Double your money - end of year special offer!

It's been a tough year for Narú, but now some very good news to end it with!  Until Dec 31, donations made via Worldlink Partners (US) will be matched $ for $. That's doubling our work against severe malnutrition and contaminated water among rural Mayan families. 

Go here: World Link Partners to donate by cheque, PayPal or bank transfer (please mention Naru). World Link Partners is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization and donations may be tax deductible  

Thank you!

Wiping the slate clean

There's a Mayan belief that every once in a while you 

have to pay the debts of your good fortune. And it seems that this was the year for 

Narú'

s reckoning. 

No matter what the road conditions, we have travelled unscathed to the some of remotest communities of Alta Verapaz - even when our trusty Pathfinder started to fail at 20 years of age. 

Come April, and while we are with donors Ayuda Maya in Antigua, someone makes off with the replacement; a younger and fitter Mitsubishi that was never to be seen again.

So the Pathfinder is brought out of retirement and just-as-trusty Dave Newton is driving us and a Q'eqchi' technician homewards through the Polochic Valley. We're at the end of the dry season, so as a truck approaches in a dense cloud of dust Dave pulls over and slows almost to a stop. Which is no doubt what saves us when the face of another driver appears out of the dust - overtaking at speed on our side of the road - just seconds before it hits us.

We spend the next 21 hours in a farce of police bribery and judicial corruption that had us charged as the guilty party, even though - apart from anything else - the other driver's license was only valid for scooters. The Pathfinder would, we were told, be impounded unless we paid the other vehicle's damage. We declined, and only managed to exit after another day of shenanigans and some serious bluffing on our part.

Since then we have begged and borrowed vehicles to get to the projects. Now with our 

good fortune debts surely settled, Narú really needs its own car: a 4x4, high clearance, diesel and manual, maybe five to 10 years old (please). We're part way there, but any support/ideas to get us mobile again most welcome!

Our thanks for hiring/lending to Alberto Tonda, Ayuda Maya, Charity Anywhere and 

Miracles in Action.

Thank yous for the website

We are forever indebted to everyone who had the generosity and patience to help us get the Naru website up. Special thanks to David and Jeanne for finding the funds, to Alice Ferguson for donating her design time, and to First Idea Studio for their tolerance. Thanks also to all the people who will recognise their photos, among them Ineke de Smidt, Marjolijn Thissen and Francesca Wade. If you arrived here via another route, please go visit http://www.naruguatemala.org. Thank you!