Bountiful Grace February 2008 Newsletter

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Bountiful Grace Corporation would like to sincerely thank all our contributors who have helped us make our last several years extremely productive. We have recently returned from our 5th annual mission trip to Nicaragua and our projects are moving along nicely.

            Our new grammar school in Pueblo Nuevo just completed its first operational year with 53 students attending grades Kindergarten through 6th grade. Nicaragua has an overall 40% adult illiteracy rate and an average formal schooling in rural areas of grade 3.  Most of our students had not been able to attend school for the last 4 years after their school building had been condemned. The community expects approximately 60 students for their 2008 school year beginning February.

            The Pueblo Nuevo church roofing and reinforced walls have been completed and our mission team worked with the village residents to paint the inside walls and front façade of the church. This was the church whose members had slowly enlarged the outer walls of their tiny church over 4-5 years but could not afford to put a roof on the building. Our 2007 construction team evaluated and felt the constructed walls would not safely support the large roof. Reinforced, re-bar and concrete columns were built into the existing wall system and the metal beam/steel roof system was applied. The church looks wonderful and is the center of community life in this rural area.

Other highlights of our January 2008 mission trip include:

  1. Our water project with C.A.R.E. International is moving along nicely. Four wells were drilled before an adequate source was tapped. The well’s pump is in place. Two water towers are near completion for the 3 village service area. Trenching for pipes to the retention towers and homes has begun and will hopefully be completed over the next 4-6months.  The villagers (as required) are providing labor for the project. They will also pay a small initial hook-up and monthly fee.
  2. We met with the Pueblo Nuevo Village/Bountiful Grace interactive committee formed during our 2007 trip. Concerns about needing financial help for about 19 destitute students and their families for government mandated school uniforms ($20 per student uniform) and the poor condition of many of the desks ($30 can buy a good used desk) at the school were discussed. Our group is looking into these issues. The community felt the children’s education was going very well and they are happy with the teacher quality (provided by the Ministry of Education). When we returned to Managua, the mission team purchased additional needed backpacks, small chairs for the younger children, routine school supplies, wall maps and other teacher aids, textbooks and the school’s first library books. Many rural schools have no textbooks or average 1 textbook for every 5 students. Bountiful Grace supplied enough books to provide 1 textbook for every 2 students.
  3. Donated clean children’s and adult clothing and shoes were distributed to approximately 150 villagers and undistributed clothing was left with the village pastor for distribution to those unable to attend.
  4. After returning to the M.E.F.E.L., Tipitapa mission-group base compound, we spent the next 2 days of our trip meeting with other mission groups to facilitate future networking. We met with the North Carolina based mission group, World Mission Organization, which feeds 19,000 children a day via 156 kitchens in impoverished areas of Nicaragua! They ship 40 ship containers of donated food from the United States annually. We hope to ship some large items such as donated textbooks with this charity to our work areas in the future.
  5. We have made a good start on addressing the rural health care needs of the Pueblo Nuevo village region with the soon-to-be-completed clean water/latrine project. 80% of diseases in developing countries are associated with contaminated water supplies. During our 2008 trip we met with 3 missionary groups to investigate additional ways to help these rural area’s health needs. We met with the mission group, Amigos for Christ, which runs a nearby hospital approximately 3 hours from our village area. Although, this hospital does not perform daily routine surgeries, it does provide 7-8 specialty surgical clinics (orthopedic, cleft lip, cataract, etc) yearly. We hope to network with this group as needs are identified. The team also met with a founding member of the Verbo Mission System for ideas on commerce development, government interaction, and ideas on health clinic development. Verbo runs multiple clinics and orphanages throughout Central and Latin America. Lastly, Bountiful Grace Corporation met with an indigenous mission group, Providenic. Providenic began in 1967 with the goal of providing very basic health care needs (i.e. vaccinations, nutritional development, maternal and newborn care) in extreme impoverished rural Nicaraguan areas. The group provides health and nutritional education, creates local sustainable agriculture programs, helps with community development, and provides animal care and animal care/health education. We are looking into possibly teaming with this group to start a basic clinic in the rural area around Pueblo Nuevo.

 

Needs list:

      Financial support

      Clean used or new children’s and adult summer clothes

      Clean used or new children’s and adult shoes

      Grant writing

 

President’s Corner:

Referring to the above report I am happy to say our mission trip was a resounding success. Very productive in that we accomplished everything we had intended to do.

      The next logical step is to improve general health care and try to find some way to develop sustainable nutrition. Our goal is to eventually educate them so they will be able to sustain themselves.

      This takes time and effort for they have been impoverished since the inquisition.

We need more funding of course. These projects are a constant drain on our finances. Building something is only part. Maintenance is also expensive.

      Thanks to your generosity Pueblo Nuevo now has and will have things they would never have had in the foreseeable future.

      There are three ways we can do this: fundraisers, donations, and grants. It is my understanding that many grants are available for this kind of work. If any of you would be interested in grant writing, we surely need your help. Experience not necessary.

      Again let me thank you all for everything you have done to help.

 

Sincerely,

 

Dick