FRIENDS and FAMILY!
An update on Maria, our 15 year old gal Living with AIDS but positively. She smiles more frequently, responds to questions, her weight is increasing, she embroiders, colors, and watches Disney DVD´s. This weekend I will not be in the Mission so we decided to send her home with her mom. She has been a month as an in patient. She will return Sunday to the Clinic so to go to her appointment with the AIDs Clinic on Monday and we hope will start antiviral medication.
I went with Maria and her mom to their home this afternoon. I wanted to see what her home environment was so we could look to the future. I was sad as we walked through coffee and banana bushes to a small isolated shack. Her two little sisters ran up to greet Maria and their mom. In the home there is only one bed, made with boards, in a dark environment with no ventilation. There is no electricity, a dirt floor, open fire on the ground for cooking, no shelves with food. There exists no man of the house. I understood how Maria and her younger sister were raped, by an unidentified man, when home alone. MARIA and her mother remain silent on any details of the crime; they are afraid to say.
I brought food for the two days she will be home, THANK GOD; milk, beans, corn, protein supplement, sugar and a little cash. Chico will return to pick them up on Sunday to return Maria and her Mom to the clinic. We are looking for a family to care for Maria, in a nearby village, when she has better health. This will allow the Mom to work in the coffee harvest, which she has expressed interest and also allow Maria a more healthy environment to continue to heal. There are family members and neighbors who care for her other children while the mom is with Maria.
Thank You for walking with us in our Mission of Care for the most Needy. I don´t think I am as aware as need be to the extreme poverty and injustice that these people live with daily.
Thank You for your PRAYERS and financial assistance for our work in the Clinica Maxeña!
You can donate on line at: www.helenadiocese.org NOTE that donation is for CLinica Maxeña
I include three photos.
Maria and her Mom in the door of the clinic.
Maria´s mom inside the home
Maria, Mom and her sisters and other children near their home
