Another year comes to an end, giving us a reason to look back and share our report. All in all, 2019 continued down a familiar path, with visits to the hospital for the chronically ill in Tepexpan, organizing the maintenance and repairs of wheelchairs, procuring medicine, donating special mattresses and hydrogels against bedsores, along with a new mattress for the massage table. One current focus is obtaining ten special wheelchairs with extended backrests, with total costs coming to 4,000 euros.

We helped our partners in the mountains of Chihuahua, the Vincentian Sisters, who care for the extremely poor indigenous population in remote places, with donations in kind and money for seeds, powdered milk, and fleece fabric for children’s winter clothing. 

In Oaxaca, we supported an exceptionally talented schoolgirl from a weaving village with a small monthly contribution toward her school fees. 

A further grant from us enabled a young man who lost a leg in a workplace accident to acquire a prosthesis with which he can work in construction and earn a living for his family. 

Finally, our activities continue in the Mazahua village of San Antonio de las Huertas. We have been supporting a woman there for some time who has gone blind from diabetes. Thanks to a special treatment, she can at least still see shadows. 

The main focus there, however, is our protégé Omar, for whom we have cared for twelve years and who has grown into a young man with a positive attitude and eagerness to learn despite his disability. Our goal is to free him from difficult family circumstances and the absolute lack of opportunities in the village so that he can enjoy the opportunity of education and a decent life in the city. The first important step in this direction was a surgical intervention that reduced stiffening in his joints and thus enabled him to move more easily. An indispensable companion treatment to this, however, is a very long and intensive rehabilitation process, which allowed him to take his first small steps with leg splints and crutches on his nineteenth birthday. This process, which should ultimately enable him to live mostly without the wheelchair, is far from over, although he is very disciplined and committed to his exercises. In the meantime, we have also found an institution that, while unfortunately not inexpensive, allows him to catch up on his secondary schooling in a compressed form, so that his future prospects are quite positive.

All of the above-mentioned activities are only possible thanks to the generosity of our donors, whom we thank with all our heart. We wish you all a happy New Year, full of good health and happy returns and, on behalf of our protégés as well, we send our best wishes!