I recently attended a Memorial for September 11. The IFC donated cookies for the service. The Marriott Hotel donated a large room. It was a great feeling to be so far away and yet so close.

Things are happening! This summer has been full with community services. The IFC donates

money to assist in the organizational function of Clinica Santa Barbara(rehabilitation ctr.), the R.I.S.E children’s home, the Beans and Rice Program(which rewards kids for coming to school) as well as other local charities. These functions continue...whether we are here or not.

We have added a new service called Food 4 Kids which provides food for Casa A.M.A. and Arturo y los Hijos de Dios. Some of you are aware of the boys’ home in the back of Pitillal. It is named Casa A.M.A.(love). Basically, it is a home for street boys who want to make a change in their lives. There is teaching, counseling, limit setting and boundaries. There is warmth, compassion and love there. However, the government provides only monies for rice and beans. Now, through our program, Food 4 Kids, we are able to provide a broader range of food for the young boys in this home. I personally deliver the foodstuffs to Casa A.M.A. Before this program, these kids went to bed hungry.

We are also working with Robin Bouchard and his foundation—Arturo y los Hijos de Dios. While Robin helps many people, we have chosen a select group of which to be a part of the Food 4 Kids program. There is a "safe house" for 4 families in Las Palmas. I meet with the families every 2 weeks and work with them to buy healthy foods. The goal of the program is to bring protein in the form of meat, chicken and cheese to these struggling people.

Finally, DONATIONS...I would like to encourage the continuation of dental supplies, dental floss, teaching videos in Spanish (nutrition, diabetes, health in general----you bring it, I will teach it)! We need kids underwear and white socks. VITAMINS and more vitamins.

Anabella will be 8 years old in November. She was born with no nose. At the age of 6 her family went to live for a short time in Tepic where DIF helped her family connect with a plastic surgeon who formed a nose for her using her rib cartilage. Due to her growth, this nose is now deforming and is totally inadequate. Anabella came to us through the band Bubba and the Bottomfeeders. This band donates all the proceeds from their performances to buy food for the poor and help with medical needs in the community.

I took her to the consultations of the Cleft Palate Program in November, where Dr. Fuentes reviewed her case. He says that when she is 15 he can make her a nose but that she must wait until then. When she is 15 her facial bones will be fully developed and the surgeon can use cartilage from her ear to form her nose –BUT – she must not succumb to the temptation to have more surgeries between now and that time because to do so would make more scar tissue and thereby reduce the amount of useable skin available then. She will continue to attend the consultations in the next 7 years so that Dr Fuentz can observe her development. His orders for her at this time included that she must go to school and begin to live as a normal child…that she must not wait until she has a nose to be a person.

Since she had been kept at home almost exclusively, she had no social skills and had no idea how to interact with people. We enlisted the aid of Dra Cecilia at SuperSabios who donated a three-month development course for Anabella. The course normally costs $1,500 pesos per month.

Transportation was a problem from the beginning, because the father was not in favor of her being out of the house everyday….and would not permit the mother to take her to the class which is held at the Plaza Marina. So, I decided to take her in my car…leaving Bucerias at 11:30 a.m. and returning her to her home at 1:30 p.m. Monday thru Friday.