We are a Canadian couple who moved to Panamá in search of a more tranquil lifestyle. While here, we have met a lot of Panamanians including some who unfortunately are living in very poor conditions. While Panamá is a growing economy and an emerging and developing country, there still remains a substantial level of poverty. This is where Marcos and his three daughters come in.

We met Marcos through his work selling ice cream and popsicles. Over the last few years, we have developed a friendship with him seeing him often 2-3 times every week when he makes his rounds in our area. Through language barriers and slowly learning Spanish we began to learn more about Marcos, his family, and then his unfortunate living conditions.

Marcos always shows up with a smile on his face and friendly chats. Judging solely buy his mood and friendliness we would never have imagined the conditions he lives in... especially with his family.

One day in a conversation I asked Marcos how life was going for him and he started to open up a little about his troubles. I asked him if there would be something we could do for him that would make his day, or his week better. He didn't want anything for himself, just clothes for his three daughters and help making his living conditions better for his family. This is where we met his three daughters Eline, Daniella and Angelica.

We took Marcos and the girls out for clothes shopping for a handful of new outfits, shoes, undergarments, socks, and so on. What they showed up with was quite heart breaking. Although appearing clean, taken care of and happy as could be, they had on ill-fitting shoes and clothes that the lifespan was being stretched for. We had a great day with them. They were happy, friendly girls and very appreciative. We later brought them to the grocery store and loaded up the vehicle with the group and all the new purchases to bring them home. This is where the real eye opener began as to just how dire their living conditions really are.

The house they live in is far from anything most would call a house, but with this happy family they still lived in it as their home and place of family. The house is just an open-air single room structure with no doors or windows covered by metal sheet roofing. There is no electricity, but they have running water from the government water supply to a single tap in their roughly put together kitchen. There is no sewage plumbing and no washroom in the house. The washroom is a few blankets strung up on ropes for privacy with a bucket and basic cleaning supplies. The kitchen area is just some small branches tied together with a couple of pieces of metal over top that leaks water when it rains. Being in the tropics, its rains A LOT here during the wet season. At times the rain will come into the house, wetting the family and their beds. I think the pictures we attach here will do the rest of the talking for us as the verbal descriptions are just unable to fully explain the whole situation.

Marcos is the sole provider for the family. His work selling ice cream is full of long days for six days per week. He pushes his cart over vast distances, walking almost his whole day of eight hours shifts. His income is low, even by Panamanian standards. His income is $20/day from which another $2.00 is subtracted to pay into the social services program. Although the cost of living in Panamá is substantially lower than that of western world countries, that $18/day doesn't go very far when providing for the girls and maintaining and aspiring to improve the household living conditions. We have been helping them out a little each month with as much as we can handle, but that alone will still leave us far into the future to improve their living conditions, leaving them in this same spot for an unforeseen amount of time.

We would like to raise enough funds to build the family a proper washroom with a shower/bathing area, a proper enclosed kitchen with a proper cooking and clean food prep area. The main living area in the open air room needs to be enclosed, including doors for security and to prevent the rain from entering the home, as well as buying the family proper beds and some comforts to add to their everyday lives. The girls are all in school, so a little homework area and dining table would be a very nice way to top off what would bring the family into a much healthier and secure environment.

As we have stated, the cost of living and goods in Panamá is substantially lower than developed nations. This is where the advantage for our effort come in. What would seem like a small amount of money elsewhere, we can stretch to a much greater length here for purchasing building materials, hiring labor where and when needed, and finding furniture such as beds and general household items. Even utility costs are much lower here and the ultimate would be to get the family connected to the electricity grid at some point. To give you a better idea in numbers, an amount of $10,000+ would be an absolute life changing amount for what we would be able to do for them. At that amount we estimate that we could achieve most of, if not all of the goals we have in mind for the family. Anything above that would set them up very well with a solid place to live and grow from.

We thank you for reading and viewing this fundraiser and hope you can contribute. A little goes a much longer way here and anything you can give would be put to very good use.

Thank you,

Matthew and Katie