Tropical Cyclone Gezani slammed Madagascar’s eastern coast with deadly force. The city of Tamatave was 80-90% destroyed. Homes and churches were damaged or destroyed. Thousands of people are in desperate need of help.
It has been twenty years since we first learned about a strange new disease—HIV/AIDS. No plague in the history of mankind has been as devastating. With infection rates running higher than expected, the next 20 years of the AIDS epidemic will be far worse unless there is a marked increase in prevention and treatment, according to the United Nations.
Child Trauma Counseling Centre—Kosova
The Child Trauma Counseling Project was started in October 1999 with 10 children. Operating in Peje, Kosova, it was the idea of a Kosovar woman who had been in exile in Albania.
Out of her concern was born the Ketchup Club (Kids Enjoying Through Compassion and Hope), which is designed to tackle the effects of trauma in the children’s lives through group work and individual counseling.
The National Organization for Ophthalmic Rehabilitation (NOOR) provides the most extensive range of eye care services in Afghanistan. NOOR means Light in Dari.
Since 1966, NOOR has developed medical and surgical training, eyeglass production, technician training, pharmaceutical production, vitamin A deficiency screening, urban ophthalmic hospital management, rural mobile ophthalmic health teams and prevention of blindness education.
Looking Back
Last year we were able to help SERVE purchase a vehicle for their work with Afghan refugees, buy a Roto Tiller for S.E.E.D. in Haiti as well as support St. John’s Schools in India and send funds to Brazil and Tajikistan.
The Ongoing Crisis in Afghanistan
The spring and summer of 1998 brought a devastating earthquake to the mountain areas of Northern Afghanistan. Seventy-five villages with over 100,000 people were affected by the earthquake.
