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.)

Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness.                   ~ Seneca

   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.  The Gehlen High School student team was able to bring clean water to the village of El Junco in the spring of 2009.  In the fall of 2008 the Briar Cliff University team and  the Sisters of St. Francis, Dubuque, IA, worked and completed the water project in Las Guamas. 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. 

	40,000 children throughout the world die every day from malnutrition, starvation, & hunger-related diseases One child dies every 5 seconds due to hunger-related causes Malnutrition severely affects a child's intellectual development 80% of people in rural Honduras use surface water sources, causing many health problems 50,000 Honduras children under the age of 5 die each year from water-related diseases 3 billion of world's population live on less than $2 per day, including Honduras

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 Kids Against Hunger Le Mars to pay for the shipment of food to Honduras through the Kids Against Hunger program. (Click on Kids Against Hunger to watch a video interview about this project.) 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 142,560 meals.  Combined with meals from other packing events, MHL and Kids Against Hunger LeMars, were able to ship three full containers plus 4 additional pallets of this food to Honduras, totaling 912,384 meals. Without the network established by MHL, we would not be able to do this.  These shipments of food were distributed to eight different locations in Honduras: Tolupan of Montana de la Flor, El Guante Clinic, Suyatel Clinic, Malnutrition Center Sulaco, 50 HIV Kids in Progresso, 60 street children in Progresso, the Clinic in San Juan, and the slums of Tegucigalpa.  After three years' shipment of food to Honduras, the information we are getting about the food's effect is outstanding. You can now watch our latest packing event, which took place in Elkton, SD, and was sponsored by Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church.

Faith takes the word IMPOSSIBLE out of our vocabulary.
	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.

A person's world is only as big as their heart.
~ Tanya A. Moore

During the past three years, MHL has been involved in many other and varied interests.  A few examples of those can be found by clicking on MHL projects.

Love and kindness are never wasted.    They always make a difference.
~ Marian Rogers

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