I went down to Agua Prieta the border town in Sonora, where my husband and I have worked with Starfish Difference to help the desperately poor. This time I crossed the border with Dan Bates, principal of Douglas High School, the Arizona-side sister border town.On his first year on the job, under the influence of our 82 year old Starfish leader Carl Haupt, this compassionate young administrator formed a contingent of caring students to go regularly into the colonia to help. With fund-raising events, donations, physical labor and working out bureaucratic problems with the city and state governments, they have decreased significantly the misery of many families living in abject poverty.
It is difficult to make decisions on who to help first -- so many are in such extreme need. Today's priority were several families of 8-9 children headed by single mothers whose husbands had abandoned them, and who are living in hovels with barely any food, sanitation, or electricity. These children, as the saying goes, did not ask to be born --they are here; they must be helped.
Tavo, the clean-cut young Mexican man with us is a bright and friendly and compassionate senior at DHS who plans on entering the nursing profession. Tavo's father has a trucking business, and his uncle is the mayor of Agua Prieta. It's spring break for Douglas schools, so we were lucky to get him --not only was he fun to be around and great with the people, but invaluable as an interpreter and conveyor of 50 lb. sacks of pinto beans!
I had fun passing out good outgrown clothing from my 4 Washington grandchildren (and adult clothing from my friends here), candy and oranges we bought after we crossed the border, and emptying the contents of my wallet completely, including getting antibiotics, salve, and gauze for the accidentally burned little girl pictured. 
She and her siblings were playing nearby while their mom was cooking, and she was badly burned by the spilled hot oil. The worst part is not shown; her little dress was wet with pus from the oozing burns on her torso. Her burns were obviously infected, so we immediately went to the closest pharmacia to get antibiotics and supplies this family could not afford. Tavo gave the mother instructions in Spanish for the medico.
I got to see Nora again, the beautiful, bright and shy 14 yr. old I took shopping last year. (the most fun shopping trip of my life --this kid had never had anything new in her life). She is still a
size 0 and was still wearing the clothing and shoes I bought her last year, so I just gifted her with a little cash--the clothes from granddaughter Jozie would go to someone more needy. Her little
brother, Angel, born with just one limb, (an arm) is doing well with the child-sized motorized wheelchair Starfish Difference got for him last year. Pictures of his "first ride" are posted on the website, in the albums.
Dan brought new shoes for his adopted family,and he and Tavo measured openings for a door on an addition a family was working on, made from abandoned free pallets, and surprisingly sturdy. The grandmother living there had done a lot of the work herself, and I congratulated her with a big hug of admiration and a few words of Spanish.
The trailers shown are from the big on-going Starfish Difference project -- old but usable mobile buildings are donated and then hauled across the border, (here's where Tavo's dad comes in) and somehow maneuvered down these 
narrow gully-washed "streets" and put in place. Even the Border Patrol donated some mobiles! All the work was donated. However, the border charges $700.-$800. per mobile to take across, so here's where the rest of the money went that I received from some of you last year. A good use of your funds: 3 of the most needy families, living in hovels made of tarpaper, old mattresses, scrap tin, cardboard, and the ubiquitous pallets, now have much better shelter from the elements. (Yes, it does get cold in northern Mexico in the winter, going down below freezing often.)
If anyone would like to make a tax deductible donation to Starfish Difference, please do so using the PayPal donation button on the left of every page on the Starfish Difference website. We cannot solve all the problems of the world's poverty, but we can make a difference.
-PJY- March 17, 2008 and posted by permission.
