A Year of Goodness
What a year! For every purchase you made, 10% of your sale went to help people in need in 3rd world countries. Let’s take a look this month at all the good YOU did through your support of Rooted for Good. Christmas, in the words of Charles Dickens, is a time when men “open up their shut up hearts and see the people around them as fellow passengers to the grave and not some foreign race altogether.” Your generosity has been incredible. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you!
April - Rahab’s Rope
Since 2004, Rahab’s Rope has spread awareness and worked to help eradicate human trafficking. They exist to empower women and children in the fight against human trafficking. One hundred percent of their profits from sales and donations fund the mission.
By creating a safe and loving environment through education and vocational training women and children are empowered to grow and develop physically, mentally, financially, and spiritually. They work in the areas of prevention, direct intervention and aftercare. They and we thank you for your support of their mission!
May - Catholic Relief Services Rice Bowl
CRS Rice Bowl is the Lenten program of Catholic Relief Services, the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. Seeking a way to help his family, Noor joined Catholic Relief Services’ Mutki project.
Through the project, he learned how to prevent his land from flooding, to farm using chemical-free and organic fertilizers, and to raise chickens and ducks to sell for additional income. Noor and his community also learned how to grow a variety of vegetables—
including tomatoes, chilies, eggplant and lal shak, which is like a red spinach. With the help of his father and nephew Abdul, he increased the amount of land they farmed and their vegetable production.
Your purchases helped to educate these people and make them self-sustaining!
June - Mary Magdalena’s Home
Santa Maria Magdalena’s Home is a place for unwed mothers and their children. These women and children suffer under the yoke of poverty, domestic violence, and unjust living conditions in one of the poorest communities in the Amazonas region of Peru. The mission of Santa Maria Magdalena’s Home is twofold—that of renewing the mother’s sense of worth and restoring human dignity to mothers as well as their children.
Thanks to you, Mary Magdalena’s Home was able to continue providing a loving and affirming atmosphere and a safe home, while supporting the material and spiritual needs of each unique and beautiful family.
Their mission is to journey with each family, providing them with the opportunity to rediscover that they—despite the sufferings and unjust abandonment they have endured—are still very much loved by Jesus and are essential agents in the work of evangelization.
July - Yerlin and Dabi
This month, Rooted for Good came alongside Yerlin and her beautiful son, Dabi, conceived in rape. Through your purchases, we helped finance the building of a home for her and her mother to provide for her little son. One of her caretakers, said this about the situation.
“The heart of the story is that we can say we are pro-life,” Natalia said, “but unless we are willing to journey with someone who is willing to make the heroic decision to choose life, it’s all words. In a situation like
Yerlin’s, all society would see is ‘This is terrible. You just got raped,’ which it is. But that’s all they see. What I see is a woman who is willing to fight for life. This is the heroic reality of receiving the cross that God allows you to carry. This 13-year-old is a hero in this culture of life battle.”
August/September - Mary’s Meals
Mary’s Meals not only takes an innovative, cost effective approach to ending child hunger, but they also bolster education opportunities for children who suffer from hunger and lack of access to healthy meals.
Mary’s Meals works with local communities to start, run, and operate feeding programs in communities where endemic poverty can sometimes mean families must choose between their children receiving an education or children working in family farms and
businesses in order to put food on the table. We here at Rooted for Good thank you for standing alongside us when we say that no child should have to choose between receiving an education and working to feed themselves and their families.
October - After-School Program in Goa
This month was special, because Brooke and I were actually able to visit this amazing afterschool program here, and one of the poorest communities in Goa. The family that runs the program has become friends of ours, and it’s an honor to support their work! They have dedicated themselves to inviting children from the slum community to work on homework, study, and learn each day.
Occasionally these kids get to work on crafts and do artistic and creative crafts they would otherwise not have the opportunity to do. Recently our boys brought some of their legos to share and it was beautiful to see the boys group enjoying legos for the first time!
In addition to the daily after school tuition program, our friends Suresh and Rebecca have even started a once a week group for the tween/teen girls and boys respectively where the kids learn special life skills and build up their confidence.
We have been able to witness firsthand the impact that their work is having on this community. Through your purchases, we were able to financially assist with a drainage problem and keep the after-school program functioning.
November - Giving the Gift of Reading!
Inspired by the great work of the after school program happening in this underprivileged community, we wanted to give the gift of books to many of the kids whose access to books is so limited. Our goal, along with our other partners, is to create a lending library for these kids. Thanks to the support of the Rooted Community and others, we will be able bring this dream to life with hundreds of children’s books, board games, and even craft supplies!
Thank you for making a real impact in the lives of these precious children!
