Lisa, our Development Assistant, recently took a trip to Guatemala and brought copies of Oodles de Doodles (our Spanish version of Art with Heart’s therapeutic activity book for hospitalized children) for the children she’d be working with in the local cancer ward there. An art therapist named Dulce had been trying for over a year to get books to this hospital and was thrilled to welcome Lisa and the books to the ward.

Lisa was surprised to find out that because the children don’t go to school, none of them knew how to color or draw. Despite that, they took to it enthusiastically and were proud of their new skills inspired by Oodles de Doodles. The other fact that Lisa was surprised to find was that because the hospital had very little in the way of resources and rooms, children with cancer are given treatments in the waiting room and then sent home. Lisa will post more about her trip and how she saw the books making a difference in an upcoming blog entry.