Recanto Sao Francisco Orphanage Visit.
Some Tablers recently paid a visit MG and spent the day with the kids from
the Orphanage. Click on house for Photos and story
Casa de Assistencia Maria Helena Paulina (CMHP)
CMHP is a temporary home for children who come from all over Brazil to
São Paulo (accompanied by one parent) to be treated for cancer at the
only major state hospital specialised in this field which will treat
children without money. Without this treatment they would almost certainly
die, although even so there is quite a high mortality rate of the children
in the home.
They receive no help whatsoever from the state and rely totally
on donations plus the proceeds of occasional fund raising events.
The home is a house in a lower middle class area, which was not designed
for the purpose of accommodating up to forty children and forty adults.
The living room has been converted into a bedroom and another living room
built in front of the house but there is still only one bathroom.
They are
at present building a further extension but have a general lack of funds
so work is being carried out sporadically.
The house offers everything the children need including food,
medication and a bit of educational instruction including personal
hygiene. The children that come each have their own type of problem -
there are cases of cancer in the eye, the head, and the shoulder and
in fact all types of cancer, both malignant and benign. The children
are treated for chemotherapy and neurotherapy
Their major cost is specialised medicines, which is an item that
cannot be donated by the general public and is at present purchased
without any particular subsidy.
This is probably their greatest funding
problem. Because of the money spent on medicines, there are occasional
food shortages in the home but in general they are able to get donations
from shops and people in the local area.
The other main problem area is the cost of the minibus and ambulance,
which for them are essential to take the children to school and hospital.
Both are in reasonably good shape but even so the running costs
(especially insurance) are a big drain on their finances.
Associação Batista de Incentivo e Apoio ao Homem (ABIAH)
ABIAH are a group of British Baptist missionaries who are working in some of
the small shantytowns ("favelas") in Sao Paulo. Their focus is principally
in the area of childrens' health care and pre-school education in a number
of favelas which are too small (5,000 to 10,000 people)
to support the necessary infrastructure or receive state funding. Without their assistance
the children below the age of 6 would receive no formal education and would
be lacking all but rudimentary health care.
They are currently operating ten pre-schools with about 400 pupils between
the ages of 5 and 7 and need about USD 200 a year to provide for each child
education, nourishment and health care. The main source of funding at present is an "Adopt a child" scheme whereby individuals and organizations pay to sponsor a child through the pre-schools. In addition they have a mobile pre-school in a bus purchased for them by the C&A Foundation which goes to small favelas for periods of up to 6 months after which a permanent school is set-up or they pull out.
However, at this point in time their income is not covering their
expenditure and they are having to cut back on the number of pupils
and/or teachers and/or services provided and are also considering taking
the mobile pre-school off the road.
Whilst they are a religious organization,
it is not a requirement that children or their parents
are members of the organization to take advantage of the benefits offered.
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