Qixing Taiji TaoTemple

COVID-19 IN RURAL GUATEMALA: SITUATION OVERVIEW 

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, humanity is facing a tough challenge.

For all of us, this difficult time continues to create uncertainty. None of us knows how long this pandemic will last.

In Guatemala, like other places around the world, there are several challenging restrictions in place: borders are shut, public transportation is suspended, businesses are closed, and curfews have being implemented. These hurdles make access to food and basic supplies increasingly difficult.


EFFECTS ON LOCAL MAYAN FAMILIES

In our isolated, remote village of San Marcos La Laguna, it is challenging for the people to take care of and provide for their families, even under normal circumstances. In these trying times there are 1,000 local families who are at risk of completely running out of food and basic supplies in the coming days! Were this to come to pass, it would have a terrible effect on this already struggling community, especially for the children and the elderly.

The last few weeks have brought many challenges for people across the globe, but we recognize the serious impact of the situation here in the developing world to be far more extreme.

 
HOW YOU CAN HELP

In this time of uncertainty, we are reaching out for support so we can offer assistance to our neighbors in need. As of March 24, Guatemalan Congress has ratified to extend the state of calamity for 30 additional days. Our objective is to supply the 1,000 local families with staple foods for the next five weeks. Please consider donating now so we can help relieve the burden. Everyone has to eat. Your support means we can bring food to those who really need it.

 
HOW WE WILL USE YOUR DONATION

$10,000 will buy food for the whole village of San Marcos La Laguna for 1 week. For at least the next 5 weeks, we aim to provide food for each family in the village.
Each increment of $10,000 will make it possible allow us to feed the entire village of San Marcos (1,000 families) for one week.

All funds will go directly to Qixing Taiji TaoTemple, and the food will be purchased directly from wholesalers and then distributed to each family in San Marcos.

We have already reached $10,000. This would not have been possible without your generosity, and for this we are deeply grateful for your support. Please help us to reach our goal!

 
WHO ARE WE

We are a Taoist Temple based at Lake Atitlán, Guatemala, and a registered US nonprofit charity 501(c)3, aiding economically underprivileged locals, mainly from the village of San Marcos La Laguna.

Since 2012, our projects have been fortunate enough to bring in over 3-million dollars to aid and support the people and economy of San Marcos (and elsewhere in Guatemala), dramatically improving the quality of life for the families these projects support.

Please join us in helping to relieve the burden on people who need it.

More info here: www.TaoTemple.org/CommunityBetterment

(If you are a US Citizen, your donations are tax deductible. Tax ID #47_1575386)

 
LAST FEW WORDS

When basic needs are compromised, it creates a strain on an already stressful situation. During the global pandemic that we are currently facing, we see more clearly our interdependence, and we are called to help each other out. Please join us in helping to ease the crisis by providing our neighbors with food security. Together, we can do it!

This June, 2018, Volcano Fuego spewed an 8-kilometer (5-mile) river of lava and heavy clouds of ash and smoke.

So far, at least 99 people have been counted dead with at least 197 people missing and they believe almost certainly dead, more than 300 were injured and 3,000+ evacuated, in the most violent eruption of Guatemala’s Fuego volcano in more than four decades.

On this sad occasion, we wish to collect money to help those affected to recover, rebuild, and put their lives back together.

UPDATE:  

I am happy to tell you that thanks to your doantions so far we have managed to build one more house for a whole family who had lost their home in the eruption! ❤️ 
(1-/07/18)

This family : Maria Juana, Santos, Fredy Rolando, Roberto Carlos, Santos Martin, Prudencia, and Victoria

And a very special thanks to @Fincasbuenas crew, Jay Jackson (in the photo with sunglasses) for doing all the good work on the field!


WE ARE STARTING A NEW ROUND OF FUNDRAISING TO:
 

- Build transitional shelters for approximately 700 people whose villages have been officially declared uninhabitable to move them out of the public schools they're living in. (Kids have not been able to go to school since the eruption.)


- Repaint the Public Schools. (So when the children get back, they'll return to a brightly colored place of learning, instead of cinderblocks.)

 
- Build more houses for families who have land to build on


PLEASE DONATE!
(Being a US registered 501(c)3 nonprofit charity, your donations will be tax deductible. )

Before & after the eruption:


(REUTERS photo/Fabricio Alonzo)

(AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
 

The Fincas Buenas crew rebuilding houses  :)


ABOUT US:

We are a Taoist Temple and Monastery based in Lake Atitlán, Guatemala, and a registered nonprofit charity 501(c)3, aiding economically impoverished locals, mainly from the village of San Marcos La Laguna.
(If you are from the US, your donations are tax deductible. Tax ID #47-1575386)
(More info here: www.taotemple.org)

Our projects currently provide direct, substantial, and ongoing economic support to around 200 - 250 local men, women, and children.

We also supply ongoing construction employment and education for under-skilled workers, and interest-free loans to qualified locals. We are also in process of building a grey-water treatment facility capable of cleaning billions of gallons of polluted water yearly, before it enters the lake or local water table.

In various ways, our projects also benefit the entire local community of San Marcos La Laguna, as well as the natural ecosystem of Lake Atitlán.