The Guna women need our help!

Hello friends of the Guna Indians…Please see the note from my dear friend Prudence Grissom below. Prudencia lived amongst the Guna off and on for 20+ years. She knows more about the Guna people and their culture than just about anyone out there. She also had a vast mola collection until her gallery was completely destroyed during Hurricane Katrina. (She’s a former NPS ranger, btw.)

Prudencia has been down on her luck for much of the past several years but she still managed to scrape together some $$ to purchase scissors, needles, thread, and cloth so the Guna women (and a handful of men) can resume making their treasured molas. My husband (RPCV Costa Rica) and I are traveling to Panama on May 17-21 and we offered to hand carry the supplies down to a friend of Prudencia’s who is from the Guna village that was decimated by the fire.

But it’s going to cost about $100 to have the box shipped to my house in Silver Spring, MD (from Louisiana) and another $150 to pay for the arduous journey to/from the Darién by Prudencia’s [Guna] friend. Plus, there are only enough supplies for about half of the 350 Guna women who lost everything so we’d like to figure out a way to buy them more, if possible. Any support would be very much appreciated. (I *hate*asking people for $$ but Panama and the Guna hold a special place in my heart.)

Many thanks in advance for your consideration.

Ethan Taylor (Oajaca, Panama ‘93-‘95)

From Prudencia:

On March 3, the remote Guna village of Wala went up in flames and 1,800 of the 2,000 people were left homeless & everything was destroyed. Wala, is far away from the tourists & there's not even cell service. It's close to the border with the Darien & quite a trek to get there! The indigenous people of Wala live very differently than the people of Panama City or in the US. They sleep in hammocks & live off of subsistence farming & fishing. And, the Guna women make molas that they wear. I was contacted the day after the fire & while there was the Red Coss & other agencies who brought in emergency aid, they asked if I could bring them scissors, needles, thread & cloth, so they could make molas once again. There are 350 Guna women who make molas & I have purchased enough sewing supplies for about half of them. I planned for each woman to get a pair of small sewing scissors, 5 needles most size 12. 4 or 5 spools of colored thread & 5 pieces of fabric in size 18"x 21" in different colors all of which are put into a plastic bag. It's a start!