July 19, 2009

Weekly food for the kids

Brayan with this weeks food

Brayan with this weeks food

Thanks to those who donate money, each week we go shopping and buy essentials for the kids.  You can see Brayan with the bags we bought up today.  Me and Brayan only have so many hands so we cant carry too much up each time, but those bags have the following:

  • 4 bags of sugar
  • 10 pounds of spaghetti
  • Big bottle of mouthwash
  • Big bottle of bleach (for washing floors etc)
  • Big bottle of cleaning liquid
  • 2 bottles of cooking oil
  • 4 large tomato paste sachets
  • 3 bars of soap
  • 2 cans of spaghetti/pasta sauce
  • and something else i cant remember nor read from the hand-written receipt
  • Total cost: around NZ$70

The list i made while at the kids home today of things that they need is as follows:

  • Toilet paper
  • Milk powder (for Heidi) – flippin expensive at around NZ$35 for a large tin that lasts around a week
  • Purified water (thanks to Carol from Canada we supply purified drinking water each month – otherwise they drink dirty tap water which comes from a river and comes out of the tap brown… everyone who can afford it drinks purified water)
  • Maize (the main food of their diet is corn tortillas, from donations we buy 100 pounds as often as possible – 100 pounds lasts around a week) costs around NZ$35
  • Beans (the second part of their primary diet is beans – they need lots)
  • Chicken stock (a big jar of chicken stock only lasts a week)
  • Chicken meat (they rarely get to eat chicken)
  • Mince meat (ditto)
  • Eggs
  • Cheese
  • More soap
  • Corn flakes (a treat)
  • Coffee
  • Bread
  • Gas bottle refill (around the same price as in NZ)

Last week we also bought some cake mixes that are simple to whip up which will be a treat for the kids.  We usually bring up a bag of lollies once a week too.

The kids never have enough good food.  The supplies we bring up are to supplement the basics of corn tortillas and beans but as you can imagine with 40+ kids it doesnt last long.  Something else they dont get enough of are vegetables.

We could really do with more constant donations for the food supplies.  If a few more people could donate around $10 (or more or less) per week then it would mean we could bring up more food during the week, and make sure they regularly have things like vegetables and meat.  All the bank account details are on the donations page, if you have online banking it should be really easy to set up an automatic payment.

Rafaél needs an operation

Rafaél with his mum and twin brother

Rafaél with his mum and twin brother Gabriél

Rafaél is a 5 and a half year old boy who lives with his mum, twin brother, two older brothers, and older sister at the orphanage.  He is the one on the left in the photo here – the smaller of the two boys.

He has a pain in his jaw and last year the local doctors told him he needed to go to the hospital to get it checked out, so I arranged for them to go to Chiquimula (Guatemala) which is just over the border about an hour and half away from here.  There, the doctors removed a tooth and thought that was the end of it.  Since then he has still been experiencing pain and often doesnt eat because of it.

A couple of days ago Marivél (his mum) took him to a medical brigade that was in town.  They checked him out and told her there is something making his glands grow larger than they should be (not having any medical knowledge besides putting on a plaster im not sure if something was lost in translation… i dont know if its something causing the gland to swell or if something is making the gland be bigger than its supposed to be).  The doctor doesnt know what is causing it and thinks there could possibly be some sort of tumor behind the gland – on his left jaw – causing it.  The same thing is making hearing out of his left ear very difficult.

The doctor recommended he go to a specific hospital in Tegucigalpa (the capital of Honduras) ASAP to get tests done to find out what is causing the trouble, and to get it removed or fixed.  The sooner the better.

We are unsure of the costs at this stage because we dont know exactly what it is, but for now, the main cost will probably be the trip to the city and lodging while in the city.

If you are able to make a small donation to help us fund the trip and hospital fees then please do so.  All the information (for both NZers and people from other countries) for transferring money to the bank account can be found on the donations page.

Any help would be much appreciated.  Please specify that the donation is for “Rafael” if possible.  Thank you very much.

July 15, 2009

Lots of undies

Mum was over here for a couple of weeks.  She just left yesterday.  It was wonderful to have her here.

One thing she bought with her was a whole lot of brand new undies for the kids in the home.  It took a while to get them to the kids because of some issues with access lately, but we got them to the kids on the weekend and they were so pleased.  They ran around with them on their heads, some kids were very protective to make sure no-one else would take away their beautiful new pair of undies.  Unfortunately due to new rules about photography there are no photos to show you, but im sure you can imagine it.

We also bought up lots of food supplies.  If you are able to help with supporting these kids then please do so.

Ellen in Honduras

Ellen is a friend who lives here in Copán Ruinas.  She does a lot of work helping out those less fortunate.  Have a look at her website at http://projectschoolsupplies.org