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Dear Friends of HALO:
As we look at the events of this year….wars, elections, births and deaths, I can only think of the lives of the children we have helped – in Vietnam, Colombia, Mexico and Afghanistan. But, my private aims, beliefs, and purposes have stayed the same, since they became mine so many years ago, when Dr. Tom Dooley came into my life. Whatever I have contributed toward these things in which I believe, I’ve learned more and gained more than I have given.
This year, with the help of Jim Bruckner, I found the orphanage Casa de Cuna, in Uruapan, Mexico. This orphanage, managed by saintly Mother Rosita, takes the children off the streets and gives them a place to sleep, an education, and food to nourish – she teaches them to weave and sew – and even bake cookies to be boxed and sold on the streets to keep the orphanage going. It is so poor, the walls are damp from the rain and the children get sick - the play equipment is rusty and unusable – and yet they tie their lovely black hair in ribbons and know my name. Now they have vitamins, which were donated by Mannarelief, and the promise of help toward the rebuilding – especially the kitchen and sleeping rooms.
In Vietnam, we dedicated the vocational school at Quang Ngai. It is now equipped with sewing machines and electrical equipment to teach the children a trade. How proud they were to show me their work. We will finish at Quang Ngai with a new road that will keep the children from getting so muddy during the rainy season.
Each year we also provide $1500 to Sister Hai’s House of Love to buy milk for her street children.
My good friend, Lilly Pham introduced me to Father Thanh, who is the sole support for hundreds of ethnic minority people in the village of Bao Lam. We started to build a vocational school, but the plot was too small, so he had another story added. I am anxious to see it when I return in March. The children work on the coffee and tea plantations for the government.
Pham Thi Xuan, one of my former An Lac girls, became a nurse. Xuan spends every weekend going by motor bike for 2 hours to the ethnic minority village called Phuoc Long, Binh Phoc Province. She took me to see it and the poverty is the worst I have seen. There was no well for the sick people, or for drinking water, nothing to cook their food. I promised to provide a clinic for the emaciated people suffering from pneumonia, TB and hunger. We were given a small grant to build. After that, we will need help with supplies, etc.
I wanted to go to Afghanistan this year, but our State Dept discouraged traveling during their elections – so I am planning to go in April, when it is safer and not as cold. There, Mary MacMakin has continued the physical therapy program which we help to support. She told me about a 9 year old boy, who after hip release surgery and ankle lengthening surgery, has been helped through the clinic. He no longer has to scoot around on his bottom. Now, Mary has gone to Panjao in Bamijan province to teach women to weave. The need there is a hooking frame at $10 each. Not much when you think it can make a woman free. With Elizabeth Bennett, we have collected 3000 notebooks, plus the Mead Paper Co. donated 3000 more, for the children at the Aschiana School – they had no paper, and our good friends at Fed Ex will take them over for us.
In January, I will return to the Luz y Vida Orphanage in Bogota, Columbia for disabled children. Their needs are great, but the fun part is seeing them and bringing Christmas to them, even a month late. This time, along with the money we collect, I want to take Bubbles and Dooley kits to every one of those dear sweet children, especially my little Laura who doesn’t seem to grow and has the smile of an angel.
I talk about my work many times a year in many places to groups of people – especially children, who want to help. My deepest gratitude, though, goes to all of you – all sorts and kinds and ages. To those who offer $10 a month to take care of a child, to those who contribute to build a clinic, to send school supplies, vitamins, to pay for therapists and nurses, to rebuild an orphanage, to bring Christmas whose only present to you is a smile.
I will close with a Prayer for the Children:
We pray for those who don’t know the meaning of the word, gift
Whose torn and tattered shoes have paper for soles, who never heard “Jingle Bells ring out, who watch their parents suffer, who cannot find any food , who live and move and have no address, who go to bed hungry and wake up hungry.
We pray for those children with sad eyes that mirror the horror of their lives, whose nightmares occur in the sunlight, who are not spoiled by anyone, who are born in places where we would not be caught dead in, and they will be.
For all these dear children, we pray tonight, for they are all so precious and they are all ……………Children of God.
We continue to need your help, your prayers and your compassion again.
My children and grandchildren send you our love and gratitude for a Happy Holiday Season.
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