GRACIAS PLAYA

2008-05-11T08:10:00.000-07:00

Someone asked about donating to a charity in playa del Carmen so I am posting my reply hope to update it with pictures and articles along the way!

In alphabetical order the ones I know of working in Playa del Carmen

ANIMALS

Peanut Pet Shelter contact Andy, Jen or Adam. This is a no kill shelter for street dogs and abandoned animals, they have more than 70 dogs at the moment, and work very hard attending their medical needs, shots and neutering bringing them back to health and putting them up for adoption www.peanutpetshelter.org
you can read about their work in forums like intheroo and playa.info
video

Albergue de animales Peanut pet shelter, contacto Andy, Jen o Adam, un albergue que recoge perritos abandonados o de la calle, los cuida, alimenta baña y cura y los pone en adopción www,playadelcarmenpets.com
puedes ver fotos y leer de su trabajo en foros como intheroo y playa.info

ENVIRONMENT

MOCE YAX CUXTAL A.C. MOCE mocesolqroo@hotmail.com contact Aniceto Caamal Cocom or Lupita no website They are dealing with the environmental issues of the area, were responsible for stopping the building in xcacel xcacelito turtle nesting area and the operation of the second ferry pier. Currently trying to stop big corporations from breaking environmental rules and they work on educating the population to honor and respect traditions and environment

CEA Centro Ecologico de Akumal

CEA's Mission is to monitor the impact of development in the regional ecosystems and culture; to report findings and their significance to the public through education; and, through education, to influence public policy.

Flora Fauna y Cultura www.florafaunaycultura.org Groupo Xcaret´s foundation, works with turtle nesting camps and education, La Ceiba Park contact Lei Landero parquelaceiba at g mail.com
Flora, Fauna y Cultura de México, A.C. (FFCM), organización civil sin fines de lucro, nace con el firme propósito de desarrollar y brindar un mayor impulso a proyectos que vinculen a los diferentes sectores sociales con programas de conservación, protección y rescate de nuestro patrimonio natural y cultural.
- Tel. 984 8715200 ext. 480 y 477
- E-mail: sumate@florafaunaycultura.org
- www.florafaunaycultura.org

FIRE FIGHTERS

Bomberos de Playa del Carmen contact Bryan head of the patronato sicomono at prodigy dot mx dot net Check the video for more info on the patronato, fire department activities and academy

video

MEDICAL NEEDS

Angel Notion www.angelnotion.org contact Lavonna Reedman info at angelnotion.org This association takes children to the US for probono surgeries and operates a clinic in Nic Te Ha, holds the annual toy drive with the bomberos and other community service events
A non profit organization in Mexico. working and serving the people in a local clinic. Offering options in alternative health care with options of medical care. from 1999 to present have served over 100,000 people who reside in the state of Quintana roo and Yucatan penisula.

blog

Cruz Roja Red Cross www.cruzrojamexicana.org. contact Andres Bahnsen cruzpya@prodigy.net.mex
Emergency medical response and medical services Free for the population training and community service Other medical services at cost.

SPECIAL NEEDS

Uai nitz te (no website) contact Kevin Graham kevin at costamayaliving dot com ~From the heart~ in Maya association devoted to help the vulnerable population of the costa maya in Education, health and Food needs.

Muuch xiim baal (no website) Contact Gabriel Mazon small maya community 11 families building a school and tourist attraction building a sustanable environmental friendly community

Special Ed School in Playa del carmen CAM contact John Lackey dagabyhotel at g mail.com or (no website yet )

I can send you pictures of some of the activities or other maya communities that you can visit and help, take your pick! and Dios Botik= Gracias= Thank You=

There are lots of other non profit organizations and churches in Playa this are the ones that I know of or I have at some point volunteered for.

2008-04-28T21:11:00.001-07:00

2008-04-23T05:46:00.001-07:00

Saturdays is wash day at the peanut pet shelter, Andy and Jen have all my respect and admiration, they care for more than 20 puppies and are growing every day. In playa, street dogs are killed after 3 days if their owners don't claim them. Andy and Jen are taking them in, bringing them back to health and putting them up for adoption, we have 2, mouse and sky they are super sweet. James and I share custody of Mouse, he is back in Canada but will be back in the winter

visit www.playadelcarmenpets.com

2008-04-16T12:06:00.000-07:00

So I did not meet the president

I wanted to write about how my day went yesterday, where I was in charge of driving the ambulance for the president just in case, but after I read what I wrote I decided it was very funny but not to be shared to the public eye. So many things I experience and do have to be kept confidential, but one day I may write a book, in Spanish with all the Claudiaventuras.

What I can write about is this

My Spanish students and David from Kings University of London went to Mahahual to visit some patients and bring them stuff. We saw Ivan and Michael and Freddy and I wanted to take David to all the people that helped so much during the Hurricane so he could add their experience to the work he is writing.
James took lots of pictures and he was impressed by what he saw so he sent them home and in reply he had his family send some money to help someone.
He bought 15 bags of clothes used and new and this weekend we went to deliver it, some bags in Limones and some in Mahahual most of them in Km 55
He read about a couple in their 60`s that lost everything and was so touched he gave them a bunch of bags of clothes for Doña Rosa to sell or give away according to the need of the people and a nice card with money for Don Aurelio, his face was a mix of disbelief, I want to cry, mixed with oh my God and again how did this happened????

There you have, a Canadian man, who he has never seen before, who he might never see again, who he will not have to do anything for in the future to repay his generosity giving him an his wife some money to start again and above all, clothes they can sell and feel they are not getting only a handout but the means to make it on their own. They never asked for anything, Anna from Chile just met them and knew about their desperate situation.

So Bob Asked me today if I was disappointed because I did not get to meet the president, and my answer was no, because you know what? I admire real life heroes like James, like Kevin and people who are presented with an opportunity to help and take it and do it, like Tony and Cheri, like Heather, like Alex and Jessie, like Michael and others that given an opportunity they are all out there, like Andy and Jen and Libby who I met while she was taking care of D.J.
I want my picture taken with them not the President. So now I am making an album with my favourite people with one line of why.

2008-01-03T10:26:00.000-08:00

2007

This has been an intense year in every sense of the word, I proudly finished my studies of EMT and hold my diploma now, it was challenging but such a good feeling of accomplishment.
For the first time in a long time, I feel ok again, and decided to make this blog personal, since there is so much to share and my mom believes I should be writing so there I go, always listening to good advice and hoping my friends will help me with my grammar and spelling. Like everything else lately writing in English should be yet another challenge.
The purpose of this is to work on my fear of being judged and criticized, my need for being accepted and acceptance of myself.
Talking to friends this year I learned so much, people that were working after Dean and the Tabasco flooding all had something in common that I found so interesting.
We all were doing things that were considered very good, very hard, involved a good deal of self sacrifice and were at times borderline masochist, depriving ourselves from sleep and pushing our physical bodies to the limit.
"Other people do drugs", I heard, but it was so interesting to see what we all had in common, a need of self acceptance, a beaten up self esteem, a troubled childhood, and the desperate need of being liked and accepted.
This is the first time as well that I had to deal with having people talk about me, and have opinions about me, I was happy this was for doing something good, but even that would be criticized by the secretary of tourism who told me flat out that she was so disappointed with me, for making the foreigners look like heroes after all their hard work. No thank you, no gracias just a disappointing look.
My opinion on the organizations was also dented, I felt hopeless and helpless and at the end I have to accept that people, organizations and government all have their good side and not so good one, and their agendas, and their priorities no one is unconditional or follow their principles totally.
But focusing on the positive side helps, belong but remain independent, and follow my Dad’s advice, my instincts, and the signs and remain, above all, certain that I will never be put in front of a situation that I cannot handle, I will always have the tools and the means to do something about it. And the outcome will be the best for all of the ones involved since the principle of these actions are based on love and good intentions.
I have 2 new roommates now, very grateful, who fill my agenda with new projects to help them help themselves, I have a 10 year old with a good example, who thinks his mom is one of the best people in the world according to his mom’s day card, and a partner who makes things easier at home, who is not controlling, accepting and loving. All ideal setting for what ever comes next, if it is a time to regroup and rest, so be it, If it is another challenge, bring it on! I am definitely ready.
I am grateful this year to so many my paid work is going good, www.cancunmap is out and the Playa map is great I hear. I made new friends and the old ones are still there making my life beautiful.

Tabasco

2007-11-08T18:30:00.001-08:00

2007-10-26T23:04:00.001-07:00

Photobucket Album

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

2007-10-17T18:47:00.000-07:00

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.
Comments (0)

2007-10-13T14:31:00.001-07:00

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????

2007-10-04T21:58:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-19T15:42:00.001-07:00

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

2007-05-27T18:50:00.001-07:00

2007-05-27T10:51:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-03-14T20:42:00.000-07:00

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

2006-11-16T17:42:00.000-08:00

Chritsmas is comming to Playa

NAVIDAD 2006
AYUDA DE LOS ANGELES Y LOS BOMBEROS DE LA RIVERIA MAYA

SUEÑOS HECHOS REALIDAD! MAKING DREAMS COME TRUE!
MILES DE NIÑOS SON BENEFICIADOS GRACIAS A TU AYUDA! THOUSANDS OF KIDS BENEFIT FROM YOUR GIVING

UNICAMENTE NECITAS UN POCO DE TU TIEMPO PARA AYUDAR EN EL PROGRAMA DE NAVIDAD WE NEED A LITTLE BIT OF YOUR VOLUNTEER TIME TO HELP US WITH OUR CHRISTMAS BENEFIT

NECESITAMOS URGENTEMENTE VOLUNTARIOS PARA REALIZAR EL PROGRAMA DE NAVIDAD Y REYES MAGOS

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED TO ASSIT AT OUR CHRISTMAS TREES OF GIVING
NEEDS: NECISIDADES:
THE DESIRE TO GIVE! /CON GANAS DE APOYAR:
NOVEMBER 15 UNTIL 6TH OF JANUARY
15 DE NOVIEMBRE HASTA 6 DE ENERO

SPANISH / ENGLISH / ESPANOL Y INGLES
ORGANIZERS AND PLANNERS /ORGANIZADORES Y PLANEACION
DESIGNERS/ COORDINADORES
SPONSORS/DONADORES
DRIVERS/ CHOFERES
GIFT BUYERS/ ENCARGADO DE COMPRAS
PARTY PLANNERS/ PLANEACION DE FIESTAS
LOGISTICS/LOGISTICA
SANTA AND 3 KINGS/ NAVIDAD Y REYES MAGOS
ALOT MORE... Y MUCHO MAS
CONTACT LAVONNA INFO @ANGELNOTION.ORG 044-984-100-5525 IF YOU HAVE INTEREST IN SUPPORTING US!
CONTACTAR LAVONNA INFO @ANGELNOTION.ORG 044-984-100-5525 SI ESTAS INTERES ADO EN AYUDARNOS Y HACER SUEÑOS REALIDAD.

WWW.ANGELNOTION.ORG 984-85-92625 CENTRO MEDICINA ALTERNATIVE NIC TE HA

2006-08-13T16:19:00.000-07:00

UPDATES July 21, 2006

Recently I was contacted by Gabriel Mazón he lives in a maya community not far from Tulum, we worked with them some time ago when he requested the presence of doctors to help out very old people of neighbouring communities that did not have access to any medical care
Now he turned his house into a little museum, has built out from scratch a temascal the foundation of a little school and roads to turn that place in what wants to be a sustainable community with workshops for the maya children to learn a trade so they don´t leave their communities and abandon the elderly to go work in the hotels for little money due to their lack of knowledge of Spanish
This is a project that will help children learn respect for their environment and the Maya culture. If you are interested in supporting this very worthy cause contact us they really need help Muchas gracias!

Hace poco nos contactó Gabriel Mazón, vive en una comunidad maya no muy lejos de Tulúm ya habíamos trabajado con él cuando solicitó la presencia de doctores que fueran a su comunidad a atender a varios abuelitos que no tienen acceso a servicios médicos
Ahora, acaba de convertir su casa en un pequeño museo, construyendo caminos, un temascal y los cimientos para una pequeña escuela, todo con el fin de convertir esta zona en una comunidad autosuficiente sustentable en donde los niños mayas aprendan un oficio para que no dejen la comunidad abandonando a los abuelitos para trabajar en los hoteles en donde tienen dificultad para trabajar porque no dominan el español
Este proyecto ayudará a los niños de la comunidad a crecer respetando su medio ambiente y su cultura. Si te interesa apoyar esta noble cause contáctanos Necesitan mucha ayuda Gracias!