Medicinal Plant - Health Care Project

Throughout 2011, Maya Traditions operated a Natural Health Care Project for our surrounding communities with generous support from First Peoples Worldwide Fund of the Tides Foundation.  The goals and objectives for the project was to promote and preserve traditional medical practices by empowering Ajq'omaneles (Maya healers) and emerging youth to educate their communities and provide access to affordable and appropriate health care in rural indigenous areas.

The second phase of the project was to continue to strengthen the participants' knowledge and skills with more advanced and in-depth trainings and to prepare them to become stronger advocates of traditional medical practices in their communities.

Participants were able to gain necessary skills and knowledge in identifying medicinal plants and how to effectively implement them into a patient's treatment plan.  Approximately 300 women and children received educational workshops from Maya healers on preventative practices, which drastically strengthens the overall health of their communities.

We hope to expand our medicinal plant garden and possibly transplant several plots of land into rural villages surrounding Panajachel, so other communities can grow their knowledge and build sustained health care systems.  The funding for this program is currently expired, but we hope to receive further grants and donations.  Currently, we are grateful to work with volunteer intern students from a local high school who are eager to help out and are willing to learn about the plant properties and uses.

In 2012 FTM will continue to work on providing access to knowledge and education about the use of medicinal plants particularly as a preventative measure for common illnesses.

For more information on our Fair Trade foundation and social services, visit our website at www.mayatraditions.org

Implementing the Education Program

The week of January 9th, 2012, Nicolassa Vasquez (The Education Program Coordinator) and I traveled to each of the six communities that participate in the Maya Traditions Education Program.  We accomplished several objectives:

1.) We discussed the contractual terms of the Maya Traditions Education Program, which essentially states that in order for the participants to receive scholarships, the students must be passing their classes.  Accordingly, after we clarified any questions from the group regarding the terms, all the mothers renewed their contracts with Maya Traditions.  

2.) We required the students' report cards from the previous semester to verify that all the students were passing their classes.  If any student failed to turn in their report card, or failed more than one class, the terms of the contract dictate that the program will no longer provide a scholarship to that student until he or she makes up the class.

3.) We sought the receipts from the scholarship money.  This process enables Maya Traditions to verify that the scholarship money was spent on educational purposes, and that the children are receiving the school supplies needed in order to be effective students.  

4.) Lastly, we handed out profile forms for all the students to fill out.  The goal here is to enable Maya Traditions to better track the family names, the academic achievements and goals of the students, and the expenses that the students accrue in regards to academics.  In turn, this information helps Maya Traditions to better tailor their services to satisfy the needs of the program participants. 

Please check out a couple of the photos from our past visit!!!

Two Participants from Patanatic; A Mother and Her Daughter

Handing in the Children's Report Cards in Chirijox

The Student Participants from Santa Clara

The Participants from Santa Clara with Nicolassa and Me

Thank you for checking in!  

-Ryan Tramonte

Happy New Year 2012!

Happy New Year!  We, at Maya Traditions Foundation, wish you the best as you enter into the new year and as we all seek to accomplish our resolutions and goals throughout the year.

As a Fair Trade foundation, we hope to create sustainable relationships with local weavers in Guatemala and buyers throughout the world.  Our weavers really deserve to have their skills displayed for all to see.  We are very thankful for our working relationships and the cultural insights provided throughout the fair trade process.

Thank you for the support that you provide that helps give fair wages to workers, funds for our social services, and for enabling consumers the access to unique, fair products!

You can expect to find our new release of an online catalog coming soon in March 2012.

Donate online here.

My Volunteer Experience

The past few weeks at Maya Traditions have passed in a blur. A fun blur, filled with chicken buses, presentations, and visits to communities I´d never seen.

As part of Maya Tradition´s work supporting local artisans, they provide scholarships for the weaver´s children, an invaluable means to encourage them to stay in school. Without the scholarships, many students would have to drop out and find a job to help bring in money for their family. Maya Traditions has scholarships for students from elementary school all the way to university, and over the past few weeks I´ve had the good fortune to work with their sponsored high schoolers. 

Even though it´s winter here, right now it´s what we in the US would call ´summer break´ for public schools: a 2-month vacation from November into January. During this time, Maya Traditions asks its scholarship students to implement a community service project in their hometown, a means of both giving back to their community and giving the students valuable organizing experience. I attended the preparation workshop back when I first arrived in Guatemala, and now am getting to see the results.

Over the past 2 weeks, Nicolasa—FTM´s Education Program Coordinator—and I have gone out to visit the students to observe the work they´ve been doing. Some of them are in far-flung rural communities, requiring a long journey and a few different modes of transportation to reach. One particularly busy day, Nicolasa and I realized we´d used every available means of transport—navigating between 2 different isolated towns, we´d taken a chicken bus, a microbus, a pickup truck, a tuktuk and a lancha!

All the traveling has been well worth it. The community service projects—all revolving around this year´s theme, ‘Family Struggles’—show the hard work and dedication that the students have. Using games, videos, and in-depth discussions, they have worked with groups of their peers, young children, and their mothers and elders of the community to address this difficult topic. It´s been great to watch them speak honestly about the effects of poverty, violence, and drug addiction on local families has been. These conversations are so necessary to the health of the community, and watching the students facilitate them has been truly inspiring. 

Today is my last day at Maya Traditions, which I cannot believe. Time has flown by so fast! It´s truly been a privilege to work with an organization that´s doing such great work. This was my first time in Guatemala, but it´s definitely not my last!

--Written by Nicole, volunteer

Color & Design Workshops

We are currently in the midst of narrowing down our product line, and focusing more on empowering the weavers by helping them become self-sustainable in learning how to develop, produce, budget, market, and sell.

In the past we have hosted color and design workshops.  Our new product line will be announced through an online catalog, so stay tuned once we refine our list and descriptions.

Here are some photos from previous workshops:

 

 

   

 

To support our work and to help these Mayan weavers, donate now here.

Happy Thanksgiving from Guatemala!

I´m Nicole, a new volunteer with Maya Traditions who just arrived last week. My background is in community organizing and working with teenagers, and I´ve come to help out with a youth-led community service initiative that Maya Traditions has helped organize every year.

In addition to their work with local weavers, Maya Traditions has a scholarship program for the sons and daughters of the women they work with (ie the weavers). This scholarship program helps their children finish high school, and even go on to university. As part of the scholarship, the youth are required to do a community service project in their hometowns, to improve the lives of their families and neighbors. For most of the students, this is the first time they have participated in community service, and the experience can be a great lesson in organizing and in helping others.

I arrived in Panajachel just in time to attend the series of workshops helping the students plan their projects. To get the students thinking of ideas, facilitators from the Human Rights Ombudsmen’s Office and the Legal Center for Human Rights in Solola came to talk about this year´s theme, which is family breakdown. Through discussions and skits, the students shared about many difficult topics, from domestic violence to the effects of poverty, and were able to brainstorm a lot of great plans for their projects.

After the workshops, I was also lucky enough to witness cultural presentations put on by the students. They came from 6 different communities, and each has its own indigenous traditions, dances, and
clothing. It was amazing to see the students demonstrating rituals that have been handed down through generations, full of history and meaning. Not only was it very beautiful, but also really funny: like
teenagers everywhere, the students cracked jokes and had a lot of fun with the presentations.

Afterwards, I got to put on a traditional women´s traje myself! The students from San Juan La Laguna dressed me and David, another volunteer from the States, in the clothing that men and women from
their village have worn for many years. Everything is handmade, and very beautiful, so it was great to get to try it on.

All in all I had a great time meeting all the students, and I look forward to seeing the work they´ll be doing with their community service projects!

We Need YOU!!!

FTM is looking for more volunteers in our office!
Special needs currently are:
Monitoring and Evaluation intern
Graphic Design intern
Public Relations intern
Web Maintenance volunteer
English as a Foreign Language volunteer

Please email robin@mayatraditions.org if you are interested!!