Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Child of the Week!

Every week I will be posting information about a child who is waiting for sponsorship. Some children have been waiting for over a year! You can also check out the photo album on Facebook where I will be posting more pictures of the children.


This week we have Joel Antonio Lastor Xitamul #26. He is eight years old and lives in the newest village of Saquiy. He is the youngest of nine children. Joel lives with his family in a one room house with a dirt floor and walls made out of wooden boards and pieces of tin. They do not have access to clean drinking water or a bathroom. His father works as a day laborer and his salary provides only about $3.30 each day to support his whole family. Please help Joel and his family out by being his sponsor!

Friday, October 18, 2013

Update from Haiti

In Haiti, work in Canaan continues as the Haitian workers are finishing up a latrine for the four families who recently moved in to the finished houses. 

We are all missing Patrick. He worked so hard and got so much done while he was here. From shelves, chairs, tables, and cabinets, to a countertop to hold the new kitchen sink, he built something for just about every section of PID. We had a little party for him on his last day.

Currently Alison and Lynn are here. They will be doing a midwife class for a new group of midwives, mostly from Bon Repos starting Monday. The class is so popular and needed, the sign ups filled up to over the max of 20 students right away, we are already starting signups for next session when they will return. 

Yesterday Genois took Alison and I to a new location for a mobile clinic called Molhea. It's a very poor community right by the dump. The houses are all made of tarp and tin and the water is polluted by the dump. The people there have lots of need and no medical care. They were very grateful for the clinic, and because we had to turn so many people away, we offered to return on Saturday so we can see the rest of the patients. 

Today we closed early the clinic a little early for Lynn to provide some education for our staff. Lynn offered some education to our staff about women's health, vaginal infections, and STDs. It was a lively dialogue, and Lynn was able to answer all of our burning questions.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Visiting Saqui

Yesterday Miguel and I went to visit the newest of the PID Villages. Last year we started accepting children for the sponsorship program from Saqui and we have also installed quite a few water filters. This new village is in pretty bad shape. It seems like it is in the middle of the jungle! You have to drive through sugar can fields to get there. The houses are mostly wood or bamboo. There is no running water or drainage. The people who live there use the nearby river for bathing, washing clothes and going to the bathroom. Next year we hope to build a few houses in Saqui for the families of sponsored children.



Friday, October 4, 2013

Upcoming operations

We are working with a local organization, the mayor of San Antonio and generous PID donors to help fund the operations of children with cleft lip and cleft palate. Our first two on the list with the surgeon in Antigua are 5 yr old Estefany and 4 month old Wilfredo. Each surgery will cost around $550. Donations can be sent to the PID office in Ipswich, MA.

 Estefany is five and was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate. She had two surgeries on her lip when she was a newborn and has also received 3 separate surgeries to close her palate. Unfortunately the palate surgery was not done correctly and it makes it extremely difficult for Estefany to learn how to talk. She is shy and a little stubborn, but she is also very sweet and loving. Dr. Asensio is going to reconstruct her palate and after that she will begin speech therapy and orthodontic treatment. 


Wilfredo is four months old. We first met him two days after he was born when his grandmother and a neighbor brought him to the clinic. His mother is seventeen and Wilfredo is her third child. They were worried that she wouldn't be able to care for him because they couldn't afford milk and wanted to give him away. We assured the family that we would help them out along the way and that staying with his mother was the best option for Wilfredo. He is a smiley little guy with the biggest sweetest eyes who loves drinking his bottle! He has reached the required 10 pounds and Dr. Asensio will be repairing his cleft lip in the upcoming weeks.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Exciting Days ahead

It is getting harder and harder not to let out the secret of the location. I can't wait until Nov 9.  Everyday we receive new guesses. Only two have it right so far. It is a big step for PID. Everything is confirming that this is the right location. We even have am office and a place to live for the new field director (which we will be searching for soon) .