How can you tell if you’re done when there’s so much left to do? That’s the question for Friends of Cozumel volunteers. Some say it’s when you absolutely must return home to your ‘real’ work. Others say it’s when you run out of time and energy. But perhaps there is no such thing as being done as long as the need remains.
The project list could go on and on, but the rewards continue, too. We’ve received lots of smiles and blessings. And it’s great when you can see you’ve made a dent in solving a problem.
When we tally up the numbers, it’s clear we had an impact. These stats provide the details, but the photos below also help tell the story.
- Total of 40 volunteers including 2 Canadians, 7 Mexicans and US visitors from, Colo., Iowa, N.C., Neb., Minn., Texas, Oregon. Half volunteered for projects on a half or full-time basis. Others joined for one or more activities during the week. Half are island visitors combining some vacation time with mission projects; the rest are island residents.
- Total of 22 community service projects focused on benefitting children with special needs, providing learning opportunities for children and adults, helping families and non-profit organizations that support them to become self-sufficient, and promoting local volunteerism.
Impact:
- Enhanced quality of life for children with disabilities—through construction of therapy equipment, repairs for Casita Corazon, preparing a donated lift van to transport children to therapy.
- Increased knowledge, skills and learning experiences for individuals, families, non-profit organizations and ministries to help them advance economically—by providing 7 classes in composting, sewing, mending, crafts to sell, basic home repairs, conversational English.
- Supplemented food resources for 32 children and 16 adults –by implementing garden beds and container gardens in six family homes.
- Enabled families to receive daily needs of clothing, shoes, household goods through the Gran Bazar and distribution of reading eyeglasses
- Helped Cozumel becoming an audiometric evaluation, therapy and resource center—through construction of a soundproof testing room for Manos y Voces, enclosing a teaching classroom for the hearing impaired, and making improvements positioning Manos y Voces to be a holistic evaluation/therapy/retail resource center. Families will no longer have to travel to the mainland to receive services.
- Built cross cultural bridges of understanding—through a number of interactive events for local families and volunteers.
A huge thank you to every single one of this mission week’s volunteers. You KNOW how much effort you put into this. And we couldn’t have done it without the contributions of so many generous donors. Literally hundreds of people have given everything from used and new clothing to sewing machines and tools to money. Thank you, thank you and muchisimas gracias por todo.
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- Gary and David cut recycled plastic jobs for container gardens.
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- Izzy sorts seeds for the garden project.
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- This class of sewing students loved making shorts and boxers.
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- A craft class included making flowers from fabric.
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- Ilene (right) demonstrates at the sewing class.
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- A team worked on a light box as a visual stimulation therapy aid.
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- This is what a child might see inside the light box.
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- Diane (left) and Becky (right) upholstered a therapy swing pad.
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- Roger (right) gets help from Diane (left) and Lupe (center).
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- Jose was one of the first to try the new swing at Casita Corazon.
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- Jose and his therapist try out the new sling swing.
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- David and Shelley admit to a bit of a litter pickup addiction after helping to clean beaches on Cozumel’s east coast.
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- Shirley helped women learn about faucets in a home repair class.
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- Nothing is wasted here. The composting class taught that organic waste can be turned into garden soil.
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- Gary (and the rest of us) loved the meals prepared by faithful volunteer April.
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- Margarita (center) and her family were happy to receive container gardens.
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- Balloons and darts were a hit at the Manos y Voces family fun night.
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- Carl checks out the new observation window he helped build at Manos y Voces.
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- Amy (left) and Janet (center) help with manicures at a family fun night.
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- Hetti (left) and Mike (right) enjoyed helping with conversational English classes at ICAT.
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- Gary and Kristin learned that some jobs are dirtier than others.
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- Even some of the visitors got a whack at the pinata.
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- Roger explains his project progress at a planning meeting.
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- Making balloon animals helped occupy children while parents shopped the Gran Bazar.
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- John and Paddi (left) helped students with their English.
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- Ray (left) helps Gary fix bathroom fixtures at Casita Corazon.
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- Just five days after planting radish seeds in her new garden bed, Lupe has sprouts. !Qué milagro! (What a miracle.)
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- This donated lift van will soon transport children with disabilities to Casita Corazon. FOC volunteers gave it good cleaning inside and out and refurbished the interior.
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- Larry helped children play basketball at the Casita Corazon family festival.
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- Nuria (left), a local volunteer with excellent English, helped students at ICAT
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- You can run, but you cannot hide from the camera, Byron.
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- Phyllis, Shirley, Karen and David have fun working at the Gran Bazar.
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- Women learned about creating organic fertilizer for their gardens from a local biologist.
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- We wouldn’t have accomplished much without transportation from local volunteers. Special award of merit to AzulBebe (blue baby) and its drivers.
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- Kristin (left) helps a student with his English.
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- Volunteers enjoyed helping with conversational English classes at ICAT.
Visiting Casita Corazon (Heart House) yesterday reminded me of the African proverb Hillary Clinton popularized in the 90’s “It takes a village to raise a child.” The Casita was bustling with various activities (physical therapy for youth with disabilities, sensory stimulation activities, games/basketball, pumpkin decorating project) focused on the needs of special children ages 3-23. Carrie’s Heart staff, parents as well as visiting and resident volunteers work as a team. Pictured from left: Luis (Carrie’s Heart therapist), Jose (19 year old youth with multiple disabilities), Lee and Dianne Wilson (visiting volunteers) and Lupe (Casita Corazon caretaker). 
Luis provides therapy for Juan Diego, age 23, who loves looking at Christmas lights. Carrie Conn, Founder of Carrie’s Heart, is leading a new model for working with children with disabilities. Employees and families are being asked to stretch outside their comfort zone to transition from the traditional one on one (therapist and child) method typical in Mexico to a team approach using volunteers. 
Leticia (Juan Diego’s mother right) helps her granddaughter, Hanna, decorate a pumpkin. Leticia and the other parents are beginning to volunteer their time while at the Casita by cleaning, putting away supplies and doing educational, stimulation activities with kids. They are also being trained to assist with all the youth (not just their own child). Beginning in 2013, parent volunteers will participate in a rotation schedule to allow for respite for the moms. They will be able to drop off their children and pick them up some days and be scheduled to assist on other days. 
Luisito (brother of Jose) decorates a pumpkin with Lee. Luisito’s life has significantly changed this school year as he is no longer confined to stay at home all day, everyday. His mother takes him to the Casita on the Collectivo (public van transportation) daily before she goes to work and picks him up early evening after work. His mornings and lunch are spent at the Casita in activities with other children. Then he walks a few blocks with Lupe (caretaker) and two of her children to attend the CAM School for children with disabilities in the afternoon. 
Hanna and Luisito play with a learning computer. After two months participating at the Casita and attending CAM, we see a HUGE difference in Luisito. He’s learning to interact with other children, making friends, communicating more and is much calmer. At age 12 his world has opened up to include opportunities beyond his home and immediate family. 
The huge smiles of gratitude from Miriam and four of her five school age children pictured here says it all . . . THANK YOU to everyone who donated school supplies and to many volunteers who shopped, served as “sherpas” transporting donations to Cozumel, filled backpacks or distributed school supplies to 162 children. An additional 80 children with disabilities and their 8 classroom teachers benefitted from extra supplies donated to the CAM school plus 20 more children who received supplies given to the Vida Abundante Church youth group. 
During the past several weeks I’ve had a chance to talk with 33 (~20%) of the 162 children during home visits. Nearly all of them feel they are doing well in their classes. Some of these children have incredible odds to overcome that detract from learning like hunger, lack of home electricity for light to do homework, family situations that include abuse/alcohol/abandonement or parents who can not read or write to help them. They LOVE their backpacks with supplies and are so proud to receive them. 
Backpacks and messenger bags (all sizes). Watch for end-of-season sales at discount stores selling off their inventory.
Antonia shared exciting news . . . she recently sold three rose cuttings for 25 pesos (about $2 US) each. I commented about her raising prices 5 pesos from two weeks ago. She just smiled and said that people will pay it for healthy plants. She is so proud of being able to sell a few of the things she is growing.
Although Antonia has been growing flowers for years from cuttings given to her by friends and neighbors, her experience in growing food is new. Here’s her first small garden plot about 3′ x 5′ filled with the first crop of radishes. The seeds were given to her by Friends of Cozumel volunteers.
Now she wants to expand her efforts. She’s planning to clear the junk and trees off this area of land and put in a larger garden. Antonia’s is one of several families we plan to support in implementing home garden projects during the next year. 
Jose’s family has lots of needs. Frequently they do not have enough food for the 10 children and 6 adults that live together. This past year has been especially difficult because only one or two adults have had steady work. Medical bills for Jose’s mother’s operation and a new baby have taken their toll on the family’s resources. During our mission project week last February we asked Antonia why she didn’t grow food to help supplement the family’s basic needs. She responded that she would love to but she didn’t have seeds and couldn’t afford to buy them. We took her two tomato plants and “herba buena” (local herb used for cooking) from a local nursery. She was thrilled. See Antonia’s first tomatoes (green ones at lower center of photo) next to a beautiful tropical plant (at left). She kept some of the seeds of these tomatoes to start more plants. 
Antonia is proud of her latest “harvest”, squash grown by the side of the road. In the past couple of weeks she’s shared that she wants to clear junk out of a central area of their homestead plot and put in a large garden bed. Antonia’s husband is slowly digging a pit by hand to make the family an outdoor latrine since they don’t have plumbing. He is saving the soil in between the limestone rocks as he digs to add to Antonia’s first very small garden area. He is also carefully piling up limestone chunks of rock to use to outline a larger garden area. Friends of Cozumel volunteers may help Jose’s family install garden beds during our February 2013 mission project week. 
Picture this . . . walking into a guest suite at Cozumel Palace Resort seeing a king size bed completely covered with school supplies and teaching materials piled a foot high; an avalanche of 70+ backpacks in one corner; suitcases and bags stuffed with fabric, underwear, socks; tool bags full of new hand tools while Sweet volunteers continued opening and sorting more bags of donations arriving every few minutes from their group’s guests. Larry, April and I were speechless at the magnitude and quality of the donations from the “Sweeties”, a group of 300+ women who combined vacation and community service here the first week of September.
Our conservative estimate is Sweet donations will directly benefit . . .
7 Families and 16 daycare children by providing nutritious meals (via donations of food supplies). Friends of Cozumel, Sweeties, and NUAFA President Eloisa Buenfil met with Raquel, a single mother and her 12 day old baby, Cecilia. Together we provided food for the mother and special needs for the baby. It was a very emotional, meaningful time for everyone. Raquel shared she sought out Eloisa’s help and cried and prayed for two days after her baby was born because she didn’t have adequate milk for the baby or resources to purchase formula. She returned to work when the baby was 10 days old because she knew she needed to provide for her child. The Sweeties were so moved by this young mother’s story they collected a cash donation from their travel companions that night at supper and are providing financial support to assist Raquel in providing for her child. 
Victoria and her five children were one of seven families in need identified to receive food supplies. They walked over 3 miles to receive food despenses (supplies). One of the children received a new pair of shoes brought by Sweet. The four school age children received backpacks as part of the Friends of Cozumel School Supply Project last month. They will also benefit next summer from Sweet’s school supply donations.
20+ local community leaders, teachers, pastors, daycare staff with resources supporting their work with youth and families (via donations of a laptop, teaching aids, supplies)
KUDOS to Sweeties . . . Their personal caring and donated resources are helping local families and organizations become self-sufficient. Ten volunteers visited NUAFA to learn about serving families in crises and interact with daycare children. They also toured the CAM School’s life skills program for teens with disabilities. A small group personally shopped, assembled and distributed food supplies to families in need. Personal connections made and new friendships initiated will go beyond a one-time visit. Individuals of the Sweet group are partnering with Friends of Cozumel volunteers to provide follow-up financial support and special needs for selected families and organizations. ~~Karen 
AAAAH . . . it is unusually quiet here on the island today. It is a national “day off” for schools and many employees following Mexico’s Independence celebration on September 16th. One of the many things I enjoy about local Mexican culture is the value placed on celebrating with family and friends, young and old together. 
