OPERATION BLESS ING INTERNATIONALMAY 2016

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Reaching Nepal’s Least of These

Family in lowest caste helped after flooding

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A Message from THE PRESIDENT

The deadliest animal in the world is not a Great White shark or a poisonous snake, but an insect so small that 10,000 of them weigh less than one ounce: the mosquito. Bill Gates recently compiled statistics that rank the

causes of death worldwide and found that 50,000 people a year die from snake bites and 475,000 die by human hands. But the most murderous creature by far is the mosquito, causing over 750,000 deaths per year plus infecting hundreds of millions with terrible diseases.

I often get a question that goes something like this: “Why did God create mosquitoes?” I don't know the answer to that question, but I do know this: As sure as God created mosquitoes, He also created creatures to control mosquitoes — and Operation Blessing is doing all we can to help make that happen.

This month I was at the New Orleans Mosquito Control Board laboratory receiving training from some of the top entomologists (bug experts) in the world who taught me strategies to control mosquitoes with non-chemical biological tools. Mosquito-eating fish, juvenile turtles and tiny crustaceans called copepods are the members of what we call OBI’s Bug Busters Dream Team.

Following Hurricane Katrina in 2006, OBI assisted the team at New Orleans Mosquito Control in stopping a West Nile Virus epidemic by planting thousands of mosquito-eating fish in over 5,000 temporarily abandoned swimming pools. The Zika Virus, however, is carried by a more elusive mosquito that breeds in wet spots smaller than pools, so we must adopt a multi-faceted attack: fish for open water wells; turtles for laundry tubs and cisterns; and Copepods for scrap tires and small containers holding water.

OBI’s war against mosquitoes is just one example of how OBI partners like you are changing lives by fighting disease, providing safe water, rescuing girls from trafficking, feeding the hungry, and more as you’ll see in this issue.

Visit www.ob.org for more updates and thank you for your continued support of our efforts!

May God bless you,

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A Message from THE PRESIDENT4 A Renewed Mind

Girl receives a new lease on life after brain surgery to remove a tumor

6 Food for a Hungry Family Operation Blessing partners help single mother of three

11 Club Bless Share God’s blessings with those who need them most

12 Safe Water for Adrian Teams bring relief to a drought-stricken community in Brazil

14 From Slavery to Freedom 15-year-old rescued from human trafficking ring in Cambodia

Inside this issue Cover PAGE 8

Reaching Nepal’s Least of These Family in lowest caste helped after flooding

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Since the surgery, Dalia no longer suffers from severe headaches, giving her the chance to go back to school on a regular basis.

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All 10-year-old Dalia wanted to do was learn. She loved school and wanted very much to be able to go. But extreme headaches kept her from attending classes. Her parents, Elda and Epifanio,

noticed that Dalia was forgetting things easily and hated seeing their daughter suffer from such pain.

Then, a single doctor’s visit changed the course of their lives: Dalia’s diagnosis was a brain tumor, the size of an orange. Already reeling from some of the most horrible news the family could have possibly imagined, it got even worse when the cost of treatment was presented.

Brain surgery to remove a tumor, whether benign or malignant, is expensive. Epifanio was struggling without a stable income, and Elda stayed home to watch their two other children, so the funds for Dalia’s surgery just weren’t available. The family was devastated, thinking that their pre-cious little girl might not survive simply because they didn’t have the resources to pay for surgery.

All that changed when Operation Blessing was contacted about Dalia’s case. The necessary funds were provided so Dalia could have immediate surgery in a specialized hospital, a biopsy could be done on the tumor, and Dalia could stay in the intensive care unit (ICU) to ensure proper medi-cal care post-surgery.

Elda said, “We didn’t know what we were going to do because we didn’t have the resources, and we asked for help, and Operation Blessing immediately communicated with us.”

The blessings continued when the biopsy report showed the tumor was benign. The family, full of joy and gratitude, is now helping Dalia start a new chapter in her life. Soon, she will attend school regularly as she’s always wanted. Elda and Epifanio thank God for sending Operation Blessing exactly when their daughter needed help. ◆

A Renewed Mind Girl receives a new lease on life after

brain surgery to remove a tumor

Dalia’s family is grateful for Operation Blessing’s help to pay for her surgery.

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OHIO

Food for a Hungry

FamilyOperation Blessing partners help single mother of three

Dana and her three children enjoy a meal, thanks to OBI partner Big Reach Center of Hope.

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Feeding a family of four on one income is a heavy burden. On no income, however, it seemed an impossible feat for Dana, a single mother of three who goes to school full-time.

After leaving an abusive marriage a few years ago, Dana relied on public assistance and food stamps so she and her children wouldn’t go without food or housing.

“There’s nothing worse in the world than hearing your child say,

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‘Mom, I’m hungry,’ and you can’t do anything about it," she said.Dana knew she would have to take further steps if she wanted

to truly create a better future for her family, so she chose to go back to school to receive a Bachelor’s degree in Family and Consumer Science. A school project requirement led Dana to volunteer at the Big Reach Center of Hope, an Operation Blessing partner that helps feed families in need.

What started as a project for school morphed into Dana becoming a regular volunteer for a cause she believed in. She loved seeing lives changed by the help given through the center. What she didn’t realize was how much it would impact her life too.

When Big Reach learned of Dana’s situation, they invited her to receive groceries.

Dana has been blown away by the love she has received from the staff, and she’s especially grateful for the groceries.

“When I go to Big Reach, it helps my budget in the long run. I can use my money for bills, clothing, or haircuts for the kids.”

The entire experience has been life changing for Dana. “I’m getting love, I’m getting paid attention to, my personal needs are being met and I’m being listened to,” she said.

When she graduates, Dana will be a life skills educator and hopes to work with people who could use some encouragement or practical help in their daily lives, just like she’s received. ◆

“The groceries I receive from Big Reach enables me to put food on the table,” Dana said.

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Nepal is a small nation sandwiched between China and India, and since its inception has operated with a strictly adhered to

caste system. Though the traditions may not be as strong as they once were, marginalization of lower caste members continues.

When flooding beset the Bhaktapur area of Nepal just three months after the earthquake’s devastation, Operation Blessing helped the families in a refugee camp move out to safety. Pradang and Xiwan, along with their three children, sons Anugraha, 10, and Ishan, 9, and their daughter Tshering, 5, were one such family.

The family is considered part of the lowest caste in Nepal, meaning they were treated differently than other camp refugees. They and other refugees in the lowest caste were the last to receive aid at the camp, including tents and mattresses, as well as food, being offered only what

NEPAL

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was left over after everyone else had already eaten.“No one wanted to help us,” Pradang said. “In the camp we were

shunned by all.” The OBI team noticed Pradang’s family was being ignored and began helping them. The family was given a new tent, mattresses, a stove, hygiene kits, food supplies, a filter to make drinkable water and school supplies for all three children.

In the wake of losing everything they had — twice within a short span of time —this family is back on their feet again. Pradang is incredibly grateful to have been helped by Operation Blessing.

“Now we are here, staying with my sister and her family,” she said. “Thanks to Operation Blessing for all your help.” ◆

Pradang and her family are grateful to OBI for help after the flooding.

The family was first displaced by a devastating earthquake, then again when flooding inundated their refugee camp.

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As summer arrives in the northern hemisphere, the threat from the Zika virus, and other mosquito-borne illnesses, continues to rise. This insidious virus, spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito,

is a growing threat to those living in Central and South America — and the poor are particularly vulnerable.

To combat this expanding epidemic, Operation Blessing is pioneering a variety of advanced, biological methods of mosquito control. One of the big-gest challenges in containing Zika is that the mosquitoes like to breed in small water containers in and around people’s homes. For many in Latin America who lack consistent access to running water, storing water in vessels like these is an unavoidable necessity.

OBI is researching the use of fish, turtles and copepods (tiny crusta-ceans) to eliminate the Aedes aegypti larvae from these water containers.

Each animal is particularly suited to a specific type of mosquito breeding ground, offering the possibility of greatly reducing or even eliminating the population of adult, Zika-carrying mosquitoes in a given area.

To learn more about OBI’s efforts against Zika, visit www.ob.org/battling-zika-virus ◆

BUG BUSTERS “DREAM TEAM”How mosquito-eating fish, turtles and copepods are fighting Zika

A young boy in Mexico holds Gambusia fish in a plastic bag, ready to distribute to homes in the community.

Operation Blessing President, Bill Horan, holds a turtle that may offer a solution to the Zika epidemic.

LATIN AMERICA

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BRAZIL

OBI teams bring relief to a drought- stricken community in Brazil

SAFE WATER FOR ADRIAN

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Adrian shows OBI staff where he digs for water.

It is 10:00 in the morning and the heat is unbearable. The sky is completely clear and there has not been a drop of rain in Adrian’s community in months.For generations they have only had access to poor quality, salty

water, but even so, water is still very valuable to the 14-year-old and the rest of the region’s population — especially as they experience one of the most severe droughts they’ve ever had.

Adrian showed Operation Blessing staff where they get water to drink. He prefers to dig into the ground in search of water because it comes out cleaner, but the riverbed that used to be a source of water for the community is bone dry these days.

“If we found water there, we would drink it,” said Mama Rosa, Adrian’s grandmother, “but we went there today and there was none, so we had to drink water from the dirty pond.”

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It was another 20 minutes to reach the small pond of brown water that exuded an unpleasant smell, yet Adrian filled his jug with water and began the journey back home.

“The dirty pond water is polluted, smelly, animals die there and it tastes salty. It’s not good for drinking, but we drink that water because there is nothing else to drink,” Adrian said.

For the vast majority of families living here, it is common to have frequent stomach ailments and diarrhea. Urinary diseases are also prevalent due to the saltiness of the water.

“I got sick many times be-cause of drinking that polluted and dirty water,” Adrian said.

To combat this problem, Operation Blessing, in partner-ship with a local ministry in Brazil, drilled a deep well in the middle of the community. Because water in this area has a high salt content, Operation Blessing also installed a modern desalination system that has the capacity to generate more than 26 thousand gallons of safe drink-ing water each month.

“The treated water from the filter is good,” Adrian said. “It is good for drinking, for cooking, and it’s much closer so we don’t have to walk all the way to the dirty pond anymore.”

Thanks to your support, more than 5,000 people in Adrian’s community now have access to safe water every day. The stomach problems they dealt with from drinking salty, contaminated water

are now a thing of the past.

“Thank you very much, Operation Blessing, for giving us this water and mak-ing my life and the life of my family better,” Adrian said. ◆

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“We had to drink water from the dirty pond,” said Adrian’s grandmother.

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CAMBODIA

The lives of 15-year-old girls are generally thought to consist of going shopping, dreaming of the future and chatting on the phone with their best friends. Except in Rida’s* case — a 15-year-

old girl from Cambodia who was the youngest of nine sex trafficking victims recently rescued, thanks to Operation Blessing and partner organization International Justice Mission, just outside the nation’s capital city of Phnom Penh.

Cambodia ranks fourteenth in the world for modern slavery1 — contributing to that statistic were the community-based traffickers

Rida testifies in court where she spoke loudly and emphatically about what she was made to do as a sex trafficking victim.

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who exploited Rida. The trafficker would offer lodging at his home, preying on homeless women and teenagers who were living in extreme poverty. Under the guise as a guesthouse, the traffickers would sell Rida and the other girls for sexual favors. On nights lack-ing customers, Rida and other girls would be taken to a local dance club where there they were exploited.

A police officer in the city who happened to be a member of the Anti-Human Trafficking & Juvenile Protection Unit was also a bouncer at one of the nightclubs where Rida was offered up to customers.

Suspicious of what was going on, the compassionate officer befriended Rida and the other girls, and ultimately worked with OBI partner IJM to rescue Rida and eight other victims. Rida’s traffickers were arrested and subsequently convicted for their crimes.

Though Rida and eight others were saved, human trafficking remains a major problem. IJM’s Cambodia director Christa Hayden explains that just ten years ago, “police lacked the training, organi-zation and will to stop trafficking.”

Now, trafficking isn’t so easy, as police are more prepared and more willing to take risks in order to save young boys and girls from human traffick-ing operations.

Currently, Rida is safe in transitional housing with other girls who have had similar experiences. There they receive ongoing counseling and opportunities for job training and educa-tion. Rida’s dreams include becoming a lawyer so she can protect girls from what she went through, or possibly a doctor, to help care for the sick.

Rida’s story is one of many, and the fight is long from over. An estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked every year, and 22 percent of victims are trafficked for commercial sexual exploita-tion.2 Still, as Operation Blessing partners with organizations like IJM, human trafficking victims can have a hope for the future. ◆*Name changed to protect identity.; 1 Global Slavery Index, 2015; 2. International Labour Organization, 2012

IJM lawyer Saroeun Sek argues for Rida and other trafficking survivors.

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