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Uruguay and Argentina
Beth Myriam Montevideo, Uruguay is located across from the main Children’s Hospital in Montevideo, where most patients are children coming from poor families, many of them from outside Montevideo. Frequently, mothers and children have to spend several days waiting to receive the different stages of treatments from this children’s hospital or to complete any bureaucratic protocol without any assistance from the hospital. They have no place to go and are usually very short of money. As the Beth Myriam mission is to give primary attention to mothers and children, they receive them, offer them guidance and serve meals in the number about 1000 a month. The house where the Beth Myriam functions is not suitable for letting people stay overnight, but they do stay during the day, and have this place as a refuge in many aspects.
The meals are abundant and nutritious. If economical circumstances allow it, food items are also distributed to the fathers and brothers of the respective children for consumption at their places. All the work in the house is volunteer work, with the exception of cooking. The rent for the house is paid by donations.
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The death of Ana Lizarralde and the eventual suspension of funding by TLIG BM, put Beth Myriam Montevideo under severe stress with chances of discontinuation. Please pray for the continuation of this work and donate as you are able.
Beth Myriam Mendoza has developed and implemented an comprehensive concept for the care of poor children and their families. In addition to serving meals, they attend to basic sanitary needs of the children: teaching and controlling hygiene, nutrition, and being attentive to general health problems with permanent contact and communication with local sanitary stations. They also take care of educational aspects both for the children and their parents. Children receive school support within the BM premises, and build a close relationship with local schools that give special attention to children tutored by the BM. The local university gives a lot of support by means of assistance in informatics and library access.
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Workshops for mothers include: Hairdressing, Gastronomy, Industrial Sewing, Dressmaking, and Informatics. All of these workshops are oriented towards enabling mothers to get jobs, or to start their own micro-enterprises. A number of success stories have come out of these workshops.
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Men also participate in the Informatics workshop. For them specifically, there is a woodwork workshop, where they learn basic tool handling and practical woodworking skills.
Finally, the group is very active spiritually, with daily prayer, special meetings and retreats. The size of the group is considerable. About 100,000 meals a year are served, with a permanent kitchen staff of eight peopleand a total of twenty persons that rotate in child serving and direct attention. About twelve people coordinate and direct the different workshops, but the number of helpers is by far, larger. All of the work is voluntary, no salaries are paid, and no help with political ties is accepted.
The group is actively in the search for economical means for maintaining some unavoidable expenses: energy, heat, rent, food that is not donated, and inputs for the workshops. In spite of their efforts, they are still far from coming even. The National Association VVD has started a very intensive program for fund raising and self sustainability of the BM Mendoza. However, these results will take some time to consolidate and in the meantime external aid is still essential.
Ana Lizarralde, a volunteer and witness for True Life in God died on August 31st 2012, although still young and with the potential to continue giving a lot to the different Beth Myriams in Latin America. Beth Myriams in Montevideo and Mendoza are grateful for what she has given us, and pray to the Lord in gratefulness for her life and in the intersession for her soul.
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For those interested in supporting the Beth Myriams around the world, please see our donation page.
