Although these children were very pretty and seemed very happy, they are also about half the size they should be because of chronic malnutrition. Their parents all worked in the coffee plantations which are now going broke. What food does exist does not make for a balanced diet and that malnutrition leaves them more vulnerable to other illnesses.

The Rainbow Network began work in this region in December of 2002 with the opening of clinics and feeding centers to give children one nutritious meal a day. They are presently organizing to help start some schools and sponsor high school students who will have to travel to high schools in the area of Matagalpa. When funding becomes available, we will start a housing project building very small cement block homes for displaced farm workers who are currently living illegally in little mud and scrap huts on the plantations of former employers. The Rainbow Network has a plan to build 1,000 houses at a cost of $1,000 per house.

At the February 9th board meeting, the cabinet will recommend that we donate $38,500 of money we inherited from the Bill and Retha Baker estate to start the housing project in San Ramon. This money will provide for the construction of 40 homes. We believe that this is in the spirit of the Baker’s life-long support for poverty programs in the most desperately poor regions of the world.