The ABCs of Health

By Julie Cramer

Every day 11-year-old Kevin, weighing only 50 pounds, digs through a trash dump in Nueva Suyapa, one of Honduras’ most dangerous and impoverished communities, looking for food. His mother, two brothers, and sister rely on him to salvage something they can eat.

Very often, the food Kevin does find lacks the vital nutrition he and his siblings need to grow up healthy and strong. To Kevin, and the others like him all over the world, malnutrition can be life-threatening. Without access to proper nutrition, these children become susceptible to a host of health problems such as stunting and blindness, and due to a weakened immune system, infectious diseases such as measles, diarrhea, and malaria that cause the deaths of about 1 million children every year.

In June Orphan Outreach and WaYfm—a broadcast ministry out of Michigan—took action against malnutrition. Thanks to Aidmatrix, a national disaster relief organization, and a generous donation from Vitamin Angels, a nonprofit organization in Santa Barbara, California, WaYfm’s medical team distributed more than 2,500 bottles of mulit-vitamins in Nueva Suyapa and the surrounding communities. More than 1,700 children received a year’s supply of supplements.

“Our solutions help others to get the right aid to the right people. We’re proud to partner with Vitamin Angels and Orphan Outreach in their mission of supplying medical relief to those in need,” Governor Scott McCallum of the Aidmatrix Foundation said.

Such a ministry is crucial for the survival of these children. According to Vitamin Angels, “one-third of all child and maternal deaths on the planet every year are due to chronic malnutrition, and vitamins are the most effective, lowest cost, and quickest way to improve global health.”

Rachel Whitehead, program coodinator for Vitamin Angels said, “The core mission of Vitamin Angels is to reduce child mortality by partnering with organizations like Orphan Outreach to distribute essential micronutrients to those who need them most. Vitamin Angels is really excited to partner with AidMatrix and Orphan Outreach to bring this simple, low cost solution to the children they serve.”

The trip’s youngest member was Jennifer Slagell, who turned 12 while in Honduras. Slagell said it was most difficult, “to see people living in the dump ... seeing what they had and knowing what I had back home.” She made friends with Tatiana, one of the vitamin recipients. Through Maureen, the Honduras program coordinator for Orphan Outreach, the girls were able to communicate. “[Tatiana] tried to learn my language while I tried to learn hers,” Slagell said.

Amanda Schaap, a registered nurse in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Helen DeVo’s Children’s Hospital in Michigan, also remarked how the 10-day trip broke down barriers such as language. “Honduras taught me how to share Christ through love,” she said. “Some people believe that mission trips should entail verbally preaching the gospel, but our team shared the gospel out of the love we showed through our medical clinics, through building the largest playground in Tegucigalpa, through arts and crafts, carnivals, play and fun, and through the time we spent with them. This love surpassed the language barrier, the cultural barrier, the age barrier, and the financial barrier. It was a love that reached to the deepest parts of their hearts.”

Orphan Outreach is also working to enroll the Honduran children in school, where they will receive a quality education, two nutritious meals a day, and the opportunity to break the cycle of poverty.

Click here to read more about WaYfm’s trip to Honduras with Orphan Outreach or go to http://www.way.fm/connect/missions.

For more information about Vitamin Angels visit their website at www.VitaminAngels.org