Angels Newsletter #24
Making Progress Under the Cloud of the PandemicDear Friends of Angels of the Amazon,
This year has been a time of sorrows and challenges throughout the world. At the same time here at Angels of the
Amazon we used creativity and innovation to evolve and make the continuation of our work possible.
Meet Carmen & Lily
Carmen (69) & Lily (28) live in the community of Esperanza, located on the quiet banks of the Tahuayo River. Carmen is a single mother and the only caretaker for her loving daughter Lily who has Down’s Syndrome. Life is challenging for the pair, with only a small farm, fishing, and occasional help from others in the community.
This year at the start of the pandemic Angels of the Amazon (AoA) stepped in to increase our support for the pair as a part of our Special Needs & Healthcare Program. This is an initiative sponsored by AoA with a focus on helping the most vulnerable members of the communities and assisting them with much-needed supplies & medical assistance. It was decided that a new house would be beneficial for the well-being of Carmen & Lily. They would also be provided with regular food baskets and other supplies, as well as periodic home visits from our clinic’s nurses. For Carmen & Lily this new home gives them security and hope that they can make it through these challenging
times together.
Healthcare-Esperanza Clinic
Just last year AoA completed a nearly $200,000 expansion to the Esperanza Clinic. This investment turned our clinic into the most advanced and ambitious to exist in all the rural Amazon. With the better infrastructure we now serve more patients, many living in villages well outside of the Tahuayo River basin. In many ways, the completion of the clinic expansion could not have come at a better time. We never expected that this year our investment into the healthcare of the local community would prove to be more important than ever. However, during this time, our costs have also grown, with the need to hire additional full-time staff members as well as purchasing more equipment & supplies. Usually AoA can rely on some support from tourism revenue from Amazona Expeditions; but in the absence of tourism we now are relying solely on our generous AoA donors in order to keep providing these lifesaving & critical services to the people of the Tahuayo.
Educational programs
Our students continue with the school year remotely. The Ministry of Education has put in place a distance learning system for the rural communities that have no access to internet. Many of the students use radio, while a few use TV to listen to their lessons. The students also receive worksheets that are sent by their teachers from the city. Students are planned to continue this extended semester of distance learning until March 2021. This year a project to build a roof over the bridge leading to El Chino Highschool was funded by the New Hampshire charitable Foundation, Be The Change Volunteers (BTCV) and AoA. Completed last month, this roof will keep our students and teachers dry even during the most intense jungle rains and floods. Our team members along with members of the local community are also working together to replace the palm thatch roofs of the classrooms with metal sheets. This project is supported by our generous partners at BTCV. We believe that providing a better,
more comfortable, and pleasant place to study will be beneficial to both teachers & students.
Dolly’s Note
Thank you all for your past & current support to our mission. You have fed the hungry, healed the sick and given
opportunity for young people to rise above the cycle of agrarian poverty. We are asking for your continued support during this challenging time to help us continue with our programs. AoA is the bridge between you and the Tahuayo communities.
Hope Lives!
Dolly
The Jungle’s Daughter
