Help Us Start Feeding Programs in Maria del Carmen

I discovered such need during my visit to Maria del Carmen on Wedsnesday that I took my husband and kids up there on Friday. I want to start our programs up there asap [ that means when the money miraculously arrives] and I needed him to see it so he would agree. There are 110 families that live in this community. Our two teachers for Nueva Victoria live here. Alfredo [ our head teacher ]  wanted me to see where he lived so we went to his house. That is his little girl standing in front of his house and his wife, mother and nursing baby and someone else standing inside cooking on the wood stove. Alfredo is a certified teacher. I asked how he paid for school and he said he did a student loan and is still paying it back. He only works part-time for us, but if we start a lunch program in M del C he can work there in the morning and at Nueva Victoria in the afternoon and have a full-time salary. He is a really good teacher and goes the extra mile.
I saw the two bottom houses at Maria del Carmen and asked where their owners worked. All the other houses looked like Alfredo's except these two. He said the owners worked in the United Staes and had sent the money back to build the houses.
Now I am against illegal immigration and know children in Los Robles whose parents went illigally to the USA and left their young children alone to raise themselves. But after seeing the difference in these houses I can understand why they go to the USA.
The last two pictures are the real reason I went back to M del C. We took hats made by the daughter on a pediatrician who comes and wanted to pass them out to the kids. But I wanted my husband to see the kids and the need they had for nutritious food. I knew he would be as moved as I was. The bottom picture has a 3 year old who has never walked. His brother is holding him. He has one ear the is hugh compared to the other. The kids had the gold snot running down ther faces of kids who never get the right nutriton. Both in the bottom picture and the next one up. We have a USA medical team that will spend two days here next week.
Please help us to help these kids and start some feeding programs here.
http://www.safehomesforchildren/
20.vicki@gmail.com

Sick Children [ Blog nos.44,45,46,47

The week of Feb. 20 brought many sick children into our lives. Monday started off sad for our immediate family. My adopted daughter Alisa, who just celebrated her 12th birthday, has a twin, a full sib sister, and 3 half sib brothers that all live with Alisa's birthmom. Her 16 year old bio brother has had a diagnosed severe case of muscular dystrophy since he was 4. Hence the reason, the bio mom did an adoption. She could not care for him and infant twins. So we have had an open adoption from the beginning. The twin has stayed with us before and Alisa has visited Davon in TX. I was going to take her back to see him this summer as he is totally bedridden and I knew he could die in the next 5 years. We thought we had time tho. Davon died Feb. 9 and we had a call from the bio mom on the 20th. Really hard to deal with esp. for me who felt guilty that I had not taken her to see him in time.
The next day I took a catch up with things at home and appreciate my kids day.
Then I got a call from Mario saying he was having to go with Jose Cali, the in country head of the nutributter team and the doctor who treats the severely malnourished  nutributter kids. They were going to Nueva Victoria and Maria del Carmen to see 11 kids the next day. I decided to tag along. The first 3 pics are of the nutributter kids and their moms. Many are well below weight or have fevers that won't go away or have constant diarrhea. Nine were from Maria del Carmen, a very poor community I had never visited before. It is next to Nueva Victoria. It is one we will start working in as soon as the money presents itself. They have 160 kids in the elementary program that would love a lunch/tutorial program and 110 families with many tots and infants who need a feeding/nutritional program
The last two pictures are of Maria at Nueva Victoria, the little spina bifida girl some of you helped have a foot operation. We had taken meds and bandages for her mom to wash and bandage her foot each day. This was not being done. She was sitting in a wheelchair instead of crawling on the floor like she used to and she had a sock on to cover her feet. The last picture tho is what her foot looks like. We worked it out that the 3 kids who are getting scholarships for middle school in NV will take turns coming by and cleaning and bandaging her foot each day. Everyone in NV has to walk [ I kid you not] 4 miles with 5 gallon cans and walk 4 miles back up with the 5 gallon can full of water. That is all their water: drinking, cleaning clothes washing. Anyway we take 5 gallons a week up for the cleaning and provide the plastic gloves and meds and bandages. Maria refuses to go to school or our tutorials even if we buy her pullups to wear so we got her a desk to fit over her wheelchair and crutches and some books to look at . Otherwise she sits in her wheelcahir and picks her skirt or crawls on a dirty cement floor.
The next day I caught up with emails , helped with the kids homeschooling and in the afternoon had massages and dinner with my husband.
We had decided to go back to Maria del Carmen with some food for the really bad kids the next day.

You can donate to any of these programs by going to http://www.casadesion.blogspot.com/ and pushing the donate button. If it doesn't work, write me at 20.vicki@gmail.com. 100% goes to our programs. We support ourselves with our for-profit business.

Feinstein Foundation

Have you ever heard of the Feinstein Foundation?  We hadn't, until now...but this is something worth hearing about.  Mr. Feinstein is a normal guy from RI--normal with lots of money.  And every year he gives away $1 million dollars to agencies that are feeding the poor. That's us!!!  ALL money/formula that is donated to Safe Homes for Children/Casa de Sion in March and April will be counted towards this, and he will give us some of his million in proportion to the amount we have raised in these two months.

So how can you help?
DONATE!
If you are a monthly supporter who hasn't donated in a while--please now is the time to donate again.
If you were planning on donating at some point this year--please do it during March and April.
If you donated last year but haven't given any in 2012--give during the next two months.
Or, if you have formula laying around--get it to me during March or April--I can count $1/lb (meaning if you were going to buy formula full-price, don't, just donate the amount that you where going to spent, it will count as more in this campaign and we will buy formula in Guatemala with your money.)

So use the donate button on the blog or send me a check (made out to Safe Homes for Children) 3001 Clemson Ave, Charlotte, NC 28205

Please pass this around to your friends, and asked them to get involved.  We will keep you up to date on our progress.

See below a letter that Mr Feinstein has written for participating charities to distribute.
http://www.feinsteinfoundation.org/




Shawn Feinstein
37 Alhambra Circle
Cranston, RI 02905
Please use MY money to help your neighbors in need!
My name is Alan Shawn Feinstein. For the past 13 years, I have been giving away $1 million each year to anti-hunger agencies throughout the country.
This year, I am doing it again…
WHATEVER YOU DONATE TO THIS AGENCY,
I WILL ADD MONEY TO IT. THE MORE
YOU GIVE, THE MORE OF MY $1 MILLION
THEY’LL GET—THANKS TO YOU!
Why am I doing this? Because I believe each of us was put here on earth to do what we can to help those in need. You got this letter because we feel that YOU believe that, too.
This has become the greatest grass roots campaign ever to fight hunger in our country. Your donation makes you a partner in it with me!
My money started this campaign but it is YOU who will help decide how many needy people in your city or town will be fed this year. All that will matter to us someday is what we did while we were here to help those who needed us.
We Are Needed Now!
Please give whatever you can - I will gladly add some of my money to yours. (My $1 million will be divided in full proportionately among the agencies receiving donations toward my offer.)
Thank you for sharing my heart, and the hope that—someday—no one will ever go hungry.
Sincerely Yours,
Alan Shawn Feinstein

Birthdays and Clinics [ blog nos. 40,41,42,43,44,45,46}

We had a great team of Naturapathic doctors here for a week of clinics in Los Robles. I took advantage of the opportunity and had all seven of my children and myself get physicals. They did a very thorough jobs. One of the perks of running a mssion. Here is a pic of my daughter Emmie who wants to be a doctor herself.

It is something of a challenge to celebrate the birthdays of two of our adopted kids that still live with us and my birthday while living down here. We all kind of feel ripped off that we are not in the states with our big family and can not have the big family party. So this week, Feb.13 and feb. 17th we took off Weds., feb. 15th and took the kids to a nice hotel for breakfast buffet and swimming in the pool. Tony pictured here, was 10. and Alisa , in the above picture,was 12. The kids loved it and already are making plans for their next year's birthday here. We also had two birthdays in the states. My oldest son Matt was 44 and my sil Chris was 30.

Some of the docs eating the lunch that Casa de Sion prepared for them.

We saw many men at this clinic and many families

next to the top are Lillian's adopted twins. She was able to adopt them because Casa de Sion provided the formula and clothing. They were treated also. Each doc brought down a suitcase full of meds.
In addition to the clinic, we had our mama/tot program with any mamas and tots and we moved out of our house for 3 days while new tile was laid. We moved back in on Thurs. and spent Sat. and Sun. resting and getting resettled.

Vicki
20.vicki@gmail.com

trying to catch up With the Blogs [ 31,32,33,34,35,36, 37,38,39]

Lots and lots going on. The reason I have not written. Plus my computer is not working and it has all the pictures. So this is an informational blog on my husband's computer catching up with my commitment.
We have started a Friday business meeting with Mario and Juan. Each week it gets longer and longer as there is more and more going on. [While I am writing this I am trying to shut out the screaming that my two teenage daughters are doing at each other; the joys of family life] .  This week there was a lot of talk about our responsibilities with the nutributter program. Basically Mario has to deliver it to all 24 communities and make sure that the two community leaders in each community know their role: giving it out to the families, showing them how to get the babies to eat it and making sure it is not given to the other starving children in the family. The nutributter arrived on Sat. so the work begins on Monday.
Sunday i tried to catch up with family stuff, like organizing myself to be the perfect long distance mom and grandma for the 7 birthdays happening in Feb.
Monday I met Carlos, the head on a naturopathic NGO that is bringing a team of naturopathic docs down the next week. I need to show him the clinic in Los Robles. he likes it and is excited about helping the people in Los Robles. I am excited about this team as I have used naturopathic meds for years and am a true believer. Also called to find out what was happening with the birthday parties of my two grandchildren that had birthdays that week.
Tuesday was running errands in town getting food and money in the house. Then returning emails, etc.
Wednesday's top priority was calling and wishing Cohen a happy 4th Birthday. Then homeschooling the kids here and then to Los Robles. Jody needs to check the construction on the guardian house and I need to talk to Dominga. I found out that Jeremias, the downs twin whose life we saved, has had his operation and it was successful.  I also find out that Maria in Nueva Victoria is having more trouble with her foot and it is infected again. We decide to take medicine and bandages to her mom and train her mom in how to wash it and then bandage it and put a sock on it to protect it. I work with Erin to contact our supporters and new people to try and get money in for scholarships and more feeding programs. We are hoping that Kids Against Hunger can be a help in letting us open up more feeding programs.
Thursday is spent working with my daughters who run our for-profit business in the states and our computer person. We do a lot.... of advertising in the phone books for the for-profit and are now starting our internet advertising. First thing will be a mobile website. This business is our biggest donor to the projects down here so it is very important to keep it growing. Each day takes some of my time and a lot of my husband's time doing homeschooling with the 5 youngest. Three of them are special ed and the other two hyper so it gets frustrating at times.
Friday is another business meeting with the staff. Plans are made for the 5 days of clinics we will have next week. Juan will be one of the translators so his jobs need to be delegated to other employees. Our kids here at home get a big surprise. One of our new volunteers teaches judo and he arrives for their class. Daniel is from Germany.
Saturday's priority is wishing bay lee a happy 5th Birthday. She and Cohen are having a Chuck Cheese party together. She has a princess cake and Cohen a cars cake. bay lee's mom and Bryan, my son who is his kids single parent, make cupcakes. Bryan's were double chocolate and homemade. he is turning into a good single dad. Takes the two kids to church every Sunday. My worries over leaving this situation are turning to pride over my kids doing so good a job. His sisters and sister-in-law help him with babysitting when needed.
Well that's is all for now.
The next blogs require pictures and I am hoping to get my computer fixed on Monday.

Nutributter extravaganza and Blog Days 25,26,27,28 29, 30

Here are the pictures from the Saturday meeting of the nutributter people. We had 35 members from our community workers show up. We had to pay transport which added up to $70.00 , but they are distributing the nutributter for free and never get to enjoy this kind of hoopderah so any that wanted to come came.

Dominga and Mario are in the picture with Peter Rololf, the pediatrician from Boston. MA who got the USAID grant for the program. Mario and Dominga surveyed and are working the most communities of any of the NGOs who participated and did the most thorough surveys. We did 24 communities. It was Dominga's first claim to fame and she was so excited. 

The program consisted of lots of nutritional info comparing nutributter to mother's milk and incaparina. Of course mother's milk is the best, but if it is not available it is not available. Nutributter won out over incaprina with the vitamin and mineral and calorie count. Plus it requires no water so eliminates the poison water factor.

Then the community workers were showed how to train the parents in giving the butter to their babies.

Then the heads of the NGOs all signed a contract agreeing to certain things. So there is a pciture of me signing and then Dominga and then Mario.

Finally we got to eat lunch in a beautiful location overlooking Lake Atitlan. There were probably 250 to 300 people there. 

 our table

 

 our view of the Lake from our table.

All in all i think everyone enjoyed themselves and got motivated to do a good job. We received the first of our nutributter last week and started distributing it this week. Mario is having to go with all the community workers in each pueblo and show them exactly what to do so it is still a lot of work and a lot of gas money.

The next day Sunday  was our usual, church in Spanish, teach the kids at home in English, rest, go for a walk and watch Ben-Hur.

Monday, Jan. 30 turned out to be pretty exciting. I drove my 17 dau. and 15 year old son to Pana. I dropped the son at school and took the daughter to the Thai rest. where she is doing a culinary arts internship. I wanted to be there when she started because the owner was not going to be and my daughter does not speak Spanish and the regular cooks do not speak English. Soon after we arrived and I had ordered fresh orange juice and blue corn pancakes my son called. All the schools in Pana were canceled as the vigilantes and the police were in a battle. The main bridge was blocked by vigilantes with hugh rocks and fires and they were there with their machetes and what guns they had and the police were there with their guns drawn. I told Caleb to get to where I was asap and Scotia that we would start her internship another day, called the owner, collected the two kids and headed home. We were nervous they had closed off the yellow bridge we have to cross to get home as they had closed of the road from Pana to Solola. There were no cars on  the roads and the kids and I were speeding as fast as the Mitsubishi would go. The yellow bridge was being kept open by 35 police officers ready to fight. We made it across and raced home. We heard later that they were fighting because the vigilantes wanted to partol their own neighborhoods at night as the police were not arresting the criminals. The police were instead arresting the patroling vigilantes and the vigilantes were at the end of their tolerance.

Tuesday was calm and we worked all day with our homeschooling kids and getting the 38 student scholarships straightened out. It is a lot of work.

Wednesday Scotia started her internship and and she loves it and the Mayan women love her. She does the waiting on the gringoes and prepares liquidos and breakfasts and everyone is happy.

Thurs. Jan. 30 , was our day off and after much work with the programs[ getting the scholarships worked out and paid for 38 kids is a lot of work.] and the kids we were ready for it.

Life in a third world country with 7 kids still at home.Blog Days 17, 18, 19, 20,21,22, 23, 24

Trying today to get caught up with my blogs. Everything except yesterday's nutributter program. Last Fri. I mostly caught up with emails and paperwork in the am and took a Friday date with my husband. By the time we have both done all this "mission" work all week [ mostly my responsibility } and homeschooled the 5 youngest kids [ mostly his repsonsibility ] , we feel we deeply deserve time off starting Fri. afternnon. So we left around 2, Juana had cooking kid's dinner [ and then leaving until Tues. am ], and we headed for the weekly hour massage. It is also a medical massage as I have neck and shoulder issues and Jody has back issues. Afterwards we enjoyed dinner at an Italian Bistro that  makes it 's own noodles.  Then we came home, waved at the kids and went back in our bedroom , made a fire in the fireplace and watched a movie. Friday Date nights are usually pretty much the same down here excpet the restaurant changes and sometimes we can take in a music show. The best part is having time alone and away from the stress.
The next day is Sat. cleanup. It is mostly a hugh trial of my patience as I struggle to get work done and not yell at the kids who try hard to not get work done. Having a new IPOD that has my favorite songs on it and drowns out the kids help a lot. Sunday is a walk into San Andres for church. The 3 pictures of kids above are my kids ready for church. Alisa and Tony will soon be 10 and 12 and feel ripped off they have to celebrate their birthdays in a third world country with crappy plastic toys. This time I remembered to bring them each a second hand but working DSI [ think that is right}. They each want one really bad and I think we found a decent hotel, economical hotel on the lake with swimming pool and trampoline to spend a night at sometime between the 13th and 17th. Then we can rent a video and have a dinner and ice cream. They will think that is pretty special. Church is in Spanish so we stay for the first part and then go home and have a family Sunday School lesson.
Monday, Jody and I and kids go to Los Robles while Jody meets the new carpenter who will finish the guardian house and get it ready for the new family to move into. I go with Dominga to get a picture of the kids in the elementary school next door that will be in our feeding program this year. That is the bottom picture.
Tuesday, I go into town to get Scotia set up to do a culinary arts internship. She is in culinary arts in 11th grade in the states and has brought her book with her to study, but needed some practical cooking experience. So she starts tomorrow at our favorite Thai rest. Ling, the owner, cooks the lunches for the 20 kids at the private school Scotia and Caleb go to. Scotia will help cook the lunches. We are all excited for her to learn and cook at home. With Bethany an Italian cook expert from her 1.5 year mission there and now Scotia with Thai food, things are looking better and better for family reunions.
Wednesday we are back up to Los Robles for me to have a meeting with Mario and Dominga to discuss many things concerning future operations. I have Roy translating and it goes well. Jody checks the progress of the guardian house.
Thurs. is more of the same. Everyday we have emails and phone calls to do concerning the family and the for-profit business. Much time is taken with blogs and meetings with staff. Juan comes everyday to receive translations to give Mario and Dominga and to continue work on the never ending problems dealing with student sponsorships, medically fragile kids and nutritionally deprived kids. And did I mention budget that never seems to be enough. I can't download pictures here at the house so picture blogs require I got into San Andres, sip a liminoda and write blogs at the pizza rest.
Finally Fri. is here again. I am sick again with my first Guatemalan cold and a horrible cough and fever. The massage I am hoping with get me well enough to make the nutributter extravaganza the next day and Jody is plain exhausted. He is a wonderful teacher, but 3 of the kids he teaches are special ed and he is 61. We leave at 2 excited agian to have a few hours of free time and stress relief.. I do not sleep well that night due to 2 hours of coughing, but make Peter's nutributter program. I will wirte about it the next time I go to the pizzeria as I have a bunch of pictures. I come home exhausted and sleep from 8 pm to 8 am. Today Sun. is a rest day. Alisa is making a pasta dish she learned from her sister Bethany .TTL.
Vicki
20.vicki@gmail.com
http://www.safehomesforchildren.org/
http://www.casadesion.blogspot.com/