Continuing Fight Against Malnutrition in Guatemala

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE.
Last year, we reported from Antigua, Guatemala where we addressed the epidemic of malnutrition in Guatemala. Our contributions were important in helping Guatemalan children recover from this condition, which manifests itself due to their family's lack of medical care and insufficient income. It is hard to fathom that half of the country's children suffer from chronic malnutrition - imagine if half of the kids you knew simply did not have enough sustenance to develop in a healthy manner!

Malnutrition manifests itself in stunted growth and lowered IQ scores. Half of Guatemalans are of Mayan descent and due to poor land distribution and a variety of other social, economic and political factors, most of these people live in abject poverty. In these indigenous areas, chronic malnutrition affects 80% of children under five years of age!
WATCH THE VIDEO HERE.

(When interviewed on Capture Your Flag program earlier this year, I spoke about the debilitating effects of malnutrition on childrens development and the most effective ways to address this epidemic. To watch the interview, click here.)

Last year, one of the ways Cause & Affect helped address this issue was by providing assistance to Casa Jackson, an amazing clinic that was created to house and rehabilitate babies that are severely malnourished. The babies receive around-the-clock care from medical professionals and are put on an intensive feeding schedule in order to regain their health. Once their weight has improved, their families take them home again and receive nutritional guidance as well as visits from social workers to assure the children develop in a healthy manner. Though the diapers and milk formula we purchased have been used up by now, the industrial blender we purchased is still being used around the clock to liquefy food for the older babies.

Upon our return to Guatemala to check up on Casa Jackson, we discovered the clinic still had some urgent needs to address, so we jumped to action. The first task was to buy new mattresses for the babies’ cribs, as the old ones had been donated a long time ago and since they were very thin, they were not very comfortable for the babies, nearly detrimental to their physical development. We sought out the thicker, sturdier variety and ordered 16 of them for the center. Our second task was to repaint the cribs, as the paint has been peeling off. Lastly, we were asked to provide curtains for the center, so as to keep the sun out of the babies’ eyes.
As you can see from the video, we bought the fabric, contracted a tailor to sew them and then hung them ourselves. For the paint, the curtains and the 16 mattresses, Cause & Affect spent a total of $1,283. I think you will agree the clinic is much better-off after our two visits!

Another follow-up project this year involved the welfare of a darling little boy named Jose Anavesca. When Jose was admitted to a social welfare hospital in Antigua (Obras Sociales) 18 months ago (see top photo), he was a year and a half old yet only weighed five pounds! He was close to death but in the last two years, he has fought back with force and his magical smile has broken the hearts of nurses, doctors and volunteers like my mother (see photos here).

The good news is that over the past two years, Jose has finally put on enough weight (now about 15 pounds) in order to go back to live with his family! For a boy that spent over half of his life in a public hospital, this home-coming is the greatest thing that has happened in his life! The downside is that Jose still faces health challenges. He was recently diagnosed with diabetes insipidus, which is caused by the inability of the kidneys to conserve water, which leads to frequent urination and pronounced thirst. If inadequate fluids are consumed, the large amount of water lost in the urine may cause dehydration and high sodium levels in the blood.
In order for Jose to be able to survive at home, he needs to take a special medicine on a regular basis and the sad fact is that his family cannot afford this medicine. So, in order to reunite Jose with his family, Cause & Affect has teamed up with a number of volunteers in order to raise funds to purchase the medicine to allow for Jose’s homecoming. We purchased $400 worth of the medicine which we presented to the family when they took Jose home.

Our projects here in Antigua were spearheaded by my mother, Linda Champagne, who has been volunteering at Casa Jackson and Obras Sociales since our initial visit in 2009. Now retired and living in Antigua, her compassion and devotion to the babies of Guatemala has served as a guiding light for Cause & Affect’s operations in Guatemala and we look forward to continuing our collaboration with her in the years to come.

Please help support wonderful projects like these through our website by donating here.
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Supporting Challenged Kids in Rio's "City of God"

WATCH THE VIDEO FIELD REPORT HERE
Here in a shanty-town of Rio de Janeiro called Cidade de Deus ("City of God"), life for the 40,000 residents of is a daily challenge, as they are faced with a lack of jobs, medical attention and high food prices.

Even more challenging is the plight of the physically- and mentally-challenged kids in the favela.
Thankfully, some local heroes founded a community center to provide education, nutritious food and a nurturing environment for these kids, providing them with the mental and physical stimuli they need to develop in a healthy manner. Cause & Affect traveled to this favela shanty-town (now well-known due to the highly-acclaimed 2003 film City of God) in order to provide material and financial support to this wonderfully-run project.

Laura Muniz helped found the Projeto Resgate ("Rescue Project")
over ten years ago and now receives financial support from the wonderful Dutch-Brazilian organization IBISS. As she explains, "Since most kids here come from single-parent homes, these physically- and mentally-challenged children are often locked into their homes when their mothers go off to work. We provide them with a healthy environment and thanks to our physical therapists and teachers trained in dealing with kids with their conditions, we are able to help the kids improve their condition and also help their parents understand and deal with their childrens' disabilities."

Cause & Affect arrived to discover that the facilities of the center were in need of a serious make-over, so with $730, we were able to re-paint the walls and purchase a wide variety of art supplies for the project. Thanks to Aspire Inspire, we also distributed 50 backpacks to the kids of the project and the adjoining pre-school.

With the help of donors like, you Cause & Affect is creating positive change in places like City of God. To help the cause, please donate on-line here.

C&A Sister School Program Officially Launched!

As part of C&A's Sister-School Program, we have paired up a high school in the states with a school in rural Guatemala!

After students from Peninsula High School in San Bruno raised money, Cause & Affect delivered these funds, as well as their letters and photos, to their Sister School in Patzun, Guatemala.

Agua de Dios, a small private elementary school in this indigenous region provides students with a much better education than the local public school, which is overcrowded with students and under-staffed with teachers, many of whom often miss school for no reason. Unlike the public school, which is home to a lot of drugs and violence, Agua de Dios is a safe sanctuary for the children of Patzun to learn, play and enjoy their childhood.

Upon our visit to Agua de Dios, the students thoroughly enjoyed the pinata celebration, as well as seeing the letters and photos from their California sister-school. The students will continue to correspond with each other in order to deepen cross-cultural understanding.

With the money raised, Agua de Dios will purchase 25-30 desks for their students. Hopefully, the students, faculty and parents at Peninsula will be able to raise additional funds for Agua de Dios in the near future, as the school is in dire need of more classrooms and supplies. C&A is accepting more schools to participate in the program, so please contact us for more information.

Helping Honduran Shanty-town Without Medical Care

Honduras has the 2nd worst public health system in the Western Hemisphere. Off the northern coast on an island called Roatan, I discovered a shanty-town community called La Colonia that was founded by refugees from Hurricane Mitch that destroyed these peoples' communities over ten years ago when tidal waves washed away their homes and their farmland. Seeking to settle somewhere with higher ground and jobs, they moved to this tropical island. But life in La Colonia is a daily struggle.

WATCH FIELD REPORT HERE! and our first field report from Guatemala here.

Atrocious economic conditions, a lack of educational opportunities and medical problems have left the 4,000 residents of La Colonia mired in poverty. With scant resources from the government, the people here are left to fend for themselves. Sanitation is absent, schools are overloaded (only 1 in 4 kids here go to school) and the only public health clinics are severely overcrowded and under-manned. Imagine going to a clinic without running water or any medicine!

Fortunately, an American nurse named Miss Peggy Stranges, while down in Honduras in 1998 doing humanitarian work after the destructive Hurricane Mitch, recognized the need and acted upon it. What started as a make-shift operation in her kitchen has grown into the two-story Clinic Esperanza addressing pediatrics, maternal health and more. Over 250 foreign volunteers (such as doctors from the states) volunteer at the Clinic annually and the only paid employees are Hondurans, such as the two Honduran doctors, nurse and dentist on staff. Much of the medicine is purchased with World Health Organization (WHO) discount or donated from foundations. Many supplies are donated by tourists that come through Roatan (famous for its gorgeous beaches and coral reefs) but due to the recent political crisis, tourism has been down, which is what led to the current shortage. We are confident that the holidays brings more generous foreigners to aid the clinic.

Having helped rebuild homes after the Hurricane back in 1999 while living in Guatemala, I was saddened to see people still victimized by this storm a decade later. Fortunately, Cause & Affect was able to make a difference. We learned about the current shortage of respiratory and diabetic medicine, so we delivered a $1,200 Micro-Grant to allow them to purchase these needed medications. Be sure to watch the video to see personal accounts about the importance of this clinic for this downtrodden community - their words speak louder than mine.
Thanks to all of our donors - as you can see, your money goes a long way!
To make an on-line donation, simply click here.

Cause and Affect Assists Chicago Inner-city Music Program

Cause & Affect launched their first state-side initiative by supporting the P.A.U.S.E. Program, which provides music instruction for Chicago inner-city public school children in a wonderfully-run after-school project. P.A.U.S.E., which stands for Positive Action Using Self Expression works with teachers from Chicago's New Music School to teach these young eager students with music instruction. "Music inspires so many of our children to reach their highest potential, however budget cuts in inner-city schools often prevent students from learning anything about music." Cause & Affect has helped provide supplies for the students from Rock Prep School (located in Austin neighborhood) and is working with local partners to provide more support as the kids are very excited about their musical future. Their rendition of "Mary had a Little Lamb" was sensational! We will check back with progress report with a follow-up visit in the spring.

Rockin' Wrigley Tour Fundraiser

Cause & Affect founders Adam Carter and Tim Summers hosted
our 1st Annual Behind-the-scenes Private Tour of Wrigley. The event was a blast and we raised great money for Cause & Affect in the process! Our donors loved hanging out in the Cubs' clubhouse and dugout. Apps & drinks at Rockit Bar & Grill were great as well. Special thanks to Billy Tokyo for donating his amazing Wrigley print.

C&A Multi-Media Benefit a Super Success!

Many thanks to all our 150 friends that made Saturday's Multi-Media Benefit such a huge success for Cause & Affect! We raised nearly $2,000 for the projects we will be supporting in Latin America, which means out little "night out" will drastically improve the lives of those less fortunate. That's what its all about! Thanks to all bands, volunteers and participants, including Jesse Golfis, Christophe from Molotov Kartel, Justin Santora and Lee Greenwich Clothing.

C&A Chairman Leads Micro-credit Symposium

Adam Carter addressed an auditorium of attentive students as the Keynote Speaker at the College of Lake County's "Step Out of Poverty" event on September 15th. In his speech, Adam briefed students and faculty about the origins, importance and logistics of micro-credit in the world today, which has allowed millions of people to pull themselves out of poverty by providing them with access to credit to start a business. Cause & Affect partnered with the college, the Phi Theta Kappa chapter, the Latino Alliance and a local women's group to raise money to fund a micro-credit loan for a group of women entrepreneurs in rural Guatemala. Adam will travel there in October to deliver the funds for the micro-credit loan in association with SHARE Guatemala. Adam was joined by Cause & Affect founder (and College of Lake County Alum) Tim Summers.

C&A Chairman as Keynote Speaker

Adam Spreads Cause & Affect Message as Keynote Speaker at Academic Honor Society Regional Convention
Speaking to a few hundred college students at the Phi Theta Kappa's Regional Convention, Cause & Affect Chairman Adam Carter showed his documentary from his African humanitarian trip and explained to these eager college students the ways they can single-handedly improve their communities and the world around them. Many thanks to the organizers and attentive students! He has already planned a fundraiser with the Lake College PTK Chapter for September, an event that will finance a micro-credit loans for Guatemalan women entrepnreneurs!