Donate!!

This is the following letter I've emailed to friends and family, but if I somehow missed you, here it is!


Hello friends and family!
As many of you know, I am a Peace Corps Volunteer living in
Guatemala, more specifically in Cajolá, Quetzaltenango. I have been in
Guatemala since April of 2010, working on a project with the Peace
Corps called “Healthy Homes.” This program focuses on educating
families on preventative health, helping them to be more responsible
for their own welfare as well as the welfare of the community.
Since August of 2010 I have been working on educating four groups
of women, totaling 70 women. We meet monthly, and I give presentations
on basic health and hygiene. I have been able to do mini-projects as
well, including washable/reusable sanitary napkins, portable
hand-washing stations, and liquid soap. The projects I do with them
use only ingredients they can get for free or at a very low cost where
they live. As a reward for completing the contract they signed,
stating that they would come to each group, participate, and change
habits in their household, I am building one project per household.
Many living conditions in these communities are unsafe. How can we
teach about the dangers of smoke inhalation when these woman cook over
an open fire 10 to 15 hours a day, or the importance of a bacteria
free home, when they live and cook on dirt floors which are almost
impossible to clean.
In addition to education, I am trying to raise funds to help
better the homes of 70 families who live in the communities of Cajolá
Chiquito, Xecol, and Xetalbiljoj in the municipality of Cajolá. Your
contribution could save a woman or a child from getting lung cancer by
helping us build an improved 'smoke free' stove in their house, or
prevent a child from severe diarrhea and resulting malnutrition by
helping them get a cement floor or water tank, allowing the family to
live in a clean and safe environment.
The original idea for the project was to give all of the
women water tanks. After talking to other Peace Corps Volunteers who
have completed projects, we discussed how empowering it is to have a
choice, and I decided to let the women choose which of the sanitary
infrastructure projects we offer they think would benefit each of them
individually in their households. Not only did this give them more of
a say, it also made the original estimated cost of the project
decrease.
The women had a choice between a cement floor (many of them have
dirt floors), a rain-catching water tank (many have no access to water
other than the contaminated river), or a bettered stove (one with a
chimney so the smoke goes out of the house instead of in the lungs of
the women and children).

To see a short and awesome video on the project, click this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-0cNphnoGY

The rough costs of the projects are as follows:
Cement Stoves: Q330 = $47 each, 26 stoves total Q8,580 = $1,225
Cement Floors: Depends on the size of the room, but roughly Q280 = $40
each, 16 cement floors Q4,200 = $600
Water Tanks = Q1,200 = $171 each, 30 water tanks total Q34,800 = $4,971
Total funds needed:
Q47,580 = $6,797
My current balance is $1,580, with another $2000 promised but not yet received.


If by some miracle donations received exceed the amount requested, I
will be donating the excess funds to Maddie Syzek, my site mate
working as a Healthy Schools volunteer. She will be fundraising to
build hand-washing stations and latrines in schools where none
currently exist. If you have any questions about Maddie’s project,
email her at msyzek@gmail.com, or as always, feel free to contact me
(megangokey@gmail.com).

My current timeline is to have all fundraising and paperwork done
by December, and begin construction in January. If you have any
questions about the project, or my experience in general, please
contact me.
If you would like to donate, please send checks to:
Friends of Guatemala
P.O. Box 33018
Washington, D.C. 20033

Make the checks out to “Friends of Guatemala” and in the memo line
write “Megan Gokey – Cat II”

Please let me know that you donated so I can verify the correct amount
was deposited into my fundraising account, and so I can send you the
proper thank you!

Thanks for taking the time to read this – remember even small
donations go a long way!
Megan E. Gokey

P.S. Feel free to pass this along to anyone you feel would be interested.