Dear PAHS Family –

The year is well underway, and there is much for which we are grateful! Several groups of volunteers have blessed our campus in great ways, please read about them in the accompanying enclosure.

For the school children, classes started in February. And it is heartwarming to watch them be excited about their school routine and energetically doing their chores. Each precious child has a unique story, and we would like to share Jenny’s, who after being in the Casita Feliz for 3 ½ years, moved to the Children’s Home in January.

Jenny came to the Nutritional Rehabilitation Center when she was 4 ½ years old. Her mother had abandoned the family a few months before. Jenny, her 7 year-old sister, Ana, and two brothers were undernourished, when their father, who had been struggling to keep food on the table and take care of them alone, brought them to us. Although he consented to treatment for his girls, he was unwilling to leave his 5 and 6 year-old boys, stating that they could help him pick coffee.

Jenny and her older sister, stayed in the Casita Feliz to recover. The bond between the sisters was strong as Jenny relied heavily on her sister for mobility. Jenny had never walked, and the two were inseparable until a few months

later – when her sister was enrolled in school for the first time. When their father came to visit he decided Ana should come home, stating that if she wasn’t needed to care for Jenny, he needed her at home to cook for him and the two boys. As much as we begged him to leave Ana in our care, he refused. A sad and bewildered Jenny was left behind. She could no longer view the world from the perch on her sister’s hip. She learned to get around on her own, gradually finding she could “walk” on her knees.

A local business provided the funds to send Jenny to a pediatric orthopedist to find out why she could not walk. From there she was referred to a neurologist. What they found was that the nerves from her knees down were not communicating properly with the muscles. Jenny was sent to therapy, and fitted with braces, but could only walk with significant assistance.

Over the years Jenny’s inability to walk touched many hearts. Loving hands in Tennessee crafted a wheelchair and a walker exactly Jenny’s size and sent it to her with a church group led by Dr. Carolyn Brannon of Chattanooga.

Jenny, pictured here in 2008, has sparkling and engaging eyes.

Something Of Value Report

Pan American Health Service, Inc.Box 888, Keene, TX 76059

www.panamhealth.org

www.PanamHealth.org

Jenny Snyder, and her family, raised money to transport Jenny’s walker and wheelchair from Tennessee.

Jenny, Clarissa and Rosita have grown up together in the Casita Feliz.

They are now living in the Girls’ Home with the big girls.

www.PanamHealth.org

In February 2011 Jenny started school, however the school was not prepared for her special needs. Both our Home and the school have made adjustments in order care for her in the present facilities, but there are more adjustments needed. At our Children’s Home it has been a chore to carry Jenny and her wheelchair up the front stairs. Fortunately a team, organized by Mend-a-Child Foundation, led by Dr. Tom Wieg, came to the PAHS campus in February to build a wheelchair ramp and sidewalk for Jenny to be able to mobilize herself in and out of her new home. This is the first of many adjustments that will be needed at our facility to accommodate Jenny’s special needs. We are grateful for those who have had it on their heart to help make it easier for Jenny to learn to navigate through life independently.

Jenny, an affectionate little girl, is hungry for attention and lots of love. Although her father came to take her to therapy sessions at first, his visits have become very infrequent over the last two years. Jenny, full of life and potential, has come a long way since her arrival. We asked her to tell us about herself and her dreams, and these were her words:

“I give thanks for my life, for air, for the sunshine, and also for Hilda, Johana,(her roommate in the Children’s Home) and the amigos (volunteers and visitors) that visit us. Johana is my best friend. I am grateful because I am doing well in school and I hope that I will do really good on my tests that are coming up. English is my favorite subject in school. I want to learn how to speak English, so that I can talk to my amigos. I am grateful for the Hogar (Home) and for the children in the Casita Feliz, and for my teacher, Reyna, and for my classmates. I want to learn to walk so that I can play futbol (soccer) with my classmates, and so that I can play in the gunny sack races. I am happy and I feel a lot of joy. I don’t fight with the other girls, and I am obedient. I have learned to not say bad words anymore. I like kittens, bunny rabbits and lions. I want to learn how to cook. And when I grow up I want to run. I want to be a bone doctor, so that I can help children like me, and so that I can help take care of children.”

Having Jenny in our family has been a growing experience for all of us. We are grateful for your partnership in making it possible through your gifts and your prayers for the children who are abandoned after recovering from malnutrition to have an education and the hope for a bright future. Thank you for making life better for our children! Without you Jenny would have limited options for quality of life.

Thank you for helping us to make the difference in a country struggling against poverty and ignorance. Together we are breaking the cycle of poverty through health and education to make a better world.

Sincerely,

Nellie Zelaya-Youngberg, RN

Tara Garcia, of Reach Out Orphanage Ministries, fits Jenny with a donated new pair of Tom’s

shoes for school.

Johana - herself graduating this year from secondary school - helps

Jenny with her homework.

Naturally happy in nature, Jenny is grateful for a number of things;

life, air and sunshine are the first she mentions when asked.