I am posting this message to this board in hopes that people traveling to Honduras will donate time, money or much needed items to Honduras during their travels. I will post our most recent newsletter for your review and if your interested in making a difference in the lives of others please visit Worldwide Outreach Services website at www.outreach-services.org

Worldwide Outreach Services News Letter June 2003

The month of May was spent in Honduras working on various projects. The first week of May was spent working on the mainland looking for gifts for all of my wonderful contributors and exploring the mainland of Honduras looking for other areas to expand our projects. A meeting was held in LaCeiba with the Lisa Lopes Foundation in hopes of working together on some projects in Honduras and fundraising projects in the states.

Littlest Angels Program
Upon arriving in Roatan the first items of priority was to visit with baby “K” the 6 week- old baby girl who weighed 3.5 lbs. I delivered many donated items to Nancy who has started the program the Littlest Angel. Baby “K” received so many donations from all the caring people who learned of her story. Many of you who receive this newsletter donated very special gifts to her that included cloth diapers, baby formula, preemie clothing and all types of baby care items. I really enjoyed my time with baby “K” holding, cuddling and feeding her. I even enjoyed the diaper changes. She is the cutest littlest baby I think I have ever held in my arms. I also met Baby “K” s mother who was a very caring and loving mother. She knew her baby was in trouble and made sure she received the proper medical attention. She spent many hours with her baby holding and loving her. She was also taught basic baby care and signs to look for if she needed to take her to the hospital. With all the love and donations she received she soon weighed over 6 lbs and was returned home to live with her mother. Her mother continues to take her to the hospital weekly for weight and physical check ups to monitor her progress. But she is doing wonderful thanks to all that helped.

Mud Angels Program
I also met a 15 year-old boy with size 17 feet. Thanks to donations this young man now has shoes that actually fit his feet without having to curl his toes up to wear shoes that are 2 sizes to small. This also allows him to return to school wearing his brand new shoes. He was a very nice young man and was very thankful for his new shoes. He was worried that he would make his shoes dirty and wanted to save them for special occasions. But it was decided that 1 pair could be used for play and the other kept clean for special occasions. We were very thankful that he was donated two pairs of shoes instead of the one pair originally asked for so he would have this option.

300 pairs of black school shoes were donated and delivered throughout the island. Many or these children had no shoes to wear. These shoes have helped many more children attend school. Also the basketball hoop was donated to Coxen Hole School so the children can again play basketball during their recess.

A printing project was started at the schools. Over 3000 pages of printed materials are copied each day. This allows the teachers in the schools to have more time teaching the students. Before the donations of paper, and ink the teachers were having to hand write all assignments for each student. Each assignment is typed in Spanish and English so the students can be able to communicate bilingually and also help their parents to learn a new language as well. These assignment sheets are distributed throughout the island to all the schools helping to keep the curriculum similar in each classroom.

Families Saludables Program
The Families Saludables program is a very busy program. The HIV rate is high in this area of Honduras and many children and families are in need of this service. Valerie who organizes this program is visiting patients all day long in their homes. She also brings medications and baby care items to the families to help meet their basic and nutritional needs. Most of these families prefer a home visit so that others will not know of their HIV status by coming into the office. The stigma of HIV is still great here and if it is known that you have AIDS, you are shunned by the community. Education is the key to helping people understand this disease. Many items were also donated to this program by private donations that help save the lives of these babies and children.

Miss Peggy’s Clinic
Visits to Miss Peggy’s Clinic were made and life there in the mornings is very busy with patients who line up at her door starting in the very early hours of the morning. Miss Peggy had a doctor volunteering with his wife. They both were wonderful to have as an extra pair of hands caring for all the various aliments and conditions. There were also other volunteers including myself that assisted in organizing patients and the donated medications for the clinic. Many large boxes were sorted and placed in their respective places. All these medicines were from people who donate them to this organization.

We also went to the grand opening of the New Punta Gorda clinic. This new clinic is now funded by the World Health Organization, USAIDS, and the Episcopal Church. The program was wonderful and had many school age children dancing and singing for entertainment and education. The Ministry of Health spoke as well as many other people from Honduras and other organizations in the states. This clinic will be treating the East End of the island for all medical problems as well as HIV. Worldwide Outreach Services will still contribute medicines to this program as needed. Through Peggy’s hard work visiting all the clinics and donating the needed medicines to all.

Construction has been started for the new Sandy Bay Clinic. The footers are in and the new road is being constructed. This has been in the works for some time. Miss Peggy has been working out of her home seeing patients and soon there will be a nice new clinic with a community building attached to help the people of Roatan.

Much work has been done for a little girl who needs surgery in the United States. Many papers and phone calls made by Miss Peggy to make a great change in this little girls life.

Wish List

New office for Families Saludables

Donations for the current construction of the clinic in Sandy Bay
Over the counter children’s medicines and antibiotics

Infant and children’s vitamins

Copy paper for the printing projects at the schools

Businesses to donate items as gifts for members of WOS such as t-shirts, coffee, and carvings

Monetary donations for shipping

SPECIAL THANK YOU TO:
Jackson Shipping: For all their assistance in shipping thousands of pounds of donations to Roatan
http://www.jacksonshipping.com/

Roatanet: For their formation of the web site and continued support
http://www.roatanet.com/

Lees Kids Sneakers: For their donations of hundreds of pairs of children’s school shoes and basketball goal for the school
http://www.lees-sneakers.com/

The Judas Bird: For donating a portion of book sales made through WOS website.

Tennis Warehouse for their donations of 2 pairs size 17 of NIKE Tennis shoes.
http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/

Tropicana Resort for their free lodging during this trip in May and for hosting other volunteers.
http://www.tropicanabc.com/

So Tropic for their generous contributions and support
sewtropic@aol.com

Database Creations for their business and database support
http://www.createdatabase.com/