A Special Request

Dear Friends, 
I usually am not as forward in my requests, but we have a special need in 2016 that I am asking for your help with.
Several of our Mayan elementary students have graduated from elementary school, which is a major achievement for them, considering their level of poverty. Four of these students have no middle school to go onto; the local ones closed recently. Governmental corruption at the highest levels in Guatemala are creating havoc with all aspects of life in Guatemala, and some of the schools have closed for lack of funding. 
 

Blanca

I am reaching out to you to ask if each of you could gather a group of 3-4 friends to show our documentary to. If each viewer went into our Paypal link (donate button to the right) and set up to auto-donate just $10 a month, we could potentially educate both of Dominga’s children in a boarding school that FFF has a personal affiliation and trust with. This school not only is accredited, but it is a boarding school that allows the children to learn organic gardening, cooking skills, animal husbandry, computer science and an overall excellent education 18 days a month. This rotation allows the students to go home 12 days a month to continue helping harvesting in the fields, harvesting firewood and helping with younger siblings while their mothers harvest coffee beans during the season. We have had a student at the Maya Jaguar school for the last few years and she received an excellent education and plans to go onto nursing school!
These students have a keen desire to continue with their schooling. Keeping Mayan girls in school is vital toward preventing early marriage and pregnancies. 
 

Dominga with food donated by FFF

Blanca and Fernando (L) are the two oldest children of one of the moms in our program, Dominga. Dominga’s husband left her because of her congenital malformation (she is missing a hand) but he waited until she had five children to care for. He provides no support of any kind, and with her missing hand, harvesting in the fields to earn a living is impossible for her. Dominga does not read or write but she still has a strong desire to educate her children. We have provided scholastic scholarships to her children for three years but the extra financial burden of having the children in middle school is more than we can afford. The tuition is a hefty $2,500 per child, and we can’t justify this expense for two children without raising funds for them independently of our normal budget.
We have gotten this family so far; it would be wonderful to see the two oldest children continue to prepare themselves for a solid future through advanced schooling.
Any effort our donors could make on getting a small group together between now and the end of the year to view the documentary and secure a small donation toward these particular children would be much appreciated. 
Copies can be obtained by emailing me at green71957@aol.com
Happy Holidays!
Jody Greenlee, Executive Director 

Dominga’s former house

House donated by FFF