We’ve found a partner who has been sending direct help into Ukraine: the Human Rights Center of Cottbus, Germany. Sylvia Wähling, our main contact, currently serves as “manager of humanitarian efforts.” With her, we have contributed to three truckloads of food, health supplies, and medical equipment to a children’s hospital and military hospital in Odessa, Ukraine. They’re planning to send a fourth shipment. And we intend to help.

Like you, we’ve agonized over the suffering of the Ukrainian people. And, like you, we’ve ached to do something. Relying on the vision of long-time friends and the wherewithal of precious supporters, we’re taking some small steps to help serve refugees both in and outside Ukraine.

On February 6, 2022, Cyclone Batsirai scored a direct hit on Ankaramalaza, Madagascar. One in ten homes was seriously damaged, as well as the village clinic. Drinking water was contaminated, and emergency food supplies are already depleted. Please help.

Although endangered children were the first ones who came to mind in 2005, we’re finding that the very old can also be quite vulnerable. At the urging of our Cambodian partner, Chenda, we’ve decided that in 2022, we will make a special effort to look after older folks who have no safety net.   

This is about the teachers at the elementary school in Okabol—an off-the-map village along the Mekong River in Cambodia—their dedication, resourcefulness and resilience, even in the wake of a roofless school.

Thanks to Charles Bameka, the mystery of the “aging angel” is solved, and the myth of fragile Grand mums is dispelled.

We were worried about the Ugandan grandmas, concerned that they were going without to make sure their grandkids could eat. Their response to funds sent for food supplies was “joy and ululations.” Our response to the photos sent was heart-filled memories of faces, and people, we’ve cared about for many years.

During the AIDS pandemic, Ugandan grandmothers did their best to tend their orphaned grandchildren.  Nowadays, the Ugandan grandmas are facing a second pandemic, Covid-19.

After a 20- year wait, things had come together, and a small throng was on hand for the “Laying of the First Stone” for Toby Andranotaratra.

Dr. Yvonne Randriamananatena, coordinator for WGLO’s sewing project in Ankaramalaza, receives touching reports and letters of thanks from various students.

Gerald Salda, head of the Sablan National High School in Balluay, Philippines, faces unique pandemic-related challenges.

There are all kinds of takeaways from the Coronavirus pandemic.