In April we celebrated our 4th year of the KO HAMBRE (Knock Out Hunger) Program. We have cooked and delivered over 100,000 meals in the last 4 years. VWL is currently cooking and doing a door to door delivery of over 140 meals each day. Thank you to the community for the support!
Category: Special Kids (Our Favorite Part Of Our Work)
Our Family!
These kids are the main reason we exist. They are the driving force and passion behind our work! They are our family! You don’t see them on the street or in stores or at the beach. There is a certain stigma here that comes with disabilities. We are working to change that.
Some of the disabilities of the kids we work with are autism, deafness, blindness, cerebral palsy, Dandy Walker syndrome, West syndrome etc. Believe it or not, some don’t have diagnoses because it is not affordable for the family to get the proper tests done. This is another thing we are trying to change.
Reality is that a lot of our kids have severe disabilities and all we can do is give them and their families a better quality of life. Even then it is at a survival level. As of today, our organization is at a survival level. We are working hard to reach a thriving level that will increase the services we are able to provide.
Our current services: We provide diapers for those that need them, Ensure, we help with financial support for medications, Dr. visits, lab tests and transportation to Drs. and hospitals. We also provide wheelchairs, canes, walkers, crutches etc. to those in the community that need them but cannot afford them.
We are truly grateful to all of you that have helped them so far! Thank you!
Raising a Child with a Severe Disability
Putting things into perspective:
Single mom with a handicapped child here in San Felipe-
1) Rent – 1500 pesos
2) Electric – 1000 pesos
3) Water – 100 pesos
4) Diapers – 400 pesos
5) Medications – 1800 pesos
6) Nutritional supplement – 720 pesos
Total of 5520 pesos per month.
Now keep in mind that we have not included food, clothing, Dr visits, lab tests and if the child is in school, those costs. We have also not factored in having one or two more children and those costs either.
If anything like wheelchairs are needed etc. that is additional costs.
IF she is working as a hotel maid for example, she will make about 3600 pesos per month. IF she works, childcare for a handicapped child is about 600 pesos per week. So childcare itself would be 2400 pesos a month. Basically, she cant work or must pursue work that you don’t even want to think about.
Now if we multiply that by 20 children, that is over 110,000 pesos per month. That’s over $8400 per month without even factoring in food. Now not all moms are single and some have less expenses but I think you get the picture.
The above numbers do not figure in our 10 handicapped adults or any of our food distribution.