In the spring of 2012 we visited Lagunita Salvador, located on the banks of Rio Dulce in Izabal. Our contact with Mr. Luis Xol, responsible for the small community, dates from 2005. We are happy to report that the village counts now with its own drinking water.
Don Luis and other members of the community expressed their need for funds to send their children to school. There is a rural grammar school in the village, but to study past the 6th grade the children have to travel to other parts of Izabal, a journey that takes at least 90 minutes each way. The cost of transportation by boat is high for their standards. And school materials - notebooks, textbooks, pencils, etc., have to be financed by the parents, something that is difficult due to the low income of the inhabitants. We are trying to get sponsors for some of the children. Below are some pictures taken during our visit.
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| Arriving at Lagunita Salvador. |
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| Mr. Luis Xol, Administrator of the community. |
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| The president of the Women's Association of Lagunita Salvador and her son. |
We visited San Juan La laguna in Sololá as well. Here we have implemented exchange projects with the Maya Women's Association Lemá and with the high school Liceo systemático Integral (LISI). A couple of members in the group accompanying our projects' coordinator, agreed to contribute towards the education of 2 students. We accepted teacher Daniel Hernandez's request of sharing LISI's information with foreign schools interested in projects with schools in Guatemala. Product of this information sharing was a visit LISI received late in 2013, from a school in another Swedish city.
We met also with artist Felipe Ujpán, whose paintings have been exhibited in some universities in the US. We approached him with the idea of exhibiting some of his work in Sweden in the fall of 2014 or the spring of 2015. Here are some pictures of our visit to San Juan.
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| LISI's teacher Daniel Hernández, one of the participants in the exchange project. |
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| Our projects' coordinator Dina Bern, her husband and brother-in-law with Maya painter Felipe Ujpán. At rest after discussions on an exhibition of Mr. Ujpán's works in Sweden. |
2013 we spent mostly discussing and spreading information on interesting and educative films like
(1) Poder (www.PodertheFilm.com), available now in 2014. This film deals with the advancement of communities that give women and young girls the power to work and contribute to their societies.
(2) The film Granito and our possibilities or our Guatemalan partners' possibilities of contributing to the project based on the film and which is explained in the following link: vimeo.com/28082375.
(3) Information meetings and conferences to discuss the ups and downs resulting from the trial of former dictator Rios Montt.
(4) We contributed to a conference on Colombia which took place at the University of Lund.
(5) We worked actively in the planning of an international campaign against racism.
In 2014, so far, we have been active in the launching of an internationl campaign against racism that originated in Sweden. It took place in February and March, 2014. We plan to be involved in the planning of the campaign again this year, and in its launching next year.
We have initiated an international campaign to collect signatures in support of Judge Yassmin Barrios, who is being penalized by those in power in Guatemala for sentencing Gral. Rios Montt to 80 years in prison. As is well known, the Constitutional Court overturned the sentence, thus perpetuating impunity in the country. Your signature in this campaign is most welcome. This is the link:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/784/163/969/guatemalan-lawyers-and-notaries-dont-violate-the-constitution/
Thank you for your interest.
Sincerely,
The Board of Directors
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