RELIEF FOR THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 

 
In January 2008, Vicki and Wayne went to the Domincan Republic with our first delivery of medicines. We contacted the Fundacion Cruz Jiminian and asked Dr. Cruz Jiminian how we could help with the 200 plus patients he sees there a day. His answer: antibiotics, Tylenol, ibuphofen and other medicines. Through our partnership with Direct Relief International, we hand carried all of these medicines through customs and right to his office. He uses the free medicines to treat very poor patients who would otherwise have no medical care at all. When he opened the cases, the doctor said (translated from Spanish) “Yesterday, our pharmacy ran out of all the antibiotics and Tylenol that we give away free.” There was now in front of him at least enough medicines for 1,000 patients. When we returned in February with an equal amount of supplies, the doctor was treating a post operative 2 year old boy with some of the liquid antibiotics we had brought in January. He showed us pictures of the three operations the boy had to fix a major birth defect, all done at no cost. The child would only survive with free post-op antibiotics to prevent infection. We started the cycle again in May with another load of medicines hand picked by Dr. Cruz Jiminian worth $75,000. These will also save many lives.  

  Dr Cruz Jiminian with two year old boy.

 Near Punta Cana, a rich resort area in the Dominican Republic, there is a very poor section where the Hatian immigrants and casual laborors live with their families. On our first visit, the public water had just gone on that morning for the first time in 15 days. It stayed on for 45 minutes. A man and his family over a six year period had painstakingly built a two room school for the children. He teaches 141 children in four grades, 1st-4th in two sessions to get the most use out of the two rooms. There is a waiting list of 340 children who would like to go to the school but can’t join due to lack of space. We are helping in two ways. After a direct request from the founder, we took the graduating class on 19th May by bus to Santo Domingo, the captial city three and a half hours away. The children have never been out of the immediate area and know nothing of their own country or culture. Secondly, we are working with them to try and build two more classrooms on top of the two already built so starting in September they will be able to add many of the children on the waiting list.

   SCHOOL IN FRIUSA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

HELP FOR THE ELDERLY

It is a difficult situation to care for the abandoned elderly in India. We could not leave them lying on the ground in the monsoon rain. When we tried to rent a house or building to care for them, no one would rent to us in case someone died in the home. We tried in three areas and were told it was very inauspicious to have a person die in your place, as no one would rent it after us. Instead, we moved the elderly into our children’s home and created a family. We started with five elderly people, three women and two men. We decided tohire one widow as the cook for the children. Instead of waiting to die, the elderly are surrounded by children, laughter and company. One man who has very poor eyesight is lead by a child to his chair at mealtime. It isreally beautiful to see the melding of generations, who have each had loss, into a family of children and grandparents. In June at the start of the new school year, we will increase numbers up to ten elderly, mostly widows. As we are also increasing the number of children who have lost one or more parent, our family will keep  getting larger.  

  A COUPLE IN THEIR 70'S AT OUR HOME              

NEW PROJECT OF SHEPHERD VILLAGERS 

Until March of this year, the worst poverty we had ever seen was in Africa, with distended bellies and no medical care. That changed with our trip to India this spring. Far from Ahmednagar city in a rural sheep herding village in India called Dhablepuri, we saw the equal of such poverty. The danger of poverty is that its face changes each time you see it. In Dhablepuri, the children’s skin is malformed and speckled from malnutrition. There are two wells in the whole spread out village and one goes mostly dry in the hot season, just when you need water the most. The families pick up diseases like malaria, typhoid and meningitis much more than other areas because of their contact with their sheep. We have one boy recovering from tuberculosis meningitis, which put him in a hospital at our cost for months. As his father has no use of his legs and his mother is partially crippled, this would have been a crushing blow to loss their son. He is now recovering at home and our doctor does home visits each week with new medicine and food for the family. In all we are starting in June with 55 children and two disabled families providing food and medicines and nutritional and vitamin supplements for the children. We are buying the cooking supplies, uniforms, plates, cups, school supplies and hiring our cook and village supervisor to be fully ready to start 1 June. Wayne will be at the village 17 June to make sure everything is working to the children’s’ benefit.

   FREE FOOD AND MEDICINES FOR A FAMILY