A New Lease On Life In Costa Rica

COSTA RICA – One lesson we’ve learned over the years is that giving a hand up makes an even bigger impact than giving a hand out. As the popular saying goes, “Give a person a fish, and they will eat for a day. Teach someone to fish…” Well, you get the point.

Along our journeys we’ve found many talented and hardworking people who just need a helping hand in order to change their lives—some training, a few supplies, a bit of encouragement and support. This was the case with Graciela from Costa Rica.

As a single mother and sole provider for her 15-year-old son, Juan, Graciela needed a way to earn a living and keep him focused on school.

Working But Still Facing Food Insecurity In Costa Rica

Graciela cleaned houses for a time—until her doctor advised her to stop due to chronic pain she suffered. Then she tried baking from her home. Despite her talent, without the right tools and supplies she simply couldn’t earn enough. She was left feeling anxious and hopeless.

Juan shared with us how hard his mother works despite her pain. He explained sadly, “There is no food in the pantry. There is no food in the fridge. It is almost empty. If I look at the freezer, there is no meat—there is nothing.” They mostly survived on rice and often had to skip meals.

Then they found Operation Blessing! Thanks to friends like you, Graciela got the blessing she so badly needed. First, you gave Graciela the necessary tools for her baking business, including a professional mixer, a scale, cookware, utensils, containers, and other essential baking supplies. But you didn’t stop there.

A New Lease On Life In Costa Rica

Thanks to you, Graciela received personalized business and financial training that will help her succeed. In addition, you supported her with top-notch signs and promotional stickers to help her advertise her business. And over the next months, she will receive ongoing support as she learns and develops in her growing endeavor.

She said, “This business is something that helps me and that I can do from home.” Now she’s able to make and market her beautiful homemade bread called pan casero and other tasty baked goods efficiently and effectively. Graciela is so grateful to you for this chance. Thank you for giving her and Juan a new lease on life in Costa Rica!

Operation Blessing Aids Refugee House in Poland

POLAND – Imagine having to flee your home and travel to a place you’ve never been. The peace you once knew with the family you love is suddenly upended by the horrors of war. Now you must do everything you can to get to safety. What will you do? Where will you go? These are the questions Ania and her family had to face when they were forced to leave their hometown due to the war in Ukraine.

While so many are troubled by the war in Ukraine, children are especially affected. Their sense of safety and security is shaken, and fear and worry set in. As the war continues in Ukraine, more and more families are displaced and fleeing from the violence.

Shelter At A Refugee House In Poland

Thanks to the generosity of partners like you, Operation Blessing is able to meet families like Ania’s and offer them support. Through help from Operation Blessing and our partner Orphan’s Promise, refugees like Ania are given access to a clean safe shelter. Aid going to this refugee house in Poland is essential to people who have been displaced from their homes.

Thanks to your kindness, so many families with young children now have a warm place to stay, enjoy meals, and be encouraged. Your continued support also allows Operation Blessing to offer critical supplies and information for the journey ahead.

Please continue to pray for Ukrainian families and show your support to crisis victims today.

The Long Awaited Gift Of Water In Mexico

MEXICO – The people of Benito Juárez, a small community, had gone without access to clean water in Mexico for far too long. For 9-year-old Gilberto and his little brothers, lack of safe water was simply a way of life.

Although the town had a water system, it was poorly designed, did not treat the water for safety. It didn’t reach everyone in the community. In addition, the decades-old storage tank was cracked and leaking. Without the funds or technical knowledge to find a solution, the residents had only one other option. They had to drink water from a river—without any means of ensuring it was safe.

Community members like Gilberto would also use the river for bathing and laundry. This meant the women and children responsible for taking care of the household chores had to spend a lot of time walking to the river and back with heavy buckets of water.

When Operation Blessing learned of this community’s need for clean water, we quickly developed an action plan with our partners on the ground in Mexico. First, we visited the community to determine their exact needs and test its water source. It was indeed positive for harmful bacteria. Then they decided the best way forward.

The plan of action was to give Gilberto’s family and all the people of Benito Juárez a reliable, community-wide clean water system. And it became possible thanks a to special gifts from our generous friends like you. Now, because of our donors’ compassion, the 338 residents of Benito Juárez have access to clean water. It reaches right outside each of their 86 homes!

Access To Clean Water In Mexico

For the first part of this clean water project, a nearly 8,000-gallon water storage tank was built. And now spring water flows through a new conduction line to the tank. From the tank, the water is filtered and chlorinated to remove any contaminants and harmful bacteria. This makes it safe to drink. Then it continues to new faucets outside every home in the community, including Gilberto’s!

These faucets allow quick and easy access to clean water for every man, woman and child. A newly established and trained local water committee will oversee ongoing treatment of the water, ensuring it is safety!

Thanks to our friends like you, the community of Benito Juárez also participated in WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) training throughout the project. More than 100 men, women and children participated. These training sessions covered topics such as the prevention of waterborne illnesses, healthy hygiene habits, good water care practices at home and in the community, and hand washing. All of these tools will help keep this community healthy well into the future.

We’re so grateful that partners like you care about reaching out and giving the gift of hope and health through clean water to communities in need. God bless you for your kind hearts!

Ukraine Crisis Victims Continue to Cross Polish Border

How could you explain war and violence to your young children? Could you find the right words to encourage them and keep them calm? Ukrainian mother, Olena, had to make the drastic decision to leave her hometown in order to keep her children safe. Olena’s story begins like so many other Ukrainian refugee mothers, who were forced to leave everything and flee to Poland.

It is really hard when you hear a bang, when the air sirens go off and your child asks, “Mom, what is it?”
-Olena

ukraine victims cross border into poland

Olena’s account begins like so many other Ukraine crisis victims who have been forced to leave. Before they left, Olena found herself suddenly thrown into the harsh realities of the conflict in Ukraine. She and her son were suddenly startled by the sounds of air raid sirens. Naturally Olena’s son asked her what they were. Like so many mothers inundated with shock, she did not know what to tell him. As Russian missiles destroyed a military base and five homes around them, they joined the millions now evicted from their country by circumstance.

Ukraine Crisis Victims Continue To Cross Border For Safety

Thanks to the gifts of generous friends like you, Operation Blessing met this family and so many others to offer them a moment of safety and rest in the warm relief tent. As unfortunate families cross the border for their safety, your kindness is there to greet them. Your support provides warm meals, essential supplies and hygiene products to aid these crisis victims in their journey ahead.

Make your gift today!

Fighting Hunger On Many Fronts Worldwide

fighting-hunger-worldwide-on-many-fronts

WORLDWIDE – Conflict in Ukraine, droughts in Africa, COVID-19 lockdowns, supply chain disruptions, inflation, political crises—all of these have led to increasing numbers of hungry people! Even before these calamities, the United Nations reported that one in nine people in the world lacked sufficient food and face food insecurity. And now, the hunger situation in our world has reached a new crisis point. Children like Grace from Latin America too often go to bed hungry.

Thankfully, as a supporter of Operation Blessing, you can feel confident that you’re fighting hunger worldwide and all throughout the year. For Grace, you provided her mother with a poultry business that helped feed her family during a difficult time. In each region and situation, you make it possible for Operation Blessing to bring the solution that will provide the greatest impact. 

 Because of this, not only are you helping hungry children, families, and communities with their urgent needs for food and nutrition, you are also assisting them in lasting ways—like you did for Grace’s family! She’s thankful that you helped sustain them during the COVID-19 crisis.

Here Are A Few Of The Ways You Are Fighting Hunger Worldwide

U.S. Hunger Strike Force

In the U.S., many working families are having a difficult time making ends meet, especially during these days of soaring prices. You bless them by making possible the distribution of millions of pounds of food to local food pantries and other partner organizations. Large corporations donate food, and with your help we send out our fleet of Hunger Strike Force semi-trucks to get that food into the hands of those who need it most.

Famine Relief

When famine and drought
strike vulnerable areas like Kenya, many people are robbed not only of food for their tables but also of their income opportunities. But you are rushing immediate relief to the suffering and malnourished, ensuring that so many more children and families go to bed with full bellies.

Nutritional Feeding

Many children around the world lack the nutritious meals they need to grow and thrive. Through our nutritional feeding programs, you give school children in places like Kenya, Peru and Haiti the extra support they need. Not only do you supply supplements and nourishing school meals, but in parts of Latin America you also offer cooking classes to teach mothers how to prepare healthier meals for years to come.

Agricultural & Farming Programs

In parts of Latin America and Africa, Operation Blessing supporters supply villages and schools with agricultural training, irrigation systems, greenhouses, chicken coops, and small farm animals. These solutions offer struggling families and individuals a chance to grow food for their families long into the future—and even sell the surplus to better provide for necessities like medical expenses and education.

Business & Livelihood Support

One of the best ways to provide hunger relief long into the future
is by offering a hand up rather than a hand out. Through skills training and small business support, you are changing lives for
generations to come. Whether it’s a handicraft business in Latin America, a small store in Africa, cosmetology training in Honduras, sewing classes in India, or one of the many other opportunities available, you are helping families earn more income to consistently feed their children and send them to school.

Disaster & Crisis Relief

When crisis and natural disaster strike, basic needs like food, hygiene supplies, and clean water often go unmet. But you send support to disaster victims in dire need. In the U.S., our volunteer teams have been packing boxes of supplies to prepare for upcoming disasters. We’ve recently distributed hunger relief after earthquakes in Indonesia and typhoons in the Philippines. Meanwhile, we’ve been sending truckloads of food into war-torn Ukraine.

You Help A Grandmother See Once Again In Ukraine

UKRAINE – Recently all eyes have been on Ukraine, yet—thanks to friends like you— Operation Blessing has been at work in Ukraine for decades. Although this current war in the region created turmoil like never before, there has been conflict on the border with Russia for years. Life for many Ukrainian people has not been easy. That’s why Operation Blessing has been there, providing suffering Ukrainians with life-changing surgeries.

Svitlana’s life in Ukraine slowly started to become dim as she gradually lost more and more of her vision. The then-66-year-old wife and grandmother had been diagnosed with cataracts in both eyes, and without help she was in danger of going completely blind.

As her eyesight became worse, Svitlana still did her best to care for her disabled elderly father, as well as her husband. The care her father required left little time or money to seek treatment for her eyes. But her impaired vision soon affected her ability to live her life. She went to a specialized clinic where doctors recommended she undergo immediate lens replacement surgery in Ukraine.

While Svitlana was desperate to save her vision, she and her husband lived on very small pensions. Paying for the surgery on their own was simply not possible. Sadly, Svitlana’s vision continued to get worse. Eventually, she could no longer complete household chores, enjoy photos of her precious grandchildren, or even see what she was buying at the market.

“Until 2018, I could clearly see my children growing up, then grandchildren, and then beautiful and cute great-grandchildren were born,” Svitlana told Operation Blessing staff. “There is nothing sweeter in this world than great-grandchildren, but I could not see their faces!”

The circumstances seemed hopeless. But that’s when Operation Blessing donors like you stepped in to make a difference. Coming together, you helped raise the funds that Svitlana needed to receive her surgery.

New Vision After Lens Replacement Surgery

After the procedure, Svitlana regained her sight—something she could not have imagined just months before! This wonderful change made it possible for her to care for herself and her family and to see the faces of her beloved great-grandchildren again.

She is very grateful for the compassion you showed in helping her find healing. “When I had the operation and I opened my eyes, I saw the doctor with my own eyes. Clearly, with the contours and all the colors,” Svitlana exclaimed. “I immediately started crying tears of happiness. I couldn’t believe that the operation was really restoring my sight! Thank Operation Blessing for not passing by my need.”

Svitlana’s story and others like hers are just some of the ongoing efforts of Operation Blessing in Ukraine. Beyond just medical procedures like lens replacement surgery in Ukraine, you are doing so much more. You are sending relief and hope to those displaced by conflict, including so many Ukrainian refugees fleeing to find safety beyond the Polish border.

Helping Ukraine In So Many Ways

Your generosity has made it possible to welcome refugees with hot meals, blankets, and hygiene supplies, along with sending aid like fresh produce, canned meats, and more into Ukraine. And you’ve continued to bless even more hurting people during the conflict with life-changing surgeries whenever hospitals were available!

Thank you for caring for victims of the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. Together, we are making a real difference in their lives. Your continued support is an answer to heartfelt prayer fort those fighting to survive.

Burden Lifted For Kentucky Tornado Victims

After an EF4 tornado struck Kathy’s town of Russellville, Kentucky, her home was left with serious damage. The storm hit as part of a string of deadly tornadoes that ravaged Kentucky and surrounding areas in December. Due to the building’s damaged ceilings and walls, as well as debris in her yard, single mother Kathy and her family needed help—and fast.

When Kathy learned that Operation Blessing teams were working in Russellville, she reached out for help with fixing the holes in her ceiling that had been created by the storm. Thanks to friends like you, not only did she receive the assistance she needed to repair her roof, but volunteers also helped clean up her yard and install new sheetrock and insulation inside her home!

“I credit God for getting us through the storm aftermath and helping us get it all cleaned up,” said Kathy. “Like today—for Operation Blessing coming in and helping us redo walls and windows and all they’re helping us with. I credit God for all that.”

For Operation Blessing coming in and helping us redo walls and windows and all they’re helping us with, I credit God for all that.
-Kathy

The aid came as a true blessing for Kathy, who lives on a limited disability income. She shared that it was already difficult enough providing for her teenage twin girls and her niece, but with the added weight of home repairs, she didn’t know how she would make it. That’s when you stepped in to make a difference.

Recovery For Kentucky Tornado Victims

Because of you, volunteers worked on the sheetrock on her ceilings and walls, laid down new flooring in her laundry room, and installed new windows—all steps on the road to recovery for Kathy and her family.

For Kathy, the facelift to her laundry room proved especially exciting. Until then, she had been limited in how often she could do something as simple as wash clothes, often having to wait for the electrical sockets to dry from rain leaking through the roof. She’s extremely thankful to God and Operation Blessing partners for reaching out to her and her family when they needed it most.

“Operation Blessing being here is really a blessing,” said Kathy. “It means so much to me. They will never know how much it means to me.”

Thank you for your heart to help victims of disaster in the U.S. and around the world. The work you make possible through Operation Blessing brings relief and hope for Kentucky tornado victims in their darkest times. May God bless you for your kindness and compassion!

No Safe Places In Ukraine

POLAND – Operation Blessing sat down with Ania Kozack to hear her story of escape from violence with her younger brother. As is the case with so many other Ukrainians, Ania Kozack and her brother were forced to flee their homeland.

Ania relayed the shock when a Russian missile hit a home nearby. While war raged round them in their home country and on their street, she realized they were in grave danger. When they looked for refuge, they realized there were no safe places in Ukraine. This put them on their journey to reach the Polish border and safety from harm.

A Place Of Respite After A Harrowing Journey

Ania and her brother found themselves in an unfamiliar country. Operation Blessing was there to greet them and give them some respite from their difficult and tragic situation. Accordingly, the Operation Blessing tent provided them a welcoming place to rest and begin planning their next steps. They were also provided with a meal and a hot drink. Operation Blessing helped connect them with a local church partner to get ongoing support.

Simple things can mean a lot to a brother and sister who have had to leave everything due to events beyond their control. In this case, a sister who has very little and must take care of her younger brother. The difference offerings of kindness are making cannot be emphasized enough. Ania herself sums it up best when she says, “Human kindness is like one of the things that’s helped me going on.”

Human kindness is like one of the things that’s helped me going on.

You Make This Kindness Possible

Thanks to the generosity of friends like you, Operation Blessing has offered a place to rest, hot meals, and critical supplies to aid many families like Ania’s in their journey. Additionally, we’ve continued pumping semi-trucks full of supplies into war-torn Ukraine. Please continue to pray for the nation of Ukraine and find out how you can help crisis victims by visiting https://www.ob.org/crisis

Just In Time For A Mother In Need In Peru

PERU – Angie spent her days helping her mother sell chicken at a local market in Peru. But her life changed forever when she and Chemo found out they would be having a baby; they had no idea of the danger Angie would face!

As her pregnancy progressed, Angie was dedicated to keeping up with visits to the obstetrician. For her first ultrasound, Angie had to travel a great distance as the equipment was not available at her local health center. Thankfully, all was well with the baby.

“The first time I had an ultrasound, my baby was only four weeks old. They only said everything was okay,” Angie recalled. Time passed, and Angie was due for another ultrasound. Sadly, Angie and Chemo simply couldn’t afford the exam. Without an update on her baby’s health, Angie began to worry about her precious baby.

Ultrasound Brigade in Peru

Thankfully, help came when Operation Blessing donors like you sent an ultrasound brigade to Angie’s local health center. The program offers free ultrasound services to expectant mothers in need in Peru.

It was a true blessing for Angie, quite possibly saving her life and her child’s! “My doctor told me I needed an ultrasound, and that it was going to be my lucky day because Operation Blessing had brought an ultrasound. I was going to be able to see how my baby was, and for free, since I didn’t have money to get one. And I also wanted to stop having doubts if my baby was okay,” Angie told Operation Blessing staff.

After the ultrasound was complete, a doctor recommended she get another specialized one as he was concerned about the images he saw. “The doctor told me my baby didn’t have enough amniotic fluid and was small. She might be in danger. I was worried, and you all supported me,” Angie said.

Help For An Expectant Mother In Need In Peru

Thanks to Operation Blessing partners, Angie’s ultrasound costs were taken care of, and doctors were able to catch the problem in time to provide her help. Not long after, Angie was admitted to the hospital because of how dangerous the situation could be. A day later, she safely gave birth to a beautiful baby girl whom she named Jaciel.

After Jaciel’s birth, Operation Blessing staff visited the young family to check on them and deliver a newborn baby kit to help them care for their precious little girl. Because of your generosity, critical help was provided to this expecting mother in need in Peru. Operation Blessing was able to help this mother detect the danger in time—and support her through the entire process.

Knowing that his daughter is well has meant so much to the brand-new dad, Chemo. “I am grateful for you all, because of the ultrasound that allowed us to see how our baby was. I am so happy now that my daughter is okay. Thanks to you all, my daughter is here with me and alive.”

Thanks to you all, my daughter is here with me and alive
-Angie

“Thank you for everything!” The life-changing work you make possible through Operation Blessing brings hope to those in need around the world. Thank you for your heart to bless those less fortunate with the vital medical services they need to grow healthy and strong. May God bless you for your kindness!

Thank You For Your Support in Ukraine!

UKRAINE – Thank you for your wonderful heart to help desperate Ukrainian families! Many have been forced from their homes to avoid increasing danger at the hands of Russian invaders, while others face untold suffering in this war-torn land.

Because of you, Operation Blessing staff quickly sprang into action at the start of the war. Your support facilitated partnerships with local churches and community leaders throughout Ukraine to help put supplies directly into the hands of Ukrainian families who need it.

Your generosity also supplied an Operation Blessing warehouse in Poland. This warehouse provides a central location to store and send out these critical supplies across the border into Ukraine as the war rages on.

Help And Support For Ukrainian Refugee Families

Your kindness also helped bring solace to scores of families facing an uncertain future in a new land. You provided a basecamp at the Ukrainian border in Medyka. Here, Operation Blessing staff and volunteers are working tirelessly to provide food, blankets, direction, encouragement, and a warm, safe haven for weary refugees.

Your generosity has offered critically needed support for desperate Ukrainian families. To learn more about how you can continue to support people in crisis, visit ob.org/obcrisis.