Greetings AMOS Friends and Family!

Your ongoing support and friendship is the reason that this past year we were able to start some exciting new programs that are decreasing malnutrition and anemia in the rural communities we serve.

Friendship is an essential element of all our programs at AMOS.People need true friendships. True friends are with you for the long haul and come to your aid when you are in need. They are people that are a positive drive in your life, providing encouragement, comfort, making you feel heard and loved. AMOS is cultivating this culture of friendship in order to meet the basic needs of the people we work with in rural Nicaragua. We truly believe that love and friendship is what makes lasting change possible.

Below and on the following pages, you will find some highlights of what we accomplished together this year.

Your friendship is so important to us! Thank you for making it possible to build lasting change in over 30 communities in need in the second poorest country in Central America.

Blessings from Nicaragua,

Dr’s. David & Laura Parajón

Contents

Board of DirectorsArthur Francis, CA

David Parajón, MD, MPH, MBA

Deborah Norton, MD, MPH

Laura Chanchien Parajón, MD, MPH

Marlene Francis, PhD

Rev. Mike Jeffries

Octavio Cortés

Robert McElroy, MD

Román Santamaría, DDS

Sixto Ulloa

Rev. Dr. Tim Spring, D.Min.

Honorary Member - Dr. Suzanne Lake, PhD

“To make an impact you have to go there and start a friendship. Friends do - They don’t just think about it.” -Bob Goff, Author of Love Does

November 2014 AMOS Field ReportMAHealth & Hope

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Our Impact Highlights in 2014:18 Volunteer Mothers are working alongside women in their communities to guide them through pregnancy and motherhood.

22 Team Service Trips worked with 16 rural communities helping with water filters, repairing clinics, and providing health screenings for children.

25 Health Promoters are visiting the most vulnerable patients and providing basic medicines.

Healthy Moms, Healthy Kids Program helped 13 malnourished children gain weight and their mothers gain confidence.

6 Mentors are visiting health promoters once a month in their regions to build stronger relationships and help them improve their skills.

Our Clean Water Program distributed it’s 1,000th water filter since 2010! A total of 373 filters were installed this year.

Letter from the Directors /

Our Impact ...................................Page 1

Mirna’s story ................................Page 2

Invest in AMOS / Financial Report

......................................................... Page 3

Where We Serve ....................... Page 4

Healthy Moms, Healthy Kids:Only with Friendship is Change PossibleNo mother wants their child to be malnourished. And Mirna Dominia is no exception.

Mirna lives in the community of La Consulta, one of our poorest communities, with her husband and five children. Even though her family struggles to put enough food on the table, she has always tried to give her children the nutrients they need. When she could, Mirna would add chunks of a few vegetables like bell peppers and onions to her family’s daily servings of rice and beans. But despite her best efforts, her children wouldn’t always eat their food and would pick out the vegetables.

In July this year when AMOS visited La Consulta to monitor the height and weight of all children under age 5, Mirna learned that her two-year-old daughter, Doris, was malnourished, weighing just over 22 pounds. Mirna and Doris were soon invited and decided to join other pairs of mothers and their children who were malnourished in a new pilot program AMOS has developed called Healthy Moms, Healthy Kids.

Women in rural Nicaragua work really hard to care for their children, but sometimes they lack the proper knowledge on how best to care for them, which can result in malnutrition. And the culture and lifestyle rural women lead often does not give them the space to share what they know with one another.

AMOS wanted to start the Healthy Moms, Healthy Kids Program to create a safe, educational space for women to learn from each other and to build stronger friendships with and between community members in hopes of creating more lasting changes in their lives. AMOS Nutritionist, Patricia Pérez, helped select and train a group of Volunteer Mothers who were already using

healthy habits in their homes to meet with and educate other mothers around them to do the same things.

During the first few Healthy Moms, Healthy Kids workshops, little Doris resisted eating the food the mothers in the workshop had cooked for their kids. She would just sit alone and cry. But Mirna learned how to properly cut nutritious food into small pieces so that her children will eat it. Her whole family likes it this way, saying her cooking tastes better! She has also learned how to cover the food to keep the nutrients from escaping the pot.

These little changes are making big differences! Just 3 months into the program, Doris weighed just over 30 pounds, a normal weight for her size! She loves to eat food at the workshops and then asks for more food when she gets home. And even though the whole community was affected by a serious drought this year, all of the children in the program also either gained or maintained their weight!

Many women in this new program came to help their children, but they

November 2014 AMOS Field Report

“The workshops have given me a space To come and relaTe To oTher women...”

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Mirna and her family standing outside their home Doris at her first weigh-in

Mirna now sits with Doris to help her eat all of her food

November 2014 AMOS Field Report

have found themselves benefiting from the group as well.

“At the first meeting we held,” says Healthy Moms, Healthy Kids Program Coordinator, Patricia Perez, “I had to pull words out of the women. They were shy and didn’t want to share anything. They were isolated.”

But the women developed trust and respect for each other as they learned how to cook nutritious food for their families together and led daily devotions to improve their confidence in public speaking and praying. Now, when these mothers get together they are much more talkative and have begun to discuss personal health questions and doubts they have about women’s health topics (like breastfeeding) not covered in the formal workshops.

Expenses:July 2013 - June 2014

Income Sources: July 2013 - June 2014

Help Us Meet Important Needs in 2015:

“The workshops have given me a space to come and relate to other women and relax a bit away from the daily stress of taking care of everything at home,” says Mirna.

The Healthy Moms, Healthy Kids program in La Consulta has given mothers whose children were malnourished a chance to make habitual changes to improve their children’s health. But they have also become important members of a community of mutual support, trust, and safety. Their growing friendships are paving the way for lasting changes and a better future for themselves, their families, and the whole community of La Consulta.

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Communications & Fundraising2.26%

AdministrativeCosts

13.02%Urban Health Program 10.84%

Delegations, Volunteers, &

Guesthouse35.59%

Rural Health Program38.29%Nicaraguan Groups

& Individuals2.02%

Colleges/Universities11.16% Grants

8.70%

Individuals32.65%

Churches &Religious Organizations

45.46%

We are working to expand Healthy Moms, Healthy Kids next year and have many more programs that are bringing health and hope to people living in rural Nicaragua. Please consider investing in AMOS at one of the following giving levels to help us do the following in 2015:

2014 Finances:

Give a Baby a Healthy Start with Prenatal Vitamins

Train Our Growing Network of Community Health Leaders

Decrease Malnutrition by Giving Clean Water with Water Filters

Empower Mothers through Healthy Moms, Healthy Kids

Sponsor Experienced Promoters to Be Mentors of Other Promoters

Expand Our Work to 2 New Communities in the RAAS Region

$50

$100

$250

$500

$1000

$25

Mirna cooking in her kitchen

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* These programs are self-sustainable.

Contact Us c o m m u n i c a t i o n s @a m o s h e a l t h . o r g

Thank You for your Friendship!

Follow Us

November 2014 AMOS Field Report

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You are making change in rural Nicaragua possible.

MAHealth & Hope3088 Haberlein Rd. Gibsonia, PA 15044-8232

AMOS is a Christian non-profit organization that exists to improve the health of impoverished communities by working alongside them in health, education, and development.

All of our work flows out of the conviction that God has a heart for the poor and that we must share love, compassion, healing, and justice with our brothers and sisters in need.

Who is AMOS:33

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Serving9 new health promoters and candidates for health promoter at a training in July of this year