2011 ACCOMPLISHMENTS

This has been a year of growth for us. Not hard to grow in Guatemala when you are helping the poor. As a matter of fact the it is hard to keep up.

A. Mother's program. We went to 168 mamas at our last Dec. meeting. That means about 400 plus toddlers and infants. That is how many we feed lunch to once a week and give formula and incaparina to twice a month. We pay transportation for many of them. In 2012 we hope to increase to 200 mamas. There are over 1000 on the waiting list.

B. Elementary feeding program. We now feed 200 plus elementary students 3 times a week. We give all of them 3 hours of tutorial help with a staff of 3 hired teachers.

C. Middle school student scholarships. We now have 100 children in line to get scholarships. We hope tohave the funds to do at least 50 of them. That is about $350.00 per kid.

D. Clothing, shoes and school supplies distributed to hundreds of children. Last year we sent down part of a container that cost $2100.00 in shipping. We just dropped off twice that much to go a container and arrive in Feb.

E. Chosen to participate in a USAID nutributter program. 24 NEW communities are being assessed as to how many infants between the ages of 6-24 months will receive the nutributter. Casa De Sion has done such a good job, it is being used as the model for everyone esle to follow. We hope as our support grows to add all of the above programs to these new communities.

F. Clinic. Always available for OTC meds if we have them. Had several sessions of doctors doing general clinics. We helped many children have the necessary medical care they needed from lab work to major operations.

G. We now have permanent volunteer accommodations in a safe location about 15 minutes from Casa de Sion. Our family will be staying there Jan. thru Mar. and then it is available to other teams. All proceeds from it go to the projects.

TO KEEP HELPING WE NEED YOUR HELP. PLEASE CONSIDER HELPING.
20.vicki@gmail.com
www.casadesion.blogspot.com

Doing Something Beautiful For God

I am reading a book about Mother Teresa. The title of this blog was one of her favorite quotes . Nice thought, huh.

Something has been weighing so heavy on my mind for the last month or two. When I was down there in Oct. , I went to the mama/tot distribution like I usually do. Like usual there were moms waiting to talk with me about various challenges (problems) in their lives. Don't get me wrong. I do not mind them coming to me with their problems. If I were in their shoes, having lots of kids and zero resources, I would go to me too--a white women who seems to have resources and their only option. I would beg, plead or throw fits to make sure my kids were fed nutritiously and received the medical care they need. I have been poor with tons of kids and I have begged, pleaded and thrown fits to get my kids what they needed. So I have no problem with them coming to me. This particular meeting I had a line of six women with six medically fragile children. Not just a little sick either, seriously sick. They wanted help. We gave what we could; not perfect but better than what they had.

So here is my problem: I have no problem with moms or dads coming to us for help when they really need it. We even ask the parents to help us in return so they feel like they are giving to. The problem I have is saying NO.

No, I do not have the money to feed your malnourished child.

No I do not have the money to give you a can of formula even tho you have no breast milk and the baby will die.

No, I can not pay for your child to go to the hospital even tho she is turning blue.

No, I am sorry your child can not go to school next year because you have no money but that is life.

You get my gist. I can not even imagine saying NO to any of these crisis situations and they come up all the time

Helping folks in these kinds of desperate situations is very challenging. We always ask ourselves "How can we help without creating a dependency?" Because when folks have their hand out and you put something in it, guess what happens when another crisis strikes? Hence we try to create programs with certain guidelines and then we ask for these folks to do something for us in return. Keeping our giving within this framework keeps us from getting strung out with the awesome and perpetual need that surrounds us. Here are a few categories that you can help through.

Emergency medical fund: giving here will allow us to help when a child's (or adult's) life is on the line and we have a reasonably good chance for success.

Feeding programs: The nutributter program will put us in 20 new communities. All children between 6 mo. and 24 mo. will benefit, but what about the infants under 6 months and over 2 years. If you can help with formula for the newborns or incaprina for the under school age children, that would help. We have become aware of a program call "Kids against Hunger" which can easily raise low-cost, nutritious meals. .... For $.25 a meal [ that includes food ingredients and shipping and packaging ] you can help feed these kids. With 24 NEW communities in the nutributter program, we expect tons of requests for much needed feeding programs. This can help us supply that need. read more about it by googling Kids Against Hunger. If you want to help with this email me.

Scholarship programs: If a child can get through high school in Guatemala, then they can make enough money to move into the middle class. While the primary grades are "somewhat free," middle and high school are not. But for just a few hundred dollars a year you can give a child, literally, the opportunity of a lifetime. If you supported a student last year, please do it again and see if a friend will do another one.

Please help us to be able to help these children and receive the good feelings of being someone who wants to "Do Something Beautiful for God".

thanks

Vicki

who will be living in Guate for Jan., Feb., and Mar.

20.vicki@gmail.com

Sharing Our Abundances

I want to offer each of you an opportunity. To be the right hand of God. To feel your soul enlarged. To have your spirits soar. You see I get this opportunity alot and it is an awesome feeling. I want to share it with you.

Our nutributter program is being extremely successful. We have received many compliments from Jose Cali, the incountry director for Peter Roholf [ the USA pediatrician in charge of the Nutributter program]. Our first part of this program is sending employees, at our expense, to the communities we are assigned to. We are to find all the community leaders and have them work with us enough to give us their emotional support. Then we find all the 0-5 month olds in the community and all the 6-24 month olds. We get names and ages, etc. We also are getting mush more family info like no. of kids in family, no. of elderly or handicapped living in the home, dirt or cement floors, kids 2-5, ages of all kids, grades in school of all kids, grades that parents went thru, family income, etc. As we do this we find out all the problems that the family has. We do not ask their problems but if you were a parent and had a kid near death because of starvation, or your kid was going to have to drop out of school in 6th grade because you had no money or your kid was so sick you feared death and could not afford medical doctors or medicine, wouldn't you tell us you need help. Because we are doing such a good job of getting the info Jose and Peter need, we have been told we are doing the best of anyone in the program and have been given 24 communities. Along with those communities come many, many more needs. Many miracles and many feelings of soul enlargement and being spiritually full. I want you to share those with you. Be part of helping us save the baby who is almost dead from malnutrition . Feel how much more rewarding it is than the new purse, the candy bars, the eatting out all the time. Or help pay the hospital for the next one we have to send. Give this as a Christmas present to yourself. Give yourself the highest high you can remember. We will help you find it.

In January, 2012, we will begin distributing the nutributter monthly to all the kids 6 mo. to 24 mo. At the same time we would like to give the infants up to 6 months formula. That runs about $20/month. Consider helping with that. Or remember the numerous other children in these new communities that will need scholarships to continue into middle or high school.

Also, remember our Christmas cards that are for sale. All of that money goes into Safe Homes. And with any donation remember we or anyone in the US takes anything nothing out of Safe Homes. We pay all of our own expenses.

The pictures are from the community of Chuti-Estancia. Here are some of the stats from that community. 130 plus babies 6-24 months will be in our nutributter program, 125 children ages 2-5 who need a nutritional program of their own, 400 plus elementary children who need a lunch/tutorial program, tons of kids who won't go to school next year because there is no money to send them. Out of 265 parents, 5 finished high school, 16 went to middle school , 165 went to Primary school [ most went to 1st or 2nd grade and that was it ] and 81 had no schooling. Half of their houses have dirt floors, the others are cement. If they can find work, the most they make is $100 a month. When they list their job, it is rancher of their small piece of land or maid for their small house. One house had an inside bathroom, the rest did not. All cooked over open fires. They can not afford to make the change that needs to be made. Most of you can help here. Help us to help the babies and little ones have enough nutrition to have brain power. Help us to educate them so they can break this cycle of poverty. And in return, you will receive a fullness of spirit.

Write me at 20.vicki@gmail.com

http://www.safehomesforchildren.com

Christmas Cards

Sending out Christmas cards?
Kill two birds with one stone this year: buy ours cards and and help feed a starving/malnourished child. Our Christmas cards are adorable. Many with pictures of the Mayan children and families in our feeding programs and an appropriate Christmas scripture or quote.

Please buy from us and celebrate the true meaning of Christmas. "It is more blessed to give than to receive".

Cards are 20 for $25
or
50 for $50
$5 flat rate shipping and handling
100% goes directly to programs.

You may mix and match the cards. To order or for further info contact Erin at erin.casadesion@gmail.com

Malnutrition and Nutributter

"What is Malnutrition?: According to the World Health Organization (WHO), malnutrition essentially means “bad nourishment”. It concerns not enough as well as too much food, or the wrong types. There are two types of malnutrition that we typically see in the developing world: acute and chronic. Severe acute malnutrition , as is seen in Haiti, is defined by a very low weight for height, by visible severe wasting, or by the presence of nutritional oedema. In other words, these kids ‘look sick’. They look like they are wasting away.

Although acute malnutrition does occur in Guatemala, it is chronic malnutrition that is absolutely pervasive. Children who suffer from chronic malnutrition fail to grow to their full genetic potential, both mentally and physically. The main symptom of this condition is stunting - shortness in height compared to others of the same age group - and takes a relatively long time to develop.

Okay, so what? Why is it so important to prevent stunting in babies and toddlers? According to the World Bank, growth failure before the age of two can have profound and irreversible effects on a child’s ability to learn, and produce income over their lifetimes. It can result in permanently impaired IQ and social development, and makes a child more susceptible to chronic disease. These children start school later, quit earlier and miss more days in between. Furthermore, women who are stunted are far more likely to have stunted children. And, all of this is determined in the first 24 months of life. (read more)"

How do we fix this...Our infant and toddler feeding program of which nutributter will play a part

What is Nutributter?

Nutributter is a complementary food supplement that has been tailored to the nutritional needs of infants and young children (6 to 24 months old). It is a peanut and milk-based paste that has essential fatty acids and appropriate levels of vitamins & minerals to promote growth, motor development and aid in the prevention of undernutrition in young children.

"Nutributter supplementation for children 6-24 months of age is therefore ideally suited to prevent stunting. By introducing a high quality food and micronutrient supplement at 6 months, when infants should be transitioning to complementary foods, we can provide food security to the kids and prevent the decline in their length/height-for-age.

Another environmental feature which aggravates the onset of stunting in this age range is the exposure to contaminated water and food products, and the development of frequent bouts of diarrhea. Importantly, Nutributter delivers a daily dose of zinc, which has been shown in clinical trials to reduce the incidence and severity of diarrheal illness. Therefore, we anticipate that Nutributter supplementation will also impact diarrheal illness and interrupt the infection-malnutrition cycle. (read more)"

Why are we telling you about this?

Peter the wonderful pediatrician that sees our kids applied for a grant with USAID. He is bringing Nutributter to Guatemala and 350 of our kids get to participate in the program.

The Special Ones

I was privileged to be in Guate from Oct. 2 until the 14th. Seems my heart is always in more than one place. Here in the states are my kids and grandkids. Also my house that we built and our gardens and orgainic food that we grow. Eighteen grandkids, soon to be 20. And safety and security issues are so much easier. I can drive at night. I don't look over my shoulder 6 times a day.

But there in Guate, I partner with the Lord. Helping to take care of the poorest of the poor. Helping to watch over His little ones and know that if I were not there their lives would be so much harder. Below is 18 mamas and their assorted children from the aldea of Chuti-estancia. They stopped as I was leaving the mama/tot program that day and told me with tears in their eyes how much the mama/tot nutrition program meant to them. Then I started crying. Such humility. Here at home in the good ole USA, my kids or grandkids never cryingly tell me how much they appreciate what I do. It was nice for a couple of minutes.

That day at the mama/tot feeding program had been rough. We had 6 special kids who needed help. I have pictures of some and then it got so busy talking and translating with mamas and kids that we forgot the pictures. One was Jeremias, the little downs baby we have helped since he was a couple of months old. He is a twin. His twin is the baby being held and the downs baby is the one laying on the scale. The healthy one weighs 18 pounds and is developmentally on target. Jeremias wieghs 11 pounds and does not sit or hold his head up.

Next was a beautiful 5 pound little girl. Big problem was she is 7 months old. Can not sit or hold her head up. We started both underweights on more formula and wrote and asked Peter [our USA pediatrician who sees them from time to time] what to do.

Next was a 2.5 year old who as you can see from the picture could not hold his head up or sit much less walk. His mama's back was horribly twisted. She could hardly walk. We will start giving her money to take him once a week to therapy in Pana. We need money for a physical therapist to come to our clinic once a week. We also gave her a stroller. Thanks so much Karen with Kid to Kid for the donation so we had it to give.

That day we had 3 more sick or malnourished kids. We gave money for doctor visits.

We now have over 100 mamas and over 250 kids in our mama/tot program and many 100s more who want to join asap.

We have 50 kids who won't be able to go to middle school next year unless we have help.

We have 20 mamas in our pregnancy prograam that need a doctor or midwife once a week to come to our clinic.

We have 200 children in our elementary feeding and tutorial program and 1000s more who want this program in their community.

We need an emergency fund for the sicky who come to us and need money for a doctor or an ambulance or medsmmediately.

So if you can give or even if you can't and have to sacrifice soda or chips or whatever please do and give. I won't ask you to give up chocolate. I perfectly understand how that would be too hard. But the others, could be enough to feed one more child.

We will have Christmas cards for sale next week. Please order from us and help us take more people.

Pass this blog to everyone you know and ask them to help. Call us to schedule a presentation to family or friends. Ask them to pass their Christmas charity money our way. Ask them to order their Christmas cards form us.

100% will go to one of these programs. If you feel strongly about one, just mention it and it will go there.

Many. many thanks to those of you who already give. You can see from the pictures the ones you are already helping. If you have a scholarship child, you will be getting a letter soon and know that because of you they made it thru one more grade. Please help them with the next grade. If you support a mama and her children , know they live better because of you.

We travel to Guate the first part of Jan. to live for 3 months and can take donations of shoes and formula and school supplies with us when we go if you send it. Money can be donated thru the donate button or wirte me at 20.vicki@gmail.com and I will give you an address.

Next blog I will tell you about an exciting new nutritional program we will be part of thru Peter the Pediatricina and USAID.

Medical Emergencies

I want to start this blog by saying "thank you" to all those that donated to help Maria. She spent some time in the hospital where the doctors where able to put a membrane over the hole in her foot. She is going to need major physical therapy (which she needed as a child but never received because of her family's circumstances), but she is recently back home in a wheel chair that we (you) bought her and healthy. (read more about Maria here)

Maria with one of her many siblings in her home before her hospital stay

Maria coming home

If you have been following Joel's blog you will see that we seem to be having lots of medical emergencies coming our way. We had another baby struggling to breath. Joel quickly called an ambulance and paid the $6.00 to have the infant taken to the hospital. Pneumonia is so common among these small children who spend all day inside with their mothers who are cooking over an open fire.

Mom and baby on the way to the hospital

We would like to set up a fund to have available when these emergencies come to us. These children are so precious, and their parents do not have the means to help them in emergency situations. Let me know if you would like to donate to help us set up an emergency fund.

Also, the ONIL stove would stop the pneumonia problem in the babies if anyone is interested in buying one--this would make a great Christmas present for that person that has everything.

ONIL STOVES

Three weeks ago on the exact same day that we were trying to get medical help for Maria who had such a bad foot infection we were afraid she would die, we had to deal with another medical emergency. Maria is in Nueva Victoria where we have a feeding program for 120 children. The baby girl in the picture at the top lives across the street from our community buildings in Los Robles. Her parents came to Joel wanting a ride to the hospital an hour away. For $6.00 they could get the ambulance to come, but did not have the money. We paid for the ambulance. The baby was turing blue from breathing problems and we did not want to take any chances. After a couple of days we got a diagnosis. Pneumonia. I told Joel to take pictures of the stove the mom uses to cook all the family meals as I was betting it was an open one that put horrendous amounts of smoke into the single room the family cooked and lived and slept in. I was right. The next picture shows what they cook on. Many little ones live like this and get sick and burned from these open fires. Some die because of them. The last picture is of an ONIL stoves. For about $125.00 a team can buy a stove. It will be delivered and the team instructed how to put it together. It is smokeless and uses in one week the same amount of wood that the open fire uses in a day. We want to start helping get these installed for people. The one in this picture was paid for by a donor and installed in the classroom in Nueva Victoria for the student's mothers to cook the lunch we provide for them. Before they had to cook over an open fire. If you want to buy one or two or three, we have a team coming in two weeks who could install them . Let us know.

thanks for all you do

Vicki

20.vicki@gmail.com

How to Donate

I am doing this post because many of you have asked about having monthly donations set up. I talked to our bank about having a bank draft attached to our website, but after some research I have found that at this time the fees associated with this are not worth the convenience.

We decided to continue with paypal. Our regular donate button (to the right on every page) allows you to donate any amount one time. You can do this with your paypal account or with a credit card without an account.

On our "please help" page--see tab on top to find page--there are 7 options of monthly amounts (it is fixed). When you click on this you can sign up to have that amount put on your credit card every month. You must sign up for a paypal account (which is super easy). If you would like to give a monthly donation that is not listed please let me know and I can ad that button.

Paypal does take a small fee for processing this--but since this is the only overhead taken out of your donation we are ok with this. And if this makes it so you don't forget one month then it is worth it to us and to those you are helping.

The other option you have is to ask your bank to send out a check for you every month. I don't believe they charge a fee, and you can sign up so they will do it for you monthly without you having to remind them.

If you do this or just want to mail a check. Please make it out to Safe homes for Children and mail it to Erin Dalia-Sanofsky 3001 Clemson Ave, Charlotte, NC 28205

If you are donating monthly and it is working well for you then don't feel like you need to change anything. This is for those of you that have asked me about getting it set up monthly so that you don't forget.

As always, we are so grateful for all of your help.

Summertime....And the living is easy

Summertime....And the living is easy........................

One of my favorite songs. But this was not the case around our house this summer.
We arrived in the USA on April 17th after 3 months in Guatemala. We had a 14 hour drive from Ft. Lauderdale, FL where we flew from and saved about $4000.00, and the time in the car helped us decompress because life in Guatemala is so different---so much slower.
We needed this time because we were immediately immersed in the pressure cooker.While we were gone, our son Bryan had many , many problems between him and his wife and they split up. He needed help with his 1.5 and 3 year old sons.[ see a picture of them and 2 more grandkids sitting on the steps} We took the boys for a month the day after we arrived. They are fun boys and we love them, but needed extra care because they are normal tot boys.

Then the first of May, our daughter Hannah[ she is the pretty girl in pink with the bride] came home from college for the summer. She had cold turkeyed off an anti-depressant and was having a hard time. I took her to an alternative doctor I had been hearing really good things about. He started her right off on neurofeedback and after a couple of months and 20 treatments she became her old fiesty, mostly happy self. It was fantastic. I also had him do an extensive physical on me and he found some arterial blockage so I started on chelation therapy. I need 25 sessions. They take 6 hours of time each time I do one. I am half way thru. I am also doing the neurofeedback for my PTSD. They are using it with many war vets.

Our first weekend home was Easter and many of the kids and grandkids[ see the 3 pictures of couples and their kids] that live close came up . We had a picnic and, of course, the boys were playing football--even sixty year old Jody. Making a monumental play [ Jody wrote this] he was pushed out of bounds and cracked a rib, tore his hand to pieces and got reacquainted with hemorrhoids. It took 3 months to repair.

Somewhere in here Gabby had a birthday [ now 6 and in the pic with her new bike ], Scotia turned 17 and Johnny 19 and Emmie 12 , Madeline 8, Katie 5,and Karleigh 7. That is just the kid birthdays. There were also many adult kid birthdays: Jenn, Sarah, Erin, Flossie, Crystal, Rhonda and I am sure I forgot some.

We then helped our 19 year old graduate from high school and get ready for his mission. It was enough to drive us crazy and put a strain on our wallets with all the current dental and medical requirements. He finally got his call to OK City, OK. [ he is in the picture by himself and a suit on].

In mid-June we went North to MN for the baptism of our oldest grandchild [ Madeline turned 8 ][ picture of her and her family of 6 on the couch]. She has the most wonderful singing voice, perfect pitch, rhythm, good memory and played a perfect violin solo at her baptism.

Less than 2 weeks after returning we were off to Guate. Hannah burned out babysitting the 2 weeks we were gone. While there we found a house to buy giving us and other volunteers a permanent place to stay. Makes going down so much easier. Flossie, daughter no. 4 [ in picture with her hubby and 2 boys]refinanced a loan on her property that she had bought from us. The money from this allowed us to buy this house. It is 15 minutes from our projects and 15 minutes from Panajachel in a safe, gated community. All the profits from volunteer visits here will go directly to our projects.

Two weeks later we were in Washington, DC for the wedding of daughter no. 5, Bethany. More fun and stress. She is in the pictures of the bride and groom, duh. bethany and new hubby eric spent part of their honeymoon in Guate working in our projects there. And there is one of our 11 daughters all together and all but 5 of our grandchildren next to the bride and groom. Along with the wedding went bridal parties and kids and grandkids staying at our house. You can see a picture of the homemade water slide all the grandkids and our younger kids loved.

When we got home, school was starting. We homeschool our 5 youngest so we can live in Guate part-time, but it consumes time and persistance.

And those are just the highlights. We are currently getting ready for a couple of more weeks in Guatemala. We want to start the renovations on the house we bought and give some more supervision to our programs. And that's what we wanted to talk about. The school year is winding down in Guate and we have many more students who need scholarships--at least 30 more. And the infant and tots formula program is turning away mothers [ at least 60 in the last 2 months ]. We would like to add 100 more mothers and their babies. Erin will soon be posting the photos and bios of the students who are asking for help. Think and pray about how you can help. And with the formula program, the formula itself is the major cost. Thanks to WIC there are many loose cans of dried formula in this country. If you can collect it, we will figure out a way to get it down.

Remember all your donations are tax deductible and 100% goes to our programs. We pay our own travel and living expenses. The house was bought with our personal money. There is literally no overhead. We are planning our expansion for the coming year. Let us know how you want to help.

The final picture is of my daughter Erin who many of you communicate with. She is with her oldest daughter Katie.

Vicki and Jody and family

http://www.safehomesforchildren.org

20.vicki@gmail.com

Emergency help for Maria

A few days ago friend was visiting the village of Nueva Victoria and found a little girl named Maria. She has not be brought to any of our feeding programs so we did not know she was there. She was born without the use of her legs and she crawls where ever she goes. The friend gave her a wheelchair. They went to check on her yesterday and found her very sick. I am pasting some of the email we were sent...
"she needs medical assistance urgently in Guatemala City, her condition can make her loose her foot or her life, she is just 11 years old, she is taking some antibiotic from their clinic, but this wont be enough, I don't have a car able to reach the community, actually yesterday we got there on a chicken bus, so we need to pay somebody to provide transportation, so we need some kind of help to get that service and the expenses for Maria and her mum, who is a widow, to go to the city where my friend got the professional medical assistance for free."

See pictures below.

We want to help her, we need to get her medical care tomorrow. Anyway that feels like they can help please donate.

Your challenge

Vicki and Jody head to Guatemala in a few weeks.  Your challenge is to fill the 4 suitcases they are taking down.  Right now, Casa de Sion is badly in need of 2 things

1. Infant formula.  

Remember this formula is for babies whose mothers CANNOT breastfeed them.  So if they do not get formula they do not eat.

2. School supplies.

We need anything and everything. (except, go light on the notebooks because the schools there require special notebooks, so our notebooks only get used in our tutoring sessions.) But we need pencils, colored pencils, rulers, sharpeners, calculators, protractors, markers, crayons (if your kid needed it we need it).  And BACKPACKS!  We really need backpacks.  Used ones are fine as long as they are is good condition.  

Please mail everything to Vicki Dalia @ 3303 Pond Mtn Ln, Whitetop, VA 24292
BY
Sept 30, 2011

If you can afford something big--go big

If you can afford something small--go grab some crayons and pencils and put them in the mail

If you don't have time to shop or mail-- then donate the money and tell me what to buy and I will go shopping for you.

And just so you can see who you are helping...

Some of our students

AND

Some of our babies

AND

Some of both

 

 

Thank you for caring and much as we do and helping us help these amazing people!

Manuel's family

We first met Manuel and his his younger sister Rosa and his two younger brothers Rolando and Carlos, when they were 6, 8, 9 and 14. They came with their parents who could not afford to feed or educate them and their younger sibs. The parents put them in our orphanage. The kids were great. Manuel won art awards and Rosa was top in her classes at the school. Carlos and Rolando were just 6 and 8 year old boys. Then the orphanage closed and the kids went back to their parents. We rediscovered them last year and haved tried to help with food, etc. since then. These pictures are where they have been living. The lamina and beds were donated by the LDS church. The floors are dirt and there is a stream of sewage that runs thru their house. There are 4 younger children now. Carolina,8, Victor, 6, a 4 year old boy whose name slips me and the baby Joseph, 2. The last time I visited these children, I knew we needed to take better care of them. I fear for the girls, Rosa and Carolina, as they are so vulnerable to sexual predators. I want all the children educated and other simple things like fed. Rosa cries every time she sees me. So you get the picture. Anyway, I talked the boss [ my husband] into letting me move the whole family, dad, mom and 8 kids into the new chicken guardian house and the dad being the guardian there. We will move them in Oct. when their school gets out. In the meantime, the dad and Manuel are fixing the house up for them to live in and since they are getting paid, the family now has food. I am thrilled to have this sweet family back in our lives. I love those kids and will enjoy seeing them more and knowing they are being taken care of. The mom has major disabilities, the result of stunting as a child. [caused by malnutrition ]. The dad was an alcholic who is supposed to not be drinking. Joel has supervised him for 3 weeks now and it seems to be true. Both parents have no education and the kids are seriously behind with their schooling. Anyone who wants to help and be part of this families life, just let me know. They need everything. If you notice on the right hand side of our blog there is a link to twitter travel. Joel's blog. Click on it and you can see Manuel and his dad Tomas working on their new house. Has a cement floor, bathroom, and no sewage running thru. Has plenty of fresh air and grass for the children to play in and , of course, they will be able to be in all our feeding and tutorial programs.

Vicki

20.vicki@gmail.com

http://www.safehomesforchildren.org

More Mothers and Toddlers

This week we had a great family from Utah come visit. They decided to do an one-time infant and formula distribution at Nueva Victoria. Right now because of lack of funding the only program we have going on in Nueva Victoria is the tutoring/student lunch program. When the Chase family showed up with formula for the infants and encaperina for the toddlers/preschoolers they were greeted by 38 moms, almost all of whom had 3-4 kids under the age of 5. The mom's were so grateful to have something to feed their kids.

THANK YOU CHASE FAMILY!

We would love to be able to start the mother/toddler program in Nueva Victoria. We just need more help to be able to do so.


Our program in Los Robles is going so well. Every Tues we have 66 moms and 111 kids 5 and under and on Thurs we have 41 moms and 76 kids 5 and under.

The moms are doing a great job helping Dominga in the kitchen and really trying to make the program less about charity and more about self reliance.

For class this week they had someone show them how to make handmade beaded belts to sell. Everyone was pretty excited.


But for everyone that we are helping, there is someone else who needs help. We had to turn away more moms this week. We have 20 moms from Chuti-Estancia that come every week and this week we had 5 more; we also have 15 moms from a pueblo called Pacaman ask to be part of the program. We had to turn away all these 20 new moms and their 50+ kids.

All these women are great people, just trying to feed their children. Unfortunately they did not have the same resources and opportunities we do.


If you want to help these mothers feed their children please let us know. It only takes $20/month to feed one mom and provide the formula/encaparina for her children. I will send you a picture and some details on the family you are supporting.

(Pictures courtesy of Joel-thanks!)