Friday, August 31, 2007


MATEO HERRERA CENTRAL– Students from one of Santiago Atitlán’s public school classrooms arrived at the construction site with a donation of more than one hundred blocks. In this foto, K’aslimaal member Juan Tziná receives the donation from the teacher.

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CERRO DE ORO – or “Hill of Gold” is a Tz’tujiil community located five miles from Santiago Atitlán on the road to San Lucas Tolimán. Today the Amigos del Hospitalito traveled to Cerro o receive a donation of blocks for the new construction. The school has 165 students and almost all donated blocks. Amigos, volunteers and students are pictured in the schoolyard with their donation.

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Friday, August 24, 2007


IN MEMORY OF STEPHEN RUSSELL DICKEY. Today the Hospitalito received a 1999 Subaru donated by Dr. Stephen Dickey prior to his death from pancreatic cancer last year. Stephen’s sister-in-law, K’aslimaal treasurer Lyn Dickey and friend Gloria Maker drove the car from Arkansas arriving in 8 days. Gloria did the driving. At Hospitalito Atitlán today, a minute of applause was given as thanks and in memory of Stephen, who died at age 37, before he had the opportunity volunteer as a physician as he had hoped. The car will be used during the night when the nursing staff must come in for emergency surgeries and there is no public transportation available. At times it will serve as an ambulance and also to move medical supplies from the old hospital in Panabaj to the new building. Pastor Juan Abraham blessed the car and said that it is a donation to all of the community. Everyone enjoyed tostadas after the music and the presentation of the keys to the medical director. THANK YOU STEPHEN!

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Wednesday, August 22, 2007


HISTORY of the HOSPITALITO ATITLAN’S FRIENDS’ CLUB.

SANTIAGO ATITLAN, SOLOLA, July 2007

The idea to form a group of Friends of the Hospitalito came from the K’aslimaal’s Board of directors and with the support of K’aslimaal’s President and the Development Coordinator from Pueblo a Pueblo. The 26th of July we had the first meeting with a group of volunteers from the community, with the intention of organizing beneficial activities for the Hospitalito. The second meeting was on the 1st of July with more people participating and there the Hospitalito Atitlan’s Friends’ Club was created. Nowadays the Club is formed by approximately 25 young men, all volunteers, who are conscious of the necessity that the community has of having a hospital that meets the health necessities of the population.

TODAY’S SITUATION.

Nowadays a Project called “A block for you Health” is functioning. This is a Project that promotes the community’s participation as an active part of the construction of the new Hospitalito Atitlán.

We have planned to work with different sectors of the population such as: education, organized groups, evangelic churches, catholic churches, among others. We already started working with teachers and children from different educational schools from Santiago Atitlán, public and private, from all levels of education. The Friends’ Club has been organized in small groups to visit the schools in the urban and rural area and as a result 15 schools already gave their contribution of cinder blocks for the Hospitalito.

PLANS FOR THE FUTURE.

The Plan includes working with other sectors of the population and also there are strategies and activities planed. Some of them are making little radio adds in the local language Tz’utujiil and also making a video for the local cable company about the Hospitalito Atitlan’s Friends’ Club, who where the first ones donating cinder blocks for the construction of the Hospitalito.

Thelma Andrea Cortez Rodriguez

Coordinadora de Desarrollo Comunitario

Pueblo a Pueblo

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Tuesday, August 14, 2007


WE HOPE TO SEE YOU SOON!!!


This week at Pueblo a Pueblo we said goodbye to Ann Kennedy who has been volunteering at our office for a month.

When Ann arrived her suitcases were full and heavy with books in Spanish from a Bilingual Educational Program in California. These wonderful books were donated to the library Puerta Abierta and to the Escuela Rural Mixta Cantón Panabaj.

Thank you Ann for all your help!!!

PaP

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Friday, August 10, 2007


Amigos del Hospitalito and another school group arrived today with a donation of 105 concrete blocks for the construction of the new hospital.

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Tuesday, August 07, 2007


Heavy rains did not dampen the spirits of those invited to last night’s despidida (going away party). There was a dry eye in the building when Fransciso Sojuel spoke of her service to the people of Santiago Atitlán and presented Dra. Leah Abraham with one of many gifts of appreciation. Leah will be missed and we all hope for her return in the future!

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Monday, August 06, 2007


CEDUCA returns!!! Three years ago, in Panabaj, 92 students arrived for the initial clean-up of the abandoned Hospital buildings. Recently, when the school heard that the Amigos del Hospitalito were looking for donations of blocks for construction, the students all chipped in and today they arrived with a truck load of 110 blocks, one for each student. They have each purchased “Un Block para tu Salud!”. Here the young men thought they would give the girls a chance to unload some of the 40 pound concrete blocks. CEDUCA is a secondary school in Santiago Atitlán which prepares young people to become teachers.

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People are always asking how the new construction is going, and as you can see from this photograph, the new medical storage building is really taking shape.

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Thursday, August 02, 2007


Future Atitlaneco Physicians

Students of a fifth grade class visited the Hospitalito today. Dr Juan Manuel Chuc conducted the tour and answered questions. When he asked how many wanted to be doctors when they grew up, many hands shot into the air. He assured us that the Hospitalito will be well supplied with local physicians in 15 years.

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