Be a Blessing this Christmas and Throughout the Year

We have all heard that "Christmas is a time for giving", but so often we find that our gifts are given to those who already have so very much.  Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to give a small gift that could make a HUGE difference?
The Mossy Foot Project operates 15 separate clinic sites in Ethiopia where we reach out and address the physical and spiritual needs of those who literally have NOTHING and are also plagued with a dreaded disease, podoconiosis or Mossy Foot disease, that causes them to be outcasts... furthering the desperateness of their plight.
It doesn't take much to make a huge difference here.  If 75 new donors would step forward and commit to giving a gift of only $5 a week over the next year, we could fund the entire operation of one of our clinics and over 200 people would be treated each month.
Will you consider stepping forward and being one of those 75?  Or perhaps you are blessed to be able to participate in being an even bigger blessing.  Take a look at our Christmas Gift Catalog and see what a difference your gift can make!

A NEW Website for the Mossy Foot Project

We're very excited to launch our new website today.  In addition to being easier to navigate we are beginning to populate it with new videos and more content to inform you about what we are all about, how we are working to eliminate podoconiosis (Mossy Foot disease), and how you can help.
Come visit our new site at: www.mossyfoot.com, click on a few of the links, and view a few videos, and sample a few pages.  Most importantly, see our Christmas Gift Catalog and consider joining us in eliminating this dreaded disease.
Even a gift as small as $5 or $10 a month will make a huge difference to people who many call "the poorest of the poor".  Thanks for your support!

Zelalem's Story - Hope when life seems hopeless

My name is Zelalem Dubale. My two older siblings and our mother were left alone when my father died many years ago. One of my sisters died a few days after I was born. My father was a farmer for many years. He and my mother never wore shoes while farming. He left no income or treasures for us when he died. 

One night when I arrived home from the woods, I saw a small wound on one of my feet. I thought that it was an ordinary wound made by the thorns just like other times and ignored it. But the wound continued to cover my foot and it continued to get worse. My foot began to swell. I was not sure what was going on but thought the swelling was because of the injury that I had before. But it turned out to be much worse than this.

One friend told me something that rekindled hope in my heart. My friend told me about a place that provided free foot treatment and said he was sure if I went there that I would be healed in a few months. I had to think about this deeply. From my home, I had to walk for hours and hours to get to the Arba Minch hospital. Walking to Wolaita Soddo could take days. But now at least I knew where I could be healed.  "Click Here to Read Zelalem's complete story" 

 

Our President, Sharon Daly Visits Mossy Foot

This month, Sharon Daly, the President of the Mossy Foot Project is in Ethiopia to participate in a Conference on Podoconiosis called by the IOCC (International Orthodox Christian Charities) in Addis Ababa as well as to visit and provide guidance to the work at all of our clinics in the Soddo area.
Please pray that Sharon's will be both beneficial as well as encouraging to both our staff as well as our many many patients there in Ethiopia.

"Thriller" Dance Event Supports the Mossy Foot Project

Our thanks to Louise Bretz of Connextions Dance Studio in Venura, CA for hosting a "Thriller" dance event this past weekend with proceeds going to the Mossy Foot Project.

We have to have some of the Southland's most creative and enthusiastic supporters!
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/oct/30/dancers-gather-in-ventura-to-attempt-thriller/

A Photographic Journey to Ethiopia's Mossy Foot Project

A few months ago, our long time supporter, Keith Pytlinski published photos of his trip to Ethiopia to see the work of the Mossy Foot Project.

Keith's words describing his adventure are moving and challenging and his artistic skills both as a photographer and editor are considerable.  Read about Keith's experience with the people of Ethiopia and have a look at his work at www.m5photography.com.

Thank you Keith for your enduring support!

Paying It Forward for Mossy Foot!

A couple of months ago, one of our long term supporters, Allyson, held a cooking camp for kids in Texas.  In the process, she shared the work of the Mossy Foot Project with Michael Anderson.

As Allyson blogged about her 50th birthday and how great it would be for friends to make a donation to MF in lieu of a gift, Michael surprised her by emptying his piggy bank and doing just that by making a $50 donation.

What a great lesson in generosity, learning at a young age to "pay it forward".   Guess we can never know what impact our incidental sharing can have.  Thanks you so much for your kindness to the children of Ethiopia Michael!

Welcome Our New Partner, Beautiful Feet

Mossy Foot Project is pleased to announce a new partnership with Beautiful Feet, an organization founded on the realization that "being barefoot can be deadly." The mission of Beautiful Feet is to reach as many needy children as possible with shoes and sandals. This goal is a key aspect of the vision of the Mossy Foot Project as we work toward eradicating podoconiosis in Ethiopia in this generation. Serving in partnership with Beautiful Feet will be an important step to starting many feet on a healthy path. 

Beautiful Feet is a registered 501c3 non-profit organization built on the premise of buy one, give one. Your purchase on their Web site will make one more pair of shoes available for a child in need. These shoes will be distributed in Ethiopia by the Mossy Foot Project as part of a comprehensive treatment and prevention program. We are thankful for this organization and the blessing that these shoes will have in the lives of Ethiopian children.

Meet Aster Lemma

Aster Lemma began to experience symptoms of Mossy Foot disease as a young teenager. After marriage at the age of fifteen, her symptoms worsened, so much so that when she was pregnant with her first child, her husband threatened to throw her out if the child was a girl.When she gave birth to a daughter, he did as he had threatened.

Aster and her little child led a desperate life of rejection and poverty. But God did not forget her. At her lowest moment, able only to crawl on elbows and knees and threatened with execution by the hand of a family member, God granted her a great deliverance and gave her the strength to walk to a clinic she had heard about where good people gave free treatment to poor women like her.

Read her story in her own words on the Mossy Foot Web site and see for yourself how God moved both supernaturally through prayer and visions and naturally through the consistent medical treatment provided by the Mossy Foot Project to restore Aster and her daughter from the brink of death.

Graduation Day! - Mossy Foot Vocational Training

Our President, Sharon Daly, is presently in Ethiopia on her annual management visit. Shown on the left is the joyful occasion of her attending the graduation of 37 young men and women from barber and hairdresser training where she and Meskele Ashine, our clinics director, is shown giving out certificates to the vocational training graduates.
 

In the last photo, the ladies in the red and green dresses are the hairdressing instructors. Nigatuwa, the lady in green is a Mossy Foot (podoconiosis) patient who was treated, received vocational training and is now teaching others. This is a wonderful success story.

These people had suffered terribly from Mossy Foot disease. Previously they had been outcasts in their communities. Following foot treatment and vocational training, they are returning to their villages as self-supporting business people. Their lives have been transformed. Now they have a future and hope.

He Gave His Blood...

Last week, Mossy Foot Project President, Sharon Barlow Daly, had an opportunity to share the history of the Mossy Foot Project with the Perspectives Class at Reality Church, Ventura, remembering and honoring the fact that God works through faithful individuals through the generations.

The featured speaker that night was Dr. Malcolm Hunter, a former colleague of Sharon's father, Nathan Barlow. Dr. Hunter shared a particularly compelling story in the life of Dr. Barlow, a story of redemption through the gift of blood that is particularly timely as we celebrate Easter 2011.

Read about this incident on our Mossyfoot Website. Wishing you all a Happy Easter with thanks for all your support this year!

Barefoot for Mossy Foot at Highpoint University

Students at High Point University in North Carolina learned what it was like to live "One day without shoes" in an event held April 7th and sponsored by the Alpha Phi Omega co-ed service fraternity and the TOMS Shoes Club.

It was wonderful to learn that the students of High Point took the initiative to organize this event and to contact us to let us know that they had elected to gift half the proceeds toward the work of the Mossy Foot Project.

Thanks to all of you at High Point for your passion to help those in Ethiopia who are afflicted with podoconiosis. Perhaps you will inspire others to organize more events on behalf of our cause. Read more HERE

God is NEVER Too Early or Too Late

We are constantly reminded at the Mossy Foot Project that God is the source who drives this work by His provisions and that those provisions are ALWAYS timely.

These past couple of years have been difficult ones to try not only sustain, but to even grow the work of Mossy Foot. Time and again, we reach a point where we wonder if the people we serve will have to "go without" in the coming month Then "God shows up!".

This was particularly true these last two months as we suffered from insufficient income and unexpectedly high expenses. Each month, "God showed up" in the form of a special gift from a partnering church, each time having no idea that they were meeting an extraordinary and immediate need. Last month, it was Reality in Ventura. This month, it is Kononia Community Church in Hanford. Thanks to their stepping forward, we can celebrate God's goodness. What an encouragement to us all!

Perhaps in the coming months, YOU will ALL step up and God will address the need in a totally different way!

Announcing the 2011 Mossy Foot Fundraising Banquet

The 2011 Mossy Foot Fundraising Banquet has been scheduled for Thursday, May 19th at the Moorpark Country Club.

Come join us to learn more about the Mossy Foot Project and how you can make a difference in the lives of the people of Ethiopia who are afflicted with this debilitating malady.

Also featured at the banquet this year will be a presentation by "Nazareth" and music by Chynna Phillips.

Get more info at our website or call 805-216-9971 for information and reservations.

Monthly Donations Now Received Online

Now all of you supporters of the Mossy Foot Project who are interested in signing up for Monthly Giving can "subscribe" through Paypal or directly through Credit Card Payment. Just go to our donations page, select the "SUBSCRIBE" option, and choose the your preferred level of monthly donation - (click - HERE).

Regular periodic giving is by far the best way to help Mossy Foot to fulfill its mission to help the poorest of the poor in Ethiopia. It enables our people to plan toward the future with assured support in mind.

For as little as $5 a week, you can provide complete medical treatment for a mossy foot patient. Thanks to all of you for your regular support.

Mossy Foot at Rotary Symposium

Our President, Sharon Daly, was a workshop speaker at a Rotary District conference in Santa Maria, California this past weekend. The Symposium To Eliminate Poverty Sustainably (STEPS) was the perfect place to spread the word about Mossy Foot, a disease of poverty. The Mossy Foot Project seeks to treat the medical malady of those with Mossy Foot in a manner that addresses the whole person: medically, vocationally, financially, socially, and spiritually. This picture shows Sharon (second from the left) during a question/answer panel discussion at the conference. Over 400 Rotarians attended the one-day conference.

SHOES... the Key to Mossy Foot Prevention

Since 2005, the Mossy Foot Project has been championing and participating in the distribution of shoes to children in Ethiopia with the intent of preventing the onset of Mossy Foot disease. Since then, tens of thousands of pairs of shoes have been distributed. With all those shoes we have not discovered one single case in which a child has come down with Mossy Foot disease since being provided with shoes!

Isn't that something to celebrate?