Humanitarian Reflection: Reminiscence

Written by: Aldo Lemos

December 2016

I returned to Colombia in 2017, but my heart and mind stayed in Guatemala with its friendly people, smiles, humility and simplicity, their lives, stories and culture. My hope was to return someday and continue with the humanitarian work we had started.

In September of this year, I started messaging with Franco. I received his invitation to help with this year's humanitarian campaign. Now, I am back in Sibinal, San Marcos, Guatemala. I’m happy to be back and share with the host family who adopted me during my four years of humanitarian work and share with my friends and most of all, humbled to contribute to the transformation of lives.

Sibinal is a small beautiful town surrounded by majestic mountains and located between two of the highest volcanoes in Central America. It is a place with lush landscapes and the people are hospitable and friendly. Tragically, it is also a place with high levels of extreme poverty. For four years I closely worked and observed the difficult living conditions of most families due to a lack of job opportunities and financial resources.

In the past, before I left Sibinal to return to Colombia, I occasionally felt I didn’t have anything else to offer the people living in these communities. In spite of this, I discovered in the end that one of the most important things in life is giving my time to serve others. Whoever gives their time is giving part of their life because time goes by and does not return. Today, this is my way of saying thank you to a beautiful place that gave me so much.

I would like to share more about me and what brought me to this point in my life.

I was born in 1985 in Puerto Rico, Colombia, which is a small town in the county of Bolívar located in the southern coast of Colombia. I am the second of four siblings. I grew up in the countryside and spent much of my childhood surrounded by nature and a feeling of freedom. My father was a farmer and my mother a housewife devoted entirely to her home, family, and gardening.

Aldo's mom in Colombia 2015

Barranquilla, Colombia 2015

Throughout my early years in school I stayed with my family until 1998. That same year the violence in Colombia became extremely dangerous. Specifically in the area of the country where we lived. Suddenly, one day we had to leave our home to survive the increasing violence between guerrillas and paramilitaries. From that moment forward my life changed forever. My family constantly took refuge in different places to survive. My family eventually spread out seeking safety, we haven´t been reunited again.

Aldo's mothers home where she has currently relocated to escape the violence and war.

During an outing in 1999, I arrived to a small town in Colombia where it was customary to do guitar night serenades. It was during this time that I fell in love with this instrument. Since then, the guitar became my biggest inspiration, passion, and refuge in the middle of so much violence and uncertainty. I became a self-taught musician.

After relocating to different places to survive, I finally arrived to Barranquilla, Colombia in 2005. I settled and began a musical career by playing with different local bands while doing other side jobs. One day, I received an invitation from a friend to attend a religious event. I was accepted into this religious community and played guitar for the choir and in 2013, I participated in an international exchange program.

Later in 2013, I arrived to Sibinal, San Marcos, Guatemala to work in two communities, focused on community development. The main objective was to improve underprivileged communities and strengthen the economic growth of two cooperatives. This experience transformed my life completely because when I left Colombia I only had three semesters of college. However, I used what I had learned in college and gave the best of myself. I had the wonderful surprise of receiving much more than I could give. I received love, support, understanding, healing, peace and harmony.

One of the things that shocked me the most was the migration phenomenon. Sibinal is only an hour away from the state of Chiapas, Mexico. It is a route used by migrants from many countries to reach the US. I was surprised by the number of friends and acquaintances I would see one day only to find out the next day they had migrated looking for job opportunities. I analyzed and tried to understand why people from Sibinal were migrating out of Guatemala and could not find answers. I thought that perhaps they did not love their home land, but little by little I understood that the people who were migrating had basic needs which were not being met.

The Mexico - Guatemala Border 2014

In 2014, I met my friend Franco. We both had the idea of creating a humanitarian group in Sibinal, Guatemala. He had basic knowledge of Guatemala’s history during the 36 years of armed conflict and the oppression and genocide the Mayan people experienced for decades. He had also witnessed up close the poverty in many regions of this beautiful country. After much dialogue with Franco, I talked about our plan with a group of my closest friends in Sibinal.

December 2014

In December 2014, our first humanitarian attempt was the delivery of Christmas gifts for more than 200 children in a nearby community. The activity was successful and seeing so much happiness in the children motivated us to do more.

December 2014

Buying Christmas gifts December 2014

First itemized gift bag for Christmas for Guatemalan Children 2014

We decided to focus on developing something that would have a lasting social impact and strengthen communities. That is how the idea of selecting families living in extreme poverty originally started. Through donations we would attempt to provide and meet one family’s basic needs by providing items such as stoves, latrines, floor, walls, aluminum roofs and even homes.

Since then, team Project Humanitarian Efforts Lifting the Lives of Others (HELLO) was established in the US, and team Generacion Magnificat in Guatemala. Every December since 2014, both teams coordinate fundraisers to meet the basic needs of individual family’s and provide joy to children in the form of Christmas gifts.

Teams Project HELLO and Generacion Magnificat, December 2018

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Day 10: Christmas for Guatemalan Children

Christmas for Guatemalan Children 2018

Introduction

Project Humanitarian Efforts Lifting the Lives of Others (US) in coordination with Generacion Magnificat (Guatemala) have been celebrating Christmas with underprivileged children from many rural communities in the Guatemalan mountains for four years now. This year, more than 500 children received a gift bag with a dental hygiene kit, food item, socks, towels, coloring books, and a toy ball. School aged children received a backpack for school.

Thanks to your donations and support, children and their families enjoyed a day full of fun activities for the children such as puppet shows, song and dance, classes on dental hygiene, nutrition and sanitation, and finally, a delicious typical Guatemalan Christmas meal for everyone. Enjoy the photographs and personal testimonies from our team volunteers. Once again, Project HELLO and Generacion Magnificat thank you for your donations and support.

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Written by: Diana Loera

For the past four years, my family and I have been making tamales to raise funds for Christmas for Guatemalan Children.  We do it with lots of love since we all agree that every child deserves to feel joy this time of year. Every year, the team brings back amazing stories and photos of happy children opening up their presents, singing songs and playing games. This year, I was able to see it for myself. I was able to be fully involved from the packing of the gifts, transporting them up the mountain and handing them out to bright-eyed kids waiting so patiently. I also had the opportunity to take pictures of the children to then share with all of you.

Most of the children were very shy but excited to have their picture taken. Moms would encourage them to step forward for their turn at a picture knowing that we would not be able to leave them with a physical copy of one. I asked a couple of moms what it meant to their kids to receive presents for Christmas and they were really happy and had been looking forward to this day for the past few months. Plenty of moms shared their gratitude towards “la gente de Estados Unidos” (the people of the United States) for making this happen, saying that these are the only actual gifts their kids will be able to have this Christmas because it’s not possible for them to buy things like this for them. It touched my heart to see every child hold on to his or her bag or backpack almost as if wanting to hold on to whatever they were feeling or thinking, forever.

Being a part of Project HELLO has allowed me share all the good things that I have been blessed with. My family and I are honored to be able to contribute to the joy I have seen on children’s faces in a place in western Guatemala where the resources are not readily available for most people. Christmas is about sharing the love in your heart with everyone. It’s about planting seeds of hope and encouraging others to see beyond their limitations.

Making thousands of tamales every year can be a daunting task but after seeing the faces and hearing the voices of all the children and families on the receiving end this year, makes it all worth it.  Thank you for all the support towards our yearly fundraiser that you graciously contribute to time and time again.

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

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Written by: Aldo Lemos

After the work we do every year with the families, after the fatigue that takes this whole process, in the end we have something more to do that fills us with great joy and satisfaction, see so many happy faces at the same time let us know that in the end everything is worth it. This year has not been the exception; we attended more than 500 children from 5 villages of Sibinal.

For more than a month we were in communication with the leaders of the community, coordinating the details of the gift giving, from the beginning we could see how each leader of the 5 communities got involved to carry out this event, for example collecting data on the number of children in their community, while our team in Sibinal met week after week, hours and hours to define each detail, for example the contents of the gift kit, to pack and organize the gifts, the agenda of the day, activities playful, spare for children and everything related to logistics. Finally the date arrived! From 5 o'clock in the morning we started loading the gifts in the truck and at 6:30 am we started the trip of more than 1 hour to Vega del Volcán, the place where the activity took place.

One of the most beautiful and interesting things this year was to see the great involvement of the authorities of the communities in this activity, they were supporting us in every detail, for example, the leader teacher of the local school supported us with the sound equipment, the leaders of each village supported us in organizing the children to deliver the gifts, this liked a lot because we saw the commitment that they made with their communities.

We all agreed that there was a little tension and great concern about the amount of gifts we had planned and the number of children that would arrive this time, because in previous years the trend was that fewer children arrived than planned, but this time we knew that the new communities were actively participating, and that is precisely the way it was; already at 10 o'clock in the morning more than 500 children were gathered in the place, all happy and excited to receive their gift, how much joy also on our part and at the same time worried about if we would achieve the goal! As planned, the program started and little by little everything was flowing in a great way, the children responded and participated happily in each part of the program, and finally we felt very calm when the last group of children was attended and just the gifts reached.

It was a very tired day but we were happy to be part of the happiness of many children! During the return trip we were happy laughing a lot and singing to reach the goal and for once again contribute a small happiness quota for the children in Guatemala.

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Written by: Olivia Deeken

Today was a big day! THE day - Christmas for Guatemalan Children! In all honesty, I was dreading this day for a variety of reasons. I'm always worried that our counts will be wrong and we won't have enough gifts or food for the children.  I worry that the kids and parents won't like the gifts or find them useful. I worry that I won't be able to contribute meaningfully to the team and the show they put on for the kids. I worry that I'll look like a fool.  There's a trend here - I worry a lot about this event.

My last Christmas for Guatemalan I was distantly engaged at best. Between the hot sun and my own insecurities, I felt extremely uncomfortable. This year I promised myself that I would do my best to put my insecurities aside and dive in with gusto! I put on my elf suit and my little elf hat and danced and sang in front of hundreds of small, happy faces. It was a relief to let go, let loose, and enjoy the moment. I may have enjoyed the songs and dances more than some of the kids!!

Generacion Magnificat had a plan in place for how all the gifts would be divided among the different groups of children. So, while the gifts were being distributed, Diana and I began taking photos of the children with their gifts, and posing for fun pictures too! I had to take a picture with the little princess! For many of these families, Christmas for Guatemalan Children is a very special occasion - one to dress up for. Many girls were seen in nice skirts and dresses, and for one little girl, her finest was a beautiful, pink princess dress! Many boys were in nice button downs or their school uniforms.

When I see how much effort the families put into this day, dressing up nice and walking long distances, I'm reminded just how special Christmas for Guatemalan Children is. Coming from a background where every Christmas was celebrated with gifts and mountains of food, it is easy for me to write off Christmas for Guatemalan Children as one of the least impactful projects our team does. I find myself thinking, "So, the kids get one gift on one Christmas - big deal. It doesn't really change anything." This year, I finally got it. It is a big deal. As the cliché saying goes, it's not the gift, it’s the thought that counts. The idea that a group of people, from both near and far, took time out of their lives to put on show and to provide gifts and food specifically for the happiness and benefit of us - the children - is a memory that may very well last a lifetime.  I hope that it does. It will for me.

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