January 2011 Trip #3
Our most recent trip to Nicaragua was another eye opening and heart expanding experience. We assisted special needs people in San Juan del Sur, Leon City and Puerto Cabezas where we spent the majority of our time. In San Juan del Sur Dr. Angela Giampaolo and I traveled with Veronica Castro. I met Veronica at the Spanish Language school she runs. As a teenager she was inspired by her disabled neighbor Juan who was paralyzed from an accident at he age of 7. Juan’ amazing attitude motivated Veronica to become an advocate for people with special needs. Veronica is also involved with Los Pipitos, a school for disabled children. We transported 8 wheelchairs to San Juan del Sur and Veronica introduced us to the disabled people who were in need of them. We also visited many people with extreme medical conditions and provided them with antibiotics and wound care.
Juan broke his neck when at the age of 7 he fell from a tree. Look at that smile, you can’t tell me happiness doesn’t come from the inside.!
This is an example of a wound and a pressure sore that have not had adequate care.
We then revisited the factories in Leon where our wheelchairs and prosthetics are built. We provided the braces for a young girl born with a deformed leg and gave wheelchairs to 11 people in need including this beautiful 95 year old woman.
The last leg of our trip took us across the mountains to Puerto Cabezas on the North Atlantic coast of Nicaragua.
Once again Harold, our right hand man in Puerto Cabezas, knew where to take us to find the special children we wanted to help.
Disabled children have an amazing ability to open hearts and minds. They remind us to be grateful for what we have. In Puerto Cabezas we are working hard to identify disabled children who are confined to home because they have no equipment. Over the course of 3 trips made this past year, we have spent approximately 3 weeks in Puerto Cabezas. In this short time we have already found 10 school age children with severe disabilities: blindness, deafness, loss of motor function and seizure disorders. These children did not have the equipment they needed, and many were in need of nutritional support, seizure medication and diapers. They did have great smiles! The inspiration of these special children is an assist to any community. With their new equipment and mobility they are ready and excited to take their place in the community. They are in desperate need of a school where they can receive the education and therapy specific to their needs.
There is a large group of disabled children in Puerto Cabezas, some ambulatory and many still hidden away due to a lack of equipment. There is no Los Pipitos program (Nicaragua’s national program for disabled children) in Puerto Cabezas. We visited the regional president of Los Pipitos, her name is Candida Mitchell. She is the mother of a beautiful little 10 year old who has cerebral palsy. Last May Candida told my husband and I that if she raised enough money to purchase land the Government support for Los Pipitos would help build a school. The government will not help with the project unless a community provides the land. She has been working hard to raise enough money to purchase the land, unfortunately the poverty in Puerto Cabezas is extreme and no one has contributed to this project. A suitable piece of land in town would cost $20,000.00! At this time we are working to raise the money to purchase land for Los Pipitos de Bilwi. Once the land is secured we will move forward with plans for building the school.
These precious children desperately need a program where they have access to therapy and education. Will you please consider donating to the Los Pipitos property fund?
In the mean time we have a temporary location for the children to meet for a once a week program. If you are working in the special education field, if you are a speech, physical, or occupational therapist interested in providing a short term training session for these special children please contact us.
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Another big concern we have in Puerto Cabezas is with the lobster divers.We are working hard to help the lobster divers of the North Atlantic coast of Nicaragua who have been paralyzed due to the lobster industry’s failure to teach safe diving practice. There are over 400 divers who have suffered nerve damage and can no longer walk. Many of them are dying due to infected pressure sores.
Last May we gave Andrew a wheelchair. This trip we found our friend resting on a hard floor his only cushion a pillow under his elbows. He was trying to keep his weight off of the four very severe pressure sores he had. We gave him the proper antibiotics, and medical supplies to treat the pressure sores and we provided him with a mattress.
They cannot afford the antibiotics to treat the pressure sores nor can they afford the luxury of staying off the pressures sores until they heal. They must continue to sit on the streets and ask for money to feed their families, if they are lucky enough to still have a family. Many wives are leaving their husbands to find another partner to help them raise their large families. The divers situation is very sad and desperate. We have provided many of them with wheelchairs and antibiotics. This problem is so huge I do not understand why the lobster divers are not being taken care of by the industry that caused their disability.
There is a documentary, soon to be released by Nomading Films, called “My Village My Lobster” that exposes the plight of the divers in the Puerto Cabezas area.
Please donate now to help support the equipment and medical needs of these
special people.
Puerto Cabezas has 80% unemployment, there is no funding available to help the disabled. The disabled people are trapped, without basic equipment they have no opportunity to provide for themselves, or experience life outside of their own homes.
Your help will directly effect a disabled person living in poverty, the profound impact of your support cannot be put in words.
$25.00 will provide much needed medicine or diapers,
$40.00 will buy a walter filtering system
$50.00 will provide nutritional support for the disabled children who have feeding issues.
$100.00 will purchase a custom made walker
$230.00 will buy a wheelchair and pay for it to be shipped from the factory in Leon to Puerto Cabezas.
$350-$500.00 will purchase a below the knee prosthetic and cover the related expense of therapy and adjustments.
$500- $900.00 will provide an above the knee prosthetic and all associated expenses.
DONATIONS CAN BE MADE DIRECTLY INTO
THE DAVID FELLERS HEALING ART FOUNDATION ACCOUNT AT THE
LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL BANK 505-662-5171
OR YOU CAN MAIL A CHECK TO
THE DAVID FELLERS HEALING ART FOUNDATION
1421 GALISTEO STREET
SANTA FE, N.M.
505 989 7600
sally@healingartfoundation.org
TRIP 2 May 2010
Words cannot express how good it felt to return to Puerto Cabezas in May and bring Orlando
a custom made wheelchair! At the age of 12, this is the first wheelchair he has ever had!
He is now attending school a few hours a day!
We found many other people both young and old who needed assistance
Angel’s sole care giver is his grandma. They had traveled many miles from their Moskito
Indian village along the Rio Coco to come into Puerto Cabezas to beg for help.
The Grandma has no income. We provided them with diapers, nutrition supplements and a new
wheelchair. We couldn’t speak their language but no words were necessary!
Angel Nicole was delighted with her new wheelchair!
This young man has permanent nerve damage from diving too deep for lobster. He did not
have proper equipment and there was no decompression chamber available.
After suffering a stroke, this elderly gentleman had been confined to his bed for months until The David Fellers Healing Art Foundation provided him with a wheelchair.
This young man who was born with only one foot now has a new leg!
This beautiful child was normal until she suffered a high fever at the age of 7. She had inadequate health care and ended up severely disabled. She is now 10 and finally has a wheelchair to help her enjoy life.
This young father was paralyzed after diving too deep for lobster and not having a decompression chamber available.
Josue lost his leg in a motorcycle accident, he was very happy to know he would soon be getting a prosthesis
This women suffered a stroke and can no longer walk. We had meet her husband on our first trip to Puerto Cabezas when she was unconscious in the hospital and told him if she needed a wheelchair when she able to go home we would provide one. They were grateful and relieved when we returned with a wheelchair for her.
This man was hit by a truck and has a broken back. There are 12 children in the family. We provided him with a wheelchair.
Juan received a different wheelchair which offers him much more neck and trunk support. We built new stairs for their home. Now the young man standing behind Juan can carry him up and down more safely.
March-August 2010 - TRIP 1
Nicaragua trip news letter
Many thanks to our supporters, as a result of your generosity the David Fellers Healing Art Foundation has been very busy this winter dispensing much-needed funds and equipment to disabled children and adults in Nicaragua! We traveled with a group of Doctors from Partners in Health Maine who have worked in Puerto Cabezas for many years improving the medical care available in this area.
Our trip to Nicaragua began February 19, 2010, only nine months after our first fund-raising event. Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the western hemisphere and this was quite an eye opening experience for everyone involved. Puerto Cabezas, where we spent most of our time is 560 km. northeast of Managua. Seeing first hand the needs of the disabled people in this area immediately proved we were in the right place to begin our project. We met children with extreme disabilities that have no assistive equipment and have no option but to lie in the same place day after day. There were people missing legs who are too poor to pay for prosthetic, people suffering from paralysis whose only means of transportation were home made carts, and people with crippling diseases without the medical care or equipment they need. The number of desperately poor disabled people in Puerto Cabezas that have no support, equipment or medical care is staggering! They don’t have safe water or indoor plumbing, but they do an amazing job with the little they have. Their love of family is obvious and the support of extended family is inspirational. They have no way to transport their disabled children but they keep them clean and fed.
Before traveling to Puerto Cabezas we toured a wheel chair factory in Leon. The factory is run by a non-profit that employs disabled people in wheel chairs. The enthusiasm these workers have for their job is evident by the quality of the product they make. the wheelchairs are sturdy and have large tires which are well equipped for the dirt roads of Nicaragua. We purchased the only five wheel chairs they had available. These five chairs, along with a donated chair from the states and a walker were shipped by bus to Puerto Cabezas. We also visited a prosthetic factory and clinic in Leon. They are anxious to help us equip people who need prosthetics.
We provided a prosthetic for the little girl below. Her parents couldn’t afford the expense because she is growing so fast she needs a new leg more than once a year.
We met a youngster named Emanuel at the wheel chair factory. His mother had brought him there hoping she could have a walker donated to him. We gave him a therapy ball and arraigned for the wheelchair factory to build him a walker.
In Puerto Cabezas Harold, our taxi driver, greeted us at the airport and was instrumental in the success of our trip. Previous to our arrival he had transported the wheelchairs from the bus station to the house we would stay in. Harold owns a taxi service, has lived in Puerto Cabezas all of his 26 years and loves disabled children.
After we dropped our bags at the Partners in Health Maine guesthouse and inspected the wheelchairs, which had arrived in good condition, Harold took us to meet Martha Downs at the Mayors office. She is an incredible woman who was disabled by a diving accident as a teenage. She is the first woman and the first disabled person to be elected assistant Mayor in Nicaragua. Long before Martha was elected she spent much of her time as an advocate for the rights of people who are physically challenged. She has an old power wheelchair that is constantly breaking down and leaving her stranded. She is concerned about rumors that due to her disability she won't be able to perform her duties as assistant mayor. We are trying to find her a reliable power- chair. Martha was ready to get right to work as soon as we met her. With her guidance we went to the homes of a few of the disabled people she knew who needed wheelchairs or other assistance. We only had 4 days in Puerto Cabezas so there were many, many disabled people we didn't have time to meet.
We went to the home of Magali, a cute 18 year old who has had juvenile rheumatoid arthritis from the time she was 8 years old. She has only been receiving treat for the last two years. Due to the severity of her disease recent x-rays showed that her bone structure is too fragile to endure any corrective surgery. She is no longer able to bear weight on her legs or use her arms to power her wheelchair. When we promised her we would raise enough money to buy her an electric wheelchair she flashed the biggest smile. She is very bright, the only thing she requested when I asked her what she needed was a Spanish/English dictionary!
After seeing Magali,Martha took us to meet was an elderly man living in a small Miskito Indian community 50 kilometers from Puerto Cabezas. For months after his stroke he sat in a chair unable to use half of his body.
The entire family gathered around him to celebrate, as he enjoyed setting outside in his new wheelchair.
Pasted Graphic
This little darling is Monsereth, she has cerebral palsy and is working hard to learn how to walk. Her mother is the president of Los Pipitos de Bilwi a national program to assist disabled children. The program has no resources for Puerto Cabezas at this time.
We met two men who had survived strokes. One received a walker, the other one received a wheelchair.
Our heart went out to a young man named Juan with muscular dystrophy. His family had already suffered the loss of his brother from the same disease. We provided him with a wheelchair and a year’s tuition to attend the Maureen Courtney special education school.
There is one little boy who I was especially touched by. Orlando has no ability to use his body. Like our son, David, the only thing he can do is smile. He has a large family with many cousins. The cousins ran in and out of the room where we were talking to this child. They would jump up on the bed and give him a little attention before running off to play. One of his cousins is blowing up a therapy ball we brought for him. Orland's quick, bright eyes followed their every move. The Foundation is having a special chair built for this special boy so he too can go outside and enjoy a fuller live. If possible we will arrange for him to attend the special education program being developed in Puerto Cabezas.
Please consider supporting our project with a gift from your heart.
Donate now to our “Puerto Cabezas Project” fund.
Donate by check or deposit to the
David Fellers Healing Art Foundation
Los Alamos National Bank: 505 662 5171
DFHAF
1421 Galisteo Street
Santa Fe, N.M. 87505