Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Disabilities and Education in Cayo District, Belize

I stole a couple hours away from work one day to make these images to include with a grant application I wrote requesting two new wheelchairs from a hospital in the US. Meet Jaelen and Jaren, 15-year-old twins who go to St. Ignatius High School, in the Cayo District of Belize, where I worked for a few weeks earlier this month. Their mother, Guadalupe, spends her days in school with her sons, taking notes for Jaren, whose lack of motor control in his hands makes it impossible to write. She's a single mother, and her time in the school makes it impossible for her to work. The boys are sharp, ambitious students, who earned strong marks on their report cards first semester. Jaelen hopes to pursue a career in PC repair; Jaren aspires to run his own business. Cayo District is far from disability-accessible and local resources are few and far-between, but the boys are working hard to make a future for themselves. Their current wheelchairs are broken and insufficient, and the family cannot afford new ones. Tell every millionaire you know.



 


Thursday, January 17, 2013

Finding Home and Learning to Speak in Quetzaltenango (Xela), Guatemala

At the end of last year, I spent five weeks learning Spanish in a university town in Guatemala. It was full of beautiful people, colors and textures. My brain was full of vocabulary words and verb conjugations.