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THANK YOU LETTER TO FOUDATION

Almost 5 years ago, David Chimal Yam was traveling back from a long trip to Portland Maine, where 5 renowned cardiologists told us there was nothing they could do to help him, he would need a full lung and heart transplant and he was not strong enough for that type of operation, his parents dealing with resignation and he was happy to have traveled in a plane and seen the USA even if it was just the hospital, (about 40 pounds) he started learning English and his dream became visiting Disney, he saw information in a brochure about the Make a Wish foundation at the house we were staying at, they were able to make those kind of wishes reality, totally out of reach for a poor family already deep in debt with all the costly hospital and treatment expenses back home. 2 years later he had another operation that improved his condition but being 12 and weighing 21 kilos makes his life limited in many ways.



Almost 5 years later Rosario called us and what seemed impossible started happening we were sent to the Hyatt hotel in Merida through ADO to get visas. At the hotel the party started, a celebration around David, a visit from Donald, a delicious chocolate cake, cards, presents and the interest from everyone to make his wish come true, he was having a hard time understanding, why so much attention?, why the many gifts?



October 19th we started believing it, we were on our way to the airport, with special t shirts, a soccer player greeted us from David´s favorite team, presents, cake and balloons from that moment on it was all a dream, a lot of people that we did not even know were wishing him a great trip, and it was great indeed, everyone we came in contact with treated him as if he was the most important person in the universe, the airport cart form American Airlines was decorated as a dragon and gate G10 was a castle, he got so many gifts that we carried bags and more bags drawing a smile in David from ear to ear and did not vanish until we came back it was really a dream.



We met Marco from Puerto Vallarta and together with Jan they became immediately the 3 monkeys with same interests and likes, the park that they enjoyed the most was Epcot, because of all the video games and space simulator, and the soaring flight as well as the 3 dimensional movie. We stayed at Give Kids the World Village, a place out of a story book with games and attractions, swimming pool and the free restaurant buffet to have breakfast and dinner, in which all employees treat you as if you were the king of the world and there is a golf cart just dedicated to deliver free cookies and lemonade in the afternoons, a place where there is free ice cream all day long. Nothing was “No” in this trip, nothing was too much, too expensive, too far or not possible, everything was “Yes” to David , whatever you want, even his mom was a little worried he would get too spoiled.

But spoiling someone in this way was possible thanks to your foundation, and for that we send you and all the volunteers a big hug, pictures and our deepest thank you, because this memory will be engraved in all of us for as long or short our life will be and I can honestly say that what you do, will come back plenty fold in blessings and love for having made David and Marco and all of us accompanying them so happy, no one can tell how much time they will live, but you have given Life to their time and the kind of happiness, will be carried in memories, presents and pictures for a long ,long ,long time http://s45.photobucket.com/albums/f83/claudiadeplaya/graciasplaya/

God Bless you!

MUCHAS GRACIAS

some time ago....... published by Playa Maya News http://www.playamayanews.com/community_action/gracias_playa_seeks_assistance.html

Gracias Playa Seeks Assistance





Friday, 15 April 2005
Gracias Playa is a website to assist patients, with little or no money, to pay for costs of their treatments, medication, and studies.

We work with doctors that donate their time to help people heal, but with every diagnosis brings a list of needs. We like to barter, that’s why there are tours, coupons and sponsors on our site. Patients live in this region so it is possible to contact them directly, so it easy to lend a helping hand...
Most of them sell second hand clothes and goods to help pay for their costs, but they also need help and involvement from the community, so Gracias Playa is another way to make people aware of specific needs. We volunteer for several non-government organizations, but do not belong to a specific one, we are not an organization, political or religious group, and our main focus is to work for the patients. Although we try to do it quietly, we now need more help and involvement in order to reach more people in need.

On Sunday April 10, 2005 the wish of 12 families was granted. They were in need of a visit from a qualified doctor, and thank you to 2 local men, it was made possible. Gabriel Rodriguez Leal and Gabriel Masón arranged and organized a local clinic for the community of Dos Palmas. One offered his home, and turned it into a clinic, and the other one organized the visit and brought food for the people that traveled from as far as Pisté Yucatan and Kawa. Gabriel Lael also helped as a translator, as most of the abuelitos, do not speak Spanish.

Dr. Adriana Romero, offered her services with the love and patience that only those who are really devoted to their medical profession know, Roy Hansen, a local chiropractor, has been donating his time, for more than a year now, working with people in marginal communities of our region, without being Mexican, he has taken on the responsibility of helping here without asking for anything but a hug in return. For the most part, he does not need to ask, he is showered with hugs from abuelitos, children and their very grateful families.













Dos Palmas is not far from Playa del Carmen. Head south towards Tulum, just one exit before Hidden Worlds, where it says Ejido Jacinto Pat, there is a dirt road that goes in and then turns right into Dos Palmas. There is a big sign here is well. Eleven families live here, and Gabriel Masón´s house is the one we use as a clinic. We are intending to bring doctors the first sunday of every month.




Taking care of these patients leaves us with a deep sense of satisfaction but also with a long list of needs, medication, vitamins, radiology studies etc. If you wish to help bring these people the promised remedies please contact Claudia at 984 8793228 or write to mailto: claudia@graciasplaya.comThis email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it or visit http://www.graciasplaya.com/ for more information.
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Mahahual is a small community on Costa Maya, which was affected by Hurricane Dean this year, the destruction was massive on this and other maya communities on the path of Dean.
Playa Locals have been going down with convoys or making private runs to bring humanitarian help to this area in great need. Help is still needed.
Luna Blue Hotel has made their paypal account available for donations and have made several trips spending all donated money in food and needed items and distributing it to the hands of people in need with some volunteers like Heather from Playa.info, Joining the convoys the Dutch community of Playa has done a lot of trips with us as well and have raised funds too.
Other forums and websites are also raising funds and helping there is a list of them in helpafterdean.com
People keep bringing extra suitcases with clothes and toys, it is an area that will still need a lot of help for a long time to come, please contact kevin at costamayaliving if you want to help. or me at claudiadeplaya at hotmail.com we don´t accept cash donations but will gladly help you help.

No Abandones Mahahual: Y que sigue ocurriendo en Mahahual????

No Abandones Mahahual: Y que sigue ocurriendo en Mahahual????

This is a visit to Sacah Mucuy, Maya community about 3 hours away from Playa, past Coba, according to the Desarrollo Social department it is the poorest community in the municipality of Solidaridad, we delivered over 300 despensas (basic food items) donated by Wall Mart.
We found mostly older people who spoke little or no spanish and lots of children with pregnant mothers, the young and healthy migrate for work at the hotels or building sites the lack of Spanish is sometimes a handycap. Thank you Wallmart and volunteers for making it down there and working so hard.

graciasplaya

Hard but not impossible to keep up

On January 6 Jan and I were lucky to join the Alltournative 3 reyes party in 3 different communities where they work, Punta Laguna, Pac Chen and tres reyes hundreds of children lined up to recieve presents donated by travel agencies My best reward was watching Jan pull the piñata for the children and help them open their presents.

PROJECT RED CROSS PLAYA DEL CARMEN, QUINTANA ROO


The Mexican Red Cross is a Private Assistance Institution, established in Mexico for 95 years. We presently work in 465 comunities offering daily services like; Medical Consultation, Emergency Response, and Humanitarian Aid in cases of disasters as well as social and cultural programs.

In the Municipality of Solidaridad, Quintana Roo, our Institution has been offering services since 1992, with resources generated by the services that we offer. We do not receive any funding from the Government, State or Municipal. This is the reason why finding donors is of extreme importance allowing us to continue providing the much needed attention to our community.

The Mayan Riviera is a tourist destination which in the last years has had an important growth for the State of Quintana Roo and for Mexico. Playa Del Carmen is considered to be the 2nd city with the fastest annual growth in Latin America, with near 200,000 inhabitants.

The Municipality of Solidaridad has an extension of 4,245.67 Km2, which represents 8.35% of the surface of the State. Our hotel infrastructure of 24,684 rooms, allowed us to host 2,418,623 tourists that came to visit last year, producing 781.92 million dollars for our economy. It has also allowed us to have annual average hotel occupancy for 2004 of 74.14%.

At the Mexican Red Cross, Delegation Playa Del Carmen, we are worried about the great development of our community and the lack of equally growing infrastructure, facilities and equipment to attend medical emergencies in order to serve our community. At the moment we have a single doctor's office offering medical service from 9:00 to 22:00 hours Monday through Friday, two nurses in the same schedule, Our limited team of collaborators is not sufficient to meet the daily demands of medical services and ambulances due to multiple accidents on the highway.

This year we have offered:

Services
Un. of beneficiaries
External consultation
8,121
Treatments
3, 265
Services of ambulances
1,205
Special services
11, 306 beneficiaries



Considering that in this same year we have had more than 1,112 traffic accidents in the municipal section of the highway. Combine this with the fact that we take care of automobile accidents from Puerto Morelos to Punta Alen; this represents 143 km. of highway.

As we mentioned above, we are asking for aid from Institutions and/or foundations abroad that will allow us to obtain and to operate a small hospital and Urban Rescue Team. This is for the benefit of the tourists that visit us but also our community in general.

The past hurricane "Wilma" which hit our city, proved great need to have hospital infrastructure. We thank you for your invaluable support. The Mexican Red Cross, and its personnel stand ready to complete the necessary paperwork for import permissions with the Mexican authorities.

Facing the commitments that we have assumed voluntarily, will not be possible without your help. Your helping us grow will fill you with satisfaction as we hope to see it reflected in services and human resources, providing efficient and professional services.
We thank you for your generous support, all donations are Tax deductible.



Sincerely,




Andrés Bahnsen Blankenhorn
President of the local board of Directors