Hola, I'm Julia. I founded Worthy Village with Guatemalan native Mayra Perez 9 years ago. Today, alongside our incredible team, we provide pathways out of poverty for women and children in Guatemala by providing economic opportunity, healthcare and education. In short, we impact over 25,000 people's lives annually, and for many of those individuals, it's life-saving help.
First, let me share the situation of a typical family in Guatemala that we serve.
I want you to imagine - you live in a one-room shack. It has no door, no sense of security. Neighboring huts are piled up all around you on a mountain. You do not have any furniture, or any running water. You do not have electricity or a place to go to the bathroom. No place to bathe. No bed. You're a mother or a father - you have maybe 6, maybe 11 children. You all cuddle up at night on the floor that may be covered in animal and human feces. Nights are cold, and mornings are early. Work is physical labor, heavy and tiring. The only water you have access to is contaminated, but you're thirsty. Your babies need something. You live every moment in the present because you simply can not think about tomorrow. To add to that, the household income may be $1-$2 per day.
How would you manage? That is what we see every day. Imagine that.
We have a full-time staff on the ground in Guatemala at our Wellness Center on Lake Atitlan. Here, we give the community the opportunity to walk into a peaceful, beautiful environment and get the support, justice, and non-judgemental, confidential medical care and social services they need. And in Guatemala, that's rare to find. People travel hundreds of miles to us - to fight for their lives, their children's lives, their mother's, their father's. They come together, almost always, united as a family.
A Fighting Family.
Through COVID, donations went down tremendously, but the organization did not skip a beat. We brought on more families and more people to support. We had to - how could we not? Our team worked long hours with their hearts on their sleeves. Because that is how we do this work - it comes from our hearts. It always has and always will.
Finally, in September, we hosted our Annual Fundraiser for the first time since the pandemic. We had great success, raising $50,000, and we are BEYOND grateful for those much-needed funds.
As we enter the season of giving, we are setting an ambitious goal to raise an additional $25,000 by the end of the year. To maintain our clinic running at total capacity, we ask you to help us kick off the Season of Giving the right way.
$10 saves a life by providing antibiotics to treat common illnesses that otherwise go untreated.
$20 saves the life of an infant with Pneumonia (all too common).
$100 saves 5 infants' lives.
$250 provides insulin for 17 diabetic patients every month
$500 allows 50 children to see a Medical Doctor and get the life-saving antibiotics they need.
$1000 provides a remote community with outreach medical care, consultations and medications for approx. 120 patients per day.
$5000 Serves to cover costs of major surgical conditions such as congenital heart anomalies in children or orthopedic, traumatic situations.
But more importantly, any amount helps, no matter how small.
If you would like to come to Guatemala and see this work in action and be a part of it hands-on, please visit https://worthyvillage.org/volunteer/ or send us an email.
With all my love and gratitude from my heart - THANK YOU.
Julia Rayberg
Executive Director
Worthy Village, Inc.
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