Anibal Damian Avalos ~ (sad) news

Since 2003, Steve and I have been sponsoring a child. His name is Anibal Damian Avalos. He is 4 years old and lives in Paraguay with his grand dad and young mum. I won't post a picture of him here, because we decided to protect his privacy, but we can assure you that he is gorgeous! We currently correspond with his gran dad who writes us in Spanish, and we hope to receive a letter from him as soon as he learns to read & write. Our dream is to go and visit him, one day. This is a reason why I ma learning Spanish.

If you want to follow our example, you can do it through Plan UK.

This morning a letter from Plan UK made my day: inside the envelope I found two fab photos of little Anibal Damian who moved me. He has grown up a lot since last time and he is more handsome than ever. He has got such a penetrating and cheeky look. The letter was from the local staff member updating me about Anibal Damian's family.

Here is the letter:

Anibal Damian's mother Elida told us that Anibal Damian enjoys playing with toys, but does not help his family with chores because he is too young. Anibal Damian has been healthy over the last year. He is attending a growth monitoring programme. The very sad news is that Miguel Avalos, Anibal Damian's grand father passed away last year due to cancer. He will be much missed by his fmaily.

The family uses a hole in the ground for their toilet facilities. There is enough water during both rainy and dry season. It comes from a domestic connection officially installed. The water is safe to drink at all times. The nearest health worker is a trained worker about two hours away.

Plan UK is working at different level to help Anibal Damian and his community.

Projects include training:
1. the local community members in project administration; and
2. the health promoters; and
3. the volunteers in maternal and infant care + communication;

The association though the local representatives and workers offers assistance in cases of emergency health, supports house-to-house vaccination campaigns, implements clean drinking water systems, constructs household sanitary facilities and supports early childhood stimulation activities as well as improving the quality of primary school education.

I am going to write a letter to him very soon and send a gift. I will keep you posted.