Teaching kids about electronics and robotics

Each year in March, Brother Gary Sawyer invites me to Loyola Catholic School (http://www.archden.org/schools/list/loyola.htm) to teach his third grade class about electronics and robotics. In fact, in February when I visit the school for their Annual Science Fair, the third graders are already asking me, "When are you coming for the electronics workshop?", having heard about it from the fourth graders.

We start out learning some vocabulary ...



Then we design a couple of basic circuits using batteries, wire, alligator clips, light bulbs and buzzers... Then we build our circuits. The buzzers are the most popular indicator of a successfully-built circuit!









We talk about college, engineering, inventing, and patents. We talk about faith, God, and prayer -- I usually give examples of how prayer has helped me keep going when the going gets tough.



Then we assemble and play with a Sony robot who knows how to dance!


It's always lots of fun. And, maybe some of these children will become engineers or scientists!



Peace,
Donna Auguste
www.leavealittleroom.org

About Plumpy'Nut

Several people have asked me for more information about the Plumpy'Nut product that we are using for famine relief in Uganda. I'll post a little bit of information here at this time, and add more information (e.g., details about packaging, ingredient quantities, and mitigating aflatoxin) later when I have more time available.

Plumpy'Nut is produced by a company called Nutriset, located in France. The website for Nutriset is http://www.nutriset.fr/en_index.php . There is an area of the website specifically for information about local production of Plumpy'Nut: http://www.nutriset.fr/news/index.php?nw=40&lg=2&lk=1



Plumpy'Nut is produced and commercially packaged at the Nutriset facility in Malaunay, France. The product is used in developing countries where famine and malnutrition are taking lives of young children, so Nutriset ships product to those countries. But the Nutriset staff also encourage communities in those developing countries to produce the product locally, close to where it is needed and at much lower cost than importing the product from France.

Most of the ingredients needed are found in local markets: Peanuts, powdered milk, sugar, and vegetable oil. The added ingredient comes from Nutriset -- a highly-concentrated nutrient mix in powdered form, comes in a can for making 50kg of Plumpy'Nut, which is over 1500 servings for the children.



The Leave a Little Room team decided to learn how to do this. One of our team members, Elizabeth Phillips, went to Malaunay, France so that the Nutriset team could teach her the production process. She then returned to Denver, gathered the production items that we needed, and taught a team of six LLR members to produce Plumpy'Nut in a local setting.








Then our team of six headed to Entebbe, Uganda to teach about 30 health care professionals in Gulu how to make this therapeutic baby food for the malnourished babies of that region.

Peace,
Donna Auguste
www.leavealittleroom.org

Arriving in Entebbe, we went to the customs staff to take delivery of 3 pallets of Plumpy'Nut baby food that we had arranged to ship from Paris to Entebbe. The customs staff had a problem with our paperwork, however, resulting in significant delays. Some of our team members stayed in the Kampala/Entebbe area to sort out the paperwork. The other team members went north to Gulu to prepare for and teach the training classes so that Plumpy'Nut could be produced and used locally.

In the market, we purchased the basic ingredients: raw peanuts, powdered milk, sugar, and vegetable oil. The only ingredient to be imported on an ongoing basis is a pre-mix additive from Nutriset. Combined, the basic ingredients and the pre-mix additive make 500kcal servings of a delicious baby food.




We sorted the raw peanuts to remove those that might have mold and aflatoxins under the skin of the peanut.








We roasted the peanuts -- a smokey task!


We took the peanuts to a grinder to make peanut paste... somewhat like peanut butter.



Then we gathered our eager students and went through the process to make several batches of Plumpy'nut.












The doctors and nurses in our training group took the fresh Plumpy'Nut back to the hospitals and showed the mothers how to feed it to the babies. The babies like the taste and gulped it down -- We were delighted because 500 good kilocalories just went into those little tummies!








Two days before our departure, our team in Entebbe gained release of our pallets of pre-made Plumpy'Nut from customs, and trucked it to Gulu. This amount will allow the hospitals and clinics to use Plumpy'Nut in their malnutrition treatment right away, while our new trainees ramp up production on a weekly basis.






We learned a tremendous amount each day -- sharing our cultures, thoughts, ideas, insights, faith, problems, and solutions. The fellowship was wonderful; we all went home tired and happy.






Peace,
Donna Auguste
www.leavealittleroom.org

Global Outreach Ministry in Uganda

Partnering once again, Leave a Little Room and Cure d'Ars Catholic Community prepared to respond to a specific need in northern Uganda. The area of Gulu, Uganda has been ravaged by civil conflict for about 20 years. That situation has completely disrupted a generation of the previously-thriving agricultural lifestyle of the people of the region, resulting in starvation for the first time in the collective memory of the elders of that region.

Babies, under the age of five, are dying from starvation. That is the need we were called to see. Having learned about a new and innovative therapeautic baby food mixture called Plumpy'Nut, developed by a French company called Nutriset (www.nutriset.fr), our team traveled to Uganda to teach local health care providers how to produce this food using local ingredients. I'll post a series of blog entries about this project.


Peace,
Donna Auguste
www.leavealittleroom.org

Denver Catholic Register Article about Global Outreach Ministry

Thanks to Wayne and Dede Laugeson for bringing their son's boy scout troop to help our Global Outreach team load one of the semi trucks for hurricane relief in Mississippi! Wayne then wrote an article about the Cure d'Ars Global Outreach Ministry for the Denver Catholic Register:

http://www.archden.org/dcr/news.php?e=149&s=4&a=3408



Peace,
Donna Auguste
www.leavealittleroom.org

Welcome Gulf Coast Guests to Denver!

How excited we were to learn that about 2000 people from the New Orleans area would be evacuated to Denver. After all they'd been through, and after helping them to get settled into temporary housing, wouldn't a picnic be fun to lift us all up a bit? Cure d'Ars Global Outreach grabbed the idea and ran with it.

With help from some NFL football players, our Knights and Ladies of Peter Claver at Cure d'Ars Catholic Church, and a multitude of volunteers from the church community, we had a great picnic. And, by the grace of God, we had the most beautiful weather anyone would ever hope for at the end of September in Denver, Colorado.

Bronco's fans start early in Denver ...






The football players taught the youngsters a few plays ...




Face-painting is popular ...





Food is always always popular...

The New Orleans Domino champs had a fun match with the Denver Domino champs ....



Checkers, art, and just running all around...

We thank God for all the wonderful fellowship!









Peace,
Donna Auguste
www.leavealittleroom.org

When Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita swept through the Gulf Coast in September 2005, lives were turned upside down along with the buildings and cars. Cure d'Ars Catholic Church in Denver, Colorado has an active Global Outreach Ministry that immediately moved to respond to the people who were in need. We have served and shared fellowship with people in Tanzania, Kenya, and Ethiopia -- now came the moment to serve and share fellowship with people in the Gulf Coast, USA.





Once we were able to establish communication with specific communities in Louisiana and Mississippi, we asked and listened to learn of the specific needs. We learned about houses gone and people sleeping in abandoned cars. We learned about churches demolished and folks celebrating mass outdoors. We learned about schools wiped away and teachers trying to restart classes in whatever building they could find, but with no textbooks. Ah, we can do something about this, instead of just watching the sad news unfolding on TV and weeping with concern! Like Nehemiah in the bible, we can pray and we can take action. So we did!


Putting the word out among friends, family, and co-workers, our Cure d'Ars community gathered donated clothing and shoes. Our folks went to local Denver stores and negotiated bargains for new items, such as toiletries, underwear, and medical supplies. Our folks sorted, boxed, labeled, and loaded several 18-wheeler semi trucks and sent those trucks directly into rural communities with great need, particularly in the area of Pascagoula and Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Young and older, each did what he or she could.





One 5-year-old tied shoelaces together so the pairs of used shoes would not get separated during transit. One elder in our community directed traffic as we sorted hundreds of boxes of clothing by size and gender. Those with strong backs lifted boxes. Those with vehicles provided transportation.

Everyone pitched in and made a difference to the recovery process for our brothers and sisters whose lives had been turned upside down by the hurricanes.



That, to me, is LOVE.


Peace,
Donna Auguste
www.leavealittleroom.org