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Yearly Eye Exams for the Lambs
On January 17,
2007 the second, free, yearly campaign by the Institute de la Vision was
held at the Betikara Orphanage. This year along with the Lambs there
were several other individuals that were screened for their vision needs.
In all about 75 people were screened, with several of the people getting
free reading glasses.
Of the Lambs
we found that there were two of the newer Lambs that need glasses.
We also found that several of the Lambs that received glasses last year
had drastic changes in their vision, requiring new prescriptions
for their eyes. Several of the Lambs eyes did not change so they
were able to keep their same set of glasses.
We found that
some of the Christians at Ambohimarina do not have good eye sight, and
that two of them need eye surgery in order to correct their vision problems.
We asked what needs to be done to help these people. We were told
that the best thing to do is wait. The reason being, from time to
time doctors from other countries come to Madagascar and do eye operations
for free.
This free upcoming
clinic will be a great help to those who would otherwise not be able to
pay for their needed eye care. One Christian lady has cataracts.
We went to the Lions “First Sight” clinic in Antananarivo and were told
that she cannot be helped by them. It seems that her cataracts have
progressed too far for the care that the “First Sight” people are able
to offer. Upon going to Institute de la Vision we were told that
the operation to remove her cataracts would cost $300.00. So, we
wait for the free clinic that will be provided sometime in the future,
possibly April. We just need to be sure that her name gets on the
list for the upcoming free clinic.
New Grading System at the Local Schools
Things are being
changed in the local school system. In the past, the Malagasy schools
used the French system for grade levels. This French system is just
the reverse of what we are used to as Americans. Instead of starting
school in first grade for the American system, a child in the French system
starts in 12th grade. Second grade in the American system would be
11th grade in the French system and so forth until you reach 12th grade
in the American system and are actually in the 1st grade in the French
system. We are now going on 10 full years in Madagascar and are still
having to do a lot of figuring when we report grade levels to all of you
Americans that so graciously support the Betikara Lambs.
Now, the Malagasy
schools have changed the system on us. I assume that they are using
their own system this time around. However, it is not making any
sense to us. At least with the French versus American system you
just reversed the order and instead of counting up as the child gets older
you count down. The new system is totally different. We now
have 1M, 2M, 3M an so forth. But for the life of us we cannot tell
if 3M is equivalent to 3rd grade in the American system. I guess
we need to do some homework and get it all figured out.
The way of grading
the students seems to have also changed. They always rank the students
as far as their placement in class grade wise. A child might be 5th
out of 40 students. That seems to be really good to us. But
now we see that some of the students that ranked 5th in their class of
children are not even getting a 50% score overall for their grade point
average for the semester. Needless to say, I will have to be talking
with the teachers. Please pray for the Lambs as they are going through
all of these new changes.
Mailing of Packages for Betikara and Betikara Lambs
We are sorry
to announce, that for the time being, we are going to have to suspend
receiving packages from Betikara sponsors and supporters. We
are increasingly having problems with the Malagasy Post Office and Midex,
which is a transit company here in Madagascar. The problem has to
do with customs that we are starting to be charged on a regular basis for
receiving packages from abroad.
Both the Post
Office and Midex are charging us customs duty on the packages that we are
receiving. However, they are not united on their policies and how
we can take care of this customs problem. The Post Office states
that we can apply for exemption from customs duty since we are a Non Governmental
Organization. Midex tells us that since we do not have exemption
from customs duty, we have to pay. However, Midex also stated that
presently in Madagascar it is impossible to get exempted from customs duty.
The government seems to have stopped giving exemptions to new organizations
for the time being. We have no idea how long this policy of not allowing
new organizations to apply for exemption will last.
Therefore, we
are asking that you DO NOT send any more packages to Madagascar
until further notice. We will continue to receive the packages that
have already been posted by all of you. However, we cannot continue
to pay anywhere between 20% and 100% customs on packages that arrive in
Madagascar.
We thank you
for caring about the Lambs, and wanting to send packages from time to time
that brighten their days. We ask that you pray to the Father so that
we can receive exemption from customs, and once again be able to receive
packages from you.
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