Good to be Small

(AP) Nearly nine months after the earthquake, more than a million Haitians still live on the streets between piles of rubble. One reason: Not a cent of the $1.15 billion the U.S. promised for rebuilding has arrived. At fault: bureaucracy, disorganization and a lack of urgency.

Because Paper Houses Across the Border remains a small charity, we remain efficient, effective and direct. Typically, we spend donations within 5-days of being received. We drive directly to the homes of the people, personally assess each situation and take immediate emergency action.

Our actions often include long-term plans and we often seek partnership with a Mexican business, charity or group. We form these partnerships on the spot. We either bring the family with long-term or high-dollar needs to a business, charity, church in Mexico or we take someone from these places with us when we visit a family. Everyone knows that we expect an immediate answer and that we 'do not fool-around' when it comes to taking action.

"A hungry person does not get excited when you form a committee to discuss his problem. He gets excited about a sandwich!"

It is gratifying to tell Juan Pedro's parents to take him on the next bus to Monterrey where he will be immediately fitted with a prosthetic leg. We know this means that we must immediately raise $4,350, but our experience has always been that Americans will jump in to help when they see that every penny of their money is used to help children like Juan Pedro.

Many of the children we help benefit from very small donations. Our school lunch program only costs us 12 cents per day to provide a hot and nutritious meal for a child. We have an army pf volunteer cooks in Mexico and the ingredients for these meals is subsidized by the Mexican government.

Today, FOX News reported on a scandal about the lunch programs in the U.S. school cafeterias. The reporter spoke about the lack of inspections, the poor quality of the food and said that many of these meals were less nutritious than meals at a fast food restaurant. The way these meals were described convinced me that if my children were in school they would pack their lunch!

But this is not the case in our lunch program. Because the cooks are volunteer parents, trained and certified by the state in meal preparation and health laws,the ingredients are carefully inspected when delivered. The volunteers prepare the meals and carefully clean the kitchen and cafeteria every day.

We visit these cafeterias without notice and conduct our own inspections. We also have a meal with the children and interview parents, the teacher, students and the volunteer cooks every month. Because we remain small, we are able to see everything, first hand.

It is good to be small.

Frustrations

We are often frustrated by the 24/7 news cycle of economic worries, border security, unemployment,deficit spending,and the catastrophe du jour. We are frustrated because we feel helpless. It is as if we should just sit in front of the TV and wait for the end of the world.

At Paper Houses Across the Border, the feeling of helplessness ends. We see a problem. We fix a problem. It is really that simple and it is amazingly satisfying.

A friend of mine, like many people, goes out with friends, goes to a movie, or goes to the gym to forget about the world's problems. While I enjoy a night out, I know that the world and its problems are waiting for me when I return. I minimize my exposure to news - but the real sense of relief is when I dive into the work of Paper Houses.

There is huge satisfaction in this 'work' because I meet such wonderful people. Not only are the people of the colonias inspirational, but the many supporters are also inspiring! Children selling lemonade, people living on social security, attorneys, priests, ministers, police officers, fire fighters and even a survivor from the Nazi death-camps are among our supporters.

Many people in the colonias sum up how amazed I am at so many people that willingly help. "Why will total strangers help my son? They do not even know us. Why do the Americans help?"

Why indeed. As a police officer I was exposed to the worst in our society. With Paper Houses Across the Border, I am exposed to the very best.

Back to the Future

A policeman got lost in the colonias. He found hundreds and hundreds of people surviving on the edge of Mexico and on the edge of poverty. He was surrounded by people living in shacks made of cardboard. No water, no plumbing, dirt roads and a monotonous diet of beans, rice and tortillas. He was also surrounded with smiles, invitations to share a meal and hope.

Gospel stories suddenly made complete sense. These are the outcasts, the forgotten people, the people nobody wants. They live minutes from the richest country on earth and barely survive. Not only did the Gospel stories make sense, the policeman's life made sense. I am that policeman.

With the help of St. Joseph's Church and the Houston Police Officer's Union, Paper Houses Across the Border was founded. Bill Staney, David and Evelyn Diaz, Jennifer, George, and Ms. Christine Wiegman were our founding board members. The Badge and Gun, Houston Chronicle, People Magazine and many other media outlets helped to tell our story.

Since that time, the colonias have changed. The drug cartels are at war with each other and with the Mexican Army for control of the Mexican cities along our border. Even the ladies that sell used clothing are reportedly paying protection money to the cartels to stay in business. Tourism has ceased. Factory owners canceled expansion plans and closely monitor the situation. Most church groups and charities have shifted their operations to other countries.

It is now 2010 and the hard working families remaining in the colonias need our help more than ever. Many have told me that it seems that the church groups that preached faith and trust in God, no longer have enough faith to send help to the colonias.

Consequently, there is more need than we can meet. I will not choose to limit our help. Instead, I will increase our ability to help.

So, we will begin again. I will reach out to every person that helped and ask them to help even more. I will speak to groups, churches, and businesses. None of this is easy. It is not supposed to be easy. Many will remark that 'charity starts at home' and I will reply that this is not what Jesus said. In fact, almost every thing Jesus said and did suggested the exact opposite. He unequivocally directed us to go forth to all nations. He defined our 'neighbor' as the foreigner (Samaritan)and constantly ignored the priests and holy people to be with the outcasts.

I do not expect to change hardened hearts. When I talk about what Jesus did and what He experienced, it is to help me to remember that this is not supposed to be easy. And, at the end of the day, many people will help and they will feel so much better for the act of faith.

As for the policeman, he does not hesitate to walk his 'beat' in the colonias. He still has many friends to visit and new friends to make.

Vision and Perspective

Our charity is more than the number of people we helped, the number of children we fed and the accounting we provide for every dollar we spend as a charity. Paper Houses is an advanced charity. It is a grown-up and it is a difficult charity.

Although we list our many accomplishments and account for every dollar, Paper Houses Across the Border is serving more than those lists. Our charity is a commitment and a sacred trust. Our help is not conditional and is certainly not affected by the dangers of the cartels in Acuna or the impact of the economy on our personal lives. Our commitment to sacrifice and service to the poor of the colonias is not based upon the shifting sands of safety and the economy. Changing conditions only means that we work harder to keep our sacred promises and commitments.

We do not honor Paper Houses Across the Border, but we honor the people Paper Houses serves. We strive to be worthy of the example of the people we serve. We strive to be worthy of Juan Pedro and Ambar - both very young children who smile, laugh and play in spite of the fact that they each lost a leg before their 10th birthday. We strive to be worthy of every working family that remain living in terrible poverty and who are surrounded by violence.

We are all broken and living lives of imperfection. With all of our great wealth, and we have all been blessed with great wealth, we still feel lacking in some ways. We honor the people of the colonias who give us time to reflect and to put our own difficulties into perspective. They give us opportunities to fill the voids in our lives. We honor these people as they give us many opportunities to fix something - right now! We feel frustrated because we cannot fix the economy, the unemployment, the mounting national debt and we cannot end hunger or prevent the injustice of amputations and poor health. The children and people of the colonias give us some things we can fix - right now. We can provide medicine that heals a few children and they do not need to undergo amputations. We can provide prosthetic limbs, surgery that prevent blindness and we can feed a child. We can walk into a child's life and say, "Here! I can buy you a good meal every day at school. It only cost me $3 a month!" Although we may fill their little bellies, they fill our souls!

Our time and our money are blessings entrusted to us and we are expected to invest both wisely. We honor the children of the colonias for the opportunity they provide for us to do so in an awareness of our physical mortality and our spiritual immortality.

Juanita - Surgery and Cancer in the colonias

Paper Houses Across the Border assists families in the impoverished colonias of Mexico and that assistance includes helping children with cancer. The children of the poor in Mexico have little chance for help when cancer strikes.

Many of the poor in Mexico are illiterate. Many accept the belief that they were born poor for a reason and that they will remain poor. Many are superstitious and many believe that when a child is stricken with cancer it is God's punishment for the family. There is often a stigma attached to having a child with cancer and some families are reluctant to admit their child has cancer.

Many seek help.

Hospitals that offer chemotherapy, radiation therapy and cancer surgery are concentrated in large cities. Travel to those hospitals is expensive and not covered by the public health insurance available to the poor. Travel expenses from Acuña, Mexico to Monterrey - the closest large city offering cancer treatments, is about $300. The average family that we help has a monthly take-home pay of $200. To put it another way, although health insurance greatly reduces the cost of treatment, most children are doomed because their families cannot even afford to travel to the cancer hospitals.

If a family can get to a large treatment hospital, they would still not be able to pay their portion of the costs for cancer treatments. Our experience has been that the co-pay for each treatment is 10 times the amount of monthly income for the poor.

However, the real health problems of many children in Mexico have some underlying factors. They begin at birth.

First, there are the maquilas. These foreign owned factories employ millions of Mexicans and produce everything from seat-belts to electronics. Corporations admit that they outsource jobs to these factories because labor is inexpensive. (We recognize that the slave wages are so low that many factory workers live in squalor. Families squat on unoccupied land, build houses from scraps of lumber and cardboard, and lack access to water, electricity, plumbing, roads and health care). Although these factories contribute money to shelters, parks, and charities they pay little or no taxes.

There are no scientific studies and there seems to be nothing in writing but another reason the companies relocate may be that they are not prosecuted for the pollution of the air and water in these communities. In some cases, their acts of pollution are not even illegal. Put another way, they are 'just doing what everyone else is doing' so that makes it OK. It is far too easy for us to walk the streets and find children with birth defects.

So the children of the poor begin with polluted water and air. They also begin with a substandard diet that lacks sufficient vitamins. Again, we cannot find scientific research. However, our experiences in the colonias certainly suggest significant nutritional problems among the poor children.

For example, in 2002 when we interviewed individual teachers at primary schools, every teacher said that their number one need was help to provide the children with nutritious meals. We expected the teachers to ask for school materials, computers, new classrooms, or building repairs. We were stunned when every teacher said that their number one need was for the children to have at least one nutritious meal. Teachers told stories about little girls and boys who fainted during class because of poor nutrition.

Then, we began hearing about nutrition at the private hospital.

A little boy named Sergio stepped on a nail. He was treated at the public hospital, where the poor must go if they have no insurance. The mother returned to the hospital with the child because the wound on the foot was swelling and turning dark. The doctor prescribed pain medication. (We later learned that doctors often do not prescribe the powerful antibiotics needed to halt infection because the poor cannot afford such medicine). When we found the little boy he was in bed because it was too painful for him to stand. The foot was swollen and the wound smelled of infection. We feared gangrene. The doctors at the public hospital said that the foot needed to be amputated. The good news was that amputations is covered by the public health insurance.

At the private hospital, Dr. De la Fuentes said that he could save the foot, but we would need to act quickly. "First, we must admit him to the hospital for a week so we can give him vitamins and build up his strength to withstand the operation." During the following years we've heard this many times. Before a surgery we need to build up their systems by providing vitamins and wholesome meals.
Mexican doctors are very aware of the problem as is the government. According to their own studies as many as 1/3 of the children being treated for cancer suffer from severe nutritional deficiencies .

It is easy to say that this is Mexico's problem and that the Mexican government, the Mexican churches and the Mexican people must help these children. Although the people, government, churches and charities of Mexico help thousands and thousands of children and are working to improve nutrition and health - the scope of the problem exceeds their capacity to keep little boys like Sergio from having a foot amputated and little girls like Juanita from dying from cancer on her liver.

The argument that we can't help these children because we must help Americans first is only true if we've given so much to charities and hospitals in America that we are without money to go to the movies, enjoy cable TV, and can never afford a nice meal in a restaurant. Most people that hide behind "America first" when it comes to charity seldom have done without a single luxury because they are helping American children. We know this because almost all of our supporters also help with charities that are focused on the Untied States.

Furthermore, the argument that we must only help at home is not with me or Paper Houses. It is with the son of a carpenter. He was often criticized for helping the untouchables and foreigners. Why did He heal a child of a tax collector, a servant of a hated Roman Centurion, a foreigner at a well? It is often said that He taught by example.

The argument is with Sergio who can now walk. It is with Juanita as she lays on the operating table, today.

Now it is Car-Jackings

July 21, 2010
The Del Rio Herald published a story about four Americans that were car-jacked in Acuna. Sources in Acuna tell us that 13-people have been car-jacked. Some were at traffic lights and others stopped because the street was blocked by a truck. Usually, two men approach the vehicle, point guns at the occupants and demand they get out and leave the keys in the vehicle.

Late model pick-ups and SUVs are targeted by the armed thieves. Many Americans and wealthy Mexicans are switching to old used cars while driving around town.

This is a further sign of the spreading violence. The indirect impact on the colonias is severe. The few church groups and charities that are still operating across the border are evaluating this new development and it is reasonable to believe many will stop their visits. The fact that these robberies occur in broad daylight and that Mexican victims do not trust the police enough to file a report tells us that law and order is close to a complete break-down.

NONE OF THIS CHANGES THE NEEDS OF THE CHILDREN AND ELDERLY. The poor families living a hand to mouth existence still need our help. As other U.S. charities and as churches abandon these people, our help becomes more critical.

We are searching for a used vehicle to use so we can continue our work in Acuna. We are also reaching out to increase the number of supporters so we can broaden our work in Acuna.

Working at the neighborhood level, we hope to organize small neighborhood meetings in the fall to discuss solutions to many of Acuna's problems and the problems in each neighborhood.

The Reality

Four bodies were found late Thursday night on the banks of the Rio Grande near Ciudad Acuña, where one person is still missing, according to the Coahuila state Attorney General’s Office.

Photos of the damage caused by the flood cannot do justice to the situation. Many cardboard homes were simply washed away. Many cinder block homes were destroyed. Here, there is no home owner's insurance and the property loss is easier to describe as 'every thing they owned'.

Imagine that you live in a two room cinder block house and the walls collapse. All of your furniture, food, clothes, photographs, medicine, - everything is gone! Hundreds of houses were on the river. Lorena, our long-time translator, lived with here children in a house on the river. We've not been able to locate her. The roads to her home and her mother's home are still inaccessible.

Imagine that you live in a house that you built from scraps of cardboard and discarded lumber. You are at work when the flood strikes. Your home disappears with all of your meager possessions. However, this worry is small because your children were at school. Was there any damage at the school? Did the school dismiss the children early because of the pending flood? There is no way to telephone someone. The phones and electricity are out! The people boarding the buses are in a state of panic. Many roads quickly become inaccessible.

This is the reality.