Aldea Maya

07/11/2024

https://fiestaworldcraftbazaar.org/

FIESTA IS BACK! November 20 & 21 2021. Distinct quality crafts, cards, calendars, carpets, toys, clothing, jewellery, housewares and lots more!

30/10/2024

Just completed a 2 week adventure in Guatemala with 3 volunteers. We played with train set and mega blocks ( that came in our luggage) with preschool children, cooked classes with preschool moms, made a nutritious lunch for our elderly feeding program, took the grade 7 class on an amazing field trip to San Juan, brought down books for reading program, installed an onil stove, had a lovely meals with a group of our university students. We watched Finding Nemo with a group of elementary students. The group took a student zip lining that they had sponsored for 15 years. Then off to Flores to see the amazing ruins of Tikal. We finished the trip with 3 days in Antigua where we checked out this amazing UNESCO heritage site and the 2 twenty year olds went on an ATV excursion up a live volcano. Just an amazing adventure to share with my nephew Kelyn .

13/09/2024

We are very excited to expand our nutrition program to feeding the vulnerable elderly in the village of Chuk Muk. Once a week, an ever expanding group of Mayan elders gets together for a delicious, home cooked meal at the Aldea Maya learning centre. Our feeding program is not only giving them a wonderful nutritious meal every week, but it is getting the community elderly together for a feeling of being important and belonging. We also deliver the meals if they are too ill to get to our learning centre. This is a new program with 9 elderly, and we are including new geriatric members, as we learn of them. We are wanting the elderly to be an active member in the group. We are, therefore, asking them what they would like to eat. We then take their suggestion and make it more nutritious by adding extra vegetables and fruits. The meals are cooked by our our 2 dietitian trained facilitators. We are also starting to include fun activities like dominos.

14/08/2024

Here we have Lorenza at her graduation ceremony. She graduated as a nursing technician. 👏

06/06/2024

Our manager at the learning centre has been teaching our students the rules of chess. Chess is an important skill as it not only improves cognitive function but also boosts creativity, teaches patience and perseverance, develops social skills and is a healthy form of entertainment. We would like to host some chess tournaments in the future. To make this possible we are going to need more medium sized chess boards. If you have any to donate, please let us know.

05/06/2024

This is how my garden looks right now

05/06/2024

21/04/2024

We are very pleased to introduce our newest sponsor students in Chuk Muk. We have 4 new students in elementary school, 8 new students in middle school and one new high school student. We are looking forward to helping them follow their dreams

22/03/2024

We are excited to be once again working with Andrea at ProyectoCAN. The wonderful nutrition program at ProyectoCAN has be developed into a comprehensive 4 day workshop. This project is very hands on and has lots of information presented in engaging manner. Their video on the history of malnutrition in Guatemala come in English, Spanish and many of the indigenous languages. This is super important as many of the families in the Santiago Atitlan area do not speak Spanish. Having a engaging video in Tzu'tujil makes the program one of a kind. The program comes with 2 colourful cook books that focus on infant nutrition and getting more greens into the diet. These cook books use pictures to assist the reader to follow recipes as many of the woman who will be taking this program do not read or write. The recipients of this program will learn valuable nutrition information that will help to combat the rampant malnutrition in Guatemala and how to prepare inexpensive meals that mirror all the wonderful information they have just gleaned. In the morning Andrea was teaching our future teachers of the nutrition program. In the afternoon our newly minted teachers practiced on a group of our university students. These university students can then use this information in the future careers. This group consisted of 3 primary education teachers, 4 nursing students and an agronomist.

27/02/2024

The learning centre in Chuk Muk now has movie showing for the "littles" on Friday afternoons. The children love to see a fun movie on a big screen. We even brought a popcorn maker from Canada to make it a true experience. These children do not have a TV at home nor have they ever been to a movie theatre, so this is a huge treat.

28/12/2023

We are very excited that 5 more of our students have successfully completed high school. Here they are outside our learning centre with the founder of Aldea Maya, Louise Sosa. Each student received a fleece blanket as a graduation gift. It will come in handy when they do practicums or just to keep cozy at home. Three of the students are continuing on to university. Angel to study mechanical engineering, Dolores to study nursing and Kevin to study to be an English teacher.