Tag Archives: seeds

Annual report 2019

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!

Annual report 2018

In the past year, the scope of our activities was unavoidably dictated by restrictions on our human and financial resources and was mainly limited to support measures in the health sector.

As usual, we visited our friends with disabilities in Tepexpan several times and brought special pressure relief mattresses and pillows, as well as medicine, and took care of repairing some wheelchairs. Fortunately, we can now rely on the efficient support of our volunteer Enrique Vieyra and his wife Juanita in many areas in Tepexpan.

We also visited San Antonio de las Huertas several times and continue to look after our now grown-up protégé Omar, though his complicated family situation often presents obstacles. In addition, we are supporting a woman blinded by diabetes, who, thanks to special treatment, can at least see hazy shadows again.

We’re also continuing to work with the Vincentian Sisters in the mountains of the Sierra Tarahumara in Chihuahua on the Corre Coyote project. For the bitterly cold winter months we bought warm fabric from which children’s clothes were made. Our support was also used to buy powdered milk for the children and seeds, which produced a gratifyingly good harvest last year. 

In the south of the country, we continued to support the hospital in Juchitán, Oaxaca, which was severely damaged by the 2017 earthquake.

For a little girl with a thyroglossal duct cyst, we provided a grant for the necessary surgery. We also supported a young woman with spasticity with the purchase of various aids and in financing her surgery costs. For a handicapped little boy, we have commissioned a suitable wheelchair, for which the family only has to make a small contribution.

For one of our adult protégés, we have had a ramp built, which he can use to access his helpful neighbor’s car with his wheelchair. 

It was a special pleasure for us to participate in the festive ceremony where the student nurse, whom we have supported for years with a grant for travel expenses and tuition fees, received her academic degree.