Project Managers Adrian and Cheri Ramirez Guatemala City, Guatemala Casa de Corazones Casa de Corazones is a Central American mission established in 1998. Through its “El Tren de Alegria” program, Casa de Corazones provides motivational presentations for children in orphanages, hospitals and schools, complete with music, skits, and activities. Their “Baby Wrap” program focuses on pregnant women in need. Care packages containing handmade baby blankets, a layette of baby clothes and a cuddly toy for their baby. Each mother receives personal counseling concerning their delivery, and follow-up includes food items, vitamins, medical supplies, clothing, and other items on a case-by-case basis. Co-Manager Cheri Carner Ramirez offers continuing education classes to local traditional midwives. Training ranges from washing techniques to checking blood pressure, coupled with educational handouts.	The food line, as the children receive their meal.
	Cheri Ramirez training midwives how to take blood pressure.
	Distributing items to the needy, including food, toys and clothing.

The Mothering Garden

Casa de Corazones’ educational programs are based out of their Mothering Garden facility in Guatemala City. The Mothering Garden fosters awareness and parenting support, with an emphasis on family life and children.

As an education and resource center, the focus is on providing helpful contemporary Christian and health information that allow parents to make more informed decisions for themselves and their families.

Cheri Ramirez (center) training midwives how to take blood pressure.

Recognition for Cheri Ramirez's work with midwives.

Casa de Corazones offers an open door for parents, and in particular mothers of all ages. Seminars, workshops, and open forum exchanges are offered on a variety of family life topics, including prenatal care, childbirth preparation, nutrition, newborn & baby care, healthy living habits, early learning, parenting and community resource links.

Food Pantry

On a weekly basis we supply 35-40 families with fruits, vegetables and bread. The families that benefit from these provisions are deeply thankful. Most have at least 4-5 children and these kids suffer a great deal from malnutrition. The mothers are so eager to receive their weekly portion that they line up as early as two hours before we begin to be sure they don't miss a full portion. We always give away all that we have available each week and yet there are times when more people are in line than we have supplies to share.

 

Little girl carrying her younger brother in Panajachel.

Distributing items to the needy, including food, toys and clothing.

Meal for Street Kids and the Homeless

On holidays like Christmas, Valentines Day etc. we organize meals for the homeless and poor in the downtown center. This includes a hot meal of pasta in salsa, hot dogs, tortilla chips, bananas, cookies and a drink, and usually serve well over 1000 plates to hungry and thankful folks of all ages. For their entertainment and inspiration our youth team also sing and perform puppet shows while the crowds of people move through the serving line. A large percentage of the crowd attending was children who either live in the streets or in very humble situations. Also among the crowd are usually plenty of troubled youth involved in drugs and crime. Many of these "tough kids" are the most responsive during the presentations.

 

Mary serving drinks along with a special Christmas meal.	The food line, as the children receive their meal.
Clown Pequenin entertaining the children with a cheerful program.	Clowning around also brings joy to the elderly.

Personal Counseling

Our Hospital and Prison Ministries

Every Tuesday we have an established day of visitations to local hospitals. Because the children do not have other entertainment, they especially look forward to our weekly visits. Long term residents in particular need the morale booster, as do the the short term patients and their families.

We visit inmates in local prisons in rural cities and towns. Our singing teams provide a great boost in morale in these prisons, as conditions are very poor and the inmates are eager for any entertainment that comes their way. We do performances for the inmates with a presentation of the Gospel via songs and skits, with thought-provoking stories acted out. We have come to enjoy a warm response even from the most hardened inmates. The personal touch of a friendly embrace and the gift of Gospel literature are what each team leaves with the audience, who are always eager for us to return.

Relief efforts: Working through the difficulties

This mud slide slid right over the road and down to the lake.

Destruction of the highways and bridges was a common sight.

When Hurricane Stan hit, hundreds died in Guatemala and southern Mexico, and hundreds more were missing and feared dead in a wave of mudslides that left entire villages buried in mud.

Areas likely to contain as yet unfound bodies were covered with lime.

With ongoing rain, fresh mudslides were encountered on the roads.

Our staff and volunteers were on hand to assist the Guatemalan government with aid distribution to severely hit areas. Due to incidents of random violence, our teams had to have army protection to travel into affected areas, as desperate people were raiding many aid convoys.

Each convoy had to have military escorts and official paperwork.

Unloading provisions in town at a public building still left standing.

To add to the situation, when the hurricane first hit, a large part of our staff were stranded in Southern Mexico, which also took quite a beating. The good news was they were already on hand to help there, and thus did not return to Guatemala City for a month.

Trucks deliver blankets and clothing to two remote towns along the way.

Needy families and children line up to for whatever help could be offered.

And even when they did return to base, there was still not a clear land passage through northern Guatemala and southern Mexico, just temporarily constructed bridges. Over 100 bridges in Mexico and 31 in Guatemala had been washed away.

After repeated attempts to deliver the supplies, a change of plans.

Supplies shared with the needy who were awaiting help and relief.

Lightening had also struck our Casa de Corazones base and knocked out Internet and telephone connections, and power surges later damaged office computers. Gasoline was limited and thus rationed for travel. Despite these challenges, we were able to be a strength and help to others in this time of crisis.

Other Disaster Relief

Teaching women and children in a remote Indian reservation

We made a visit to a remote Indian reservation way up in the mountains where only a 4x4 can get you close and the rest of the way you walk. Or should we say, clomp, because the trails are covered in thick slippery mud due to the frequent rains and jungle trees that keep the sun from drying up the path. The Indians live under tin roofs with semi closed sides of roughly hewn wood -- no electricity and no running water. Their children are often sick and there is much they could learn to help them do better in their care, hygiene and nutrition. There is a school where the missionary is teaching some of the men up to 6th grade in Spanish. We will be coordinating monthly visits there to help in teaching and training the women.

Clara helped this little girl fix her hair and she warmed up to the attention.

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