Like many Pana women, Doña Rosa spends a lot of time torteando (making tortillas)--she has 16 very hungry canine mouths to feed. Pana has a huge population of stray dogs, and Doña Rosa is doing more than her part to solve the problem: she keeps 8 dogs in her house, and feeds and brings water to another 8 street dogs every day. “People don’t feed the dogs here,” she says, explaining why she spends so much time and money caring for them, “but they feel hungry, thirsty, and cold, the same as us.”
Doña Rosa, who is 55 and indigenous Maya, sells tipica in the street, but tourism has been down and business has been bad. Her husband, Don Julian, who is 67, works 3 days a week as a gardener, and sews little drawstring bags for sale in Mexico. Money is tight, and they often can’t afford dog food, which is quite expensive here in Pana, so Doña Rosa feeds them tortilla and salt. Even that, though, has been expensive, since the price of corn went up.
Doña Rosa needs support to continue her work with Pana’s dogs. She doesn’t like to ask for help from Mayan Families, she explains, because she knows that they have many other projects and people to help and operate on limited money. She told us that she would depend instead on God and patience to help her in her efforts to protect the dogs here in Pana. We’d like to find a sponsor to help Doña Rosa with the cost of dog food, so she can keep providing food for the 16 dogs that depend on her.
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