Joining forces
- 5000€ Recaudado
- 3000€ Necesario
- 8000€ Objetivo
- 63% Financiado
Given the lack of a school in Potrero Carrillo and the high degree of poverty and child malnutrition in the village, we created this solidarity project “JOINING EFFORTS” (by Potrero Carrillo), which aims to obtain the necessary funds from different sources such as sponsors, sponsorships, donations, etc. to invest in the improvement of infrastructures that improve the nutritional and cultural conditions of their children and young people.
At the beginning of the project, our standard-bearer José Manuel López will carry out different sporting challenges in Guatemala during the months of August and September 2015, which will be completed with other social actions until the project can be completed.
Four are the axes of the project “JOINING EFFORTS” by Potrero Carrillo.
Construction of the School
It will facilitate schooling by fighting against illiteracy and giving an opportunity for the present and the future for the children and young people of the village who, today, suffer from the problem of poverty due to lack of job opportunities and isolation, generating high malnutrition.
The school construction project will be managed by the Congregation AD Zoar, from Potrero Carrillo, which has recently acquired a plot of land of approximately 400 m2 where a two-story building will be built. In detail, 9 classrooms would be built for 30 students each, a workshop for practices, offices, a kitchen, cleaning services, a changing room, a playground and a multi-sports court.
In the new school, three technical specialties would be studied, Agronomy, Electricity and Mechanics, of three years each and that will help the development of the region by giving an opportunity for a better future for the smallest of the region, being able to insert themselves into the business network already existing in the Jalapa Region, doing professional internships and, later, being part of the respective staff or creating their own company as young entrepreneurs.
Infant Nutrition Program
The Congregation AD Zoar, monthly, carries out a control of measurement and weighing of about 100 children. This is perhaps one of the saddest things about living in this rural area, seeing the great need in newborn children and the conditions of malnutrition in which many live. Vitamins are distributed (with peanut butter flavor) that reach the population of 16 communities around Potrero Carrillo for babies from 6 to 24 months.
Ten of those 16 communities are in places of extreme poverty and critical malnutrition. According to government health reports, 50% of children suffer from some degree of malnutrition in Guatemala and the data from Jalapa are even more alarming.
According to UNICEF, in Guatemala, the 21.3 % of boys and girls suffer from severe chronic malnutrition, and children under 3 years of age are particularly vulnerable. In rural areas, lactating children, between the ages of six months and one year, receive only 16% of their required calories, 35% of protein, and 2% of iron. Likewise, in terms of access to food, 60% of Guatemalan households do not have sufficient income to cover the cost of the basic food basket. The nutritional problem is due to the conditions of poverty and extreme poverty in which the families live, the lack of education and the poor preparation of the parents, which affects the quality of care they provide to their children in the early stage development.
Faced with this great problem of child malnutrition, I’MPOSSIBLE365 wants to collaborate by raising the necessary funds for this project.
Sponsorship of Children
In the nutrition sessions children suffering from KWASHIORKOR (malnutrition that swells their faces and stomachs and makes their hair coarser and even falls out). They are treated with a 45-day diet of 1 egg, 1 sausage and 1 glass of milk for each, in addition to their daily vitamin ration.
That creates big changes in your body. Their faces are deflated and their skin condition improves significantly. A constant diet of these nutrients is enough to at least save their lives. There is no need to cut their hair as it fails to grow due to malnutrition. Their skin is deteriorated, giving them a look of old age.
For example, the children of a family with 15 children are cared for (the mother had 20 but 5 have already died). The only person who generates an economic support is the father who works for about 20 to 30 quetzals (2.30€ – 3.50€) when he finds work harvesting coffee or some other seasonal agricultural work.
The way you can help is by sponsoring children to receive a daily nutritional treatment consisting of 1 egg, 1 sausage and 1 glass of milk. It must be delivered daily since there is no refrigerator to store things in most houses. Source: UNICEF
This project proposes to achieve 100 sponsorships of 1 year each, as well as to provide more economic funds to the current child nutrition program, which will be managed by the Congregation AD Zoar of Potrero Carrillo, an entity that currently works in the village.
Sports Challenge – CHALLENGE 700
To give greater visibility and impact to the project in Potrero Carrillo, our standard-bearer José Manuel López intends to carry out “The Greatest Aquathlon in the World”.
José Manuel López will try, first, to swim 16 kilometers in the Pacific Ocean. Once this ultra-distance crossing is finished, it will cross the entire country of Guatemala, running more than 700 kms. During the journey, you will swim in different places of natural reference, such as Lake Atitlán, Lake Izábal and the Río Dulce, passing through Guatemala City and Potrero Carrillo, arriving at the town of Puertos Barrios, located in the Atlantic Ocean, where will swim the last 16 kilometers.
As in every solidarity project that is proposed, José Manuel wants to show the positive aspects that leading a healthy life can bring through sport, which can also be a solidarity sport. This sporting challenge poses to draw attention to this problem that affects the smallest of this town in Guatemala.
Get involved now!
This humanitarian project focuses on building a school, reaching 100 sponsorships for children in poverty and collaborating with the child nutrition program of this underprivileged town in Guatemala.
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