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New Health Program
In the fall of 2006 MHL embarked on a new health
program in the El Guante and Suyatel clinic areas - family health insurance
for the poorest of the poor that could not pay the yearly rate of $20.00 per
family. MHL currently supports both clinics in various ways throughout
a normal year with medicines, equipment, and sometimes even salaries.
This new program, however, addresses one of the areas greatest needs.
Currently the Ministry of Health of Honduras, along with the Italian
government and money from those families able to pay, funds both of these
clinics. However, the money to run the clinics falls short of that
which is necessary. As many as 250 families in the immediate area can not afford the $20 necessary to get them full services.
Our clinic doctors, nurses, and staff continue to treat everyone, however,
with fewer monies than needed. Thus, the creation of this new program.
With a $20.00 bill you can provide health care to an entire family for a
year. MHL will then send you a photo of the family, their names and
ages, and the village they are from. To get involved just
call Richard E. Seivert at MHL, 1-712-546-4181 or email him at
rseivert2@yahoo.com. Richard
Seivert, director of MHL, commented that one lady last December, was looking
for special Christmas gifts for her nieces and nephews - wanting to teach
them about their role in helping the poor, so she purchased five families' health
insurance and gave them as Christmas gifts. She reported that the kids
involved were very excited, knowing their Christmas gift was helping others.
(For more information on our latest projects
click here.)
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Wherever there
is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness.
~ Seneca |
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It is our mission to attack poverty in the
'third poorest country' in the western hemisphere through water
projects, food program initiatives, and health care. |
MHL also continues with one of our most important programs -
clean, drinkable water for many villages. Paid mostly by Local,
District, and International Rotary money through 'Water For Life' Le Mars
Rotary, MHL accomplishes a great deal. We finished major
projects in Zalitre and Nueva Suyapa with the villagers doing their own
work. The
Gehlen High School student team were able to bring clean
water to the village of La Canada in the spring of 2008. The 2007
Gehlen High School student team brought clean water to Moya , paid entirely by the
Brookings, South Dakota, Rotary Club. In the fall of 2007 the
Briar
Cliff University team worked on a water project in Nueva Esperanza, and in the fall
the 2006 Briar Cliff
University team brought water to each village home in Cedros Abajo, paid by
both Briar Cliff and MHL. The newest team, the
Sisters of St. Francis
of Dubuque, IA, finished a water project in Positos. Our other water projects
over the last few years have involved less
complicated water issues: we paid for a pump at our clinic in El Guante, a
new pump in the village of Jiniapa, and water pipes for the village of
Trozos. In each case we expect the water to be chlorinated and able to
be used for drinking. Most projects require the digging of a well and
constructing a water tower with a tank, purchasing a pump, digging trenches
from the water tank to each village home, laying water pipes, and hooking up
the system. We need your help and support to continue bringing clean,
drinkable water to those in need.
Kids Against Hunger Program
Another one of our programs involves direct food aid to those in Honduras
most in need. MHL teams up with Gehlen Catholic School and helps pay
for the shipment of food to Honduras through the Kids Against Hunger program
of Minnesota and Iowa. Each year the entire Gehlen student body
assembles packages of KAH meals. The meals are comprised of rice, soy
flour, dried vegetables, salt, sweet dairy whey, protein, soybean oil, and
flavorings. The spring packing event at Gehlen produced over 194,000 meals.
Combined with meals from other packing events, we
were able to ship two containers of this food to Honduras, one in late May
and the other in early June. Without the
network established by MHL, we would not be able to do this. This
shipment of food, two 40-foot containers, will eventually be distributed to
eight different locations in Honduras: Tolupan of Montana de la Flor, El
Guante Clinic, Suyatel Clinic, Hogar Tierra Santa Orphanage, Malnutrition
Center Sulaco, 50 HIV Kids in Progresso, 60 street children in Progresso,
and the Clinic in San Juan. After two years' shipment of food to
Honduras, the information we are getting about the food's effect is
outstanding.
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Faith takes the word
IMPOSSIBLE
out of our vocabulary. |
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Charity should begin at home but
should not stay there.
~ Philip Brooks |
Blanket Program
Once again this calendar year MHL purchased and distributed blankets as
part of our ongoing blanket program in Montana de la Flor. The need
among the Tolupan in MDLF is great, and MHL will continue this valuable
program. We always need small baby blankets as well.
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A person's world is only as big as
their heart. |
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~ Tanya A. Moore |
During the past two years, MHL has been
involved in many other and varied interests. A few examples of those
are: purchased powdered milk for the orphans in Hogar Tierra Santa, helped
pay for a shipment of Kids Against Hunger meals to the east African nation
of Tanzania, gave direct money aid to fund the malnutrition center in Sulaco,
paid for eye surgery for one local man from El Guante, purchased a dental
x-ray unit for use in the clinics of El Guante and Suyatel, paid for water
tests in twelve different villages, constructed a pila for a poor rural
family outside El Guante, rebuilt a house for the Zuniga family from Jiniapa, brought Ligia Erazo back to the National Institute of Health in
Bethesda, Maryland, for her annual check-up, and brought Illich Rivera and
his parents to the Mayo Clinic for extensive tests in the hopes of finding a
cure for his illness.
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