More on the medical team

The report from the medical team yesterday was awesome. Not as many people. They saw 45 more in Los Robles. Pedro was afraid to spread the word too far as he did not want to have to turn people away. The team said they had a great day. It was slow enough that they got to do some educating as well as treating. They did have some great things happen and probably saved a couple of people's lives. One was an older woman. Her blood sugar was over the roof as was her blood pressure. Gary , the team leader, felt she needed more continuing help so he paid for her to go to Panajachel with one of the members of the team and be seen by a doctor who has a regular clinic there. Another life they might have saved was a child who had a seriously high fever and pneumonia. They did nebulizer treatments and gave him an antibiotic presription. None of these things could his family have afforded. They also did physical therapy on many people and other nebulizer treatments.
Today they are in a community about 25 minutes from Los Robles. One that never gets in medical care. The private school that my children went to when we lived in Panajachel provided us with 6 kids today and 3 tomorrow to act as translators. The kids are donating their services.
I am excited to hear how today went.
Yesterday I made contact with a very interesting person. She heads an organic gardening program in Chichi, Guate. They have a full blown garden and will work with Pedro and Jose for two whole days teaching them composting and raised beds and bug control without high powered chemicals and lots more. I have been talking to Pedro about what I want and he does not understand so this will be a wonderful aid. Plus if i can train Jose as our master gardener, I can raise his salary [ with more donations] and have someone to head the teams that want to work in this area.Pedro I know I have not told you about this yet as you have been too busy with the teams, but I will go over it in detail next week.
Vicki Dlaia
Safe Homes for Children

Fundraising!!!

FUNDRAISING in on my mind right now. My husband informed me last night that when the orphanage reopens, [And it will happen some day], we will need a significant amount more money coming in or we will have to drop some of our programs. My response was NO WAY. What am I going to drop?. Feeding 70 elementary kids the only decent meal they get? Or the 275 kids who get the incaparina twice a month that makes a major difference in their nutritional level? Or the infant feeding program that saves these babies' lives? Or the emergency medical programs we do? Or the 3 hours of tutorials we do each day for the community kids? And what about the ones I want to start. The pregnant women's program I want to start where we educate them on nutrition,parenting skills, etc. And provide them with a birthing room where they can deliver in a clean and safe environment. I want to increase our community programs not eliminate them. And I sure do not want to not open the orphanage. So it means more fund raising. And more than a 60 year old woman with 18 kids and 17 grandkids can do by herself. SO I NEED YOUR HELP. Here is one example of what one couple is doing. They came and visited us in Nov. and then went home and put this together. I need everyone to pass the word to all they know. I need lots of people to do small or large fundraisers in their hometowns. i know we can do this together because I know dropping any of our existing programs is not an option.
thanks
Vicki
Safe Homes for Children

Medical team saw 141 people today!!

This a post from Vicki at Safe Homes for Children.

The medical team, organized through Safe Homes for Children, saw 141 people today at Los Robles. They set up at the elementary school. There was no school this week anyway so it did not inconvenience the teachers. Pedro said when they opened there were 45 people waiting. I called the team tonight and asked for the best story. They gave me two. One group is mostly from Kentucky and the first person they saw was an elderly man. When they asked him to take his shirt off so they could examine him, he revealed an under t-shirt with the words KENTUCKY on it. It made the team feel like they were where they were supposed to be. The second story involved the physical therapist. She was worried there would not be anything for her to do. But the reality of it was that she, with Pedro as her translator, worked on 16 patients and taught them things they could do at home. They saw many moms and babies as well as older people. They brought a nebulizer and used it on several patients. The team was composed of 15 people from the US and 6 Guatemalan translators. Pedro told me everyone was so happy about how the day had gone.

INFANT FEEDING PROGRAM

 Blog post by Vicki Dalia

Our trip to Guatemala was very interesting. The Sat. after we arrived we had a milk distribution where we invited families from two pueblos. To receive milk or formula they had to have an income of less than $2.50 a day. Food costs more in Guatemala than in the states even if they only make $2.50 a day.We made a list of the children we distributed to. The total from Sat. and the ones who staggered in thru the next week was 275 children for incaparina and 30 infants for formula. Sat. we had over 300 women and children. One of our major donors for the formula/incaparina program was visiting the country and we wanted them to see where their money was going. They bought oranges and rolls to give out to the people who came and all the people there ate them like they were not getting much to eat at home.

Incaparina is a mix of soy and corn and a little sweeter. The kids drink it and it is very nutritious. We are giving a bag of incaparina twice a month to each child in the family. This gives them 1.5 cups a day for the whole month. The infants get a large can of formula. The program costs $550.00 for the incaparina monthly and $600.00 for the formula monthly. We don't have that much in our budget so we need donors to keep the program going. It is the only thing of nutrition the kids get. Usually they have a couple of tortillas and if lucky some beans.
We have had to cut off the numbers we can help as we are having Mayans from other pueblos coming to us for formula or incaparina. Until we get enough donors to satisfy the first 275 kids, we can't add more.

DO YOU WANT TO HELP WITH THIS PROGRAM/ FOR $25.00 a month you can give an infant a large can of formula. For $25.00 a month you can give 10 children incaparina for a month. HELP US TO KEEP THIS PROGRAM GOING AND TO BE ABLE TO ADD MORE CHILDREN.  Click here to donate today!

Updates coming

Volunteers have been in Guatemala this past week and will have updates soon regarding the food programs and orphanage. 

Check back soon.

Feeding program update.

While we were in Guatemala, we started our toddler feeding program. I will show you some pictures of it next blog. Some of the same moms with toddlers come to our infant feeding program. We have about 25 moms now getting formula for their babies and want to offer this in another community we know of that is struggling with starving infants. Here are 3 of the moms that get the infant formula and 3 of the precious babies.

My family is spending Christmas in Guatemala. We leave on the 15th and will be there for a month. While there we will give a Christmas Party for the kids. If you want to send donations, send them now so you don't have to do priority mail.

Update from Vicki (Safe Homes For Children)

We are home. We accomplished so much. Here are some pictures of the kids from the tutorial program. They had a welcome time for us when we first got there on Fri. They had a bunch of pictures and sang us some songs. They love us and appreciate the help we are giving them. They are such sweet children; at least when I am around. We were tired that day so only stayed an hour. There is also a picture of the wonderful cabinets that Guatemala Children's Project made for us. They are full of the donations they gave us. If I had not had kids here in states that I love and precious grandchildren, I would have stayed down there.

Vicki
Director Safe Homes for Children

Casa de Sion PASSED inspection!!

Great News!!! One of the orphanages (Casa de Sion) we are working with that has been trying to get it's doors open because they were waiting for government inspections has just been cleared by the inspectors. This is wonderful news that will allow them to open their doors very soon to take in neglected & unwanted children. With this news our need is greater then ever for financial support. If you are in a position to give any amount please do so today by clicking the donate button above.

Thanks for your support
Mike Mangum

Great News!

Great news everyone, The baby malnutrition program has been in need of baby formula and it has been difficult to get it there because of the size and weight of it so we were going to send money to buy it at the super market but fortunately Ken has found a supplier in Guatemala that we can buy it from at a discounted price. This is great news because it will ensure they won’t run out. We have a lot of babies relying on our program, without it many would surely die of starvation since their mothers can not produce milk for them.

We appreciate all of the past support from many of you. Since we can purchase the formula in Guatemala for less then it costs here your financial support is more important then ever before. Please consider donating today.

New Logo!

As part of the changes we are making to our organization we have changed our logo.