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50@$50
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Client of the Month
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Didjano
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Meet Our Volunteers
| | | | 50@$50 Campaign Kicks Off | | We are looking for 50 new, generous donors who will sponsor a needy family for a year. The cost of the food provided by Buenos Vecinos de Boquete is $50 per family and includes 20 lbs. of rice, cooking oil, flour, salt, cereal, beans, lentils, canned meat and fish, pasta and KLIM (an enriched powdered milk product to nourish children and the elderly). We must provide only non-perishable items, since most of our families do not have electricity and many are without running water.
The average farm worker or coffee picker earns between $180-$230 per month. The costs of sending their children to school, buying medicines and putting food on the table are a great difficulty, so the food assistance we provide is vital and greatly appreciated by our families.
If you are able, please consider making a monthly gift of $50 through PayPal at https://bit.ly/3XEqav4. It's easy to do and you don't have to have a PayPal account to do it. Be sure to check the box to make the gift recurring and it will be charged to your credit card or debit card each month. Of course, if you feel you can't contribute at sponsorship level, a gift of any amount is greatly appreciated. We are a volunteer organization with no office or paid staff, so 100% of your donation goes to purchase the food we deliver.
Our goal is to add 50 new sponsorship donors by December 1, so please donate today | | | | | | | | Eva DeGracia Gallardo, Mariano Montezuma, and Gerónimo Montezuma, Part 2
Last month we heard from Eva, Mariano, and Gerónimo. This month, we learn a bit more about this large Ngobe (also spelled Ngäbeor Ngöbe) family. There are three generations living together. The children in the home range in age from 1-15 and all of the school age children are in school. Education is a priority for the family.
The oldest son is Gerónimo and he is the family's main financial support. He is a high school history teacher. He put himself through university while holding down a fulltime maintenance job. Gerónimo works on the comarca and comes home on the weekend. He travels to school by bus, and those costs, plus food while at the school, are part of his expenses.
His sister works full time in a local restaurant/bakery. Since the family has no vehicle, she relies on public transportation or friends to take her to work.
Eva and Mariano's other adult son's income varies a great deal as he is employed sporadically as a handyman as fulltime employment is still very difficult to come by in Boquete.
When Gerónimo and his parents told us "the house is shared by all of us, and there is not much space for everything. It is very small and the children do not have enough space to play," they were understating their conditions. Their house is a small, three bedroom, one bathroom home with an attached shed for more sleeping quarters. There is also a kitchen.
Mariano hopes to have surgery in Panama City this fall for his vision. However, no one is sure where the approximately $5000 to pay for the surgery will come from.
The BVB volunteer who delivers food to the family has undertaken to be more than just a delivery person. Flora has gotten to be friends with the family and is trying to get the children (the females especially) to be more outgoing, knowledgeable about "gringos," and better educated in general. She has enlisted the aid of several other expats (BVB volunteers and non-volunteers) to take part in outings with the family, such as a picnic in the park, as pictured above.
BVB is making a difference in this family's lives. As Gerónimo and his parents said "food is currently difficult since food in the supermarket is too expensive." They are very appreciative of what BVB and Flora are doing for them. | | | | | | Panama currently has no formal food assistance program for those who are food insecure. Like any good neighbor, Buenos Vecinos attempts to lend a hand. We provide a monthly supply of food staples to selected families via a network of volunteers from the ex-pat, Panamanian, and Indigenous communities.
Panama has eight indigenous groups, the largest of which are the Ngabe. Therefore, a large portion of our clientele are Ngabe. The people are called Ngabe, and their territory is called Ngobe .They are unrelated to and do not speak the same language as the Bugle, with whom they share the Ngobe-Bugle comarca (designated area).
We have been providing assistance to families in need of proper nutrition since 2005, which has been made possible by the financial support of our much-appreciated donors. | | | | | |  | | Marc and Karen Friedhaber | | | | | | | | | | | | Virginians born and raised, Marc and Karen Friedhaber bought a home here but still have a home on the Piankatank River, near the Chesapeake Bay. While Karen was from Petersburg, she and Marc met in his hometown of Williamsburg.
Karen was working in her brother's optometry business when Marc came in to get his eyes checked. "It was love at first sight, except his eyes were bad," Karen said with a laugh.
Later Karen owned a small business that did consulting as well as training in accounting software. Marc was a mechanical engineer.
They moved to Panamá two years ago, after having to postpone the move due to COVID-19. They picked the Boquete area because of its beauty, perfect weather, fantastic birding, and friendly people.
They found out about BVB at the charity's table at the Community Market. They wanted to do some volunteer work here and thought feeding the hungry was the perfect way to make a difference.
In their year of involvement with BVB, Marc became invaluable on packing day, as he would bring a knife and help the packers open cartons of food. He also picked up plastic and unnecessary cardboard to keep the packers' areas neat. Karen also worked as a packer, served as treasurer and recently became president of the organization. They also deliver food in the Bajo Mono area and have transported plants for the food start program.
The couple decided to donate to BVB, they said, after observing the living conditions of many of the Indigenous people and seeing that the need far exceeded what Buenos Vecinos was able to do. "We realized we could feed a family for a month with how much we spent in one evening eating out," Karen exclaimed. They enjoy being BVB volunteers, she added, because they are reminded of how fortunate they have been all of their lives. Karen said that one of the most memorable experiences they have had is realizing that they "have made a real difference in someone's (one of their clients) life: he gained weight, his color improved, and he became less anxious knowing he didn't have to beg for food!" | | | | Buenos Vecinos exists to help people who are unable to meet their basic food needs. We have provided emergency food support on many occasions and have been successful in helping families through hard times. We will help them with food support until the working age adults in the family can find enough income to become self-sustaining. | |  | | | | | | | | | | | Copyright (C) 2024 Buenos Vecinos de Boquete. All rights reserved.
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