Money raised by children attending VBS at Evangelical Covenant churches in the United States and Canada will help fund Semillas de Salud (Seeds of Health), a Covenant ministry that provides basic health screenings to all children ages three to 12 who attend local schools. The accompanying photo shows Covenant missionary Dr. Cindy Hoover administering an anemia test to one local girl.
Screenings are customary in the United States and Canada, but are rare or non-existent in many other countries. As a result, problems that potentially interfere with a child’s education go undetected, says Patty Shepherd, of CWM.
“Many of the preschool and elementary school children in Tehuantepec go to school without anyone knowing if they have health issues that could have long-term effects,” Shepherd says. “Many of these issues could be taken care of with simple health screenings, but they are not available to these children.”
For example, failure to treat anemia can lead to difficulty in concentrating as well as fatigue. If amblyopia (lazy eye) is not detected before age five, it is virtually impossible to adequately treat later. This could mean loss of vision in the affected eye as well as loss of depth perception. Loss of hearing also is a concern.
Tehuantepec is located in the State of Oaxaca. Covenant missionaries currently serving in Oaxaca include Hoover (long-term), Jo Ellen Reaves (project), and Laura Rodriguez (short-term).
Additional information and material to assist churches with the project are available online in the VBS area of the Covenant website.
Since the VBS projects began in 2004, children have raised more than $120,000. Last year, children gave $52,000 for the “Sandals and Bibles for Sudan” project. That amount far exceeded the $27,000 organizers had hoped to raise and more than doubled the funds collected in any previous year. Previous projects have benefited children in Congo, Colombia, and China.
