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.
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