Download - October Blessings
A teenager loses his leg in a devastating
bicycle accident, but not his faith
A Prayer From Haiti
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Wagner survived the January earthquake that rocked Port-au-Prince—but what happened in the aftermath changed his life forever. The 17-year-old was navigating the hazardous roads on his bicycle with his mother when they were hit by a truck as it attempted to avoid rubble left behind from the quake.
His mother died, Wagner was seriously injured in both legs, and doctors were forced to amputate his left leg just below the knee. His right leg, although intact, had to be immobilized.Two weeks later, Wagner
was healing but was unable to be released from the hospital, because he had no means of mobility or a way to get home. But that didn’t stop Wagner
from praying.
“I kept sending my prayers up to heaven,” he said.Little did he know those prayers
would be answered so quickly.Earlier this year, Free
Wheelchair Mission sent a shipment of 550 wheelchairs to Operation Blessing’s warehouse in Haiti. Together, teams assembled more than 100 wheelchairs for distribution throughout Port-au-Prince. One of those chairs was for Wagner. – Continued on page 4
blessingsUNITED KINGDOM
BLESSINGOPERATION
To s u p p o rt c a l l : 0 8 4 5 6 0 0 3 3 0 3 w w w. o p e rat i o n b l e s s i n g . o rg . u k
Fight For Survival – See pg. 3october 2010
Shoe Shop of BlessingA shoe-making project is helping widows
and single mothers create a better life
ZACAPA, Guatemala – Vilma works hard to support her family, but as a single mother of three, it never seems to be enough.Last year, Vilma’s husband left her alone
to raise their children in a house made of tin and cardboard. In order to provide food for her family, Vilma made tortillas to sell and also did laundry for others in her community. But the money she earned barely paid for essentials like rice, beans, and vegetables.Vilma’s eldest child, Esmin, even took an
after school job to help their family. The 14-year-old earns £1.00 a day distributing water around the community, giving half his earnings to his mother to purchase food, and using the other half to buy supplies he needs for school. But even with all of the hard work and her
son’s contributions, making ends meet was not easy for Vilma—until she learned of OB Guatemala’s microenterprise project in her community called Shoe Shop of Blessing.Vilma began working at the shop learning
how to make sandals—a more lucrative business than laundry. Now that she is trained, Vilma is making 48 pairs of sandals each week, earning around £130 each month. The increase in her income will help provide her children with what they need. And with the shoe shop located close to her home, Vilma can still be there to take care of her children.Shoe Shop of Blessing currently works
with seven mums like Vilma, all of whom are widows or single mothers who have been abandoned.
Vilma can make nearly 50 pairs of sandals a week, earning enough money to support her three children.
Besides being a pesky nuisance, mosquitoes in Haiti carry malaria. Mosquito fish (Gambusia) are born with an
insatiable appetite for mosquito eggs and larvae. The always-hungry, guppy-like minnows have been used all over the world for over 100 years to control mosquito populations. Following Hurricane Katrina, OB stocked thousands of
abandoned, mosquito-infested swimming pools with Gambusia. City officials and the U.S. Center for Disease Control were worried about an epidemic of West Nile Virus. Our tiny fish went to work feasting on eggs and larvae before they could hatch, and OB’s “Bug Buster” program helped put an end to the threat. On my first trip to Haiti in early 2009, I started to dream
about using the New Orleans strategy in Haiti. Last year we launched efforts to secure a permit to import Gambusia, got the green light in December, and started hatchery construction, but the January earthquake put the project on hold. Recently, we completed the hatchery and secured the
official blessing of the Haitian Departments of Environment and Agriculture. We then made arrangements with a fish farm in Mississippi that donated several thousand Gambusia. Yesterday we packed the fish in plastic bags filled with oxygenated water, flew them to Florida in a private plane, transferred our coolers to a charter plane, and on to Haiti. The OB Haiti team and I met the plane today and hurried the fish to their new home. It will take about a month for the fish to acclimate and
start breeding. Gambusia pregnancy lasts 21 days, then each pregnant female gives birth to as many as 70 live babies. This process will be repeated over and over, and before long, we will have hundreds of thousands of Gambusia to plant in stagnant waters all over Haiti.Today was a great day for Haiti and a very bad day for
mosquitoes and malaria. Lessons learned in New Orleans will save lives in Haiti. Your faithful support makes all of this possible.
Bill Horan, OB PresidentA Message From The President
Of all the gi! s you could give this Christmas, the greatest gi! is love. Operation Blessing’s Christmas Giving Catalogue is coming soon to your
letterbox, " lled with unique gi! s that you can choose from to change the life of a child or family in need.
“And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” ~ 1 COR. 13:13
Christmas Giving Catalogue Coming Soon!
To s u p p o rt c a l l : 0 8 4 5 6 0 0 3 3 0 3 w w w. o p e rat i o n b l e s s i n g . o rg . u k
To s u p p o rt c a l l : 0 8 4 5 6 0 0 3 3 0 3 w w w. o p e rat i o n b l e s s i n g . o rg . u k
Since 1978, Operation Blessing International has touched the lives of more than 232 million people in more than 105 countries, providing goods and ser-vices valued at more than $2.7 billion.
Because of your faithful partnership, together we
affected by hunger, poverty and sickness.
Thank you for making a difference!
Did You Know?
NAGAR KATTA, India – In the North Bengal plains, the landscape is picturesque: an unending sea of tea plantations stretches to meet the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains.But the beauty of the area hides the pain of those
who make their living from the land. Rekha and her
husband worked at one of the tea plantations, but a few years ago, several of the plantations closed. Thousands of residents lost their jobs and many
families had no other means of income. Rekha and her husband found themselves suddenly unemployed and began incurring debt as they fought for survival.When a tea plantation re-opened
in their area, Rekha’s family was overjoyed. They were both able to get jobs to help pay off their debt, but the couple now had a 6-month-old baby, Ranjeet, who was suffering with a severe throat infection. Until he recovered, Rekha simply couldn’t go to work.Her husband’s salary was barely
able to cover their simple way of life, much less pay for Ranjeet’s medical care.Rekha tried every homemade
treatment she could think of to treat his pain, but nothing seemed to help her son.Then one day, Operation Blessing arrived in her
village and set up a medical camp. A doctor examined Ranjeet and immediately provided them with the medicine they needed, free of charge.Now with her son recovering, Rekha is able to
place him under the care of her mother while she goes back to work. Her goal is to work hard and pay off their debts, and then they will be able to provide an even better future for their son.“Thank you Operation
Blessing,” she said. “You have brought hope back into our lives. You came when we needed care the most. Thank God for your services.”
Thanks to the free medicine, 6-month-old Ranjeet is healthy again and Rekha can return to work to support their family.
Fight For SurvivalA young mother worries about her family’s
survival until an Operation Blessing medical camp
brings help and hope
“Thank you Operation Blessing ... You have brought hope back into our lives. You came when we needed care the most.”
A medical team from Operation Blessing arrived to Rekha’s village, providing free medical care to families.
To s u p p o rt c a l l : 0 8 4 5 6 0 0 3 3 0 3 w w w. o p e rat i o n b l e s s i n g . o rg . u k
To s u p p o rt c a l l : 0 8 4 5 6 0 0 3 3 0 3 w w w. o p e rat i o n b l e s s i n g . o rg . u k
The team arrived at a tent hospital and made their way through the cramped ward to the very back where Wagner lay in his bed. Through a translator, they gave Wagner the good news.“This [wheelchair] is a gift from Jesus,” they told him. The teenager’s timid smile slowly grew bright when he heard the news.“Se bon [it’s good],” he said. “Without this chair, I would not have any
way to function. God sent me this wheelchair and He is listening and answers prayers.”With a little help, Wagner was soon rolling himself between the beds in
the tent hospital and eventually outside into the bright sun and fresh air.Over the next 12 months, Free Wheelchair Mission plans to donate
5,500 chairs to OB for distribution in Haiti alone to help more quake .survivors and injured persons like Wagner.
A prayer from haiti – Continued from page 1
Over the next 12 months, Free Wheelchair Mission plans to donate 5,500 chairs to OB for distribution in Haiti.
PUNO, Peru – South America may be known for its mostly tropical climate and Amazon rainforest, but in the highlands of Peru, it couldn’t be more opposite.During the summer months in
the U.K., it is winter in the Southern Hemisphere, and in the high-altitude regions of Peru, the temperatures have dipped dangerously low.In Puno, more than 11,000 feet
above sea level, the air is colder than 10 degrees Fahrenheit, and even healthy children are at risk of serious sickness.Already, 30 children under the
age of 5 have died because of complications with pneumonia, according to the Regional Director of Health in Puno. Country-wide, the death toll from the cold has risen to more than 400 people. Another 45,000 cases of acute respiratory disease threaten the population of Puno.The Peruvian Air Force
partnered with Operation Blessing to fly an OB medical team to the
hardest-hit communities, along with more than 4 tons of medicine.Teams provided health
screenings for respiratory diseases and distributed anti-inflammatory medications, antibiotics, and also thermal blankets to help children stay warm. In all, more than 24,900 men,
women and children benefited from the medical outreach.
A crisis of coldIn the mountains of Peru, frigid
temperatures create a life-
threatening situation for thousands
of children
The Peruvian Air Force transported OB medical teams and more than 4 tons of medicine to help
families in the hardest-hit areas.
Peruvian mother carries her child
Copyright © 2010 by Operation Blessing UK, PO Box 700, Hereford, HR1 9EW. For more information, call 0845 6003303 or visit our website www.operationblessing.org.uk