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