Merry Christmas!
No, we aren’t late! While Christmas was over for us in December, Ethiopian Christians, like many other Orthodox believers, celebrated Christmas on January 7th. All of the Mossy Foot Project staff met together for a special time of celebration, fellowship, worship, and enjoying refreshments together. Also, they received a small Christmas bonus as a token of appreciation from our Board.
We are now well into the new year and the adventures that we will have together. Somehow we made it through 2020 by the grace of God, through the service of our outstanding staff in Ethiopia, and with your help, our dear partners.
With all of the bad news of 2020, we have good news to share about what happened through your partnership. Lives of our mossy foot patients and their families are being transformed. In 2020 we treated 6,720 patients at our 16 clinics. Also, our staff went to two unreached areas, the Kambata and Gofa zones, where we treated a total of 85 new patients.
Your contributions paid for soap, bleach, ointment, bandages, socks, and 100 pairs of our oversized, custom leather shoes for our patients. The shoes were made by our shoemakers who were formerly patients themselves. Children in the mossy foot families received 4,200 crock-like shoes and we worked on prevention through educating children via posters and brochures at the clinics and in the schools.
Former patients make special shoes.
Durable shoes to give to children.
Additionally, we were able to build seven houses for our most impoverished mossy foot widows. Two hundred forty chickens were given to our patients to raise and more animals will be distributed next month with funds that were raised from the Christmas catalog.
A widow rejoices over a new house!
A widow receives a chicken.
Our aim is to transform the lives of our patients. When their feet improve we want them to be self-sustaining and to be able to support their families. Consequently, 48 recovered patients received vocational training and 90 were recipients of self help loans. Also, 84 children in the mossy foot families received school supplies.
Awareness creation events were held in collaboration with faith-based organizations, communities, schools, and health institutions. All of our 55 staff members at our 16 clinics and headquarters received their monthly salaries.
We are rejoicing that all this was accomplished despite the challenges of COVID. We couldn’t have done it without you. Truly, it is your partnership that is transforming the lives of our patients and their families. We are forever grateful.
May God give you peace, good health, and happiness in 2021. With much gratitude,
Mossy Foot President