​Dear Friends: 
I hope you and your loved ones are doing well and staying safe and healthy. I am writing to give you an update on the situation here in Guatemala. Now we have over 65 000 cases of Covid in the country and sadly 2500 people have lost their lives due to the pandemic. On the other hand, I am happy to report that still all the children of our school and their families are doing well health wise. Unfortunately many of the parents have lost their jobs or have much lower incomes than they used to have before the pandemic started, which makes their lives a lot more complicated than they used to be. Thanks to all of you we are able to help all of the families in our school to get through these difficult times. 
I am very happy to report that thanks to all of you who decided to help those less fortunate people in our community we raised enough to provide support for all our families. With these funds each family will be able to get 4 months of food supplies worth $100 each. We already distributed the first installment to the families. We decided to give it to them in cash as each family has different needs. Most of them bought food with it, but some needed medicine, some do not have water at home so they used part of the money to pay the water truck to deliver water to their homes, etc. 
Here is a picture of the families the day we distributed the funds. 
Many of the parents came to me and asked me to thank you for the help you are giving them. They told me that this help truly will make a difference as it comes at a time when their situation is really complicated. Quite a few of the mothers cried when I gave them the money as they were desperate and did not know where to turn to for help. They told me that it was very kind of you to help them even though you have never met them, and they said that they will never forget what you did for them in these very difficult times. 

​As for the students, they continue to receive assignments they can do at home. Our teachers have done a great job explaining the different subjects in a written form and the result is that ALL the students have been able to complete their homework. 
On the left you can see the school supplies and assignments that each student gets every month. 
We have been told by the ministry of education that this year the schools will not reopen any more. Now we have to wait to see how the situation develops and then the ministry will take a decision on when schools will reopen in 2021. 
At this point I would like to thank you on behalf of all our children and their families for this wonderful gift. We have a big debt to all of you and I hope one day we can find a way to repay you for this extremely kind gesture. 
Sincerely, 
Principal Melody School Guatemala 

​Dear friends:
 
I hope you are doing very well and staying safe and healthy during these difficult times.
 
I am writing to give you an update on the situation of our children and their families here in Guatemala. Last time I wrote to you we only had a few cases of covid 19 and a few deaths. Right now we have almost 16 000 cases and 600 people have died because of the disease. Luckily for our families, they are all doing well health wise.
 
The biggest problem we have right now is that the economy has been shut down for over three months. There are no buses running, many business have been forced to close, the demand on many services has decreased to nearly nothing, there are no tourists, the restaurants are closed, we are not allowed to leave our province and in some cases our towns. All of these situations mean that all our families have lost their means of subsistence. Many of the parents of our children worked selling food and other basic items at the markets, but the markets have been closed. Others used to work at restaurants which also have been closed. Others used to work in Guatemala City but are not able to travel to work or their jobs have disappeared. Others work planting vegetables but due to the travel restrictions have not been able to take their harvest to the markets and have lost their crops. And the list goes on and on.
 
As a result of this situation we have seen things that we had never seen before. There are many people that come out to the streets with white flags. What that means is that they are asking for any food that people can spare as they are literally starving. And many of the families of our children are very close to that situation. For that reason I am now asking, if any of you would like to help these families to buy some food, please donate any amount at the link below so we can help them get through this difficult time. Any amount will help and donations over $25 will get a tax receipt from Medicos en Accion.  $100 can buy food for a family of 5 for a month. I would be very grateful if you could send this information to your acquaintances to see if anybody else would like to help.