Special Report: 2021 Child Sponsorship Impact
SPECIAL REPORT: Child Sponsorship Impact
Our Child Advocates in Haiti have been gathering data on our sponsored children for over 1 year now,
and we are so excited to share the results with you!
The beautiful girl pictured above was sponsored exactly one year ago. In the photo on the left she is severely underweight and suffering from waterborne diarrhea. Her skin is powdered with dust to temper the itching from chronic malnutrition and yeast infections. On the right, after just one year in our nutrition program, having access to clean water, and medical treatment for infection, she gained over 10 kg! Can you see the difference in her skin, eyes and hair? Last year she told her advocate she did not know what she wanted to be, but now she is excelling in school and dreams of becoming a nurse!
Hope radiates.
Nutrition Update
Measuring malnutrition in numbers is harder than it seems. Most children have stunted growth, so their BMI may be normal. Based on our medical providers' previous observations, almost 100% of children in Verrettes suffer at least mild malnutrition. At the beginning of 2020, 1 month after starting our nutrition program, out of 45 children we had at least 27 who were underweight and 5 who were severely underweight.
In 2021, all of our children gained weight except for two teenagers whose weight was stable and one who reported lost weight (her advocate believes this was due to a faulty scale reading last year because she is thriving). We are so excited to report that NONE of our children who have been in the program for a year are considered underweight anymore!
Water Update
Last year only 2 kids in our program (that blue sliver) had access to clean water. This year, thanks solely to the household water filters we distributed, 21% of the kids have clean water at home and 100% have access to as much clean water as they want every day at the nutrition program!
Education Update
To say the least, the 2019-2020 school year was difficult for all of us. In Haiti, school shut down in August, 2019 due to riots and political protests. Classes briefly resumed in January, but were shut down again in March due to COVID-19. Haiti decided to finish the school year in 2 months from August to October, then the students could take a test to pass their grade. The government expected most kids to fail. It's estimated that about 50% of kids in rural Haiti did, which means they either drop out or repeat a grade.
We are so thrilled to report that all of our kids except one 1st grader passed their exams! We are not even teaching these kids yet - the difference is sponsorship! Just encouragement from you and their advocate motivates them to do well.
Medical Update
Sponsored children are financially covered for urgent medical expenses. We referred 12 children to the hospital this year, mainly for stomach problems and anemia, and they were treated appropriately. Malaria also made a comeback in the region during the COVID-19 lockdown, and several children were affected. They have all recovered. One of our children is waiting for supplies to arrive in Haiti for a prosthetic limb, which he is receiving for the first time thanks to your support.
One more thing....
Take a moment to compare the photos below with the photo collage at the top of this email. The photos at the top were taken after children found out they were sponsored. The photos below are children on our waiting list. They were all told to smile. We want you to see the impact you are making on a child's life. Forever. They will never forget you, no matter who they grow up to be. Is there one more thing you can do? Spread the word, like our Facebook page and encourage friends and family to become sponsors, give a sponsorship as a gift......
....we have over 400 children still waiting for a reason to smile.
