The Kindle Orphan Outreach Katawi Clinic in Salima, Malawi is taking action to battle the recent measles epidemic. Kindle Directory Marilyn Barr writes: Malawi is in the midst of a widespread measles epidemic. The community around us is also affected, and we are seeing many new patients with measles, both children and adults, each day at the Katawa Clinic. There have been several deaths in the community because of measles. The government has launched a huge vaccination campaign this week, August 16-20, for every child aged 9 months to 15 years. Kindle is a part of this through our clinic and the health officers who work there. Every day they will be working long hours in the villages to make sure everyone is covered.

Summer is work team season for Extreme Response. One of the ways we can best help our partners is to provide them with teams willing to help out for a week or two and bring the funds needed to get the work done. The teams really get to know our people and projects personally. We have 16 teams scheduled for Ecuador during the summer months (June, July and August). Although we do work teams in other locations, Ecuador is the number one destination this summer. Here’s a list of who they are and who they are working with.

• Avery Coonly School 8th grade Class - Quito dump project
• Fair Lawn Church - For His Children Orphanage
• Kensington Community Church - Por Amor Foundation and Montañita Children’s Home
• Woodside Bible Church - Buen Pastor School
• Wellesley Village Church- For His Children Orphanage
• North Point Community Church - Haven of Love & Por Amor
• St. Paul’s - Por Amor Foundation
• Good Shepherd Lutheran Church - For His Children Orphanage
• Providence Christian Academy - Quito Dump daycare center
• University South Carolina - nursing students helping at various Ecuador projects
• Calvary Church in Souderton - New Friends (Nuevos Amigos)
• Fountain of Life Lutheran Church - Bread of Life (Pan de Vida)
• Water’s Edge Bible Church - building a home for a dump family
• Westside Church of Omaha - building a home for a dump family
• Glenkirk Presbyterian Church - For His Children Orphanage
• Lifetree Adventures - Quito Dump project

Thank you, teams, for all your hard work and encouragement!

making friends with one of the children from the dump daycare center

North Point Community Church Team

painting the dump daycare walls

fixing the steps to the playground at the dump

Providence Christian Academy Team

handing out food to the night workers at the dump

Here’s the latest news from Extreme Response partner, House of Hope, located in Port-de-Paix, Haiti…

The House of Hope in Haiti has begun to receive children who lost their parents in the earthquake and have no relatives who are able to care for them. Two young boys flew up from Port-au-Prince last week. Magloire (14 years) and Carlo (12 years) are cousins who will be staying at the House of Hope for the foreseeable future. When we first met them at the airport, they were very afraid and sad. They seemed so small and lost. I’m sure the thought of flying on an airplane with two strangers and leaving all that was familiar to them, was a frightening thing, indeed! We did start to become friends, though, when we gave them a sandwich, a drink and some Cheezies. The boys seemed to enjoy their first ride on an airplane, smiling the entire way, and they have settled in so well at the House of Hope. All of the other children have made them feel welcome and they are already part of the routines and life here. They look happy and confident…very different than the two scared little boys that we met just last week. The House of Hope has made a huge difference in their lives in just a few short days.

Another new arrival to the House of Hope family is little Carly who is 15 months old. Her parents were both killed in the earthquake while she remained buried under the rubble for several hours. A neighbor managed to pull her to safety and get her the care that she needed. Little Carly had 2 broken legs and several cuts and she has spent the last several weeks in a hospital in PAP. Carly arrived at the House of Hope on Sunday and, understandably, she was very unsettled. She must have had a dad who was very involved with her care because, at first, she would go to boys much easier than girls. Once again, the entire HOH family has gone out of their way to make her feel welcome and coax some smiles out of her. Everyone from the older kids to the younger ones can be seen carrying Carly around or offering her toys. 3 days after arriving at the HOH, Carly is much more calm, more settled, less anxious…and the smiles are not so hard to come by. The HOH family is now Carly’s family and, from our perspective, they all take this very seriously and really know how to “be” a family.

The Woodside women - plus ER leaders Ed and Dawn

A team of 9 women from Woodside Bible Church in Troy, Michigan travelled to Cape Town, South Africa to work with ER partner Living Hope. The team worked with over 350 women (and a few men) from the Living Hope Support Groups. These support groups exist to support those dealing with HIV, AIDS and other illnesses. Each of the 4 support groups meet in various townships in the Fish Hoek area. Most of the women they worked with are HIV+. The team did a wonderful job empowering, encouraging and loving these women who have known so much sickness, poverty, death and abuse in their lives. (for more information on Living Hope go to: www.livinghopeusa.org)

They also had the opportunity to encourage the 25 women (and a couple men) at the New Beginnings Development Center in the Woodstock area of Cape Town (www.newbdc.com). These women are enrolled in a free training course for unemployed people. The goal is to train, educate and empower individuals in an effort to alleviate poverty. The Woodside ladies had a great time getting to know the New Beginnings students.

Thank you Woodside Ladies!

House in the Masiphumelele Township

Woodside team member Deb with 2 of the ladies

Meeting at New Beginnings

Red Hill Township

The meeting at Red Hill

Christina makes a new friend at Ocean View

Extreme Response welcomes Calvary Church of Pennsylvania to Quito this week! A team of 18 adults is here working in partnership with the El Inca Church. This group is building a 120-seat auditorium for a new church in the La Paz community, just north of Quito. Each day the team is busy mixing and pouring concrete as well as welding the steel roof trusses. A team of nationals will continue with the roof structure and corrugated panels once the team has finished their week. A special thanks to team leaders Steve Kirsch and Norm Emery, as well as each of the team members for serving in Ecuador!

Submitted by Bill Hedrick- Teams Coordinator

You would have enjoyed being with us on Friday afternoon! Nearly 200 kids gathered at Kindle with great anticipation. They knew what they had come for! A few weeks ago they had been promised new uniforms, and today was the day for the promise to be fulfilled. Every occasion is a chance for celebration and teaching, so we started with some songs. Then Mr Mbena, head of the Education Department who has been overseeing this project, gave a speech about the importance of taking care of the uniforms. Here are some of his comments: These uniforms are for wearing to SCHOOL! You do not wear them to dig for mice in the fields (boys like to eat these for snacks!) You do not wear them for going to market. You must not take them and sell them. These may sound like strange instructions, but all very appropriate! He also explained again how important it is for children to stay in school these days. Education will give them an opportunity for a future!

It took a few hours to get everyone outfitted, but finally the group changed from rather grubby looking kids to smart looking school boys and girls. I hope you enjoy the few photos I have attached. You will notice that there are 3 different uniforms as we have children in 3 different schools. Most of them are the blue and yellow. Some are maroon and white, and a few blue and white.

Finally, all of the children say thank you very much! Like this: “Zikomo kwambiri chifukwa cha mayunifomu atsopano. Mulungu akudalitseni!” (Thank you very much for the new uniforms. May God bless you!”)

On behalf of all the children at Kindle, I too say Thank You!

Sincerely,
Marilyn Barr
Kindle Orphan Outreach

Thanks so much to Ali Rubenstein and the Student to Student Malawi School Uniform Program!!!

Pan de Vida (Bread of Life) started a micro-business pilot program a June. The program aims to train people in the program to start and maintain their own business that would eventually generate an income for their families. They are making beautiful aprons and mittens to sell.