Family Support Center (formerly La Guarderia/daycare)

The Family Support Center was created to serve single working mothers in Llanos del Pinal, a rural K'iche Maya community situated 20 minutes south of Quetzaltenango in the Guatemalan highlands. Meals, educational support, and extra-curricular activities are provided for the 36 children aged 2-18 who attend the Center at any given time. This institution allows for parents to continue working after school lets out. These extra hours of work enable families to earn enough money to continue sending their children to school.

The Center is staffed by seven full- and time-part employees, including one teacher. The staff cleans, cooks, and maintains the Center. The staff is thought of as family by the children because many children have difficult family lives.

The Family Support Center is supported by volunteers from the Pop Wuj Spanish School, and is regarded by the Foundation Todos Juntos as a priority because it is the only place where children can receive help on their homework, as their parents (or parent) tend to be illiterate and unable to academically assist the education of their children.

The epidemic of malnutrition which plagues Guatemalan children is combated here as well. The Center provides children with healthy meals and vitamins to aid in their natural development along with medicinal lotions to fight off skin diseases. All of the children receive regular check-ups from the staff and volunteers of the Pop Wuj Medical Clinic.

Along with services to the children, the Center provides counseling and social work services to the families who participate in the program. Familial disintegration, alcoholism, and depression are common problems in Llanos del Pinal and the Center offers hope to individuals suffering from such problems by offering them a broader community.

At the Family Support Center a Greenhouse Project was also started as part of our Environmental Program in 2007. Its goal is to provide safe food for the children at the Center and create a source of income for the Center by growing food products that can be sold in the market. The Greenhouse Project also allows the children to learn healthy agricultural and environmental skills and practices. We are planning to plant spinach, radishes, and cilantro in 2012.

The Family Support Center costs approximately $2,000 a month to run. The budget consists of salaries for the seven full- and part-time employees, food, dry goods, cooking fuel, cleaning supplies, utilities, and rent.




Wednesday, October 10, 2012

El Dia del Niño

Monday, October 1st was Guatemala's celebration of "El dia del Niño," or "Children's Day." It is a day where we celebrate all of the kids and they get to eat lots of sweets, play games and maybe get a present or two. We celebrated the holiday at the Family Support Center on Thursday, so that any of the Pop Wuj students could join if they wanted.




It was a fun filled afternoon! We set up an impromptu movie theater for everyone and had a viewing of one of the greatest kids movies of all time: Toy Story. Everyone was given their own personal bag of freshly made popcorn, or "poporopos." The movie was a complete success, and is just as funny and inspiring in Spanish as it is in English. Chocolate covered frozen bananas were passed around after the movie, and each kid received a beanie baby as a small gift.


It was another cheerful and celebratory atmosphere at the Family Support Center. In the middle of a very rainy week here in Xela, the celebration of El Dia del Niño proved to be the perfect mood lifter.