If you have traveled to a third world country, you have seen the amount of children that lack clothing and walk barefoot. Many obtain bacteria and diseases that become life threatening when not treated. It is know that not having the appropriate clothing and shoes to wear, contributes to 70% of the preventable diseases found in third world countries. Many are unable to attend school because they don’t have the means to purchase uniforms and shoes. Others need to work from a very young age and without shoes they suffer from foot lesions preventing them from working to help their families. It was after seeing such a need that Prints of Hope International launched Dress A Child in 2007.
The program provides incredible joy to those children who receive the gift as well as the people who participate by donating the new clothing and shoes. Many people have made this a family project purchasing the clothes together, placing the outfits in bags, writing a letter to the kids that will receive the gift and even sending a picture of themselves. This is an incredible opportunity to give your best to those that are less fortunate, and share your blessings.
Health
In order to avoid many of the diseases obtain through the soil or unclean water, giving them shoes/clothing to wear, and/or clean water to drink will not cure the problem or disease they already have. For this reason POHI recruits a team of medical professionals that volunteer their time to treat as many people with many different diseases; people that don’t have access to medical attention and are unable to obtain the necessary medication to cure their problem. In the last 12 years POHI have been able to provide medial assistance to over 30,000 people in eight different countries. These are men, women and children who are dying due to lack of medical attention, medicines and vitamins.
Now our goal is to change impoverish communities/villages and not just put a patch for a month or two with the medications provided knowing that after that time they will go back to their sickness. So POHI not only provides the medical attention, but also teaches them on how to prevent many of the diseases that affect them. We do this by two different ways. We either train local individuals to teach their own community or village on how to implement health preventable measures and/or we use one of our medical experts to live among the people and help them implement the necessary changes to change the community and avoid many of the preventable diseases and many times death.
Gospel
The Dress A Child coloring book is a fun and interactive way to learn about Christ; this is not a story-coloring book but is the message of the gospel. It contains 32 images that explicit the bible gospel and utilizes a bible verse for each image. The manual explains in detail the image that the child is coloring. Each lesson comes with additional bible verses for further study and activity ideas to enhance learning in a practical way. These lessons are used either by parents, teachers in school, orphanages, homes and where ever children can gather to hear the good news.
Unlike all other coloring books, the Dress A Child coloring book is designed not only for children but also for adults that are unable to read; as they would be able to look at the images and understand its message. We are very excited about this addition as it fulfills our mission in bringing Christ to family’s homes in a simple and understandable manner.
