Greetings from Jonathan’s House,

Rebecca: I received this photo from Samuel, our orphanage director in the Central African Republic. We rescued this extremely malnourished 18 month old girl in June. It’s a heartbreaking yet beautiful photo that captures the hope that has been brought to some in a land of tragedy for far too many. CAR remains the hungriest country on earth in 2019 (World Hunger Index, 2019), so rescues like this are the last hope for those who suffering. This child hasn’t been able to crawl since her malnutrition became severe about six months ago. At the orphanage, she’ll start an intensive rescue with a diet of PlumpyNut, a peanut based nutritional food for children with extreme malnutrition. I’m hopeful that she’ll make a full developmental recovery, but we won’t know for years. The older girls at the orphanage went into “full mommy mode” when she arrived, so we know she’ll get plenty of love and attention.

In other news:

Education: School is on summer break and well start again in October with a Christian education for grades 1 – 6. Thanks to many of you, our school and orphanage outhouses now have roofs! We also built concrete steps on the steepest part of the hill leading from the orphanage to the well.

Medical Clinic: Babies continue to be born at our medical clinic at the rate of about 2 per week. The maternity ward, medical clinic, and pharmacy are filling a critical need in a desperate part of the world. Dispensing free prenatal vitamins has been extremely beneficial for mothers and babies.

School Lunch: Year 2 of the school lunch program just ended. We serve 442 children every day, and we have now servedapproximately 144,000 meals by the hands of God and three amazing lunch ladies. The difference that a daily nutritional meal makes in the lives of children is INCREDIBLE. Thank you for making this possible. It’s an expensive program ($34,000 annually) for an organization of our size, but it has changed hundreds of lives in so many ways. We’re fundraising for Year 3 now and we’re going to need everyone’s help to do it again. For the price of a Whopper meal at Burger King, you could provide 16 children with the only good meal that they are likely to get all day.

Donate here ---> Donation

Future: There is a LOT more work to do. I don’t know of another place on earth where the need is so great and where donations can have such a tremendous impact as in the Central African Republic. Also, if you hadn't already noticed, pleasenote, that we have a new US donation address and donation page, check it out! Donation page.

Keeping in Touch: You can always see photos and news about current events or make online donations on our Facebook page (Jonathan’s House Central African Republic) or here. If you have any questions about Jonathan’s House, please contact us, we'd love to have you be a part of the family. The children and I are extremely grateful for your prayers and support.

Thankful,

Carter Strand