Nicole, 7 years old, weighed 28 pounds when she was admitted for nutritional rehab last week. A team of volunteer nurses met Nicole and her family in the mountains days before Christmas. Her smile says it all ... 😊
Thank you for sharing your year-end gifts to help children like Nicole!
https://4agc.com/donation_pages/44f9ef75-3af2-4617-9ef1-be482de89d2e
Sperro Mission Team
We welcomed new friends from Toronto, Canada this weekend. TheSperro Group, led by Greg O'Rio, is here to help with the construction projects on campus. They've also brought many much-needed items for our children. Thank you friends!
We welcome Nelby, a 5 year old little girl from the community of La virtud, she suffer from malnutrition, parasites and anemia, please pray for her recovery so she can go back to her loving family.
Our campus was blessed by a mission team from the Mend a Child Foundation lead by Dr. Tom and Calle Wieg last week. During their visit they constructed a sidewalk from the Children's Home to the Chapel & main kitchen. This special proyect was made to facilitate the mobility of Jenny - who uses a leg braces and a walker, and Lily - who uses a wheel chair to get around. The team also worked on the Admin/Temp Clinic building by pouring concrete for an external sidewalk and the bathrooms for the outclinic patients. It was a great experience for the children to have this group of old friends and "extended family" visiting our Home again.
These last days have been full of activities and holiday spirit in our Campus. Our Children and Staff prepared a beautiful program which was held in the church where many members of our family gathered together from far and near to celebrate Christmas. We also received the Christmas gifts that were sent from the Oakhurst and Mariposa Church in CA, that were specially prepared for our Children! And with them the special visit of Dr. Tom and his family, as well as the SIMS group from Loma Linda! Happy holidays to you!
On this cold and rainy Thursday - Thanksgiving Day - we had a delicious bean soup served steaming hot with rice and corn tortillas. We are grateful for good food to eat and for our friends across the miles. We wish you a LOVE-FILLED THANKSGIVING DAY
The dream of a new school became a reality for more than one hundred little ones who have been meeting in a temporary lean-to for several years in the near-by communities of Las Palmas and La Torre. Pan American Health Service donated a lovely hill-top site for an architect with Schools for the Children of the World of Mears, MI, to coordinate and assist the efforts of the children’s parents, the Yibrin family and our local municipality of Santa Cruz to build the three-room school. Construction began in February with the students and their families providing the unskilled labor. Working together, the school was finished and inaugurated on July 12, 2013.
After watching them grown through the years, our hearts were filled with pride and great joy to witness Patty, Ana Elsi and Dinora receive their university degrees in Nursing. Ana Elsi completed her degree with a thesis to become a licenced nurse. Having achieved her dream of becoming a profesional nurse she is now joining our work team at Servicio Panamericano de Salud (PAHS Honduras). Meanwhile Patty and Dinora will return to their university in Costa Rica, UNADECA, to complete their degree to be licenced nurses also. We are deeply grateful to all our supporters who have made this great achievement possible for our girls! A special thanks to those who sponsored their scholarships Mend a Child Foundation, Dr. Larry & Jean LaClair, Paul & Sheryl Selivanoff, Dr. Carlos & Graci Japas and John Beldin.
Seventy students graduated from the Dr. Stephen Youngberg Technical Vocational School on December 6. The graduation ceremony took place in the lovely facilities of the local university campus of Universidad Cristiana Nuevo Milenio. The graduates received certifications and diplomas in Auto Mechanics, Sewing, Wood Carving, Wood Working and the EDUCATODOS program - 6th and 9th grades. The joy and pride of the students and families was a pleasure to behold and it fills the PAHS team with great satisfaction to know that we are helping to break the cycle of poverty through education.
It is a great source of joy to witness the graduation of 6 of our young people! Thanks to our alliance with the Mend-a-Child Foundation, PAHS has the honor of seeing Josue, Johana, Yeimi, Stephany, Gaby and Yini receive their secondary school diplomas on 24 de Noviembre from Centro Educacional Adventista. They are now eligible to enter University in search of their dreams. Josue will pursue a degree in theology, while all the girls wish to pursue careers in the medical professions: Johana and Stephany want to be nurses; Yeimi wants to be a dentist and Yini wants to be physician. We are sure they have what it takes to succeed in their chosen fields!
Christmas arrived a month early for the little ones of our Casita Feliz Nutritional Rehab Program thanks to a group of employees from two different HSBC locations, one in San Pedro Sula – Primera Avenida - and the other of Villanueva. This generous and loving team of givers – some of whom brought their own children along - shared presents and supplies along with a wonderful spirit of joy and love. Seated around the Central Plaza’s Christmas Tree the children’s faces lit up as one by one they were called by name to receive a beautifully wrapped gift. The fun continued with a hot lunch and a delicious cake which the team served the little ones. It was a lovely and unforgettable gesture of love which filled our hearts with gratitude and happiness!
A partnership of CARE and Cargill of Honduras in support of a group of Agriculturist in various development programs made a generous donation of food and produce to PAHS/Servicio Panamericano de Salud in an event which took place on Friday November 8 on our campus. It was a time to get acquainted and to become familiarized with the work to expand and support agriculture in Honduras and for our benefactors to see first-hand what PAHS does to support the most vulnerable of the population. The donated food items will be used in our Nutrition and Home programs. We are grateful to each of these groups for their great generosity and for being socially responsible companies that share of their bounty with our children!
Johana, Josue, Yeimi and Gaby
Johana, Josue, Yeimi and Gaby completed their professional practicum or internships after finishing their course of study for secondary school which included a technical specialty in computers. The young people spent six weeks at different companies in San Pedro Sula, learning about what it takes to be a professional on a team and to be a part of the work force. They were successful in meeting their objectives and received good reviews and a few even had invitations to join the permanent staff. We are proud of each of them for setting a high standard and for the great impression they left at their respective places of practice.
September 15 is a special date for our country, Honduras, as well as for all the Central American countries as it commemorates Independence Day. This is why our children dressed in patriotic fervor, took to the streets in an organized parade hosted by their school to celebrate our nation’s Independence Day. Set to the cadence of their school’s Marching Band our children of all ages participated in different squads all with the intent to commemorate this special season as they wore the pride of their country on their faces, pride at being born in such a beautiful nation as Honduras!
The month of September provides many opportunities for fun to our children. Besides the excitement building up to the Independence Day parades mid-month, September 10 is a day set aside to celebrate children. Piñatas, sweets, games, gifts and many visitors were all part of the Child’s Day celebrations on our campus this year for the children of the Casita Feliz as well as the Homes. It is a special time set aside to recognize the love and joy that these special gifts of God bring to our World!
Centro Educacional Adventista - the educational center our children attend for private education - celebrated their 50th Anniversary this month, and as part of the celebration our children participated in a parade honoring the milestone of their alma mater. The students were happy to be part of this special celebration and with great pride marched on behalf of their school through the street of our local town, Peña Blanca.
Three new little patients have been admitted to our Nutritional Rehabilitation Center during the month of August. Without a doubt they will recover from the fight they are waging against the malnutrition that has stolen their health, and they are a reminder that makes us anxious to find more little ones in need of support for their fight against hunger. Two of the children are siblings Cindy and Jesus, ages 4 and 2 years respectively; they are from one of the poorest areas in our country and a place in which malnutrition is still rampant. Our third little patient is Michael, 2 years old, who is from a nearby town close to Lake Yojoa. Soon we will see their smiles emerge; please keep them in your prayers as they reach this milestone of recovery from malnutrition.
Our children had the pleasure of experiencing an unforgettable, educational and fun trip to the Joya Grande Zoo in a nearby town. The trip was sponsored thanks to the generosity of Peter and Beth Malgadey of Florida, friends of Bonnie Gray a faithful volunteer of over a year. Our children were able to see animals they had previously seen only in photographs such as a lion, giraffes, tigers, leopards, hippopotamus, and crocodiles among others.
