Friends and Helpers of Madre Berenice

2020 FHMB UPDATE

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What a year for us all!

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When I wrote in May 2020, I told of the March 2 Fundraiser, that four Damien House resident had died of COVID, there was an electrical fire at Damien House, and Escuela Julio Matevello had closed in-person classes.

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We were optimistic this whole virus would stop soon.

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Well, obviously, it has continued to today.

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We were fortunate that we had funds to send help to both Damien and the school because of the fundraiser. Our Christmas gift to Damien House was funds to purchase new dishes for all of the residents and pay the costs of COVID testing until June 2021.

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We couldn’t have our annual Tea, but we did an appeal (almost $5,000 raised) and Sr. Annie did a video at Damien to give us a tour of the house and to meet some of the residents.

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The highlight was to see our new RN, Carlos, now an employee of Damien Fundación. The residents love him! You may recall, Carlos was a former patient with Hansen’s Disease who was so touched by the care he received that he wanted to become a nurse. Our donors provided his tuition and he graduated from University in 2019.

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We had a couple small projects to raise funds: 2021 calendars created by Paul and Joe Franzetti , silk masks made by a friend, and ongoing recycling of plastics and cans.

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We did raise quite a tidy sum. We also had a few anonymous donations to cover the cost of the electrical renovation and transformer needed after the fire at Damien.

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Our school had many problems because the students didn’t have tablets or internet to attend classes online with their teachers, so they dropped out. With minimal tuition coming in it was difficult to pay teacher salaries, so we sent funds to cover 2 months salaries, then when salaries were cut by 25%, we covered that to make it full payment. Because of the generosity of so many from March 2020 on, we sent $30,000 to assist the school. We do not know the future of the school at this writing.

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Our new Mission is in the community of Duran outside of Guayaquil. Sisters Fanny and Gladys at Vida Digna Fundación have been teaching nutrition and sewing to the women and have a carpenter teaching woodworking. They have just begun a large community garden to help these families become more self-sufficient. We are pleased to assist them with $2,000.

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We look forward to a better 2021. We have no plans for a fundraiser at this time. We will keep you posted.

Thank you for your continued support of the poor of Ecuador.