October Update

Greetings from the Child Sponsorship Team!

The month of October seems to have flown by! Already, we are approaching our October “Milk Day,” the two days at the end of every month in which we meet with mothers and children for health consultations and allocate the next month’s worth of milk, oatmeal, and vitamins. Each and every Milk Day is interesting, as we are allowed the time to meet with families one-on-one in order to learn about their health situations, progress in school, and general well-being.

Another interesting day for our team, Wednesday is when we hold our weekly health charla - health talk. Every Wednesday mothers of children in our program are required to attend these charlas in order to learn better health practices and then help spread the health education they receive to their families and friends. Charlas are provided by the nurse Esmerelda, ministers of the Health Department, or visiting teams. Last month, topics included gynecological health, infections, and a general well-being charla given by visiting nurses with Austin Samaritans, a partner organization who help to fund the Clinic Casa Base de Salud. The gynecological charla was given in preparation for the week in which the nurses and health professionals came with Austin Samaritans to offer free pap smears to all interested mothers. All in all, about 13 mothers received these needed services.

Our normal routine consists of visiting families bi-weekly in groups of two. Amelia and Jan Margaret take one route on Tuesday, with Lauren Page and Anina visiting the other side of Chureca. On Thursday, we switch sides and visit the remaining mothers. Talking with the mothers every week, we are developing closer relationships with the families and primary caregiver of every child in our program. This has proved helpful as we seek to treat our children’s health needs; we encourage the mothers to bring their health concerns to the local clinic and follow up with Esmerelda. We hope that by getting to know the mothers, we can encourage them and improve our services in La Chureca as we better ascertain their nutritional needs.

For the upcoming month, I will be updating the blog weekly with stories from our visits in hopes that each of you can get better insight into the situation in La Chureca and the families in our program.

Until then, dale pues hombre!

Child Sponsorship

Butterflies

Three days a week, I walk into La Chureca to visit the families involved in Manna’s Child Sponsorship. Two days a week, I trample the trash, hold my breath through the smoke, and sweat under the sun that is endured by Churecans day in and day out. Two days a week, I pass children carrying loads of trash on their backs to be recycled. I greet mothers suffering from ever-present illness. I avoid mangy farm animals who look more like walking nightmares than pets or food. I see people dwelling in a veritable hell on earth.

Seven days a week, I hope for a way out. I coordinate efforts with the Child Sponsorship team to enact new measures to increase the efficiency of our program. I look for new sponsors. I dream for a better life for the children who know of nothing more than life in Chureca.

Every week I visit a family with precious little girls who have captured my heart with their funny haircuts, sweet little pipsqueak voices, and increasing desire to play and be held. They live on the border where the neighborhood merges into the dump, and the view from their front gate is trash, smoke, and the occasional flea-bitten mongrel. But one day, as I held one of the tiny girls in my arms, she looked out over her shoulder, pointed to the trash, and said “¡Hay flores!” There are flowers. Look! Flowers! Do you see them? We’ve got lots of flowers, and animals too! She showed me the beauty she finds in her life, the only life she’s got. Where I saw heaps of trash and green plants growing in puddles of sludge, she saw beautiful flowers. She then ran down to a row of weeds growing along the wall of a nearby home, and pointed out more “flowers.” Her joy was contagious, but as I picked her back up, acknowledging the beauty of the flowers, I fought back quickly forming tears. The injustice of what some children have or do not have is a heartbreaking reality I must face every week.

If she can find beauty in La Chureca, I can too. I find beauty in the people who work to provide for their children and in the mothers who consistently attend health charlas (talks) to learn better health practices. I am encouraged by the mother who makes her child change clothes three times a day to keep clean. I am impressed with mothers I see sweeping the entrance to their homes, cleaning in spite of the fact they live in close proximity to a dump (or perhaps cleaning because of said proximity). Not all are like that here, perhaps not all can be, but the ones who fight for themselves always encourage me.

Walking into La Chureca, I notice every day the bright yellow butterflies which twirl about. They are not ashamed of the smoke, the dirt, the trash. They remain a constant reminder of the life that lives here and of the reason Child Sponsorship is so important. The value and dignity of human life necessitates the meeting of basic needs. Through CS, these children are provided a means to better health, quality of life, and increased opportunity for a successful way out of the desperate existence which surrounds them.

Yours,

Jan Margaret

A Letter From Our Team

Where We Work

In Managua, Nicaragua, capital of the second-poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, there is a place so destitute that it stands out against the surrounding poverty.

Life inside Managua’s city dump, known as “La Chureca,” reserves a particularly foul brand of injustice for the children that are born within its confines, living among the trash and smoke. They can be found barefoot, muddy, and often half or completely naked playing in the waste-laden pathways that snake through their tarp and scrap metal homes. Living conditions result in high rates of parasite infection, skin and respiratory disease, anemia, and lead poisoning. Understandably, many children in La Chureca also suffer from varying degrees of malnutrition.

What We Do

Manna Project International’s Child Sponsorship Program targets severely malnourished children in their most critical stages of development. By providing vitamins, milk, and oatmeal for each child, we are able to reverse the harsh sentence of malnutrition. Our children also receive regular consults with a pediatrician, as well as any blood work and medication necessary for treatment of illness.

MPI partners with Nicaraguan-run community clinic Casa Base de Salud to host weekly health classes to which a guardian of our sponsored children is accountable. Growth charts and weekly visits with mothers allow us to determine when a child is able to maintain an acceptable nutrition level, at which point the child is graduated from our program.

Sponsoring A Child

The Child Sponsorship Program is currently at capacity, but the unyielding conditions of La Chureca constantly bring new cases of malnutrition to our attention. 20 dollars a month allows Manna Project to provide nourishment to a child that would otherwise go without. As our volunteers and Program Directors raise their own funds, every dollar given to Child Sponsorship goes directly to feeding your sponsored child.

To sponsor a child, or for more information, visit Child Sponsorship online at http://www.mannaproject.org/nicaragua-child or e-mail us at childsponsorship@mannaproject.org. For more information on Manna Project International (MPI) visit www.mannaproject.org.

Thank you for taking the time to consider sponsoring a child.

Our sincerest regards,

The Child Sponsorship Team

Chureca Gets A Play Day

The following is an excerpt from our official MPI blog, www.talesofsudorandamor.com, written by PD and CS team member Ian Rountree.

Child Sponsorship's quarterly field trip gave the children and mothers in our nutrition and health education program an afternoon's rest from life in Chureca. It took two buses to get everyone from Chureca to El Salero, or "The Land" in Manna jargon, and back, but it was well worth the trip for everyone. The sponsored kids received lunch and each his or her own children's book, but most importantly rare time to play in clean air and open spaces. Kathy and Halle August's sports complex was the perfect venue. The new Program Directors were particularly thankful that we had time to get to know both the children and mothers in the Child Sponsorship Program, but above all it was a day full of joy. Enabling a child to run, laugh, and play brings joy in a portion that is rarely matched. Here we share some snapshots of Chureca's play day.

Lauren Page "LP" Black attempts to help Maria Antonia simultaneously tackle her fear of swings and cameras.

Andrew Hemby, more commonly referred to as "Andrés" or just "Hemby," being kept from his Gallo Pinto by Heysel and Josué Daniel. Heysel helped us hand out cookies!

Jose Manuel, rarely separated from his faithful backpack, braves the tire swing on his own.

In addition to his undying love for Spiderman, or Hombre Araña,Josué Daniel always brings a laugh when he insists on introducing himself by his full name, Josué Daniel Chávez Ortega.

Hemby gives Jefrey a boost toward the basket.

The children of Chureca are a sincere lesson in the resilience of a child's joy. I suspect that we, the new Program Directors, may find that Manna's sponsored children and students have more to teach us than we ever suspected.

- Ian

Breaking the Ice...

Pictured left to right: Anina Hewey, Lauren Page Black, Ian Rountree, Amelia Graves, Jan Margaret Rogers

Greetings Sponsors, Family, and Friends,

I am pleased to introduce you to the Child Sponsorship team for 2009-2010. This year, our program is led by Amelia Graves, Anina Hewey, Ian Rountree, Jan Margaret Rogers, and Lauren Page Black.

Amelia Graves is a native of Vero Beach, Florida and a graduate of the University of Florida where she studied history with a specialization in Latin America. While studying abroad in Nicaragua she researched the roles of NGOs in Latin America and sustainable development. After college, she taught English in Bangkok, Thailand and worked to develop an English curriculum for New Hope Community Center in Siem Reap, Cambodia. As part of the CS team, Amelia oversees the website, CS photography, and birthday bags. She is currently continuing her education at UF as she pursues a Master’s Degree in Public Health. amelia.graves@mannaproject.org

Anina Hewey, a Barnard College alum, majored in English with a concentration in Creative Writing. During her Junior year she studied abroad in Quito, Ecuador. While there she attended a local university and volunteered in an orphanage. She also performed independent research on child labor in Quito, focusing upon evaluating the interactions between NGOs and working children in the city. With Child Sponsorship, Anina organizes the monthly Milk Day and serves as the primary contact person with the clinic Casa Base de Salud. anina.hewey@mannaproject.org

Ian Rountree graduated from Vanderbilt University this past May with a major in Political Science. While at Vanderbilt, he was the events coordinator for Students Taking Action Now Darfur (STAND), an anti-genocide coalition. With STAND in Nashville he was able to reach out to local Sudanese, Somalian, and Kurd refugee populations. Ian studied abroad in London and traveled throughout China. This past summer he completed an internship in Nashville with MAC Presents. He joins our team as the fundraising director. ian.rountree@mannaproject.org

Jan Margaret Rogers majored in Human and Organizational Development at Vanderbilt University. However, her minors in Spanish and Religious Studies became the driving force for her decision to work in Nicaragua. During college she studied abroad in Madrid, Spain and worked as a staff volunteer for the NGO Los Embajadores in Tijuana, Mexico. Jan Margaret interned with the Juvenile Division of the Nashville Metro Public Defender’s office. This year she is in charge of updating the blog, planning CS field trips, and maintaining charla attendance. In August 2010 she will return to the States to begin her Juris Doctorate. jan.margaret.rogers@mannaproject.org

Lauren Page Black studied Neuroscience and Chemistry at Vanderbilt University and will be attending Medical School in the fall of 2010. At Vanderbilt, she served various leadership positions including President of VUcept and Panhellenic Vice-President for Kappa Alpha Theta. She studied the integration of Eastern and Western Medicine in China and Tibet. The summer before her senior year, Lauren Page worked in a clinic in Kampala, Uganda with HIV+ mothers. This experience was her impetus to defer Medical School for the year to work in Managua with Manna Project. On the CS team, Lauren Page directs sponsor relations and maintains height and weight charts. lauren.page.black@mannaproject.org

In addition to our specific responsibilities, we visit our children every week to ascertain the conditions of the home and family as well as the allocation of the milk, oatmeal, and vitamin supplements. To promote good health, we host weekly charlas (health talks) at the clinic every Wednesday for the guardian of the child. Past charla themes concerned health issues most pertinent to the children and families of La Chureca, including topics such as the flu, diarrhea, intra-family violence, personal hygiene, mental health, and depression. The children in our program receive milk, oatmeal, and vitamins every month on “Milk Day,” the very special time when we track their height and weight and meet for one-on-one consultations. Our hope is that through these efforts we will continue to make progress in eradicating childhood malnutrition in La Chureca.

Feel free to contact any of us to learn more about what we do with Child Sponsorship and Manna Project. If you have any questions or would be interested in sponsoring a child, please email childsponsorship@mannaproject.org. Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to a great and productive year.

Best wishes,

Jan Margaret and the CS team

Managua is a bustling city. On one street you may find paved roads, street lights, stores, and international hotel chains. One block in any other direction is an entirely different story. Nicaragua's socioeconomic status can hardly be described in gradations but rather in polar opposites. There appears to be very little middle class as we might describe it in the states. Instead, the upper class is composed of foreign investors and other immigrants to the country and the Nicaraguan elite who have family legacies of impressive and excessive wealth. On the other side of the spectrum are people who live in cardboard and scrap metal homes, some only surviving on $1 a day.

In a corner of the city is the Managua City dump. Donned the name 'La Chureca' from the Spanish verb 'to scavenge,' La Chureca is home to some 1,000 families. Each day (except Sunday) about 200 trash trucks pour into the dump. Piles upon piles of trash surround these people. Men, women, and children have been born here, raise families here, and will die here. It is their home.

Poverty is a simple word to describe this place. Imagine their situation for one moment: malnourished and naked children run through streets of dirt and trash, while their fathers are off separating and sifting through the trash in search of recyclables (plastics and especially scrap metal) to be sold, and mothers care for and make homes for their family out of the rubble that they can find. In order to make money, people can take the recyclables to be sold outside of the dump. The men are the first to jump on the back of the truck on its drive in, to call dibs on the trash as women climb into the cab of the truck on the way out to prostitute themselves off and make a buck. This is a hellish place to make one's home. Literarly, fires can be found every few yards as the Nicaraguan heat causes the trash to spontaneously combust.

Could you live here? Could you even imagine human beings living amongst the disgusting trash, animal carcassas, and voltures? Would mankind ever deserve such torture?

One could visit La Chureca again and again, but the sight would still always hit hard. The shock and disgust may subside, however, the pain remains.

Despite it all there is some hope.

Within La Chureca, there are 2 schools, a few feeding programs, and a clinic. In fact, the clinic is in need of help right now to get through the year running at full capacity. They need $4,000 a month and could use all the help they can get. See this short video on the Manna Project website for more information.

Each of these three facilities serve the community of La Chureca through education, nourishment, and health...all crucial aspects of surviving the difficult reality in which these people live.

For the coming month, I hope to return to La Chureca each week to help with an English class and aid in Child Sponsorship which includes keeping in touch with families of malnourished children who have entered a program to get milk, oatmeal, and vitamens to bring them back to a more nourished state.

Written by Cassandra Maximous - Summer volunteer (June session)

First Impressions

I didn't understand what Vilma was saying, although it was obvious she was complaining about a lack of participation from the other women in whatever task it was that she had completed, not unlike my own mom chastising my dad for never attending PTA meetings. As we kept walking Christina explained that it was about a clean-up of their section of the neighborhood, mandated by the clinic's nurse, for which some of the other moms had not shown up. Although I had heard Vilma say the word "limpiar," I couldn't quite believe that the view I was seeing of this part of Chureca was post- cleaning. Her little daughter Gabriela emerged from beneath the piles of dirty plastic water bottles and other scraps, eager to be tickled and held by another volunteer and myself, even though we had only just met and it was our first time visiting homes here with Child Sponsorship. Since I arrived in Nicaragua I've learned that the word here for "to hold" is "chinear." It always makes me think of a chin, and holding a child right up to your face to be as close to them as possible.
We kept on walking through the mud, dust and trash. Christina seemed to know everyone: teenage moms with more kids on the way, husbands who spend all day digging through the burning piles of trash, one enterprising woman starting her own tortilla-making business inside the dump (she sold out of all 800 yesterday!) and little children falling in the mud and running naked (better than wet clothes now that the rainy season is beginning). But Christina's familiarity with this place sent me into an emotional spiral. I am saddened, disgusted and scared knowing that real people live like this because this was the lot dealt them. At the same time, there is so much life here: businesses starting, children going to school, and even organizations founded by Nicaraguans from the dump themselves to provide safe places for kids to learn and play. I'm not sure yet what my role in La Chureca will be for the month I am here, except that there will certainly be lots of "chineando."

-Written by Emily Batt, summer volunteer (June session)