NOTICIAS               click here for calendar

Holy Family Parish (Stow, Ohio) – January 10 - 24
After months of preparation including the collection of financial donations used to purchase vitamins, cough/cold medicine, pain relievers, antibiotics, creams, toothbrushes and toothpaste, on January 10th Father Mike Ausperk led a week long Medical Brigade of 16 missionaries (doctors, therapists, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, translators and assistants) from Cleveland, Ohio to Honduras. His second mission team followed on January 17th. Together they brought  55 boxes of medicines and medical supplies generously donated by the Catholic Medical Mission Board (New York), Interchurch Medical Assistance (New Windsor, Maryland), MAP International (Brunswick, Georgia) and AmeriCares (Stamford, Connecticut).  Vitamins were purchased from Ritzman Pharmacies (Akron, Ohio).  More than $350,000.00 worth of medicines, vitamins and medical  supplies were purchased (through donations from Holy Family Parish in Stow, Ohio and Saint Vincent  DePaul Parish in Cleveland) or donated and taken to Honduras. Over the two weeks, eight medical brigades went to rural and mountain villages. They visited the villages of Quabrada Grande, Junquillo, Iscamote, Las Champas, Granadillas, Llano del Tigre and, in addition, made a much needed house call to a seriously ill 80 year old bedridden invalid.
The doctors, dentists and nurses saw over 2400 people,  and extracted 628 teeth from the mouths of 303 adults and children.17 patients received physical therapy consults from a physical therapist on the mission team. To help suggest nutritious eating, apples were purchased and given to each “patient”. The majority of health problems were cough and cold, headaches, parasites, malnutrition, lack of vitamins, tooth decay, and minor skin rashes.

On numerous occasions, Father Mike, celebrated a Spanish Mass in the Chapel at Nuevo Paraiso.  In addition, the missionaries hosted several social events for the children and women of the village.
Everyone was touched by the kindness, patience and lives of the people they met and served.  The missionaries are looking forward to returning to Honduras in January 2008.

Hope For Honduran Children (Cleveland, Ohio) January 11 – 21
On January 11th Skip Watts, Karen and John Godt left Cleveland to meet up with an awesome group of faculty and students from Elon University in North Carolina. Other than coffee, fish and paint other highlights of the trip included:

• Establishing a scholarship program to currently assist more than 18 deserving students receive a higher level of education.
• Organizing a meeting with an engineer from Zamorano at Flor Azul regarding the feasibility of raising tilapia at Flor Azul.
• Initiating the new Flor Azul Coffee business to supplement the food budget at the boys farming community – meetings with Moises and opening a bank account in his name
• Each day 4 girls assisted Father Mike’s medical brigades –
• Elon University’s  Periclean Scholars 2007 donated uniforms and bikes for the eleven boys attending classes in Ojo de Agua as well as 57 pairs of shoes for other boys.
• Renovating a house at Flor Azul for Anival and his family
• Sorting and distributing 1500 pounds of donated clothing to Nuevo Paraiso, Flor Azul, Pedro Atala and the staff.
• Playing with the children at Pedro Atala
• Parties, bingo and soccer games
• The Feria at Moreceli
• Wonderful times with Cuban doctors, Dona Wil and Rumualdo.
• An incredible despedida at Flor Azul

HFHC Medical Mission with Fran Kalafatis – January 29th
Only days after Father Mike’s departure Fran Kalafatis led a Hope for Honduran Children Medical Brigade consisting of 21 participants from Cleveland, New York City and Seattle. In one short week the group saw well over 2000 patients, celebrated Mass at Flor Azul Boys Farm (to which they made a generous donation to the food budget), provided much support to the new Flor Azul coffee micro-enterprise. A major highlight of their visit was the strides they are making towards achieving a sustainable difference. This dedicated medical team organized a meeting with the Ministry of Health Outreach, Peace Corps, Red Cross, Potters for Peace, Santa Rosa de Lima Clinica and Montana de Luz. The objective was to understand and communicate efforts to battle the HIV AIDS epidemic in Honduras.  Also on the team was a water engineer who is working diligently to advise and assist with current water needs, problems and solutions. They returned to the States determined to continue their support through their solicitation for grants.

Immaculate Heart of Mary (Indianapolis, Indiana)
Nineteen members of Immaculate Heart of Mary (Indianapolis) had a wonderful trip and brilliantly met all of their objectives and more! They are helping to get the business of the brick factory moving forward with repairing the machines and constructing another much needed shade building. Each day the group offered a Day Camp for the children of Nuevo Paraiso, They arranged station activities with music, art, games, and obstacle courses, followed by large group games, relays, tug of wars, etc. They offered music classes with the children as well as a "mini-workshop” with the teachers at NP in an effort to encourage a Music Program at the school. They also purchased food and much needed supplies for the group homes in Nuevo Paraiso and offered that All American lunch of hot dogs, chips and apples to the boys at Flor Azul. With the assistance of a Nurse Practitioner who specializes in Women's Health they conducted a Women's Health Program and saw over 80 teenage girls through out the week from Nuevo Paraiso and Reyes Irene. The men on the team offered a new and much needed program to the women of the project -  "Tool Time"  - in which they received instruction on how to do small home repairs and maintenance.

“… but the IHM focus is to take more programs down to move things to another level. Sustainability and maintenance are the key words.”
Believing that only through education will our children grow to be able to make a difference in their lives, The Friends of Honduran Children Organization is sponsoring a Scholarship Program - for students associated with Sister Maria Rosa to apply for college Scholarships. IHM has an application system and to date, five students have been awarded assistance. Each year they have to report their grades and resubmit a short app. for continuance of this yearly scholarship.