The words on this post start here because this is a half-picture. I was importing photos of Manuela and her widowed mother into our data base. I went onto start printing them, but I forgot to set my printer default to the smaller size. When her photo started emerging from my printer, I abruptly stopped…
Sometimes we just have to take a leap of faith. The faith in this case meant believing that if we took the boys and their mother into our program, funds to meet their needs (read former post here) would appear before us. It sounds biblical, but it is the reality of running a nonprofit. Meanwhile, the…
Our facilitators in Guatemala know better. They understand that Finding Freedom through Friendship is limited in our financial resources, as are most nonprofit organizations in our current economy. It takes money to feed, shelter and educate children, and this money squeaks from being wrung dry. So we said, and have said for months,”no more.” No more emails…
Our board members are all parents, and in some cases, grandparents. We know what American children worry about. As their caretakers, we have watched over them and worried with them, often wondering if we had appropriate boundaries as we got a little too immersed in their issues.They chewed their fingernails down as they watched scoreboards,…
My grandmother used to have a saying that described a particularly impressive person. Manuela was the “brightest bulb on the block;” sweet, smart and intuitive. When I was with her, I knew what was going on in the room by watching her eyes; they took in detail, processed it and mirrored back the meaning to…
I know you can’t understand her. If it helps, I can’t either. Candalaria speaks a dialect that I will never master, but thankfully our Guatemalan facilitators speak it fluently.So you will have to trust me when I tell you that she is saying “thank you.” She is expressing her gratitude for your concern, for helping…