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April, 2006
BWF’s New Pilot
Project in Guatemala!
Hi All!
As some of you know, I am adopting a baby girl,
three months old from Guatemala and hope to bring
her home very soon! While in Guatemala, I decided to
pilot a project in one of the local orphanages to
help the children who have been abandoned and now
suffer from institutional syndrome as well as
failure to thrive. The orphanage we selected is
Hogar Casa Allegria (House of Joy). Well it is
anything but a House of Joy. The children range in
ages from birth (literally a few days old!) to 7
years. After being there in late March and working
with the children, we found there are things the
orphanage desperately needs in order to help the
children. It is a government run orphanage and we
are the only organization providing any assistance
to them. What that means is the orphanage is very
poor. When we gave the caretakers a huge bag of
donations - clothes, diapers, toys, baby formula and
cereal, they started to cry not over the clothes
(even though the children were in need) but over the
food items. They told us they often do not have
enough food to last the month and they cried
thanking us for nutritious food for the children.
After spending a week with the children, I am now
asking you to help us gather some more things to
bring to these most vulnerable children. We are
collecting the following:
-
baby cereal - any kind
-
baby & toddler formula - any brand - they mix it
with other food so it will help provide
nutrition
-
powdered milk
-
oatmeal
-
malt o meal (or anything like that!)
-
powdered juice mix (something with vitamins - no
kool-aid please)
-
liquid baby & toddler vitamins
-
chewable children's vitamins
-
infant & children's medicines - over the counter
- they do not have a doctor or nurse at the
orphanage and the caretakers have to use adult
dosage medicines for the children.
-
any vitamin supplements!
-
anything that is nutritious and can be mixed
with water!
In
addition, we are looking to take more musical
instruments (for toddlers), baby toys, books in
Spanish, touch and feel books and toys, clothing
(gently used is fine) for sizes 0-7, and shoes for
kids - any sizes and gently worn is fine.
We will also take any small toys for any age range -
there are many children in need in the many
orphanages and we have been going around Guatemala
City passing out the toys that are not appropriate
for our program. Believe me, nothing will go to
waste! The little toys from the kids' meals are
perfect! If you have too many of them piled up at
your house, please send them over! or consider
asking your local fast food restaurant to give you
some to donate - they often will. We received over
300 toys from fast food restaurants in our area.
The young Guatemalan lady assisting us in developing
our program as well as helping us meet the different
orphanage directors is Sonia Tejeda. She and her two
wonderful sisters, Andrea and Lucia, also work with
a crisis pregnancy center. They would be grateful
for any gently worn maternity clothes and prenatal
vitamins.
Having said how poor the country is and how much
need we saw, I must add how gracious and kind the
people are. We enjoyed working with the caretakers
at Hogar Casa Allegria, as well as, Sonia and her
lovely sisters! We loved how they soaked up the
ideas and techniques we brought to them and
immediately implemented everything they learned.
They took all of the donations and began
distributing things to the children. It was truly a
magical week and I cannot wait to get back to
Guatemala, not only to see my new daughter, but to
visit the caring people of Guatemala who are trying
to make a difference in their community.
Take care and thank you for your help and support!
Tracy
PS: Please remember your donations are tax
deductible! Send your donations and your contact
information to:
The Brent Woodall Foundation for Exceptional
Children
Orphanage Program
106 Denton Tap Road
Suite 210-333
Coppell, Texas 75019
469-879-0877
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