Girls of Panabaj

Social Justice

The Community of Panabaj

Panabaj is a community of Tz'utujil located in the municipality of Santiago Atitlán between the 3 volcanoes of San Pedro, Atitlán and San Lucas next to Lake Atitlán. This community suffered a lot during Hurricane Stan when unrelenting rains caused a huge landslide.

The mudslide hit our neighborhood at 4 o'clock in the morning. I was peacefully sleeping when it was approaching. The volunteer firemen and other volunteers were yelling, "Wake Up! Get out quickly, the mudslide is coming!" The mudslide brought with it large tree trunks and enormous boulders and tons and tons of mud. We had to escape through the window and flee the area. ~ Luis Gregorio

Before, we had a beautiful school in Panabaj. It had a basketball court and 12 classrooms on two different stories. Our school was painted in two tones of green. It was very beautiful. We went to school to learn to read, write and sing. I used to sweep the basketball court with my friends to keep our school clean. But now, after the mudslide, our school is full of mud and they say it's not safe for us to continue going to school there. I miss my school very much. I want to know where I'm going to go to school next year. ~ Dulce

In our community of Panabaj we also had a health center. The health center helped people in our neighborhood who were sick. You could go there is you had a stomachache or headache, or if you had parasites, fungi or any other type of illness. In our health center there were doctors from the United States helped the other doctors there. The health center was very important to us. Now, because of the mudslide, our health center is ruined. The people of Panabaj can go to an emergency health center to get help, but we want to know what's going to happen to our own health center. ~ Abel Nehemias.