50th Anniversary of our Children’s Nutritional Rehabilitation Center

Dr Youngberg and His Wife Verlene in Front of the Nutritional Hospital in the 60’s

On this day, February 3rd, fifty years ago, Dr. Stephen Youngberg and his wife, Verlene Youngberg, RN opened their Clinic up to three severely malnourished children in critical condition, to give them special care. On that day February 3, 1965 in an old military tent serving as the first facility the Nutritional Rehabilitation Hospital was brought into existence. Of those three critically ill children only one survived the crisis produced by their lack of nourishing food. Sadly help arrived too late for two of the children who died in the first day of treatment. Too weak to continue their fight, the loss of their lives was a grim reminder of the importance of good food and the urgency of working on the prevention of the deadly illness produced by hunger. Fifty years have passed since that first Admission Day in 1965, and thousands of lives being stalked by hunger have been saved from a sure death.Today, February 3, 2015 our Nutritional Rehabilitation Center has 15 little children in various stages of recovery from malnutrition – children who have been given a second chance in life – whose joy and smiles foretell a bright and promising future for the country of Honduras. As we look back at our first 50 years of serving children, and as we stop to count the multitude of blessings we have received in transforming many lives, we appreciate the fact that this has been a team effort between Pan American Health Service, the Providence of our Divine Creator, and the support and trust of thousands of people who donate for our mission. Today, with joy and thanksgiving we celebrate an important milestone in our history, the 50th Anniversary of the Children’s Nutritional Rehabilitation Center. Thank you for being part of our success!

A Girl Named Dilia

Dilia and her mother, the day she came to the Casita Feliz

La Casita Feliz – the heart of the Pan American Health Service Nutritional Rehab Center – is decorated for Christmas. On the wall is a mural where Santa Claus is pulling a sleigh filled with presents… except these presents are the photo of each of the 32 children who are patients receiving nutritious foodand tender loving care. What a precious gift each childis!

This Christmas is a particularly special one for Dilia – the most fragile patient to be admitted to Nutrition Center in 2013 – it will be her first away from her family however it will be a happy one regardless, for she has received the gift of life and restoration of health. In her short 13 years this very small teenager has experienced the extreme effects of hunger in ways that few can survive. Dilia arrived at la Casita Feliz on October 31, 2013 having been referred to the PAHS program by another nutritional rehab program in the city of San Pedro Sula.

Dilia’s medical treatment had begun sometime in late September when she was admitted to the acute care government hospital in the city with third degree malnutrition – extremely swollen and bloated by the protein deficiency in her body. Additionally she was profoundly anemic and presented with a parasite infestation. Worst of all the nutrient deficiency had an effect on her neurological health and she had cerebral atrophy and the motor and verbal skills of a one-year-old baby. The medical personnel knew she would need long-term care and they eventually found placement at PAHS.

The irony is that Dilia’s struggle for survival was waged on the fringes of the most prosperous city in Honduras – its industrial capital, San Pedro Sula – on the edges of the river where thousands of families, seeking a way out of extreme poverty, gather in hopes of finding a better life for themselves and where in many cases their misery grows instead of dissipating.  Such is the story of Dilia’s mother, a woman who collects plastic bottles and aluminum cans from the garbage to sell in order to have money to feed her three daughters. She relates that many days she would return home empty-handed and experience the pain of watching her children suffer hunger pangs just like herself.

To make matters worse Dilia suffered from a speech impediment and although she had been referred to therapy which was free of charge her mother could not manage the logistics of transportation when she could barely feed her children.

Dilia smiling after two weeks in our Campus

One month after her arrival at the PAHS Nutritional Rehab Center in Peña Blanca, Dilia – who had been getting around in a wheelchair – took her first steps unaided. The love, good food and motivation received from her caretakers have made a profound difference in her life. Her mother came to visit shortly after Dilia started walking. Hardly able to believe what she was seeing her eyes filled with tears as she repeated: “She’s walking”.

Dilia’s speedy recovery is miraculous and a joy to behold. Perhaps soon she will be able to be more self-sufficient and be able to enjoy a childhood which hunger has stolen from her.

They are not different, they are special

Keny sees a world that is completely different than what most of us perceive. His reality has given him much bigger obstacles with a higher degree of difficulty than most of us have. Why? The circumstances of his birth took him to a group that is different, and special.

The innocence of his condition helps him to see the good side of life in spite of his condition. It was a privilege for us to lend our services in support of a Medical Team from Michigan, organized by Brad Alcorn, who every year brings physicians and nurses to our area to lend a helping hand to improve the health of our communities. Around 60 people, the majority of them children with disabilities, were transported by our bus from the community in which they live in Las Vegas, Santa Bárbara so that they could receive attention from the Medical Team that was kicking off their week in Honduras by holding a clinic on our campus. They attended to 130 patients.

It was a beautiful thing to watch the marvelous care that these compassionate physicians and nurses gave each of these special children. They always started with a prayer and shared words of encouragement and a warm smile besides providing them with their professional medical services. These special children had a wonderful time on our campus as they soon discovered the playground and set out to explore and take advantage of its location near the health team. One by one, each of them was taken to see a physician. Some could not talk, however, their eyes communicated what words could not express and were filled with life and love. Some could not hear, but their smiles showed their gratitude. Some could not walk, and yet their parents were there to carry them. For others it was mental slowness or Down’s Syndrome that affected their bodies but not their ability to smile. The conclusion I came to is that we should give thanks in everything for everything that we have that perhaps others do not have. For many of these children who have apparently so little it appeared that they do have a better capacity to be grateful than those of us who appear to be well.

• It is estimated that 14% of the Honduran population has a disability.• A disability is considered to be anything that is a deficiency that limits the ability to engage in activities and restricts participation in them. It is a complex thing that reflects an interaction between the characteristics of the human body and the characteristics of the community in which it lives.

Alicia's first Christmas

Alica, 7 years-old, has been in recovery from malnutrition for two months. When she came to the Nutrition Rehabilitation Program she was ill, tired and sad. Little did she imagine anything like Christmas on October 28. That day she was merely fighting to survive her hunger and the sickness it had brought her. Food was probably all she could dream of. Toys, Santa Claus and angels singing songs were not even a possibility.Now imagine her delight at the sounds, smells and sights of Christmas!Fresh-cut poinsettias, pine branches, candles and lights decorated the PAHS Chapel on Christmas Eve. The teens and staff of the PAHS Home had prepared an original Christmas program to tell the Story of Jesus’ birth. An angel choir sang, shepherds with live lambs appeared to see a real “Baby Jesus” played by Elizabeth, 16 months old, a patient from the Casita Feliz, who quietly peered first at “Mary” then at “Joseph” then at the angels, shepherds and wise men, peacefully taking in all the sights and sounds.On Aileen’s lap sat Alicia who, not knowing any of the songs the choir was performing, joined in singing at the top of her lungs in sweet sounds only she understands. What a joyful sound it was! What a delight to see this precious child, who just nine weeks ago was suffering Third Degree Malnutrition, joining enthusiastically in the festivities and throughly enjoying herself.“That is the most beautiful Christmas program I’ve ever seen. That was really special,” stated volunteer Rachel Pratt at the end of the Christmas program. How fitting that this is Alicia’s first Christmas celebration!On Christmas Day, Alicia got to sit on Santa’s lap and with a beaming smile received her gift. The sparkle in her eyes and the smile on her face were priceless.Alicia represents many children whose lives are touched by your generosity. Thank you for being part of the team that provided her with food, shelter, love, a Christmas sparkle in her eyes and the opportunity to keep on singing!Perhaps next Christmas she will know the words to the songs and she too will be dressed in a white angel’s robe in the choir; perhaps she will even know the alphabet by then. Thanks to you the possibilities are endless.

Thankful for the Father Who never Abandons Us

As Rosita swings on the swing set, the soft breeze tousles her curls while warm rays of sunshine bathe her surroundings and whisper to her of a Father she is just getting to know. There in the back and forth of her swinging this small child is removed from the extenuating circumstances that are the reality of her short life. She is the youngest of seven siblings who recently came to live in the PAHS Home.

These children’s lives recently were a nightmare. Four hours travel time away in the capital, Tegucigalpa, their mother is dying of a lung disease and only a miracle can save her. Two months ago, as the children lay sleeping, their father disappeared during the night. “When we woke up in the morning he just wasn’t there anymore. He left without telling us goodbye”, Rosita remembers. At the age of six, she already is feeling deeply the repercussions of abandonment.“Before coming here we lived in the city with an aunt. She took us to live with her when our older sister went to be with our mother in the hospital. She locked us up and then brought us back to our house. We were alone and scared. There were many men close to our house and my siblings and I would hide.

When someone would knock on our door we would be very still and quiet so that they would not know we were inside”, Mercy tells us.  At the age of fourteen, she became the primary caretaker to the younger siblings in the absence of their oldest sister, 17, who has gone to be at the bedside in the hospital to care for their dying mother. Now the fear that these children lived in has been left to one side, and in its place, they now get to enjoy the company of other youngsters who they can talk to and play with. They get to eat three meals a day and live in a room that was specially decorated just for them by Gary and Jennifer, a couple whom God used to remove them from the nightmare they were living in. Part of a visiting group who stayed on the PAHS campus while they worked construction at a nearby site, Gary and Jennifer came across the abandoned siblings when they were out distributing food baskets to the community.

Observing the conditions that Mercy and her younger siblings lived in they decided to intervene and find a safer situation for the children. Safety, now they have it. There is no more fear. And even though they are not fully aware of the seriousness of their mother’s struggle to live their little hearts are with her and their hope is placed in the Father-- their Heavenly Father--  they have just come to know.“I didn’t know any songs before, but we just learned ‘Let us give thanks to God’. We feel that there must be Somebody who loves us so much to provide us with all of this. And you say that Jesus loves us. Well I am thankful to know this Father that will not abandon us”, concludes Mercy.

Meanwhile, Rosita jumps off of the swing set and runs to the arms of her older sister. The smile on her face is evidence that just like this sibling bond of love held them together in the dense darkness of the trial they have come through, now they have the security of that Heavenly Father, they are just getting to know, who will always be with them just like He always has been before they knew it. Thanks to a visiting volunteer group and the watchfulness and concern of one special couple, the siblings are now adapting to their new home at PAHS.

I Have No Food For My Children

In the Bible, Jesus asks: “ Which of you knowing your children are hungry and asking for bread would give them a stone instead?” He goes on to point out that if people who are imperfect know how to give good things to their children, then imagine how much more our Heavenly Father can give to those who ask Him. This is the only hope that the little Muñoz siblings have as the conditions in which they have been living are far from what would be considered appropriate.

Six of the seven children in this family were admitted to the Nutritional Rehabilitation Hospital. Maryuri and Xiomara, the two youngest ones were admitted on Friday with a diagnosis of Third Degree Malnutrition. Doctor Maldonado had to count their teeth in order to determine which one was the oldest sister. Later the family returned to the Nutrition Hospital with the four older children who were also admitted for treatment of their malnutrition. Their parents were accompanied by the pastor from their community church in Yojoa, 50 kilometers from Peña Blanca. This good man had provided the desperately poor family with a humble amount of food and a place to stay, and in spite of the charity of the pastor, the situation for the family remained disheartening: an unemployed father, a mother caring for a newborn, without food or a roof of their own.

All these circumstances have reduced these parents to a painful existence of watching powerlessly as their children grow weak and ill as a result of the scarcity. Mahatma Gandhi once said: “There are people in this world who are so hungry that God can only appear to them as a loaf of bread”.  Indeed this seems to be the situation for this particular family. In spite of the extreme poverty from where these siblings have come, it is admirable to witness the protective instinct these little ones have for each other. In their short stay, we have noted that Maria, 9, the oldest sister, automatically takes charge of the two youngest ones. It is evident that she has been the right-hand helper of her mother, and one can imagine what she has endured in her short life. Shortly after her arrival Maria picked up both little sisters, one in each arm, and did not want to put them down. One of our Staff Nannies came close and said to her: “We will take care of them now. You can go play”.PLAY? That was not a word in Maria’s vocabulary... but now it is. There are so many new things to be experienced! Like the flavor of a warm bite of food, eating three meals a day, the feel of a new pencil between her fingers, and the ability to doodle on a piece of paper -- up until now she has never been to school -- the feel of a warm blanket on her skin on these cold and rainy nights. We are conscious of the fact that for these parents it has not been easy to leave their six small children with us.

They have done so with a new faith in the God they are just getting acquainted with; a God who has now provided them with a new home, health care, and adequate living facilities for their children.

“To him who believes all things are possible”

Suyapa and Ingrid

As we move farther into the beautiful mountains of Santa Barbara, (located in Northwestern Honduras) I can’t help but admire the natural beauty of this place; beautiful pine forests, refreshing streams, the impetuous Ulua River and extensive hilltops that merge to form a magnificent landscape.

Without a doubt this is one of the most pleasant journeys I have taken, excluding the atrocious state of the “road” we are traveling on which has been washed out by the rain in which diches and uneven surfaces are the predominant, a fact that has our driver making a thousand maneuvers just to stay on course.

Any lover of nature and photography would be ecstatic to have this experience, however, my thoughts go beyond the natural composition, since our mission is to locate Ingrid, a girl who is suffering one of the worst cases of malnutrition I have ever seen in my life, Grade III Marasmus. At nine years of age, this deplorable illness has had its way with her, and as if this was not enough she also suffers from a mental health problem that limits her ability to live a normal childhood.

Her twin brother did not have the same fate, and here in front of us can be seen the contrast between a child who is well and the ravages that malnutrition can make in a young life. This is the reason we are here… if they cannot come to us, we will go to them. The famous saying with my own modification goes: “If the mountain cannot come to PAHS, then we will go to the mountains”.The extreme poverty that sails the most remote communities of Honduras does not permit its poorest inhabitants to seek the help they need; to go