A thank you to Food For The Poor donors

In Guatemala, many children are afflicted with diarrhea because they are forced to drink contaminated water from the only sources available to them. This treacherous malady is responsible for the dehydration and high fevers that put the children’s lives at risk, but because you have chosen life we are able to bring clean water to many communities, saving more than 66% of even those children who are in most danger.

In Honduras, Nicaragua and Haiti, thousands of families live in huts that we would not consider fit even for our animals – dirt floors, sticks, mud, cardboard, plastic, rusted metal, termite mounds, insects, roaches and rodents – all conditions that, combined with inclement weather, would gravely endanger the lives of children there. But you have chosen life, and by supporting our house-building programs in these countries you have invited the attention of an international financial institution that is willing to match, dollar for dollar, every home that you help build.

In Jamaica, there are children infected with HIV that would not be alive today, but because you have chosen life you have given them the opportunity to live happy, joy- filled lives in a loving environment. You also provide hope to HIV infected mothers who come to a hospital we support that specializes in the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMCT) and where 97% of all their babies are born HIV negative because of the administration of a special drug cocktail immediately before delivery. And for those who are in the final stages of their journey, your choice for life helps them to take that final step with dignity, hope, peace and spiritual comfort.

Illiteracy is a terrible scourge in many of our countries. Even when education is free, those who live in extreme poverty cannot afford the shoes, the uniforms and the books required by the schools for attendance, but because you have chosen life thousands of those children who would have grown up in the darkness of ignorance now have an opportunity to enjoy a future brimming with luminous success – literate, eloquent and well acquainted with the world of technology.

In some of our countries, unemployment and underemployment are higher than 80 percent. At times that segment of the population earns less than $2 per day, with almost half of these earning less than $1 per day. Because you have chosen life we have been able to support many self-sustainable projects. These return dignity and hope to parents who are now able to properly feed their children, send them to school and seek medical attention for them when needed. Self-reliance eliminates the shame of poverty and replaces it with self-respect.

I want you to understand that every time you have supported any of our programs or projects that you have chosen life.

We can never repay your kindness, but we do assure you of our prayers and the prayers of the vulnerable people that your generosity has served so well.

For the poor,