Francisco

That is not much of a post title. Nonprofit blog posts are supposed to draw the reader into the post by catchy titles that our followers find so captivating that they can’t resist immersing themselves in the message of the moment. However, I am a loss for words, and time and patience for a country that can allow this kind of misery to exist. The title of this post could possibly read “Francisco Needs Your Help” or “Child Lives in Abject Misery” but I’m not in the mood to coddle. It is 12:45 AM, and I can’t sleep and I’m grouchy and not feeling very authorish (yes, I know that is not a real word) so here we go folks…the truth of the matter is we need money. We need funds now, and we need them for Francisco so that he can eat, and sleep in a dry bed and he can go from an existence that is so miserable it should not even be labeled as living.

As a board, Finding Freedom through Friendship usually requires a social evaluation, a fully completed application, a signed contract with the family we are helping and a relationship that exists below a surface level. We have learned the hard way that not all poverty can be replaced by good intentions and even better funding, without advantage being taken by the very people we try to help. It is called human nature and every time it happens we slap our selves silly with anger that we spent money on a family that doesn’t actually follow our organizational rules. And then we stand upright again and remind ourselves that rules work great when you live in a country like America that has a soft place to fall in times of crisis. Not so much in Guatemala.

All of the above is meant to tell you two things:

#1. We have little information on this family. We don’t know if his parents are credible and caring. But we do know that not doing anything to try to help is not an option.

#2. Every penny you send in during the next week will be spent on Francisco and his family and most importantly, on getting him health care access. 

#3. We do not know what is wrong with him medically. But we promise to try to find out, to try to get him help and to keep you informed. 

There are no salaries earned in our all-volunteer organization, so you can rest assured that your funds will be used for the humanitarian needs you see in these photos. You can send it directly to us via Paypal by clicking on the donate link at the top of our blog page, and leave a note on the donation page that Francisco is the intended recipient.

I warned you that I am peekish as the moment so here goes…that is not a stuffed animal in Francisco’s pants, it is some horrible, currently nameless malformation that may be incurable. At the very least it is completely miserable. The photos of the wooden shed are not a shelter for animals. It is the family’s “house” (for lack of a better word). The only thing we know at this moment is that Frances Dixon from Adopt-A-Village and Finding Freedom through Friendship have committed to do something to make this existence become a more tolerable situation for this family and we need funds to do it. The one tiny bit of information we do have is that Francisco’s father sold the family belongings to buy food for the family and that this child, despite his medical issues, hauls firewood for the cooking fire you see in the photo. The water source for the family is rainwater collected in plastic bags, which actually shows resourcefulness on the part of the father. This family would qualify for the Guatemalan version of the show Survivor.

Francisco has never heard of Valentine’s Day. But he needs to benefit from people who have. And if you are still reading this post, despite the lack of time and attention toward making it warm and fuzzy, that person is you.