A Canadian Grandmother Helps in Mexico

2006-12 - by Susan McIver - Erma Fennell, a Canadian woman who has dedicated almost 20 years of her life to helping the poor of the Baja peninsula, is often called the Mother Therese of Mexico. This amazing woman has her own registered charitable foundation, The Erma Fennell Foundation for Needy Children. The foundation's mission is to provide relief from poverty in the village of Vicente Guerrero that is located about a 4.5 hour drive south of the United States border. Support for the foundation comes from throughout Canada, including the Okanagan, and the United States. "My work is supported by churches of various denominations, school groups, businesses and individuals," she said. Erma's interest in working with the needy of the Baja began in the late1970s when a woman missionary who was running an orphanage in Vicente Guerrero spoke at her church in Calgary. "When all my children have left home and I can retire, I would like to go to help those poor little children" Erma recalled thinking. At the time she was a widow raising her own five children. A few years later, she married Norman Fennell. In 1998, the couple took early retirement and went to Vicente Guerrero where they helped with the procurement and distribution of supplies for nine and a half years. On days off, Erma started working with a pastor who took food and clothing to extremely poor people in remote areas. "That's how I met the Oxacans," Erma said, referring to the mainly Indian workers from the Mexican state of Oxaca south of Mexico City. These people come to the Baja to work on large vegetable farms. "My heart was with the Oxacans. We eventually left the orphanage to work fulltime with them," Erma said In 2000, Norm had a sudden fatal heart attack. While in Alberta attending to matters related to his death, Erma came close to dying from spinal meningitis. "God answered the prayers of my family and friends. I knew I was to go back and carry on," said Erma. And carry on she did. Currently, Erma and her volunteers take food, a spoonful of peanut butter in a glass of milk, soup or tortillas, to children and adults in remote areas every week. "For many of them it's the only thing they'll eat all day," she said. She uses donated funds to buy the required uniforms, shoes and books children need to attend school. Erma's group focuses on women by themselves, either widowed or abandoned, and disabled people. She has seen people die from bedsores caused by having to lie in their own urine and excrement. "We desperately need adult diapers," she said. More recently, Erma has been helping people in addiction rehabilitation centres. "There are lots of drugs here, crystal meth, cocaine, heroin and, of course, alcohol," she said. Several years ago, Erma began taking Christmas gifts, many supplied by a church in California, to children in a particularly poor region south of Vicente Guerrero. Construction of simple houses has become a function of the Fennell foundation. Individuals and groups, such as Penticton-based Global Youth Impact, are helping. Global Youth Impact, a non-profit charity, was formed by three Penticton young people, Charles Roberts, his sister, Becky Roberts, and Steven Dunham, to provide humanitarian relief to the people of the Baja peninsula. In November, a group composed of mainly retirees constructed two houses in 10 days. For further information contact Erma by email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Or telephone foundation directors Geoff and Lorraine Hett at (250) 478-2727.

 

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