stockholm). (3)High school pupils from Lund attend our information conference.
Second row: (4)Edgar gives information at a high school in Lund.
(5)Victoria gives information at a high school in Lund.

Information about the sale of cards to help Guatemalan organizations

In the winter of 2006, the winter of 2007 and early spring of 2008, together with 2 high schools from the Lund (Sweden) area, we sponsored the sale of cards that represented trees and chickens to collect money for 2 maya women's organizations in Guatemala: Lemá and Oxjaljuj È. We reached our goals with those projects in the early spring of 2008, when we traveled to Guatemala to deliver two checks in the amounts of 22.000 Sek and 15.000 Sek to Oxlajud È, and 12.000 Sek to Lemá (Lemá received 12.000 Sek in 2007 as well).
Since February of 2008, the Guatemalan Association of Lund does not sell, promote the sale or sponsor the sale of such cards and has no connection whatsoever with any person, persons, entity or entities claiming to sell cards to aid the aforementioned organizations (Lemá and Oxlajuj È). We do continue helping those organizations with development projects that do not require the sale of cards.
Should we return to selling the cards in question our selves or promote their sale on our behalf in the future, we will inform the public through this channel.
The Board of Directors.

We have two volunteers in Guatemala in 2009

Hello everyone!!!
This is Dayana Sotomayor, one of our 2 volunteers now in Guatemala. She and Malin Nilsson left on the 7th of January and will be away till the end of June, 2009. Dayana and Malin will be sending us updates on their work with the different organizations The Guatemalan Association of Lund, Sweden, cooperates with.

We will post pictures and and news from our Maya partners as soon we receive them.
Keep up the good work Dayana!
Dina Bern
Projects Coordinator