PRESIDENT'S LETTER

As many of you know, we care for children with serious or life-threatening illnesses or disabilities until their 18th birthday. Currently, we are serving 135 children, teenagers, and a few very young adults on the North side of Lake Chapala.  We do offer extended care to some children who have been with us for many years and remain profoundly ill as they approach age 18.

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I want to talk a little bit about these young adults past the age of 18 and how we act to ethically help care for them.  I also want to discuss how we approach end of life.  It is important to me to make our donors and supporters aware of our work’s scope.  Not for one minute do I forget the generous financial support that we receive, and I remain grateful to all of you for supporting our work.

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We have a few older teenagers to very young adults right now who we continue to support. We do this because they are so ill that if we were to stop assistance to them, they could perish or would be in so much danger that it would be unconscionable to cease support. Currently, we have three young adults ranging in age from 18 to 23.  Two are plagued with profound physical disability that makes them completely immovable and dependent upon care from their families.  They require a number of medications, mostly to prevent seizures, and wheelchairs that look like rolling beds to allow their parents the ability to move them.  Once I saw one of them—a young man in his early twenties—carried into our clinic in his mother's arms. That image is forever etched in my memory. Caring for these young people can sometimes cost $20,000 MXN a month which is out of reach financially for their parents. 

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Another older teenager that we help has a severe neurological impairment and also is believed to have suffered the onset of schizophrenia in his teenage years.  He is institutionalized because he is dangerous to himself and is uncontrollable at home as his single mother cares for his sibling and two cousins who have lost their parents.  Without our help, that mother, who works in the berry fields, would have no way to care for her family – she literally could not feed herself and her family and shoulder the cost of his care.  His care costs approximately $5,000 MXN per month. 

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Finally, and tragically, we have lost three children from January through March of 2025.  We cover the cost of a simple funeral and burial, which amounts to approximately $20,000 MXN per service.  We have done this for many years, and to me, it is a profound expression of true humanity and compassion—to stand beside parents in the darkest moments of losing a child.

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This is the work we do, the work you help us to do, and the work that needs to be done. Thank you for standing with us.

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Lydia Bodin