Welcome to Edilsa's website!

Guatemala is predominantly a poor country that struggles in several areas including: maternal mortality, malnutrition, lack of education and access to water. The most affected is the large indigenous population which has the highest fertility rate. Most children start working at the age of 6 years old in order to help their families. Aldea Calahuache, is a small coffee plantation in Guatemala where our family is from.

As children, we started working in fields in order to help get food in the table. As a family, we come a poor background and almost never had food to eat. My mother was a single mother raising 4 children and even though she worked 2 jobs, she did not earn enough money in order to provide with housing and food. As children, we suffered starvation, malnutrition and homelessness.

On a Christmas day, we only had sugar and water and that was our Christmas meal. We wholeheartedly wished someone could have brought us something to eat but there was no one.

The years have passed, and while sitting at our table, my mother decided she wanted to help the most vulnerable in our village in Guatemala. As a family, we decided to take on the initiative, we brainstormed and Extendiendo Manos (Extending Hands) was born. We wanted to help the single mothers, the elderly, the disable and orphans since they are the most affected. We started 3 years ago and ever since then have helped many families with food, clothes and money.

We are composed of a family of 5, two of which are in Guatemala and 3 currently reside in the U.S. Together, we organize to save a certain amount of money, while the ones in Guatemala search for the families, calculate how much is needed, visit the families, and purchase the food. The money is sent to Guatemala and my brother and sister purchase the food, prepare it and deliver it with the help of a few volunteers.

The families receive a full basket of groceries that includes: cereal, soup, oil, rice, beans, cookies, etc. Items which they are in most need. The families receive the baskets with tears in their eyes and are extremely thankful.

Below are a few photos of the families we were able to help this year. This will be our 4th year helping different families and we hope to continue to do so. We thank all the volunteers in Guatemala who helped deliver the baskets and we thank those who donated in the U.S. We hope you can continue to help us provide more families with items that are so needed for their survival.