Janeth Mosquera and her team at AcolpEH work tirelessly for the benefit of the families living wiht HD in Bogota, Medellin and Choco, among other regions of Colombia.Factor-H has been working with AcolpEH for over 3 years now.
One of the programs we started a couple of years ago was a donations program, which this year has benefited 21 families affected by the disease.
AcolpEH was able to establish a collaboration with Jumbo supermarkets in Colombia, and we issued ‘food cards’ for each family participating in the program. With these cards, the families (or AcolpEH) can access a large number of stores throughout the country. AcolpEH, after obtaining Factor-H’s written approval, is able to refill the cards, which allow the families to buy what they need. Each family also provides us with some documentation of what they buy to increase transparency. The ability to establish this collaboration wiht the supermarket chain enables Janeth and AcolpEH to immediately refill the cards for all the families – rather than having to deliver donations throughout the country each time. This year, we have refilled the cards five times, the latest one being last week.
Below are some pictures to show some of the recipients of our aid. Of course this system does not work throughout the country, particularly outside main urban centers, where a lot of poor families live.
To help those families (at the moment we are providing food donations for another 10 families in San Angel and El Dificil, via Funcolvulc), the volunteers at Funcovulc hand-deliver those donations. Last week we also sent the donation money to Funcovulc.
Sometimes the families write Factor-H letters or they allow the organizations to videotape them after they receive the donations. It is a way of connecting us, and also documenting their lives so that we can understand better who they are and how best we can continue to help them. Below are 2 such letters we received. These are real stories of families affected by Huntington’s throughout Colombia. Their situation often times is devastating. Meeting them and doing a little to provide some support and care is very important to us.