Hello everyone. We hope you are enjoying your spring season. Here in northern Arizona, the trees are budding out, it’s warming up—and the winds have started. Sure signs of spring!

We are delighted to let you know that we have accepted a new student from Guatemala: Thalia Lopez Minera. Janeece, Leslie and Christa all met Thalia when she was just 12 years old on a visit to Guatemala, and we are so excited to be able to help her with her studies. Thalia is Maya Mam, and lives a couple hours from the town of Xela. She is deaf, and there are few schools for the deaf in Guatemala, so she has been attending a school that is a 4-hour round trip bus ride from her home. Her mother would accompany her every day and wait for her while she studied. They would leave at 4 AM and not return until dark—every day.

Our contacts in Guatemala at Colectivo Vida Digna, have been supporting Thalia for the past several years, but they could not afford what she really needed, which was a place for her to stay in town during the school week so she doesn’t have to travel back and forth every day. We have agreed to pay for slightly over half of the amount she needs to study and live in town, and CVD will pay the rest, along with as much support as her family can muster.

Please check out her page for all the information and photos. Welcome, Thalia! We are so excited to be able to help!

Thalia at 12 years old in 2016

Thalia at 18