Dear Friend,

My name is Welmer González Pérez and I am 14 years old. I am happy to tell you my story with the help of ActionAid Guatemala. I know you are a supporter of The Next Step and have helped my community and the young people of many communities throughout Guatemala. I would like to tell you about my life, my family and the kinds of things we do.

I live in a small hamlet called Los Angeles in Tacaná municipality, San Marcos in Guatemala. It is very cold here since we live on a high mountain, very close to the Tajumulco volcano, the highest in all of Central America.

My father’s name is Gelacio González. My mother’s name is Matilde Perez. My father works very hard so that my mother, my brothers and sisters and I have what we need. I am the oldest of 5 children: Roxana is 13, Faustino is 11, Alexander is 9 and María Guadalupe is 7. Our youngest sister lives nearby with my grandparents, since my mother is unable to care for her.

Roxana and I have to help our parents, as we are the oldest and that is why we can’t go to school. I help my father in the fields and my mother at home. Our house is one small room, with adobe (sun dried clay bricks) walls, dirt floor and a tin sheet roof. From it we can see our small plot of land where we plant potatoes and the forest covered in mist. In the house we have 3 beds, some chairs, a table, our supply of dried corn and the wood-burning stove.

Five years ago my mother got sick and now she can’t walk at all, her feet and hands got all twisted. The hospital said she has arthritis and gave her some medicine and now she can move her hands a little. She cannot stand so she is always sitting in a chair or lying down in bed. We can’t leave her alone. My father, Roxana and I fetch water everyday from our uncle’s house down the hill. We also collect firewood, sweep the house and wash the dishes and the clothes.

Before, when my mother wasn’t sick my father would go to work in the coffee plantations of nearby Chiapas, Mexico. He had to stay away for many months and told us the work was very hard, but then we had more money and I was able to go to school. Now my father and I plant potatoes. We also break rocks, which we sell to people who build the roads so that we have the money to buy food.

The work we do needs a lot of strength and often at night I feel very tired. I like to help my father but it is hard to break the rock into gravel.

Many of the families in my community have been taking part in projects supported by ActionAid and the local organisation - Alliance for Community Youth Development (ADEJUC). The people of my community have formed different groups for women, men and young people and by working together we see that more things can be changed. Just one of the changes is that we now have a motorized mill so that we don’t have to grind the corn by hand and it isn’t so hard for us to make dough for our tortillas.

I was elected by my friends to be president of our youth committee and we have been learning about many things. Because our land is very steep, we often have landslides and the soil and is washed away when it rains. It is also very cold and it has been really hard to make things grow. Working with ActionAid and ADEJUC we have started our own nursery for tree plants that we cover to protect from the cold. We work with Dewitt from ADEJUC who showed us how to make a green house using plastic sheets and we are hoping that this will also help us grow vegetable more easily.

My friends and I take turns to look after the trees and vegetable gardens. I go several times a week as the garden is close to my house. We have also been learning about children’s rights and the problems that children face in our country like child labour. Before this we never really thought about these things or that children’s lives should be different.

Now our youth group is always present at the community meetings so that we can put across our ideas of how to make our lives better. Last year in Tacaná we had two meetings where young people like me from 26 communities got together. We talked about our common problems, like not being able to go to school, and made suggestions as to what type of things we would like to change.

We also picked some young people to go to the National Youth Meeting, which was held last year. Young people from all over the country put plans together on things like schooling and child labour and these were presented to the President of Guatemala. Not long ago I had no idea things like this would be possible and already I can see changes in my community.

My mother tells me that when she was a child her parents didn’t think it was important for girls to go to school. That is why she doesn’t know how to read or write. Now more parents are sending both girls and boys to school and with ActionAid’s help they are able to pay for books, pencils, notebooks and other supplies for them. ActionAid has also started literacy classes, which my mother is attending. The writing exercises are helping her to move her hands more. I hope she gets better so that my sister and I can go back to school one day.

I want to keep being part of our community’s youth group. This is really helping us to farm our land better and grow more food. Also by coming together we can speak out for children and young people and we are sure that this is the best way to live better. This way in the future, I won’t have to make a living for my family by breaking rocks all day.

I hope you liked my letter and I want to thank you for your support that has made Action Aid’s work possible in my community.

Thank you

Welmer

PS: I have included some photos of my family, our work breaking rocks and myself.