News from FFCC!

May 28, 2013

HELP FOR JEAN MENTANE

FFCC community, please allow me to introduce Mrs. Jean Mentane. Mrs. Mentane is a wonderful Haitian woman who we had the fortune to meet on our 13th trip to Haiti back in November 2012 and then again in April 2013. Unfortunately, Mrs. Mentane has developed an enlarged thyroid, also known as a goiter. The thyroid gland is a hormone producing gland located in the lower front of the neck. These hormones help regulate how the body uses energy, stays warm, and helps keep the vital organs as they should. In the United States, this condition is caught relatively early with simple laboratory tests and is treated and controlled with medications. This rarely goes on to cause significant complications, and indeed life threatening ones. Mrs. Mentane has not been so fortunate. Despite being diagnosed fairly early on, she has not had the resources to provide her with appropriate medical follow-up and treatment. If left untreated, this relatively straightforward problem grows in size and complexity.

At first glance, you will note the size of the goiter. Aesthetics and normal social embarrassment aside, due to its position and size, she has dysphagia (difficulty swallowing). She reports the weight of the mass causes labored breaths when she lays flat on her back due to compression of her trachea (windpipe). The goiter will likely continue to grow causing more complications.

We have provided some medical attention and identified some resources available for her, but she needs your love, prayers and financial support. I have taken the liberty of outlining some of the expenses associated with treatment below.

a) Exams (4 ea) $112.50

b) Hospital stay (5/days), $218.75

c) Anesthesia, $187.50

d) Surgical, $2,250.00

e) Transport, $50.00

f) Misc, 231.25

Total $3,050.00

Any help you can provide will be appreciated. You can donate on our website (www.ffccsd.org) or send your contribution to FFCC, just designate funds to Jean Mentane.

FFCC

12463 Rancho Bernardo Road, PMB #158

San Diego, CA 92128

With respect,

Adeunice Sanchez-Mata, MD

Family Medicine, Sharp Rees-Stealy

AYITI ACADEMY UPDATE!

FFCC would like to thank all of the Ayiti Academy sponsors for their support of our first academy class of students. Because of your contributions, Haiti will have more and better trained nurses, engineers, and business leaders. The current Academy class is so excited at the prospects for their future. I had the opportunity to spend an afternoon and evening with them on our recent trip. This is what they are saying:

"I want to thank my sponsor and all the people of FFCC and San Diego for supporting us. Your contributions have given us a hope for a brighter future and a brighter Haiti. We will all continue to work hard in our classes and in encouraging one another. Without all of you, we would not be realizing our dreams for ourselves, our families, or our nation."

Each one of them shares this same excitement and gratitude for all your efforts. One of the students, Antoinier Chery, recently started attending University with hopes of becoming an accountant. He is so thankful to his sponsor family, Mike, Joye, and Alex Heller, that he asked me to deliver a token of his appreciation to them. I was so touched by his desire to show appreciation to them especially knowing the sacrifice that he made to do so.

You too can change a life, a family, a nation by sponsoring a student in the Ayiti Academy. We have a new class of 15 that are preparing to start and they need your help. If you are interested in sponsoring a student in the Ayiti Academy, please contact Norma Silva at njsilva@yahoo.com for details.

YOU CAN HELP!

Friends & Family Community Connection is helping local families and students in need achieve their goal for a healthier, safer, and more productive life. Here are just a few of the ways that FFCC supporters have assisted in the last few months:

Helped a single Mom with six children transition from an abusive environment to a shelter, then to an apartment. FFCC donors contributed to partial rent, utility payments, furniture, clothing for job interviews, food, and gas cards all the time Mom was job searching. For the past month she has been working two new jobs now and has been getting great reviews from her supervisors!

Helped another family with one of their car payments so that the Dad could continue working uninterrupted.

Provided some funding for FFCC to share the payments with Penasquitos Lutheran Church on a much needed freezer. Now we can offer frozen donated meats at our monthly food distributions.

Offered eight students new and gently used clothing so they feel better about going to school with confidence.

Offered grocery deliveries to the homes of 28 families (approx 100 people) who were unable to get to the monthly food distributions.

Gathered and distributed approximately 5000 lbs of free food every month since January 2013.

And here are some of the messages of gratitude from our recipients:

*Thank you for everything. I don't know what we'd do without your support. You have given me hope and friendship in a time when I needed it most.

*Thank you for your extra help. I was about to lose that car and sometimes I feel like I can't breathe because I get so worried.

*Thank you so much for the food. It's so hard to make the budget stretch all the way to the end of the month, and it's wonderful that I never feel judged by you.

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Here's a list of our current needs:

-We know three seniors that would love to go to High School Prom, but the tickets are not affordable to them. If you can donate towards these tickets by or before May 28, we can give them some good news.

-We're looking for gas gift cards and grocery gift cards, especially for the summer months when students are at home increasing the food bills and utility bills of their parents.

-We're still looking for boys size 4 clothing as we have four different students that need help. We especially need pants and shorts and new underwear.

If you can help with any of these needs, or want to volunteer this summer, please contact Becky at ffccsdlocal@gmail.com

ST. JAMES YOUTH FOOD PACKAGING EVENT!

The St. James Youth Group will be journeying to the North Coast of the Dominican Republic this summer to outreach in service to the poor. This area of the country is the poorest area of the island and is home to mostly Haitian refugees. The Youth Group will travel to the dumps and shanties of the sugar cane fields, bringing food, hope and dignity to people who otherwise are unreachable.

Recently, the Youth Group held a Food Packaging Event with the support of FFCC and packaged 10,000 meals to take with them to distribute in the Dominican Republic. The event was a great success with 55 individuals packaging over 10,000 meals in a little over an hour. The packaging event brought together not only the youth but the Church Community of all ages. Packaging the meals that will be personally distributed by the Parish Youth Group provided the opportunity for a much larger group of church members to participate in a special way in the Mission Trip.

On May 31^st students from Del Norte High School will be packaging 20,000 meals for the children of Haiti! The youth of our community are 'setting the bar' for how we can reach out to those in need with hope & help! Thank you students for your great example!

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