Project Feet

*This letter is meant to disturb you… it is meant to touch your heart… it is meant to move you to action… it is meant to move to you share this letter with everyone you know… family, friends, neighbors, churches, Sunday school classes, civic organizations and clubs, and to give and ask others to give as well!

PROJECT FEET

 

‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me”

Matthew 25:40

Today, August 29, 2012, I returned from a 2 week trip to Democratic Republic of Congo and to Ethiopia.  My time in Congo was difficult, as it is every time I go.  The situation in DRC is difficult in every sense of the word.  This time, however, I was mortified and devastated by the physical condition I found many of the children to be in.  The orphanages in Congo are atrocious. They are overcrowded, poorly funded and lack the basic necessities needed to care for children.  One of the orphanages which with we partner is located in an isolated area surrounded but nothing but sand.  The children play outside and have contracted jiggers.  These are bugs that live in the sand during the dry season and burrow their way in the skin of the children. The result is severe pain and suffering and an inability of many of these children to walk.   Families who are adopting children have already paid huge sums of money to provide for the health and medical care of the children they hope to adopt.  Unfortunately, this condition seems to have been ignored by all those in charge.  Few people I met seemed to be concerned about these children’s condition, saying that this is common during the dry season.  The doctors, however, say they have never seen such severity of this condition. The children are suffering terribly.  This past week, adoptive families who were in DRC to pick up their children were forced to take their children a local doctor who pulled some of the jiggers out of their feet, however, this doctor eventually realized the severity of the condition and needed to operate on the children in order to remove all the bugs and infection.  The cost per child was approximately $1500.  We have at least 15 more children in need of this kind of surgical intervention.  This cannot wait.  It was devastating leaving the children in this condition but it was necessary for me to return home to look for the financial help needed to fix this and to get the children out of pain.

Here is a link about this condition: http://www.digidrift.com/jiggers-chigoe-flea-the-hidden-african-killer/

Pictured below are pictures of the feet of some of the children I saw this week:

 

 

What can you do?

1. We need $20,000-$25,000 in cash for surgical intervention.  We need this immediately and urgently.  Every single day the children are suffering.
2. We need 2-3 volunteers who are able to travel to Congo and spend 2-4 weeks there caring for the children during their surgery and recovery.  We believe we can get all the children ‘fixed’ within 3 weeks but at this time.
3. Share the word about this great need with everyone you know.  Print out copies of this letter.  PLEASE, PLEASE HELP. Please give this to your church, your friends, schools and clubs.  All donations are tax deductible.  Please make checks to CCI  1757 W Broadway Suite 5, Oviedo, FL  32765, and mark them “Project FEET.”
4. You can also donate by visiting http://www.celebratechildren.org/humanitarianAid/index.php and clicking the Make a Donation button in the upper right section regarding Project Feet. (Please note that Paypal will deduct a portion of your donation as a service fee. Therefore, it is best to donate directly to CCI whenever possible.)
5. If you know of someone who might want to go and help, and can raise their own funds for transportation, please refer them to us as soon as possible.

Please consider what you can do to IMMEDIATELY help these suffering children in Democratic Republic of Congo.

100% of your donation will be used for this project. Rest assured that CCI will not deduct any of your donation for overhead costs!

For more information, please contact  Sue Hedberg  at   sue@celebratechildren.org   or call 407 977-2810 or 407 625-9192.

*This letter was used with permission from Celebrate Children International.

Proverbs 24:12 NLT

"Don't excuse yourself by saying, "Look, we didn't know." For God understands all hearts, and He sees you. He who guards your soul knows you knew. He will repay all people as their actions deserve.

Please, now that you have been made aware of this need, will you not do something to come to the aid of these children? What if your child's feet looked as these do? 

For my sweet friend, Delaina and her husband, this IS their child. Her feet are among those pictured above. And they are desperate to get to Congo to be with her and bring her home. But what of those left behind in the orphanage? What will become of them? 

We can no longer pretend that we were ignorant of their suffering.