Sharon and 11 other nurses at the mission station vaccinate children against measles and polio. When the Crowes arrived in 1989, a witch doctor told parents that vaccines would make their children sterile. It took a measles epidemic and the deaths of 100 unvaccinated children to prove him wrong. Nutrition and Agriculture Sharon's favorite project is the feeding program. It provides bowls of warm high-protein porridge to 60 children daily.
Nurses teach nutrition to parents, making follow-up home visits to monitor family meals.
The children also learn about raising vegetables and tending rabbits at the mission farm. Older agricultural students observe Tom and 17 farm employees demonstrate test plots, reforestation, crop rotation, fruit growing, and production of high-protein foods such as as soybeans or oil from crushed palm nuts. His newest project involves small plots of land next to homes, where nutritious vegetable gardens can be planted. Pens are used to keep goats and hogs, with their droppings and worms, away from the houses and gardens. Another project will be building kiln-hardened brick houses.