Greetings from Guatemala dear friends…. Its been a long time…… So much to update and that will come later…. but first, we interrupt updates for something special…. something VERY important!

Every so often we have something very special put before us.  A couple of weeks ago, in organizing a group trip that is to happen this coming October for a very large group of doctors and construction workers, we were faced with some choices of our next project.  One of those choices was the DIG school # 4.   As most of you know we have to date been blessed with donors with hearts for much needed education in our region and have fully completed 2 schools here in our region and have a third nearing completion.   We now have schools in the remote village of El Silencio…. in the remote village of El Salitrillo and the almost completed pre-school in the village of Moran.

We had the Director of Education over to our home last week for a meeting and put forward the question of whether a fourth school is feasible in our region right now and if so where.  Then something incredible happened…… but first let me tell you a teeny story….

In the past 6 years here we have been listening and learning.  Really trying to pay attention to the needs of the people here.  Little by little a theme keeps coming up….. we have had many ‘coincidences’ happen here and have found ourselves working more and more with Special Needs children.  We have many here who have no options…. blindness, downs syndrome, physical disabilities etc seem to find these children often abandoned or put into back rooms and hidden.  The choices for parents do not exist here.  If there is no money and there is no school, there is no help.  Those parents are often faced with horrific choices and while they love their children as much as we do they are often prayed over and left in the hands of God.   Imagine trying to raise a blind child, like our precious Marquito, for example, in a mud hut, on a Cliffside with no idea how and no programs to help.  Bryan is also blind and his parents are doing everything in their power to raise this precious little boy…. but there just isn’t any way to help him learn.  Many of you may also remember Tanya, a beautiful young lady abandoned in our malnutrition centre because her parents had zero options.  Today Tanya wastes away in an orphanage somewhere in Guatemala…. we cannot find her… she has been moved several times as no one has the facilities nor training to deal with this lovely young mentally challenged lady.  She may not even be alive anymore.   This theme has been heavy on us for years and seems to pop up into our mission almost weekly.  This disturbs us to our core and we simply cannot let this keep happening.  We NEED to give these families and these children options, hope and a future!

Fast forward back to our meeting with the Director of Education.  He was present at our last school opening in El Salitrillo, that was built by Ben Morales our amazing 15 year old friend from Florida.  In his speech the Director said:   “This school brings hope… but I am quite sure it will also bring a Doctor or a Lawyer out of it someday”.    I believe him.  These children here are brilliant.  They simply do not have choices.  In his chat with us at our dining room table he said “We need many schools here.… but to be honest, what we need most is a school for Special Needs Children”.  He seemed almost apologetic for saying it…. like he was embarrassed to even mention it.  The collective hearts of all us Doppenbergs nearly leapt out of our chests and a dream was born.  He assured us there are no others like this in ALL of Jutiapa province…. and if we build this, he has the teachers and will provide them.  There are teachers here trained in special needs education but no schools for them to teach in.  As of now they act as tutors and will come live in your home and work with your child…. this is so very expensive though and none but the super rich can afford it.

So dear friends…. we need your help.  The medical/construction team we have coming in October has already raised over 1/3 of the money we need to build this school.   The total cost of this school is:  $46,000 USD. and we are 1/3 there already!!!   We KNOW in our hearts this is the right thing…. we KNOW we absolutely need to make this dream a reality.  We need to secure and buy the land and get this school built before more children die from lack of options.  It’s funny how coincidences work…. Marquito has been waiting to go to ‘blind school’ for years but we found out there isn’t one anywhere close to here…. The Morales family had a donation of every expensive braillers (machines to type braille) to help blind kids learn braille but no one and no where to teach them.  Another organization came here and gave away wheelchairs to kids with need….. and now we see these kids all over, just sitting by the roadside in their chairs, just sitting.…..  These children are all brilliant minds, trapped in bodies that simply do not work the same way ours do.  Who knows what brilliance is being wasted in these precious children.   Things like this have been a theme in our lives for years and now we feel it is time to make this dream a reality but need your help.    Help us to help these kids who have no options…. no choices…. Its our dream to take these precious children out of the back rooms here where they are sometimes left to die and get them into society as productive members.  Teach them how to live…. teach them how to learn…. teach them skills they can use for the generations to come.  But we cannot do it alone.   We absolutely need your help.   PLEASE Donate, forward this email to friends you think might have a heart for this…. lets band together and build this school…. the first of its kind here in our huge region.  Know that if you donate the line will say “Guatemala Childrens Hospital” and that is only because the Governments requires it to.  Please email us at rita@thedoppenbergs.com  and we will know that your donation is for the school.  Remember that your donation is tax deductible!   Together we can DIG deep and make this dream of a Special Needs School for children a reality.   Thank you for all your help and having a heart to help those who cannot help themselves!   God Bless!

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To donate online in the USA::

To donate via cheque in the USA – Put a note in with the donation that it is for the Doppenbergs in Guatemala and mail to:

Commission To Every Nation
P.O. Box 291307
Kerrville, TX 78029-1307

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To donate online in Canada:  http://www.ctenc.ca/ritadoppenberg/

To donate via cheque in Canada – Put a note in with the donation that it is for the Doppenbergs in Guatemala and mail to:

Commission To Every Nation Canada
PO Box 22017
11500 Tecumseh Rd. E.
Windsor, Ontario N8N 5G6

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