Seven-year-old Grace Nachivula is blessed. She can walk, run, go to school, play with her friends, and get through the day without severe pain.

What’s so amazing about that, you ask?

After surgery for her bowed legs, Grace is now able to walk with little effort

Until recently, she could not do any of those things – at least not without extreme difficulty. Like many other children in Zambia and throughout the developing world, Grace suffered from bowed legs, a condition often caused by hunger and virtually permanent – not because it can’t be treated, but because the poor can’t afford surgery.

Bowed legs are normal at birth, and naturally correct themselves during early childhood. But dietary deficiencies of vitamin D and other nutrients can hijack the process, leaving the child deformed.

At home, Grace survives on a diet almost exclusively of maize meal. The average Zambian family consumes two $110 lb. bags of the starch-heavy food per month, but Grace’s family is so poor that they had only two bags for all of last year. Her father earns pennies doing odd jobs as a day laborer, while her mother stays at home raising Grace and her four siblings.

Most likely, Grace would have lived her whole life with bowed legs, if not for the intervention of Sr. Margaret and the compassionate sisters at Kabulonga Cheshire Home. Through this wonderful program, Grace has been provided with three surgeries and ongoing follow-up care, so she can go to school with her friends and live a normal, happy life. The kindness of the Cheshire Home staff has made such an impression on little Grace that she now says her dream is to become a nun and serve others.

Cross International Catholic Outreach provides critical operational support for Kabulonga Cheshire Home, so that physically disabled children like Grace can receive the medical care, nutritious food, and loving pastoral support they desperately need. Click here to learn more about this great ministry!

It’s amazing how often music and song are intertwined with the Christian journey generally and with the work of Cross International Catholic Outreach specifically.   The precedent for this is found in the Bible, of course.  Music and song are described as part of worship in several cases, including most prominently in Revelation:

“Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song:  ‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.’”

Mothers at a health fair in Haiti sing about the proper way to hold and feed a baby.

Most of the psalms of David were also believed to be songs used to praise the Lord.  And do you remember this from the Exodus story:

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD: “I will sing to the LORD, for he is highly exalted. The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea.  The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.”

In Cross Catholic’s case, music and songs also play an important role.  They have become part of both our overseas mission and our educational efforts in the U.S.

Overseas, songs are sometimes used to help the poor by providing them with a method of learning important nutritional information or about topics related to health care.  Unable to read or write, they can learn easy-to-remember songs.  One of these teaches the warning signs of dehydration.  Another gives the ingredients of a nutritional blend of foods that can help battle malnutrition.

Spiritual songs are also one of the ways our field staff share and celebrate with those who receive our support.  Our meetings with these partners often begin with songs of thanks and praise.

In the U.S., music has an important role too.  It is a wonderful source of inspiration for the faithful.  With this in mind, Cross looks for ways to support those song writers and musicians who use their talents to express Christ’s compassion and his call to serve the poor.  For example, we recently honored “Leeland,” a band that highlighted those themes in their song “Follow You.”  Check out the video below:

As a ministry serving the poor, we were delighted that Follow You included the lyrics:

You lived among the least of these, the weary and the weak.  And it would be a tragedy for me to turn away.  All my needs you have supplied – when I was dead you gave me life. How could I not give it away so freely?  And I’ll follow you into the homes that are broken. Follow you into the world.  Meet the needs for the poor and the needy, God.  Follow you into the World.  Use my hands, use my feet to make your kingdom come through the corners of the earth, until your work is done.

It’s thrilling to hear this challenging message proclaimed so passionately and emotionally!  Frankly, we couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

While traveling through Haiti, Cross Catholic Projects Officers Mike Wilson and Claudio Merisio visited the camps where our mission partners are continuing to provide medical care for earthquake victims. They got to see firsthand the incredible work that so many doctors, nurses, and volunteers are providing on a daily basis in tent facilities or even outside.

Cross Catholic Projects Officer Claudio Merisio visits a Project Medishare health clinic in Haiti.

Now that more than three weeks have passed since the quake, our partners are beginning to transition from trauma to general health care for the many displaced men, women, and children who are trying to rebuild their lives in the aftermath; and Cross Catholic is working alongside them to ensure success.

For instance, our Cross Catholic partner Arc en Ciel is providing care for about 4,000 people, including 1,600 children, in five refugee camps. They plan to send health workers to fifty additional camps to train their peers on general health issues such as hydration, nutrition, vaccination, and psycho-social support.

Another Cross Catholic partner, Project Medishare, is increasing the number of women and children receiving care, and plans to double the number of mobile clinics from one to two per week.

Gladys Thomas, who runs Hopital Espoir and Village Espoir, is shifting her focus to rehabilitative care for people needing physical and occupational therapy and post-traumatic support.

To help our mission partners provided the best possible health care under the strained conditions of disaster-stricken Haiti, Cross Catholic has given food, medicine, medical supplies, and in one case even a container to be converted into a clinic. To learn more about what Cross Catholic is doing in Haiti, check out our latest updates at www.crosscatholic.org/relief.

Please remember to keep our Kenyan ministry partners and their communities in your prayers. The situation there is truly dire.

A severe drought is sweeping across the eastern African nation, crippling its agriculture-based economy and leaving entire villages without water. The United Nations World Food Program estimates that nearly four million Kenyans are in urgent need of food right now. The water shortage has also intensified local ethnic conflicts as various tribes compete for bits of land that haven’t yet turned to dust.

Poor Kenyan children depend on the support of our donors for education, medical care, and nutrition

The bottom line: people are dying, and relief just isn’t coming in fast enough.

Rain is not expected to return until October. But when the rain comes, it will hit hard, and the Kenyans will have a new problem to worry about – floods – thanks to a forecasted El Nino weather pattern.

Cross Catholic has several ongoing projects in Kenya. One of our commitments is to cover education costs for poor children to attend Catholic schools, such as St. Joseph Freinademetz Primary School in Ruai, about 30 miles from the center of Nairobi. We also provide care for chronically ill patients suffering from HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, through the Riara Health Project.

The priests, nuns, and other dedicated workers involved in these important outreaches need our prayers to help them through this difficult time. We believe God can take evil circumstances, no matter how bad, and use them for his good purposes. May this crisis become opportunity for the poor to receive Christ’s love!

One thing we’ve learned from doing AIDS relief in developing nations is that you can’t just build a clinic or send medicine and then wait for the problem to go away. Medical treatment is vital, but it’s not the whole solution. There are deeply-ingrained attitudes and perspectives that need to change – attitudes toward AIDS victims, their families, and even chronically ill people in general.

Mike Henry, a Cross Catholic project officer, recently returned from Haiti, where he met with our ministry partners to talk about how they can better serve the needs of HIV/AIDS victims. One of those ministries is Rainbow House, a shelter for children infected with HIV or orphaned by AIDS. We are helping them relocate to a new, larger facility on an eight-acre tract of land.

Rainbow House in Haiti provides shelter and care for HIV/AIDS infected and affected children

Mike described to us the stigma that AIDS carries in Haitian culture. The disease is often blamed on black magic, and those who catch it are looked down upon and isolated from society, to suffer and die alone. Ignorance about the disease leads to fears that you can catch it by breathing the same air or touching the belongings of someone who has it, or by being bitten by a mosquito. AIDS orphans are abandoned in hospitals or left to fend for themselves on the streets.

The stigma brings other complications, too. AIDS patients trying to keep their problem secret don’t want health workers visiting their home. At-risk men, women, and children should be made to feel as comfortable as possible with getting tested and seeking help, but this can’t happen without a change of attitude in their neighbors. That’s why we stress the importance of education.

At Rainbow House, this is done through peer-to-peer workshops and youth events that dispel myths about AIDS, so that communities will learn to accept infected children with love and compassion. Similarly, our Riara Health Project in Kenya invites patients to one-on-one and group teaching sessions on health and nutrition; and our Itimpi Home-Based Care project in Zambia organizes community support groups to curb risky behaviors that lead to the spread of the disease.

The Cross Catholic approach to the AIDS crisis is more than damage control. We aim to change hearts and minds, to bring about a better, healthier future.

Every few months we receive updates on the projects we support from our partners in the field. The following is an uplifting success story we recently received from a project in Zambia:

Agness Nayame, the youngest of six, was born with a congenital deformity on her left leg. The 12-year-old’s father passed away when she was just a small child, leaving her mother alone to care for the family.

Agness and her family endured much ridicule from their village community because of her deformity, which kept her from walking normally. As in most African countries, the people in the Mpulungu district of northern Zambia subscribe to the traditional but false belief that children born with deformities are cursed and their illness is caused by some fault of the family. When Agness was born, gossip of her deformity began to circulate. People from the community came by their home, not to offer congratulations to the family, but to personally confirm the “bad” that had befallen the community because of the Nayame family.

Agness, 12, was born with a genetic deformity on her left leg. She endured mean-spirited teasing and ridicule from her community because of it. She eventually lost her leg after a complicated surgery and had to use crutches to get around.

Despite the gossip, the family stayed strong with encouragement from each other and some church members. But the pressure mounted as Agness grew. Her mother knew she could no longer keep her safe at home, away from the mean-spirited teasing of others in the community over her condition. Agness did, indeed, experience a lot of teasing and embarrassment as she tried to make friends and attend school. Her self-esteem was crushed.

But just when it seemed nothing could lift her from the depths of despair, Agness received some help that changed her life. A local school for disabled children saw her need and referred her to the Kabulonga Cheshire Home, a holistic rehabilitation program for poor children with disabilities supported by Cross International Catholic Outreach. Through the program Agness received food, specialized education, and physical therapy.

Through the help of the Kabulonga Cheshire Home and Cross International Catholic Outreach, Agness received a prosthetic limb.

After Agness lost her leg during a complicated operation, the Cheshire Home, with the help of Cross Catholic, helped her get a prosthetic limb. The rehabilitative care she’s received over the last year and a half has also greatly improved her mobility and performance in school. The staff has taken great pleasure in seeing this young girl able to walk independently and continue her education without problems.

Agness is very grateful for all the help, and she’s got her smile back. With her new artificial limb, she has the confidence to socialize with other children without the fear of being laughed at. Her self-esteem is growing and she is developing into a happy young lady. Thanks to aid provided by Cross Catholic and its generous benefactors, Agness can now face the world with confidence. She is no longer a victim of discrimination or disgrace!

Click here to read more about the work Cross Catholic is doing with this life-changing project.

In our work with the poor, we see so many dedicated men and women who have given up comfortable lives to help those in need — often moving to some of the most remote and dangerous places on the planet. The faith of these unsung heroes is a constant inspiration for us in the office. One of these heroes is Sr. Anna Trzepacz of the Medical Missionaries of Mary, who runs a clinic for remote mountain villagers in Ethiopia…

Sr. Anna Trzepacz of the Medical Missionaries of Mary provides life-saving care to remote mountain villagers in Minne, Ethiopia. Here she checks a child's weight during an annual physical.

Sr. Anna Trzepacz was interrupted from dinner by a knock at the door. There had been an accident. A large bus had crashed and rolled down a nearby mountain, badly injuring 20 passengers. The men, women, and children from the bus had broken bones, deep cuts, and burns from the gasoline that had ignited after the crash.

“One man came to me and his face was covered with blood,” Sr. Anna said. “When he laid down on the examination table the skin on his scalp slid off. All that was left was his skull bone.”

She was alone except for an Ethiopian woman who had just begun nurses’ training, but she was too nervous to help. “Good thing there was a wall nearby or I would have fainted,” Sr. Anna said. “But the man needed my help so I had to keep going.”

Sr. Anna worked until 3 a.m. stitching people up and dressing wounds. Her work saved the lives of all but one man that day.

This is just one of many dramatic stories Sr. Anna has to tell about her work at Minne Health Post, which we support, and the clinic at the Weragu Catholic mission. The community she serves lies in a remote mountain stretch of central Ethiopia. The nearest hospital is 93 miles away and the nearest clinic is a full day’s walk through the mountains. She and another sister, who are both certified nurses, treat about 10,000 a year between the two health facilities. Without Sr. Anna and this clinic the people would have nowhere to turn for medical care.

Want to learn more about the life-saving work of Minne Health Post? Read more here. Check back often for more stories of the unsung heroes we work with. We’ll be sharing more of them on this blog in the coming months. Our prayer is that their inspirational stories will move you to make a difference in your world.

One of our ministry partners, Project Medishare, received a visit from Haitian President Rene Preval last week. During his visit, he lauded the work Medishare is doing to help improve the health of people in Haiti’s Central Plateau region.

Haitian President Rene Preval

One of the interesting topics of discussion was a plan to build Haiti’s first trauma hospital, an endeavor Medishare is involved with in collaboration with Jackson Memorial Hospital, the University of Miami and local partners in Haiti.

Read more about Pres. Preval’s visit on Project Medishare’s blog.

Our organization provides Medishare with $52,800 each year to run a school health program in the Central Plateau. Click here to read more about the project.jrw6qzaxkv