Sponsoring a Child in a Guatemala School

This is an excellent short video on the difference sponsorship can make on the life of a Guatemalan child:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AxNbelwjNU

A note on the film from Sharon Smart-Poage, the director of Mayan Families:

"I would like to share this video with you all. It was done earlier this year and it is a professional video that is being entered into a competition , I believe. We were very fortunate that we were chosen to be the subject of two of their videos.....one is about our school sponsorship program and it focuses on one of our students from San Jorge, Claudia.
Claudia holds a special place in my heart. She has been through so much. Her mother committed suicide when she was only around 18yrs old. She already had Claudia who was 2yrs old and she had a new born baby and the father left her. I guess she felt that there was no hope for her. The father's family took the baby and Claudia was left with her grandmother. The rest of the extended family seem to resent Claudia, probably because of the extra work load that was put on the grandmother and because she took up much needed food in the family. As she has become older, they really do not have much to do with her and she gets no support. The house that she and her grandmother live in is crumbling. It is an old mud brick house...one room only.
Claudia was so excited to go to school. I knew that going to school had changed her life but till we did this video...I had no idea how much. It was a complete surprise to me the emotions that came from Claudia, she became too emotional to talk in Spanish and we had to use a Kakchiquel translator. It was very emotional for all of us who were with her and there was not a dry eye amongst us.

Claudia's story is just one of the stories of the over, 1,500 children sponsored by Mayan Families now, there are lots of children who have had their lives changed by their sponsors giving them the opportunity to go to school.

I hope you watch this video and enjoy it. Please share it if you are able to....you never know when it may change the life of another child. It is filmed in San Jorge la laguna. "

Sharon