Josiah and Katherine (Letter Three)
Submitted by Anonymous on April 11, 2006 - 1:15pm
Published in
Receive a very warm greeting from the Mooney’s – back in Guatemala! We arrived safely and are now fully back into the swing of things. Firstly, we would like to thank so many of you who were so very welcoming to us throughout our visit. It was truly the best visit home we have ever had, leaving us emotionally and spiritually prepared to begin our work again.
Our first day back at the project proved to be full of unexpected surprises, most of which surrounded a little bundle of joy in the process of being adopted by one of the workers in the project. Her name is Delia Marlene, affectionately named after the sisters of Project Life. She is 2 and half months old, orphaned days after her birth by her mother who died of AIDS.
Delia’s father, unable to care for her because of his own progressed stages of HIV, brought her to his family’s to be cared for. She stayed several months with his sister, only 25 years old with five children, and was brought to Project Life when conditions worsened. Upon hearing of little Delia a worker in Project Life, Marta, began measures to adopt her. Having already lost a child of her own, Marta has beautifully taken on the role of mother to Delia Marlene.
As many of you know, we spent time in the US raising support for St. Mary’s Hospice. Due to so much of your support our attempts were - and remain - fruitful ones. Of St. Mary’s $40,000 annual budget we were able to raise support for over $5,000, and we continue to search for possibilities of having a vehicle donated to the hospice. Likewise, we were able to meet several Guatemalan families in Tyler who were interested in the ministry of St. Mary’s Hospice. It is amazing how much representation Guatemala has in our Tyler community!
Regarding the opening of the hospice, our hopes of the Jan. 3rd opening were slighted by several small bureaucratic fulfillments still pending. We now have a more hopeful February opening – beginning with 12 patients. Sister Marlene Condon, Director of St. Mary’s Hospice, has hired two nurses, as well as two aides; all seem to be wonderful individuals and will fit in comfortably to our hospice family.
Plans are now underway to begin a carpentry workshop at St. Mary’s Hospice. Specializing in household furniture (beds, tables, cabinets, etc…) St. Mary’s Carpentry workshop will seek to augment income generation for St. Mary’s Hospice, ultimately creating a self-sustainable foundation. As an objective of our work, and an objective of St. Mary’s, the carpentry workshop will provide carpentry training for people living with HIV, thereby empowering them to provide for their families. Once we are up and running the workshop will provide three full-time employment positions for people living with HIV.
The goals of the carpentry workshop are to create income for the hospice while providing people living with HIV skills to enhance their standard of living. For now, though, there are two people working in the workshop: Jorge and Josiah (part-time). Jorge, 25, is a master carpenter and can build and design almost any kind of furniture in mind. Our eventual goal is to create a mechanism through CRS to export specially designed crafts from the hospice – this is a long-term goal.
Though we spent our vacation enjoying time with family and friends, the trip proved to be a very successful and productive one for the St. Mary’s Hospice. Many of our successes require further dedication and follow-up, though we feel we met very substantial objectives, set high goals for the year, and created much potential for the sustainable success of St. Mary’s HIV/AIDS Hospice. We thank all of you very much for embracing our work, and we will keep you up to date with our advances.
In Peace,
Josiah and Katherine Mooney