Giving and Volunteer Opportunities

Many people have the custom of giving to organizations or those less fortunate when they travel. With this in mind we are passing on a list of places you might want to consider when you are thinking about where to offer your charity. You can make one-time donations or become regular donors.

Many of these organizations also have opportunities for volunteers. Be sure the volunteer organization you want to donate to is legitimate. Recently there were some "missionaries" who claimed to represent orphanages in Mérida, Tekax, and Oxkutzcab. The list below includes legitimate organizations well known to Yucatan Today.

Mayan community support
Hacienda Chichén has three projects going on that support the Mayan children, families and community needs in villages close to Chichén Itzá.

They work with Yucatán Adventure, a volunteer website dedicated to helping out. You can help them continue their Children's Malnutrition Prevention Program at the Xcalacoop Health Center by pledging food donations, old clothes donations, or by placing a one-time sponsor fee spot ad in their social volunteer website www.yucatanadventure.com. They recently purchased and installed new state-of-the-art, eco-friendly septic systems for the children's bathrooms at the Xcalacoop primary school.

In January 2008, the volunteer team coordinated a gift of love basket to give to the families on the 6th of January (Three King's Day).

Chichén Services and Yaxkin Spa at Hacienda Chichén have joined efforts to support the Yodzonot Cenote and Eco-Park Community project that a small group of local Mayan women have organized with utmost care and personal commitment. Anyone who booked a Maya Spa Getaway Couples Package during the first week of January '08 knew that all profits of the package were used to continue promoting online news and articles of these women's eco-park, their efforts and dedication to make it happen. This is a true story of faith, determination and hope. For more information please contact:
info@yucatanadventure.com.mx

Scholarship Programs For Children in Progreso
In Progreso, Kitty Morgan has a fantastic program, Progreso Apoyo (help/support), where she helps keep kids in public schools who otherwise would not be able to pay for their studies. School is free, but all students need uniforms (skirts/pants, blouses/shirts, socks, shoes), backpacks, and all their school supplies.

Kitty uses the money received from each child's specific sponsor to do the shopping. Each sponsor gets photos and thank you letters from their sponsored children. The program also accepts one time gifts of money which goes into a general fund, which is available for any child who exceeds his apoyo limit. The program began in 2002 and the number of sponsored kids is growing every year. Students must have an 8 grade average (on a scale of 1 - 10, 8 is like a B.) Anyone interested in sponsoring a specific child should contact her via e-mail and put Progreso Apoyo Program in the subject as she doesn't open e-mails from unknown sources.

For more info phone her at 969 935-3551. Or contact: kbmorgan_99@yahoo.com

Scholarship Programs For Children in Cholul
In Cholul, Pattie Trapp is running two programs. One is Adopt-a-  Kid where she also supplies the kids with their backpacks and school supplies and another where she gives 36 kids breakfast and vitamins each morning. Pattie's is a newer program and definitely needs support in the form of money or monthly allotments of milk, rice, cereal, etc. She says her breakfast program costs $250 US a month. You can contact her directly at   peptrapp@yahoo.com

Scholarship Programs For Children in Telchac Puerto
In Telchac Puerto, Judy Abbott Mier y Teran has started the newest program copycatting Kitty's Progreso program where the kids get their backpacks, school supplies and uniforms. School supplies include lined, unlined and squares notebooks, lead and colored pencils, red, blue and black pens, white-out, a calculator, a ream of bond paper, a geometry set, glue sticks, scissors, modeling clay, etc.

Launched in January 2009, her goal was to find sponsors for 15 kids in grade school, Jr. and Sr. High. To date she has 12 sponsors and feels she will meet and surpass her goal of 15 which she feels is all the better for Telchac Puerto. You can contact her directly at  telchaceducation@yahoo.com  Susan Stewart of K'ab Yucatan is working closely with Judy in Telchac Puerto as she has so much direct contact with the snowbirds and foreign home owners.  

Children with no Christmas
Jim Mann moved to the Yucatan almost 9 years ago to retire and enjoy the wonderful warmer climate that the Yucatan has to offer. After establishing several new companies in the area, he felt the need to give back to the Yucatan a part of what it had given him. Six years ago he started working with very poor families to see that the children would have new shoes and a new toy for Christmas. Last year he found 30 very poor families in a small fishing village in Chuburna, with about 50 small children who came to experience Christmas for the first time in their lives. If you would like to help, visit http://mexicobob.com/charity.html

Food Bank
The Chicxulub Food Bank began operating in November 2005 to respond to an identified need in Chicxulub. In the village of Chicxulub (pop. 6,000) the main industry is fishing, work that is at the mercy of the weather, where between the hurricane and the norte seasons the port often is closed so there is no opportunity to go out fishing -no fishing, no money.

There are also elderly people who rely on their children to care for them. For this project a family can mean a single mom with children, an elderly person living alone, families with the usual complement of people and anyone in need.

On the 15th of every month these families receive a despensa/food bag that contains beans 900 gms, rice 900 gms, oil 500 ml, sugar 900 gms, cookies 500 gms, detergent 500 gms, powdered milk 2 liters, sopa (pasta) 400 gms, and salt 250 gms. You can help by adopting a family for one year (cost is $600 pesos per family at the current despensa distribution of once per month), and donating shoes, jeans, school supplies, and blankets.

For Christmas they want to provide boxes for 75 families. Contact Sharon Helgason, Chix Food Bank Tel. (969) 934-0558 shelgason@hotmail.com Website: http://chixfoodbank.com/index.htm

Battered Women's Shelter
In Mérida, Confetur,a group of women that work in tourism, is helping a shelter for battered women. For more information please contact: confeturmid@hotmail.com

AIDS Help
The mission of Brazos Abiertos (Open Arms) is to empower the people of Yucatán to respond to AIDS. They are accomplishing this mission by understanding the extent and impact of the HIV pandemic in the Yucatán, educating the local communities about HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in culturally-relevant ways, decreasing the transmission of HIV and other STIs in the Yucatán, and improving access to health care and the overall quality of life for those people already living with HIV. Brazos is currently working with interns from different universities in the United States who come down to spend a semester in the Yucatán. Through these interns who are also volunteers they are developing more educational outreach programs.

Also the organization has already started doing HIV detections and rapid testing at the villages and in Mérida targeting the youth and people at risk. They are also offering personalized, free, confidential and anonymous counseling and following up with clients.

Brazos Abiertos is always in need of volunteers to help implement their programs. They would be grateful for: