Newsletter March 2018

Kill-or-cure remedy

Our little Ariana, who had a malignant tumor in her right eye, has now overcome the 6th cycle of her chemo therapy (3 days each) as well as the eye enucleation. She is a brave one and fought the battle with greatest dignity. The last computed tomography confirmed that the fight was way worth it. She is officially declared as cancer free! From now on, she only has to go to the hospital once a month for her check-up. The doctors are very confident that she has won this tough fight.

Her hair starts to grow again, slowly but steadily. And if everything goes according to the plan, she will soon be allowed to wear an eye prosthesis.

Hair donation

As a sign of gratitude that Ariana has overcome her persistent disease, three of our girls have agreed to donate their hair. With the donated hair, wigs are made for children with cancer.

For the first time in their lives they had the chance to go to the hair saloon and enjoy the skills of the professionals. To be able to donate the braid, it had to be at least 26 inches long. After that donation, the choice of the new hairstyle was relatively easy ...

I love the new haircuts, the short hair is quite revolutionary in Honduras but our girls pulled it off. The donated hair took a friend of us to America, where she handed it over to the American organization "Locks of Love". They then produce high-quality hair wigs. The wigs help the children to regain their self-esteem.

Easter week in Santa Rosa de Copán

Our old tradition, spending the Easter holidays in Santa Rosa, was once again repeated this year and we all were very happy we were able to make it to our beloved hideaway in the mountains.

As always, we appreciated the change of scenery and spent the time with playing, swimming  and walking in the woods.

During this week we organized get-together day for our projects from Santa Rosa de Copán. The young people from the project "La Entrada" as well as the mechanic students were invited to participate. The aim of the meeting was to introduce the participants to each other and that they get to know our foundation better, our philosophy and principles.

Everyone enjoyed the day very much. One of the highlights were definitely the floorball and soccer games where mixed teams participated. We had a lot to laugh, proper sportsmanship was lived and next to the playing we also danced a lot. At the end of the day, the teenagers didn’t want to go home anymore… Our good spirit is infectious.

Of course, the religious part of the Easter week didn’t fall short either. It meant that we also participated in all important ceremonies in the local church. Edwing was even master of ceremony as the pastor, he always manages to catch the attention of the children. In Santa Rosa we marveled at the traditional sawdust carpets for the procession on Good Friday. All the streets that lead to the cathedral were adorned with these sawdust carpets.

This and that

Felix Dosch from Cunter visited us during the last three months and invited us to the ZIZIMA water park. We also received a visit from Claudia Schibler, she translates the context of the homepage and newsletters. She was wanted to get to know the projects personally after reading month after month all the stories. She treated a few children on a shopping spree which missed out on a few clothing items in their wardrobe. For them it was the first visit to a proper shopping mall and they were left in aw.

Our Swiss consular representative and head of international cooperation in Honduras, Dr. Ing. Geneviève Federspiel, visited our home with the aim to get to know our project better and see how the daily life takes place in our home. It was very exciting to talk to her and, above all, to get to know her political views on Honduras, the political situation and the challenges corruption brings along.

With major political riots in December, our ROOM friends had to postpone handing over the Christmas gifts to March. However, this did not matter to our children. They still welcomed them openheartedly and appreciatively accepted the Christmas presents. Every child received a brand new pair of shoes!

Also our friends from Carolina Cross Connection visited us with a group. The bond of friendship becomes stronger after each visit. They played with our children, taught them English, and repainted the baby department.