This month we are raising funds for Medika Mamba.  This week, we admitted patient #700 to the Medika Mamba program and patient number #28 to the Medika Djanm program.  Medika Mamba is saving lives all over Haiti.  It is a great product that works and is produced here using local peanuts from farmers here in Haiti.  Today, we want Pierre Louis to tell you his story and how Medika Mamba affected his life.  He is 11 years old.

*********************************************************************

In his words:

I live in a village in the mountains of Haiti.  I have one sister and one brother.  I began getting sick many months ago.  I kept getting smaller and smaller and felt like I did not want to eat anything.  My mama is a good mama and she loves me.  Every week she travels to a market to sell produce that we grow in our gardens.  She gets up before the sun is up and before I wake up.  She goes outside to our kitchen and begins to cook food for us.  She has to cook on an open fire outside.  It takes awhile for the charcoal to begin to burn to heat up the pot for the food.  She cooks our meal and brings it inside to the table.  Then she gathers the produce that we have grown in our gardens and starts walking with a load on her head.  My papa is a good papa.  He works almost every day in the gardens.  He leaves very early in the morning and comes back late at night.  He is very tired after working all day in the hot sun.  We grow grains, corn, beans, bananas, yams, pumpkins and roots in our gardens.  During vacation, I go and help him work, but he wants me to go to school.  He tells me it is important that I learn to read and write.

,

When I get up in the morning, there is food for me to eat on the table.  My mama and papa are gone most of the day.  Mama leaves beans for me to cook in the afternoon.  We get hungry most days because we only eat 2 meals a day.  In the afternoon, I start a fire and cook the beans.  When my mama gets home, it is almost dark.  She is happy that the beans are cooked.  This has saved her a few hours of work.  She then makes us a pot of rice and beans for dinner.  If we have extra money during the week, which is not often, mama buys a little meat for Sunday dinner.  We do not eat meat any other time, because we do not have enough money.

I have 1 living brother and sister.  Several months ago when I was getting sick, I was scared.  I just felt like sleeping each day because I did not have much energy.  There is not a clinic by our house.  We have to walk a long distance to find help.  One evening, my baby sister got sick.  She had a very high fever.  We went to a small place by our house and bought some medication for fever.  It was on the weekend so my mama did not think any of the clinics would be open.  That night, my sister was very sick.  No one slept in the house.  We sat and prayed and watched her.  She began to breath different and was suffering a lot.  She died a short time later.  It was a very very sad time in my life.  We waited until the sun was up and my papa went to the casket maker and had a small casket made.  We all sat and watched him dig a hole in our yard.  When the casket was done papa went and got it and brought it back to the house.  Some people from the church came and we all sang and prayed.  Then we buried her.  My mama was very sad.  That night, my mama and papa talked and said that they needed to take me to the hospital soon.  Everyone was worried because I was so sick.  I thought about this a lot.  I thought I might die too.  When I went to the clinic, we had to stand in line for a long time.  We waiting a long time inside for the nurse to see us.  When they told my mama that I was very sick, we were both sad.  The nurse told my mama that a good choice would be for me to stay for awhile and be treated for my malnutrition.   I was happy.  I believe that if I stayed I could get better.

They told me that I had to eat mamba (peanut butter) and I would get better.  The first time they gave me the bowl of mamba I thought I could never eat all of that in one day.  It was a lot of mamba.  It was hard to eat each day, but everyone told me it would make me better.  So, even when it was hard, I tried each day to finished eating what they gave me.  Every day I had to eat 5 of these bags!

After a few weeks, I began to feel better.  I started to have more energy.  Wensky talked to me and told me to come play outside.  The first few days all I could do was sit and watch everyone else play and have fun.   Wensky kept telling me that he could not even walk when he first came and now he was running!  That gave me hope.  Little by little, I started to have more energy and get stronger.   I now believe that it was the Medika Mamba that was healing me, along with God.  Now that I am getting better, I have switched to a different kind of mamba.  I have to just eat 1 of these bags each day.  I am now running and playing with Wensky.  I can tell the other kids that come in sick my story and why it is important for them to eat their medika mamba each day.

My mama and papa both come to visit me from time to time.  It was hard for me to leave my house and come here for help, but now I think that the day it coming soon for me to return home to my family.  That will be a hard day, but when I go home I know now that I will live and not die.

It is not a easy job for the staff here at RHFH to care for these severely malnourished children.  It is emotionally difficult on everyone, but the older kids are so much different.  They can talk and tell us what they have been through.  

We use Medika Mamba and Medika Djanm every single day.  It is a needed product for the recovery of those severely malnourished.   We have been using this product since 2009 and love it and the results that it produces!

The NEED:

Our goal for 2014 —-$40,632

pledged/given———$24,785

still needed————-$15,847

How to GIVE:

You can use the paypal button labeled “Donate for Medika Mamba” on the right hand side of the blog.  It is under the general paypal button.

You can send a donation to our home office: (please include a memo letting us know it is for Medika Mamba)

Real Hope For Haiti
15215 ENDEAVOR DRIVE
NOBLESVILLE, IN  46060

If you would like to donate directly to Meds & Food for Kids-(100% of your donation will go to purchase Mamba for RHFH) You can send donation to:

Meds & Food for Kids
4488 Forest Park, Ste. 230
St. Louis, MO  63108

Please include a memo letting them know the donation is to be used for Real Hope For Haiti.

If you have any question you can send an email to licia@realhopeforhaiti.org.  If you would like to email MFK you can go to their website for more info or contact us and we will send you an address of a contact person there.