Information provided by Geber Derek concerning the situation in Antigua, Guatemala:

The average salary per family is around $200 a month--$100/adult. This wage is for someone with no formal education working a job cleaning homes, grunt construction work, street sweeper, etc. With an elementary education one can make $150-200/month working a factory. With a high school education, then salary goes up to $300 working as a secretary, various office jobs, computer tech, and such. A college education easily makes $1,000-$6,000/month depending on the task. This of course depends on the actual degree you have upon graduation.

From our experience with the kids that attend Shalom School and the kids we know of in the neighborhood, we commonly work with these figures:

5/10 girls loose virginity before 15 years of age. 90% are through sexual abuse by a step-brother/father, uncle, neighbor, or gang member. (The other 10% are obviously coaxed into it by someone.) 7/10 girls have their first child by the age of 18. By 25 they have 4-5 children from several different men. On average, there are three fathers per family.

The "father" gets the woman pregnant and then leaves her to raise the children by herself. She has to go work and leaves the kids alone at home. They in turn become prime targets for violence, gangs and abuse.

The fathers spend their time drinking medical grade alcohol they get in a small flask for US $0.50. It is enough to keep him in a drunken stupor for 2 days. Their other drug of choice is glue similar to rubber cement. Sniffing a small amount of this deadens the nerves, easies hunger pains, and numbing the cold. Mentally he is still active, but has no feeling. Both of these situations often lead to an awful and painful death.

When the first child born to a 16 or 17-year-old mother turns 13 or 14, the man the mother is living with comes home drunk/drugged and the process repeats itself.

In 2006, there were 71 documented cases at Shalom School of sexual abuse: 21 boys and 50 girls. These are just the ones we knew about. Our guess is that it was just the tip of the iceberg.

Homes on average are 10x10ft shacks made out of rusted tin and 2x4 posts. They have dirt floors and lack running water and sewage. Those homes with space use an outhouse for their needs, otherwise the waste runs through the streets to the bottom of the ravine. For water, families have to bucket it in from a nearby source. Many times that source is from the back of a delivery truck, which charges them 5 times the cost of what someone pays to be connected to municipal water. For electricity, residents must climb up the poll and tap into the high power lines however they can. When it rains, water runs under the walls and across the floor. Food is cooked over an open fire, which many times is not only fueled by wood, but by trash, plastic and anything they can find. Families average 7 kids. Usually there is a grandmother, an aunt, and cousins that live in the house, too. The households average 10-15 occupants per home.

The general target age for gang recruitment is 12 years old. The average gang member lives to be just 24. Gang members are involved in drug dealing, extortion and gang rape. Young boys are drawn to the opportunity to belong to a group, and the promise of power and finances. Once in, the only way out is death.