Pictured above: a Survival specialist instructs caregivers on how to safely prepare and store food. Additionally, the Survival specialist talks about the importance of hygiene in handling food, and how to properly wash vegetables and fruits in order to avoid illness.
ACK St. Paul’s Wandeche Church was founded in 1939. This church is located in the community of Wandeche, which has a population of 30,000 people. Jobs are fairly difficult to attain in this community with an unemployment rate of 80%. Those that are employed typically work as animal herders, market traders or subsistence farmers. ACK St. Paul’s Wandeche Church partnered with Compassion international in 2008, and opened ACK St. Paul’s Wandeche Child Development Center in the same year.
Currently, 313 children benefit from holistic care at ACK St. Paul’s Wandeche Church. Compassion and its frontline church partners provide pregnant women and caregivers of infants with the training, resources and support they need for their baby to survive and thrive in the first year of life, while also getting a healthy start in early childhood. Because of your heartfelt generosity in support of Compassion Survival in Wandeche, precious babies are receiving the care they need to overcome the challenges of extreme poverty. We are so grateful for your partnership!
Survival Statistics at ACK St. Paul’s Wandeche Church (January – June 2019)
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- 23 mothers and their babies received Survival care
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- 2 Compassion-assisted births
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- 100% of babies born at normal weight
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- 4 babies, on average per month, treated for malnutrition
Recent Survival Activities at ACK St. Paul’s Wandeche Church
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- Caregivers participate in an activity at the center. They formed groups and created care plans for the healthy development of their children. This mother talked about her group’s care plan, which included taking a child to the doctor regularly, practicing good hygiene, balancing a healthy diet and ensuring the child gets enough sleep at night.
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- Mothers and their children participate in a Bible study session. The topic of this study was fellowship, and they discussed Proverbs 27:17.
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- Babies play in the infant room at the church. Each month, babies get to play in this area with toys that are appropriate for their developmental level, which stimulates early sensing and learning.
A Letter from Rebeca, a Survival Caregiver at ACK St. Paul’s Wandeche Church
I greet you in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. My name is Rebeca, and I am 32 years old. I am married to Elam and the mother of five children. My two youngest daughters are twins, Gloriah and Blessy, and they are beneficiaries at ACK St. Paul’s Wandeche Child Development Center. I didn’t know I was carrying twins until I went to the doctor when I was 8 months pregnant. I was discouraged because I didn’t know how I could manage two babies at once. This news also affected my husband because in our community, people believe it’s not easy for twins to survive in the early stages of development.
After I gave birth, it was not easy to take care of them since I was weak after delivery. One day, when ACK St. Paul’s Wandeche Child Development Center had a Survival program recruitment visit to our area, God enabled them to reach our house. After seeing the situation I was in, they put us on the Survival recruitment waiting list. After some time, I received a phone call from ACK St. Paul’s with good news. I was told I could take my children to the center.
I was so happy for this God-given opportunity. I started attending group activity lessons once a month and received home visits once a month as well. During group activities, we always start with devotions and have time to pray for our family together with the children. This has given me the opportunity to study the word of God in groups. I have built strong relationships with the other caregivers as we exchange good ideas that can build our marriages stronger.
We are also being taught the importance of taking our children to clinics for immunizations. I am also learning income generating skills that can help meet the needs of our children as they grow. I started raising chickens in my home. I have also attended seminars on family planning, which encourages us to have children that we can manage. Through food distribution at the center, our children are eating healthy and receiving the nutrition they need. Home visits have really changed my life by making sure that my children sleep under a treated mosquito net in order to reduce the chance of being infected with malaria. Survival specialists also help in making our home environment safe for the children’s growth.
I am very grateful for the Survival program for helping me grow from who I was to a very happy woman today. May God bless you abundantly.
Yours faithfully,
Rebeca