Dennis Evans, who runs the San Lucas Toliman Scholars project in Guatemala, sent in this update & photos:

“Dear sponsors, friends and family,

Good to read of the improving situation in the US and the UK.

Here in San Lucas Toliman, individual schools are adapting to the situation, each in their own way. While they follow government and public health requirements, local school directors have decided how to apply them in their school. Depending on the number of classrooms available, some schools have classes every day: some two days a week, with the students doing homework on the other days, and so on.

Every town is graded every two weeks, red, orange or yellow. When we are in red, all students study at home. We hear on Saturdays what color we are. On that depends if studies take place in school or parents collect work for the students to do at home. Not an easy situation for teachers or students!

The good news is that the government has bought sixteen million doses of “sputnik” vaccine. To my surprise, I am registered to receive the jab. Guatemalan Health services attend to anybody living in the country, regardless of their nationality!

Last year, some of you very generously contributed funds to help build an annex to the local IMED junior high. The land was bought, and that would not have been possible without the donations sent through SLT scholars. The land has now been cleared, with teachers lending a hand in their spare time. Only minor fundraising activities have been possible, but with vaccinations, restrictions should be reduced, and it will be all systems go! The new building will allow a substantial reduction in class sizes.

As the students have not had some of the normal expenses for school activities, we have been able to give them more in the way of shoes, rucksacks, school supplies and so on.

Some sponsors have also donated money for us to help the most needy families in the area, regardless of sponsorship. I set up an advisory group to help us decide who and how to help. They visited the poorest families to assess individual situations. One member of the group said how nice it was, to visit houses and be able to do something to alleviate the extreme poverty in which some people have to live.

We bought three beds in a local store. They gave is a hefty discount, and an extra bed for free! An old lady, living on her own and sleeping on the floor, wept for joy that same day when we delivered her bed. I wish you could share the happiness of families when our workers fix a variety of their problems.

Unfortunately, with the on – off – on – off of the schools, and because students can earn some money to help their families, we have had a few students withdraw. There are many waiting to take their place: good students whose families are enduring hard times. Thank you for your understanding and continuing support.

All best wishes,

Dennis”

We just received these great photos from the students at Pine Ridge Elementary–our club donated 73 books to the school (a total of 247 books across four Bend elementary schools). They loved their books from the Gift of Literacy program!

Our Rotary club has just given $1000 to Every Child Central Oregon to create “Flash Boxes,” or care packages, to support foster families in our community.

Thanks to the Central Oregon community and our club members for supporting our club’s fundraisers, so that we can help in ways like this!

Our club has just given $2000 to Jericho Road to support Jericho Table, serving free, nutritious meals 25 nights each month, and their Weekend Food program to create and deliver backpacks of food to assist hungry students and their families over weekends.

Thanks to the Central Oregon community and our club members for supporting our club’s fundraisers, so that we can help in ways like this!

The Rotary Club of Greater Bend has just given $2000 to REACH Central Oregon to purchase fuel, safe heaters, and camp stoves for unhoused families in our community.

Thanks to the Central Oregon community and our club members for supporting our club’s fundraisers, so that we can help in ways like this!

Our club has donated 2 radial C arm fluoroscopy machines to the hospital in San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala. Watch the video to learn how Greater Bend Rotary has helped this community.

A number of our club members support students in Guatemala through the San Lucas Toliman Scholars program. We received this update from Dennis Evans:

“Dear friends and sponsors,

This last week we have delivered over 38 thousand pounds of corn to families of students studying in various junior high schools.

Nueva Vida is a community in which there is no access for trucks. Monday and Wednesday parents and students cleared an area beside the soccer pitch. (Tuesday it was raining!) They fixed a tractor path through a coffee plantation, which leads to the area. On Thursday morning early they marked the cleared area with circles, for social distancing. They set up a disinfection area at the entrance to the site, for parents to disinfect their hands as they entered. The truck came at nine o’clock. The local community leader, the school director, the chairwoman of the PTA and a student all expressed their thanks, then we started distributing the corn.

Many students helped their mothers carry the sacks, which weighed a hundred pounds. A couple of other local teenagers helped various mums, carrying the sacks and earning themselves a small tip. One boy was there with a wheelbarrow. Teachers messed in with the parents, helping manhandle the heavy sacks.

Almost all the families in the area work on coffee plantations. There is expected to be a good harvest this year. However, the plantations have reduced wages because of concerns over the world coffee price. Workers spend three months working, and then are laid off for three months, so they are not entitled to minimum wage.

They are so, so grateful for your help!

On Friday we did the same for families of students in the Tierra Santa school. That day, the students were arriving with their parents to hand in their homework. They met with the teachers, one at a time, while the teachers looked at their work, answered questions, and gave them the next set of worksheets. Then they collected their corn!

This week we did the same with students in the Pavarotti school. We help not only sponsored students, but also the families of other students identified as belonging to the poorest families.

Corn is of course the staple food. Used for making tortillas, it has a special significance for the Mayan people. (Many Google entries about this). In various times of crisis, people here have managed “as long as they have corn.”

The donation of corn was made possible by those of you who sent us donations, not only for your sponsored students (which we have distributed), but also to “help as needed” during this COVID crisis.

Travel in Guatemala has just been partially opened up, and Government help for poor families is now ending – for the few in the area who received it. I hope to continue to help the hardest hit families with corn, through to the end of this year, when the informal economy – hopefully – will have restarted.

In spite of everything, more parents than ever have come to us, seeking sponsorship so that their child can go on to study in junior high next year. I had thought we would have fewer applications, and parents wouldn’t want to continue sending their children to school. I was wrong. It seems a higher priority than ever for parents. They want their children to have a better life. God bless you all for making it possible.

The government has said that Colleges and Technical schools will reopen for in person classes in October. Ordinary schools are preparing to re-open for ordinary classes in January, after the long vacation and the coffee harvest.

Times are hard for everyone at the moment. Many of you will be unable to send donations to help us get more corn or to sponsor another student. If you decide to so do, they should be sent to:-
SLT Scholars, 34 Hilltop Lane St Paul, MN 55116
Please indicate if a donation is for COVID relief or to sponsor a new student.

Thank you so much!

Dennis”

He sent along some photos as well – click here to see the photo gallery:

From the August 22nd edition of The Economist comes an article on how close Africa is at being polio-free.

Image courtesy The Economist.

Click here to read the article.

For five days in October of 2018 the Veneto region of Italy including Belluno suffered a devastating natural disaster that left many villages near Belluno and into the Dolomites without any basic emergency communication services.

Following news of this Belluno natural disaster the rotary clubs of Bend and community members in our Bend-Belluno sister city organization contacted our friends of the Belluno Rotary Club as we wished to send funds to help them in immediate disaster relief. We were told to wait as the Belluno Rotary club was in the process of coming up with a project to plan that could be most effective following future natural disasters.

In early December Angelo Paganin president of the Belluno Rotary club informed us that working with local governments including community emergency services and first responders they had developed a comprehensive disaster preparedness plan that would provide a more reliable communication system during emergencies. With this emergency preparedness plan in place a financial goal was set and the campaign began in January.

Our club supported these financial efforts and we were notified that the campaign to raise funds was successfully completed. A community meeting was held in February to discuss the implementation.

The Rotary Club of Greater Bend was mentioned as one of the partners involved in this project and mentioned in the conference materials.

See the TV coverage of the groundbreaking event at J Bar J, for their Vocational Training School. Our club is mentioned prominently, as our support is the largest gift toward the project to date.

The Vocational Training Program will help at-risk boys become familiar with vocations and provide initial training in the building trades (framing, insulation, and plumbing) Culinary Arts and Application Design to start. The offerings will expand as the program becomes established.

“This project is a perfect match with Rotary’s mission of supporting and developing youth. Rotary’s motto is service over self. A project like this helps Rotarians meet the mission and models the service ethic to the kids” reports Board President Mike Sipe. “Rotarians will be involved with the project from start to finish, offering help with constructing the building, presentations to the kids about their own vocations and hands-on education in their area of expertise.”