Visiting the Twins

We decided to visit one of our families that receives formula and incaparina so we would have a better idea of where they and their 8 kids live. here are some of the pictures of their home. This is the home of my little downs baby and the dad made them hanging bassinets. There are 8 children and the family struggles to feed them.

Nine new Mamas and 21 new Children From Chipop

Our mama/toddler program is growing like crazy. Way too mant starving people in this country and what mama wants to see her little one starve. last Tuesday on distribution day we had 47 mamas and 88 children 1 to 5, 20 0 to 1 and 35 over 5. On Thurs. at the same program just for another group of woman and kids we had 37 mamas and did not count the kids. I added 4 more mamas and kids two days ago. Precious. A 5 year boy with CP who is being raised by his grandma and can't walk or talk , but he sure can do a pretty smile. Another women who is blind, has 5 kids and was pregnant with no. 6.
These nine women and their 21 assorted kids are all from the pueblo of Chipop. it was a difficult decision about whether to take them as they are known as a community of bandits. But they were there and the children's faces are sweet and you can't blame the kids for the parents, so we took them. Hopefully it gave us a measure of protection. From the bottom up , here are the women, some of the kids and the number of children they have.
1. Estela Dias 2 children
2. Ismelda Chavez. 5 children one of which is Wendy who has Juvenile Rheumatory Arthritis. Thanks to a medical student we were able to give her Prednizone to help control this for Wendy.
3. Juana Perez 5 children
4. Rosenda Martin 2 children
5. Vidalia Sicay 1 child
6. Gloria Sancales 1 child
7. Maria Keju 2 children
8. Estela Lopez 1 child
9. Candelaria Martines 2 children

Well Joel has gone home until the end of April and the blogs are back to me. i have some great pictures and great news, but first thought you might like to see what happens to missionary type families when family members come to visit. So here are some pictures and a little bit of story on what our family does down here with family visitors.
The pictures are numbered from the bottom down.
1. a picture of my husband and I with our grandchild Jake. We are redoing our blogspot and this picture will be on the about us page. The blog will be shut down for a few days while it is being redone. Thanks to Erin and Meredith for all their work on this.
2. next is a picture of Joel and his wife Carol when Carol came to see where Joel will be spending half his time.
3. three of my kids on an excursion trip to find an organic gardner to get our gardens going in Los Robles so we can provide food for more people. Gardens should go in in May. We are also building a guardian small house to safe guard the veggies and the chickens from being stolen. Third world reality.
4. my future sil Will [ connected to my daughter Hannah ] working on fixing the child's walker we have at Los Robles for the many disabled kids we work with. Will had come to officially meet us and fell in love with some of the kids and gave out glasses to some of the old ladies. He made a walker for Angel to take home with him.
5. My daughter Hannah holding our newest downs boy to join our program. He is almost 4 and does not walk, talk or see very well. He needs specialty glasses. Hannah was watching him so his mother could participate in the women's program. He held on so tight to her that she had scratches all over her neck by the time her babysitting job ended.
6. My daughter Flossie holding her son and my grandson Carson. Carson is 3 and loved going to Los Robles to visit our programs while his mother worked there.
7. Flossie's littlest boy, Cooper, holding one of my twins. This is Lilli froom the boy.girl twin set who were born back in May and adopted by the local midwife. Flossie would adopt one of these beautiful little girls in a heartbeat if adoptions every opened back up
8. the soon to be wed couple on a family outing to the lake. All 9 of us living here, Flossie and Chris and their two and Hannah and Will in a 12 passenger van. Luckily in Guatemala, no one cares
9. One of the stops we made on our way to the lake. Quite the juxtaposition. Stopping to see a family we help with food, clothes and school on our way to see the beautiful lake and have a family dinner at a nice restaurant in Santiago. This family has no electric, no clean water and sewage running thru the teeny, tiny yard 3 feet from the beds they sleep in on their dirt floor.
We enjoyed our family visitng as the hardest part here, besides the safety issues, is missing the kids and grandkids. We loved showing them the work we are doing. What we do here is a family venture and all my kids contribute to it in their own way. Flossie's husband Chris, who is a barber, cut all our hair while here.

2000 Children Die in Guatemala in 2010

Over 2000 Guatemalan children died of hunger in 2010

According to a report presented Friday by the national Ombudsman office, more than 2,000 children under 5 died in Guatemala during the first 10 months of 2010 as a consequence of illnesses caused by malnutrition.

The report is based on statistics from the Epidemiology Center of the Public Health Ministry covering the period from Jan. 1-Oct. 31, 2010.

“It’s worrying that mortality from hunger is double that of deaths from violence. Thousands of children are estimated to be at risk and there is no sufficient effort being made to save them from this grave situation,” Ombudsman Sergio Morales told the media.

The report also noted that eighty-four percent of the children died at home, without any kind of medical care and that most of the deaths were due to respiratory infections and diarrhea, ailments caused by high levels of malnutrition.

Ministry figures show that one in every two Guatemalan children under 5 suffer from malnutrition, as a consequence of the poverty and extreme poverty in which more than 52 percent of the country’s 14.4 million inhabitants live.

Most of the children who died were concentrated in provinces that make up Guatemala’s “dry corridor,” a strip that runs through the country from east to northeast, which during the last two years has suffered intense droughts blamed on climate change.

Important Info from a Haitian Missionary's Blog

Thinking through STM
STM = Short Term Missions/Missionaries
LTM = Long Term Missions/Missionaries

Below are random (but true) examples:

A.) Team comes to visit. They go on a walk through the small village they are visiting. One boy speaks English. Everyone migrates to him because he can be communicated with easily. He asks for a bike. One man in the group tells the boy offhandedly that he can have a bike. STM gets to be the hero and make promises. For two years the boy asks the LTM why the bike has not arrived. He does not forget that the white guy said he could have it. The LTM has to field the requests for delivery on the STM promise.

B.) A bike arrives for one kid in a village of 700 kids. A well meaning STM sent it because they really love their child they sponsor in the feeding/school program and they want him to have a bike. The LTM begs the ministry partners in America not to force them to give that bike. The LTM fears the trouble it will cause. The ministry wants to make the donor of the bike happy. They say the LTM must give the bike and take photos. The boy gets the bike. The donor gets the photos. The donor is happy. The boy gets beat up and his bike gets stolen by bigger older boys that are angry that the mission did not give them bikes.

C.) A STM group comes in wanting to help build houses. The LTM suggests they work with Haitians and get their input. The LTM makes many suggestions based on the years in country and the things they have learned about the culture and its building practices. The STM wants to build the house according to their practices and styles of building. They force their way of building onto the group of Haitians they are building the house for and refuse to believe that the Haitians way of doing it has any merit. They finish the house and take many photos of their good work to go home and show their church proudly. The following Sunday the group is sharing their photos at church and the Haitians are tearing off the roof of the house and re-doing the way that they prefer.

D.) A STM group focused on medical care come to offer a one-day free clinic. Word gets out that the team will give out peanut butter if you say that you have a child at home that is anemic. Suddenly every child in the village is anemic.

E.) STM group comes in to host a VBS not having any cultural context or awareness. Gifts are given all week. The kids continue to come to see what gift they will get. Songs are sung and taught in English. The kids speak Creole. A large number of children are "saved" the group does not know that four other STM groups have come through that year and the kids now know that praying for Jesus to come into your heart equals a congratulatory gift.

F.) A STM comes to distribute food. They don't have relationships in the area they are distributing. They don't know what is needed. They don't know who else has worked in that area prior to them. They hand out food for two hours only to realize that there are 300 people that did not get food waiting outside. Fighting starts between those that got food and those that didn't. The group is forced to tuck tail and run before they get stuck in the middle of a fight.

These are just a few examples among dozens and dozens. Haiti is close and easy to visit from the USA. More STM trips happen here than any other country in the world. Since the earthquake teams have increased. Every week - all year long - team after team visits Haiti. Some come to "save" and tell and some come informed and ready to learn and observe. Some come thinking that relationship doesn't matter and they walk around handing out $5 bills and gospel tracts and some come to sit and listen and learn. Some come trying to be aware of what others before and after them will do and others come thinking that what they do matters more to Haiti than any single thing that ever happened here.

A while back we went to a conference where one of the speakers was the author of "When Helping Hurts - How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself". If you are coming to Haiti or Africa or Asia or Guatemala or Timbuktu we think it is wise to read it.

I don't believe the man who offered the bike ever meant to cause so much trouble for the LTM or the kid. I don't believe the VBS group meant to pay kids with gifts to become Christians. I am fairly certain that many groups have not considered that they are one of thousands of STM groups that will come to Haiti this year. I don't think groups come here wanting to foster dependency and send a message that Haitians cannot do things for themselves. Sadly, for many many years we've been doing just this. Not because we wanted to - but just because we came in with the wrong attitude.

Many people, ourselves included, come with good intentions. It is important for us to recognize where we have failed and attempt to learn from our mistakes. We need to realize that good intentions are often times not enough and in the end we might do more harm than good. All of our pride needs to be laid down. Short or long term, we need to be completely open to learning from those that have been here even longer.


WE JUST FINISHED READING THE BOOK AND ARE READING IT A SECOND TIME TAKING NOTE. IT IS A REALLY GOOD READ FOR ANYONE SERIOUS ABOUT HELPING IN THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES. NAME OF THE BOOK IS 'WHEN HELPING HURTS".. CAN BE ORDERED FROM AMAZON.

Odds and Ends

Here are some pictures of the students that a few of you are paying for their schooling. Look at these kids and realize that except for you they would have been able to only go to school thru 6th grade. Now they are in 7th, taking typing classes and going to school with an elite group of kids. Kids who are trying to have a better education and better job possibilities. Our teacher, Gil, at Los Robles has tried his best to maake sure that the kids want to continue on into middle school. Gil knows alot of parents can not afford it and so the kids will quit. Now that money is not the factor , these select few will keep going. This is an added benefit to our after school tutoring program. Nueva Victoria told us they had 10 students graduate from 6th grade last year and that none of them were going to middle school because of funding. We told them we would try and help, but they could not generate enough interest among the parents for them to even come to a meeting. Next year tho will be different. After a year of having two dedicated teachers working with the kids every afternoon and stressing the importance of education, Nueva Victoria will be ready to have some of their kids go on to middle school. They will then need funding. All the LR students are required to help in our programs in trade for the help we give them. The girls wash dishes or laundry. The boys work in our gardens.
The other pictures are of two girls who need medical help. The picture with two little girls is a sweet one , huh. Both girls had been helping in the kitchen after the elementary feeding program. They love washing the dishes and cleaning up and were so proud of themselves. The one on the left has one leg that is several inches shorter than the other. She needs elevated shoes or her spine will eventually give her much trouble. I figure the cost will be $150.00 as it will require a trip to the city and specialized shoes. Angelina is a sweetheart if you want to help her.
Wendy is the girl in the picture by herself. She is 7. She has juvenile rheumatory arthritis. The picture of the swollen knees are of her also. Her elbows and neck and every other joint is swollen too. If you want to help Wendy, she will be grateful . Her meds are quite expensive. We had a doctor and med student visit last week who left us with prednizone for Wendy. they also left us with many bottles of high calori preemie formula. I took it yesterday to Jeremias, our little downs twin. His mama will feed it to him to help him with weight gain. I am happy to report that he is already looking heavier and better since he now has all the formula he needs. After this special formula, maybe he will be gordo [ spanish for fat ] Keep in mind, there is no WIC program or free health care that will supply htese kids with their meds and special shoes. Their families make less than $2.00 A DAY SO UNLESS WE HELP, THEY DO WITHOUT.

thanks
Vicki

The Happenings at Nueva Victoria

Nueva Victoria is moving up in the world. When we were out there 3 weeks ago , we had a meeting with the committee [ the governing group of the aldea ] or in other words the men of power for the community. Usually it is men. We were talking to them about starting our elementary school children's feeding program and the possibility of starting a tutorial program. Our meeting was successful. They were very interested in starting both programs. We promised the feeding program would start right away. The children up there looked terrible. Not just dirty. Weepy eyes and noses oozing infection. Children dragging around imploring you with their eyes to feed them. The tutorials meant we had to hire a teacher.
We had a coincidental meeting there when we met the new Guatemalan director of Pencils of Promise. Noah's group is planning to build a new school there. We are hoping to work in partnership with them where they build the school including a kitchen. We come in afterwords and start our programs. First the elementary feeding program, then the elementary tutorial program and then the mama/tot feeding program. By following Noah's group, we save the $25,000.00 that we would need to put into the buildings for our programs and can use the money for more programs.
We have hired a teacher for the tutorials up there. His name is Manuel Alfredo. He came to Los Robles and trained with Gil for a week learning to teach the kids about basic hygiene and manners as well as academics. He has started at Nueva Victoria. We have over 100 children in the elementary feeding program up there 3 days a week and that many in the tutorial program each day. Today we are hiring a helper for Manuel. When we were up there last Weds., the children were already looking healthier. I have pictures of all this that will go on a later blog. And we met another group that is building part of the school. The Sienna Foundation is building the first 3 rooms and Noah's group is building the kindergarten and the kitchen. All of this will help us with our programs. Next step in Nueva Victoria is funding for the mama/tot program. Gosh is it needed. Right now we need school supplies bad and shoes.
Pictures are of the committee, my husband sitting in the committee meeting and part of Noah's group checking out the places to build.
thanks for helping us.

Help us win

So here is your chance...

For those of you who wish you could do something to help, but don't feel like you have the have the financial means;

Or for those of you who wish you could do more;

Or for those of you who love us and will do anything for us...

We have entered a GIVEAWAY on Guidestar.com (a place for non-profits), the winner receives $5000.

We really want this money, we really NEED this money. We have so many new women and children that come to us, but no way to feed them...we are turning people away every week and would love for this to stop. If we win we will be able to add 21 new mothers and their children to our feeding program in 2011 (We could feed about 50-70 new people for a whole year!). Help us win this!

How you ask?

Go here OR http://www2.guidestar.org/organizations/06-1699012/safe-homes-children-incorporated.aspx.

Write a review on us.

It must be done in the month of February so do it now, PLEASE!

And, wait, there is more you can do. Ask your spouse, parents, kids old enough to have an email address and write, and any family members/friends that know about us or your involvement with us, to also write a review. One review per person--but this means that some families can give us quite a few reviews. It doesn't need to be anything special, we win based on the number of reviews--not what you write (of course please be nice).

Remember 100% of this money will go to our feeding program because we don't ever take any overhead from donations.

Check back for a giveaway associated with this...

What Do These 3 Pictures Have In Common

The bottom two are of the little twin who has been coming to the formula feeding program. We knew he had something wrong with him and last week we found out what it was. He is down syndrome. I knew instantly why I was so taken with him. It was because of the boy in the top picture. That is my adopted son Seth. Thirteen years ago we received a call from a social worker at a hospital that they had a hisp. down syndrome baby boy they needed a family for. Were we interested? We immediately said yes. We have since discovered that he was not hispanic but Mayan. So my Seth and this new little Mayan downs baby boy have alot in common. But Seth was feed well by a mom [ me ] who made sure he ate every 3 hours and that his lack of suction did not keep him from drinking the amount of milk he needed for good nutrition. Seth also started physical therapy at age 3 months to develop his muscle tone. And it did develop his muscle tone. Seth is the best downs gymnast his teacher has ever seen. He also wins all the special olympics. We had a music and dance festival at Los Robles this week-end and Seth led all the dancing. Kid can dance for hours at a time.
This new little downs baby has access to all the formula he can drink, but the mom does not seem to understand the need to make sure he gets a certain number of ounces in him everyday. He lives in a shack two hours walking distance from our formula program and is forced to breathe smoke from open cook fires in the one room they have to live in. Tuesday when I saw him he had a cold with stuffy nose and drippy eyes. The only way he will get physical therapy is if I can get funding for a therapist to come to our clinic once a week. His life will be so different from my Seth's. But since he has touched my heartstrings in a way I can't forget, I will work to make his life easier. I already pay the families transportation to our porgram so they have no reason to not come.I would like to build a small [ 2 room ] house on our property for his family. His dad has no work, but knows something about gardening. He could be our chicken house guardian and do some gardening. Then the 8 kids could be watched over more closely. We could make sure there was food and money for school and clothes and shoes and school supplies. All the things they don't have now. Now we just need money for the house. $1500 to $2000 would build it. Do you want to be the one who receives the blessings for this donation?
write me at 20.vicki@gmail.com if you want to send a cehck or push the donate button on this site.

thanks
Vicki

Check it out...

My mom is to modest to post this on the blog but I thought that everyone who reads this and helps out in Guatemala should see it.

Click here or copy and paste below

http://www.twittertravel.com/profiles/blogs/casa-de-sion-the-people?xgs=1&xg_source=msg_share_url

Thanks Joel, we think you are great too!

Sincerely,

Erin

WHAT MY DAYS ARE LIKE

Thought some of you might be interested in what my days are like. I had to deal with all these issues in the same day. Is it any wonder I go home tired and somewhat depressed. The first 3 pictures are of the newborn twins that we give formula to. The parents have 8 children and walk for 2 hours each way to get formula, incaprina and a meal from us. My first time of seeing the twins, I realized one was very malnourished so we took the family home with us, showed them how and when to feed the babies and gave them extra formula and bottles. Oh did I mention that my 10 [ she will be 11 on the 17th ] year old daughter and I fell in love with the sick one. The next week, we checked on how things were going. The mama had not brought milk or bottles for the babies and does not have enough breast milk so the sick one was crying. We got bottles and formula and Alisa fed him 4 oz. Then he slept. We talked again to the mama about not favoring the healthier one and working to feed the sick one everytime he would eat. Then we took them to the doctors who confirmed how sick the one was and that he had some congenital problems. He told them to take him to the hospital. They said they would. This next week, no one from the family showed up and we don't know where they live. My Alisa was so upset about her baby.
The next picture is the mama who was kicked out of her shack by her husband when he wanted to move another woman in. He also kicked out all 6 kids. She needs food and will soon need housing as her brother gave them emergency housing [ that probably means a floor to sleep on.
The last picture is of Juanito, the 8 year old who walks 3 miles to our programs so he can eat. When we gave out Christmas presents, we could only give him a small one as his alcoholic mama and his abusive papa would sale a bigger one. So he got a big truck with instructions that he can only play withit when he is on our property. And play he does. From the minute he gets there he wants to know where his truck is and shows it off to anyone who will listen.
This is hard and fulfilling work. And I can not tell you how much we need your help. Please donate if is just a one time $10 or better yet $20 every month for a year. I have had to close our mamas program. We now have 80 mamas and 250 tots and infants and no money to add more. Please help me with the money part so I do not have to turn a single mama down or worse yet her malnourished children. Pass this on to anyone who might help.
thanks to all who are already helping.
Vicki


Pictures from Top to Bottom

1. twins who are malnourished. One twin has some health issues
2. the twin who has health issues and is so thin
3. my precious Alisa who has fallen in love with the sick twin and
is as determined as I am to keep him alive.
4. the mama whose husband kicked her out of their shack to move another woman in. He kicked out their 6 children also
5. Juanito with his truck

New Babies

pictures from the bottom
1. me with Victor
2. me with Victor
3. New baby girl
4. same new baby girl
5. my daughter Alisa holding one 8 day old and the mama holding the other one

A week and a half ago, Gil, the teacher at our Los Robles tutorials, called me about a newborn baby. The 18 year old who gave birth to him could not keep him. The woman whose house the 18 year girl was staying in wanted to adopt the baby but did not have the money for formula, diapers, bottles and clothes. Gil wanted to know if we could help. It was night by then and I do not drive after dark, so I met Gil the next morning in Godinez. We went and picked up the midwife who had delivered the baby and then went to the baby's house. It was simple but clean. The adopted mama was so appreciative of all the things I brought. I asked if the baby had a name and she said no, not yet. Well The adopted mama showed up at our Tuesday program for mamas and tots with the baby all decked out in his newborn finery. She was so proud of him. She told me to hold him and then told me she had named him after me. His name is Victor. Isn't he pretty?
Also that Tuesday we had a newborn baby girl. Both babies were 8 days old. When I went up to check her out I was told I had to hold her. I think the women think I give the babies' a special blessing by holding them. It is so fun. Anyway her mama is the woman who almost delivered at our nurses clinic a couple of weeks ago. She was so pretty too. Babies are such fun.
Vicki
20.vicki@gmail.com

Giving Out Toys In Nueva Victoria and the new tutorial program

A couple of Saturdays ago the USA teachers that are working at a private school in Guate City came out our way again to do a party for the children of Nueva Victoria. It was the same exact party as they had done the week before at Los Robles. Two hugh pinatas, homemade cookies and presents for all the children.My children all attended both parties and loved them. Except my 5 year old had not been in the LR present line. This time in NV she asked if they could have a little present that had Gabby's name on it. She was so funny and got her present. The teachers braved the 20 minutes of treacherous driving on the dirt mountain road leading to Nueva Victoria. The children all came running when we called them. They were noticeably dirtier than the Los Robles children, but water is harder to come by on top of the mountain. To wash clothes or bodies, the women have to walk down the same steep mountain road to the river.It takes my car 10 minutes to get there so it pprobably takes them an hour and then they have to walk back up. Not sure how clean my kids would be if I had to do that. The kids were getting their presents all nice and orderly. I walked off to see something esle and heard people yelling my name to get back over there. It seems there were extra presents and a bunch of the kids dived for them and took off running. Also many hid their presents or their mamas did and then they came back all sweet and innocent for another one. The teachers were upset and commenting on how much more orderly and organized Los Robles was. At that moment I saw the effect our last year of tutoring has had on the Los Robles kids. Because they were like the Nueva Victoria children a year ago. But our teacher in LR, Gil, has worked with the children daily teaching them academics, but also teaching them gratitude and manners, how to have clean hands, faces and teeth and orderliness. It was such a testimony to my husband and I that we have started a tutorial program at Nueva Victoria. The NV lunch program starts again this week. Yesterday we interviewed the teacher for the tutorial program. He will start training with Gil for the next two weeks and then he will tackle working with the elementary children of NV. This year we have 11 children in LR that went on to middle school instead of dropping out. They did this with your financial help and Gil's support. And the support of their families who have seen the progress they have made with our tutorial program. My husband and I met with the head men of NV and discussed the new tutorial program. They are very excited. We asked about how many of the kids who finished 6 grade would go on to middle school. NONE. There were 10 possiblilities and 8 kids interested, but no money. My husband wanted to try and help those 8 and requested report cards and for the comite [ the men who head the community] to meet with the parents. No parents came. So we are postponing this to next year. We feel certain after a year of a caring teacher, the parents will see the benefits of education and we will be asking you for help in getting the NV 6 graders into middle school.
Pictures From the bottom up
1] Teachers from the city who gave the party and my Gabby
2] One of two hugh pinatas
3] the children waiting in line
4] a group of mamas enjoying their children's joy
5] a volunteer with one of the children
6] children with their toy

Vicki 20.vicki@gmail.com