We did our quarterly evaluation of the children this month; weighing them and evaluating their level of nutrition. The devotional was taken from Ephesians 6; teaching on the armor of God. Our health talk was to explain how to properly disinfect fruit and vegetables before eating them. Every family received a plastic tub and a bottle of bleach; to have what is needed to be able to properly accomplish this. We do this annually and each month the families receive bags of bleach to add to their bottle at home.
Our project manager came to each of the 6 monthly meetings to talk about the home gardens that will be distributed in May. He teaches the people how to do raised vegetable beds, how to plant and care for their seeds that will be planted, how to deal with problems that may affect the health of their plants, etc. We will share more about this next month but we wanted our families to prepare an area to be ready to plant.
Another extra project that we are able to take on is the building of 11 latrines. We have 11 families that have no sort of latrine for their families, not even having a family member close by to make use of theirs etc. I am going to list the code numbers of the candidates so that sponsors can be aware of their family receiving this benefit; as it will not be listed on the latest Family History Sheet that was sent at the beginning of the year. The following children will be receiving a latrine: LCH062, LO077, AM081, TS131, LCH194, MT047, A038, A048, M078, TI116, LP132. Our project manager talked to each of these families during our April meetings to let them know that they will be receiving a latrine and how to prepare the hole that is needed; something that we require of the family as their participation. While the families are digging their holes, our project manager will be constructing the metal enclosures that will house the latrines. We hope to get these completed before the rainy season begins.
We interviewed each family this month; to ask how their chickens are doing and those that received a baby pig for Christmas. This information will help us to make future decisions on what is the best way that we can assist and support our Embrace families. We also have 38 families that have come into the Embrace program within the last year and we will be doing “home visits” to confirm the information that we have been given for their personal data and to be aware of any “special needs” that we were not aware of.
Our notifications for our “Middle of the Year Blessing” (MYB) have been sent out. This allows our sponsors to purchase a pair of new shoes for their sponsored child and to give some extra too, if they desire; to make sure that all of the children will receive shoes….even those who do not yet have a sponsor or whose sponsor does not choose to participate. Help us make this be a blessing that ALL of the Embrace children can receive! You can see that there are a number of areas that were seen to this month; all with the goal to properly oversee the health of each child that is in the program and to do all that we can to see their improvement. Our Embrace sponsors help us to make all of this possible!
