Local Projects
2019 local funding was awarded to Teens Acting Against Violence (TAAV), a program of Tundra Women’s Coalition, to help fund their regional summer cultural camp, Teens Lead Ahead (TLA).
YK Delta Women in Philanthropy made a $7,541 grant to kick off the Smart Fit Girls program at the YK Fitness Center in 2018. Smart Fit Girls is a program that teaches adolescent girls how to love their bodies by embracing their own strength.
More information about the Smart Fit Girls program can be found by visiting their website here.
Smart Fit Girls is running strong! We are so excited to have this program in our community. Check out their handout on the Bethel Smart Fit Girls program here!
Global Project
Half of all giving circle donations go to South Sudan Medical Relief, a non-profit providing medical care, education, and community development in Old Fangak, South Sudan founded by longtime Bethel resident, Dr. Jill Seaman.
Updates:
Letter from Dr. Jill Seaman, January 2020
Dear YK Delta Women in Philanthropy,
You all are such amazing people to keep supporting us in Old Fangak.
Here is an accounting of sorts. It is nice to have the money be not - specific to one item.
SO this is how we spent this gift: In May we repaired our completely broken down boat engine so we could cross the river to the airstrip to collect cargo and people, that took 635 USD.
Then in June and July we bought 150 plastic cups - so people can take their directly observed TB therapy, and kids can drink rehydration. There were 100 10 liter buckets for hauling water from boreholes for the TB patients. We purchased 370 mosquito next for all the inpatients, the brucella patients, the homeless, the amputees, and the KA and TB patients. There were 10 displaced person size tarps for TB patients from too far to have relatives in Old Fangak for shared housing.. Those invoices were 3100 USD in June and July.
One woman holds the record for length of stay in our inpatient ward. She had kala azar, then she had a relapse of kala azar (another month in the hospital - she weighed only 35 kg so could not walk home!), then was getting better and developed cryptococcemia requiring 1 month of IV medication and lots of follow up meds she is still taking. Then we started TB meds, and lastly ARV’s. She got a mosquito net, a blanket, a bucket a few cups, and one of those huge tarps for she and her little one, also on meds, to sleep in town until we hope she is strong enough to return to her home.
For the remained of the gift you all, we have chosen to use for part of the salary of our amazing nurse assistant, Nyayual. She is quite an amazing women. She was a small child in a refugee camp where she was trained in good hygiene, and woman's health care, before returning home to Old Fangak. She complains only of not having enough education. She is such a meticulous embroiderer that we decided to have her trained to do eyelid surgeries. Those are the surgeries that flip the eyelashes up off the eyes back to a normal position and thus save vision. She is learning from our staff Francis Gai who has been trained through many years and by many organizations. For now she works helping people on the ward, doing vital signs and medications.
Thanks so much to all of you! See you this summer.
Jill
