Poverty Project International Stories

A week ago this was clean. See the wooden planks? That is a little bridge over a tidal creek and the ocean is to your left. High tides brought this trash in over just a few days. What a difficult challenge for people with few resources!  Today was garbage pick-up day. I am happy because I walked through the village and saw guys with wheel barrows collecting the big black trash bags from the houses. It means there is progress. A few months ago there was no trash pick-up. Nowhere for the garbage to even go. Now it is shipped by small boats to a land fill on another island. But how are these people supposed to keep up when they have to deal with this? And who is going to pay to remove all the extra bags of trash this will be when it eventually gets picked up?  I have been helping people when I can over the years, and I have always been a bit of a hippy myself, into organic food and natural living and caring for this lovely planet. But I never realized how much envir...

This is Mario. He helped us paint a house for a woman with no husband and a sick child. He is 16 and has 6 kids in his family. This is where Mario lives. He has no electricity and uses rain water. His mother spends most of her day washing clothes by hand in a bucket outside.  Today we donated pillows, sheets and blankets to Mario's family. Tomorrow Mario will do a little work for us so he can earn a few dollars which he needs for school.  This is what we do here, and it feels normal, everyday.... Welcome to Panama, laura Please check out our FULL WEBSITE at www.PovertyProjectInternational.com Connect with us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/povertyprojectinternational/ If you want to chat, you can email us at povertyprojectinternational@gmail.com Or if you want to help us out and DONATE, you can go to PAYPAL and send your donation to   povertyprojectinternational@gmail.com All donations are tax deductible. Live is an ...

A little guy on the Island of Carenero skated boarded circles around the other kids on a borrowed board in front of the grocery store. It really is the only place they have to play. Well, our hearts went out to him and today we took him shopping in town for a skateboard of his own. His name is Josel and he is 8...or will be in a couple of days. You should have seen the determination on his little face as he kept up with us at a good clip dodging in and out of stores looking for a new board. We finally found one. Its got Captain America on it. He grinned carefully and said thank you (in Spanish of course) Back in the panga (our little traditional Panamanian boat) and back across the bay to Carenero. Josel got to try out his new board on the concrete in front of the store. Of course, a few other kids were there to help him. Last I saw, he was trotting off home with his board in both hands propped behind his back. We headed back to the marina to discover that a friend and backpa...

This home belongs to a woman who lives on a tiny island in Panama. She has no husband and her son is very ill. Most of her money goes to hospital bills for his care.  We are so excited for her today as her home is finally getting painted. when we asked her if we could paint her home, at first she didn't understand. Apparently my Spanish needs some work, or maybe the idea was so foreign to her that she thought she must have misunderstood me.  When a translator explained everything to her, she buckled right there in the slop. He had to catch her so she didn't fall. You see, the water under her house is contaminated with raw sewage. Anyway, through her tears, she agreed we could paint her house for her. She picked out a lovely bright green and white trim for the windows. Here you can see Mijo, Gordo and a couple other boys hard at work painting...and laughing...I am super happy we can pay them for their labor too... Mijo might need a shower... :-) Signed...Happy...

Clean up day started out wet. But no matter, adults and kids alike turned out to pick up trash and at the end of the day over 860 big black bags of garbage were hauled away. What an impressive beginning! I think I was most impressed by the smiles and the willingness of everyone to pitch in and help.  Working hard,  laura Please check out our FULL WEBSITE at www.PovertyProjectInternational.com Connect with us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/povertyprojectinternational/ If you want to chat, you can email us at povertyprojectinternational@gmail.com Or if you want to help us out and DONATE, you can go to PAYPAL and send your donation to   povertyprojectinternational@gmail.com All donations are tax deductible. Live is an adventure, Live it!