Heartstrings

I hope you are all as moved by this blog as I was by the events I am about to write about. I had the chance to go back to Mama Sara's yesterday with more plans to go back next week. We went on more home visits to bring food and company to the group member suffering from HIV. The woman we had seen Tuesday that we went back to see yesterday looked like a different person..she looked so much stronger I hardly
even recognized her. She told Mama Sara that the reason she looked better was because of the food we brought Tuesday...the food that cost us each about $1.50! She had had to take her medicine (provided by the group when funds are sufficient) with no food prior to that because she has no money and it was making her terribly sick. These people are living in conditions we would never put our pets in and
solely relying on Mama Sara's help (who has HIV herself). Despite how emotional the two visits have been, it's an incredible experience to see first hand what you can do to help people in such a short time.
Also, I found out from talking with Mama Sara that the amount of money it would take for them to put a deposit down on a place of their own is only about 5,000 in US dollars. Two of the volunteers who left two weeks ago we able to help her set up a bank account that we can have access to from the United States. So i am planning on collecting my own money up and if anyone else would like to donate to help raise some money for this woman who is doing amazing things for a lot of people when she hardly has anything herself. I think it's powerful also to see first hand where your money is going and we went to Mama's Sara's own home to see where she stored the medicine, etc. She lives in a small cement place with her children. Please let me know if you'd like to contribute and I'll have all the info when I get back. I am looking forward to updating you all on my visits to the group next week. I know Monday we are taking one of the members to get his haircut :-)
Amani,
Valerie