Lesly's Home Repair Project - Completed!!

I just received word from Aura's House that Lesly's Roof Project is complete!

Lesly is my daughter's sponsor child in Guatemala. They are nearly the same age and thick as thieves. :) Lesly's project was the first of my sponsor kids projects to be funded through Aura's House. My daughter helped out by donating her allowance and making and selling candies to raise extra money. But of course the support Lesly received from the donors at Aura's House was key to making this project possible. I can never thank them enough!!

Now the photos!!


Lesly with the supplies for her home repair.

Lesly's family received gravel and concrete to lay down a slab in the courtyard of their home. This will be a great help in keeping the home clean and dry since the courtyard got very muddy and stayed damp all through the rainy season. In the background of the photo you can see the tin sheets which were used to repair their leaky roof.


The new roof for Lelsy's house - keeping them dry!

Ta da! The new roof! Now the roof won't leak all through the rainy season. The family will be able to stay healthy and dry under their new roof.


Lesly stands on the new concrete floor which will help keep the dirt out of her home.

I love this photo of Lesly, proudly showing off the new floor. Lesly's father Hugo was able to do the repair work on his home since he works as a bricklayer. It must have been satisfying for him to finally be able to work to improve his own home! And I'm sure that Lesly's mother Aura especially appreciates the new floor since it will help keep the mud out of her home during the rainy season.


Lesly showing off her new propane stove.

How cute is Lesly in this photo?! I'm constantly amazed at what a sourpuss Lesly looked like in her first Children International photo. Despite that my daughter insisted that Lesly was the one for her. I guess my daughter knows that you can't judge a book by it's cover - Lesly hasn't stopped smiling since we sponsored her! Lesly's smile is so charming.

Aura probably really loves this new propane stove. I hope it has made cooking for the family easier for her. Previously the family cooked over an open fire. Anyone who has been camping and tried this knows how tough that can be. Try cooking like that everyday! So I'm sure this new stove is a huge blessing for Aura. The family also received some water containers to help keep their water fresh and clean. Their water comes from a community faucet so storage is always an issue in that situation.


Lesly with her new bed!

I love this photo too. It makes me think of Alice in Wonderland after she drank the bottle labeled "Drink Me" that made her shrink to "very small". Lesly looks like a little miniature person on that big bed! It's so nice to think of Lesly sleeping in a new bed and not getting dripped on by a leaky roof!


Lesly with her new bedding.

Lesly also got some new bedding. My daughter was really pleased with this because she thought it was "so beautiful".

My daughter wanted to pass her message along to all of the people at Aura's House who helped launch the project and all of the donors who helped make everything possible. She said:

"I felt very good seeing the photos of Lesly. Lesly is a very nice girl to know. I'm proud that I was able to help her. I feel really good about Lesly having a new bed. It means so much to me that you helped Lesly to get all of her new stuff. Thank you so much."

And on behalf of Lesly and her family I thank you too!

Lesly's Birthday Presents and Other Updates*

Whew! Summer has well and truly kicked in around here. Mother Nature finally stopped with the incessant rain she'd been pouring on us for literally a month, and now has decided to try to sweat us all to death instead! It's 90 degrees and humid. Ick.

The school to summer transition has settled down so I can catch up on what's been going on since my last post....

The hideous heat hasn't stopped me from working on a ginormous knitted blanket though. I'm always so out of sync with the knitting seasons... sigh.

Last week I knit two (of four planned) large log cabin blocks and of course promptly changed my mind about how I want the blanket to look. So I've switched over and begun a log-cabin-of-many-colors blanket. This one will be a single, huge log cabin block and will hopefully use up most of my stash of Elann Sonata. That stuff is excellent for blankets.

Speaking of blankets - Mike who won the blanket for Nyslin's project requested that I donate the blanket to a charity. I chose Project Linus. I'm sure that my blog friends already know about Project Linus but I'll include the link anyway. I dropped the blanket off with the local chapter last weekend.

And Steve, who won Jester's project blanket, says he has received the blanket it looks good in his apartment.

So it's been happy blanketyness all round. :)

And in more good news my Income Generating Project for Joey over at Aura's House has been fully funded!! Thank you!! Thank you!! Joey's family of six somehow gets by on only $21 a month. Joey's family has the least income of all my sponsor children. And he is the only one of the children that is sponsored so he is the only one that gets the medical, health and educational benefits of sponsorship. Raising and selling hogs will make a huge impact on their income.

And the good news just keeps on coming because Kanika's project is completed as well. One of the other super sponsors, Dana, had the brilliant idea of holding a raffle. She raised hundreds of dollars for Kanika in the blink of an eye! Way to go Dana! I don't know yet how Children International and Kanika's family will use the money. Hopefully they will be able to at least start re-building their house. We will probably have to raise more money for Kanika in the long run but at least the family can get some significant relief right now.

We also recently received these adorable pictures of Lesly showing us what she bought with her birthday money that we sent. I love how she is nearly swamped by all the groceries in the first photo. It's sort of a Lesly version of "Where's Waldo". :)


Lesly with the spoils of her birthday shopping spree.

We should be getting an update on the progress of Lesly's roof project any time now. I can't wait!!


I just love Lesly's Cheshire Cat smile!

I talked about this in my last post but I've been thinking some more this past week about what my next step will be for my sponsor kids after I get all of their Income Generating Projects in place. So far I have funded (or am funding) projects for:

1.Harry
2.Maica
3.Jhonny
4.Lesly
5.Nyslin
6.Joey
7.Hermelinda (2)
8.Zoila
9.Ana
10.Jester

I have proposals in the works for:
1.Jenie
2.Glenn
3.Mary Joy
4.Flor
5.Javiera (special needs)
6.Carla
7. And hopefully and additional housing project for Hermelinda.

I'm also teaming up on a project for Alison with my sister who sponsor's Alison's brother Jhonathan.

I can probably get most of these projects launched by the end of this year. That's my goal anyway! After that, I am thinking I will concentrate on making sure that all the children have adequate bathroom facilities. Some of them do already but most of them share a community latrine. It would be much healthier of they each had their own - can you imagine not having a bathroom? I can't.

I have nothing in the works yet for my three newest sponsor children. I have to get to know them and their families better before I can determine what their needs might be. I'm sure I will end up doing an IGP for those three families as well sometime in the future.

And lastly - I finally feel like my eyes have gotten adjusted to the contacts. Now I can "See the world in HD" just like that annoying TV commercial... I've gotten pretty good at putting them in easily. Taking them out is harder but I'm starting to get the hang of it.

There you go. Those are all the updates I can think of/have time for right now. What have all of you been doing??

*If you are looking for creative blog post titles I'm afraid you are in the wrong place. :)

New Yearly Photo of Joey

This is the first new photo I have had of Joey for probably about six months. He looks so much more grown up to me. He's definitely turning into a pre-teen.

Joey also wrote me a cute letter that I received last week. Joey is not quite as fluent in English as my other Filipino children so his letters are sometimes unintentionally quite funny. Joey had previously mentioned that in the Philippines they celebrate with fireworks at Christmas time. This led to me telling him that we also had fireworks for our Fourth of July in the USA. In this letter Joey told me how much he loves fireworks but quickly assured me that "they are not dangerous for a user like me". Lol! He also told me that he had heard from his "olds" (I think he means elders) that they celebrate fourth of July in the Philippines in order to mark the day called "according to them, the Philippines - American Friendship Day" he goes on to say that "speaking to tradition, I always see to my olds - especially my grandparents". Lol! I'm sure he means to say that when he wants to know about traditions he asks his elders. Too cute.

He also told me, "I have also a youngest baby boy. His was Andre, he was ten months old, he was the cute and beautiful among the four children." Now - I am hoping that he means to tell me that he now has a new baby brother and how cute the baby is. But because of the confusion in tenses have/was, I'm worried that he might be telling me he had a baby brother who died. I hope not! I'll have to ask CI about it. Joey doesn't go on to say that he is sad or anything so I think the correct interpretation is that he has a new baby brother.

Joey's project is sooooo close to being completed at Aura's House. I'm very excited for him! I'm hoping that I will start receiving updates about my other, completed projects soon as well.

In crafting news - I've started a new blanket. That seems to be my "go to" project when I need something easy and stress free. It's a garter stitch log cabin. A good old standby. :)

I've knit the body of a February Lady Sweater out of Cash Iroha and Silk Garden. I love it so far, but put it on the back burner when it came time to do the sleeves. I'm not in the mood for knitting on DPN's right now.

Also - I was thinking about entering something in the fair this year but it turns out that the timing won't work out so I'm kind of bummed. :( Maybe next year -(although that's what I've been hoping every year). Ah well...

Beautiful Ana

Just look at these new photos I got of Ana. Isn't she beautiful? There is just something about her that I really like. She has such a serene presence but at the same time she can be so silly and funny. I think the sweatsuit that Ana is wearing was her Easter gift from Children International.


The serene Ana...


and the happy, joyful Ana!

I wasn't expecting to get these photos. I had found some Easter cards in Spanish so I took the opportunity to wish my Spanish speaking children a Happy Easter and send them some family photos as well. I didn't think that such a simple gesture would get me these wonderful photos back - thank you CI!



This is Ana with her mother Monica. I was happy to see Ana's mother because she wasn't included in the family photos I have. Monica is currently the only source of income for her family due to her husband Luis's disability. She has to work long hours as a maid which is why she was unable to be present for the family photos.


Ana writing her letter to me. She told me that she is on her summer break and how excited she is that she will start high school next year.

Ana's twelfth birthday is just a month away. I've sent her (and Maica and Jester who also have July birthdays) a special needs gift so the family can purchase whatever they might need. But I also spent most of today making up little packages to send to Ana and several of the other sponsor kids as well. My daughter chose little items to send to Lesly and the other Guatemalan girls Nyslin and Hemelinda - little things like bracelets, earrings, hair accessories. Just girly stuff. And Carla had requested some new photos so I had to send some of them as well. I'm exhausted! It's amazing how long it takes to put together packages for seven different kids!

Wouldn't it be great to finish Ana's IGP project in time for her birthday?? If there ever was a kid that will appreciate such a gift, it's Ana.

Update from Aura's House:

Ana's Project: $1564/2770 - we're over halfway there!!
Zoila's Project: $390/824
Joey's Project: $669/723 only $54 left to raise!
Nyslin's Project: Completed!
Lesly's Project: Completed!

Hexagon Blanket for Ana's Project

As promised - here is the blanket I will be giving away for Ana's Project over at Aura's House.



Ana's Income Generating Project is going very well - slowly but surely getting there!



I've been told that Aura's House is exploring the idea of beginning buying some of the tools Ana's father Luis will need for his workshop rather than waiting for all of the money to come in. I'll let you know if that happens.



In the meantime - about the blanket...



I used hand dyed sock weight yarn from various Etsy artists. The subtle variations in the colors are really beautiful. I especially like the grey because it has so much depth.



And the "green" is also brown, blue and bits of other colors as well.



I had fun crocheting this. I had never tried hexagons before. And the bobbles were new to me too. I like the texture they add.



The blanket is a comfy lap size - perfect for TV watching and otherwise lazing about on the couch. :)



The giveaway will work just like the one I did for Nyslin's Project. Every donation up to $5 gets it's own number. When Ana's Project is fully funded I will have a random number generator choose the winning number.

Good luck!! And thank you again to everyone who has so generously helped my sponsor children. Check back again soon as I have some beautiful new photos of Ana to post!

Winner of Blanket for Nyslin's Project

Okay here we go!

I sorted out all the donations that were made to Nyslin's project. After subtracting any donations made by my relatives - :) I assigned a number for each of the remaining $1-5 increments. I came up with 101 numbers. I entered the number range into the random number generator and ......

The winning number for the Crazy Colors Blanket for Nyslin's Project was:



#95! which belongs to Mike E.

Congratulations Mike E. I hope you will enjoy your new blanket!



Thank you to everyone who donated. I wish I had a million hands and a million skeins of yarn (my stash is big - but not that big!) to crochet blankets for each and every person who supported Nyslin's project - and my other kids as well.

Stay tuned though because I do have something to giveaway for Ana's project as well!!

Great News for Nyslin and Joey!

Great news! I announced the blanket giveaway for Nyslin's Income Generating Project and the next thing I knew the project was completed!! A heroic donor stepped up and not only finished out the rest of the funding for Nyslin, he also brought Joey's project up to only $87 away from the goal. I'm stunned by the generosity of everyone who has helped out with the Aura's House projects for my kids. Thank you so much!

Here's the latest update on my sponsor kids projects at Aura's House:

Aura's House update:

Ana's Project: $1548/2770 - we're over halfway there!!
Nyslin's Project: Completed!
Zoila's Project: $293/824
Joey's Project: $636/723 only $87 left to raise!
Lesly's Project: Completed!

I will announce the winner of the blanket for Nyslin's project ASAP!

In the meantime, here are some photos of Joey with his summer package:


I think Joey has a cute smile.


Joey loved the postcards we sent, especially those of the sea animals because Joey loves the ocean and loves to swim.


Like many of our sponsor kids, Joey says he likes to take the photos we send him to school to show to his friends and teachers. So sweet!

I also want to mention that Aura's House is celebrating their 5th birthday! That's five years of helping children and their families to be able to live a better life. In honor of their fifth birthday please consider making a donation of $5 to one of all of the projects on their site. They have added two new projects lately, one for Mirriam in Zambia and another for Joselin in Guatemala in addition to the projects for my kids, Ana, Zoila and Joey that are ongoing. Happy 5th birthday Aura's House!!

Crazy Colors Blanket for Nyslin's Project

Aura's House update:

Ana's Project: $1548/2770 - we're over halfway there!!
Nyslin's Project: $414/550 - only $136 left to raise!!
Zoila's Project: $293/824
Joey's Project: $236/723
Lesly's Project: Completed!

The totals for my fund raising projects over at Aura's House continue to creep up. Slowly but surely we are getting there!

To add a boost to the fund raising process and to say Thank You! to the generous people who have donated, I am giving away this blanket:



I hand crocheted this blanket from cotton sock yarn. I love the happy colors!



This picture shows a good idea of the overall size of the blanket.



Do you know a child that would love a cozy blanket for their crib? The blanket is machine washable so it would be perfect as a snuggly blanket for a child. Or keep it for yourself to keep warm while watching TV this winter. :)

The close up photos are an accurate depiction of what the blanket actually looks like. The others are slightly washed out. (My photography leaves something to be desired. Sorry!)



The bright colors make me think of the famous traditional woven textiles and embroidery of Guatemala. So I will be giving this blanket away to anyone who has donated to Nyslin's Income Generating Project.

The giveaway will work the same as the one for the blanket I am giving away for Jester's Project. Every $5 donation to Nyslin's Project will be assigned a number. So if you donate $25 you will get 5 numbers. (I realize that some of the donations are smaller than $5. Any donation from $1 to $5 will also be assigned a number.) Donations that have already been made will count. When Nyslin's Project is completely funded I will have a random number generator choose the winning number. Then I will announce the winner and send them their new blanket!



Nyslin's Project is only $136 away from being fully funded! Let's see if we can get all the way to the $550 we need. I want to give away a blanket! :)

Good luck and thank you to everyone who has been so supportive!

Blanket for Jester's Project

This is the new yearly photo we recently received of Jester. He is wearing a shirt that we sent him for his birthday last year. I love it when the sponsor kids wear clothes we sent them for their photos. It's so sweet of them! I think they do it on purpose as a way of saying thank you. I think Jester looks so handsome!

Fund raising for Jester's project has been going amazingly well. We're almost halfway to completion! I'm so surprised and thankful for all the support!

So, to say thank you to everyone who has helped out with Jester's project, I am going to be giving away this blanket:



It is hand crocheted by me out of cotton sock yarn.



I'd call this a good sized lap blanket. It's also suitable for a child to snuggle up in. It is machine washable so you wouldn't have to worry about letting a kid use it. :)



Hubby is holding the blanket up for the camera - gives you a fair idea of the size.



And a close up. This is a better picture in terms of showing the true color of the yarn. I had a hard time capturing the colors in natural light. In real life the colors are much richer.



So here's how the giveaway will work:

Every $5 that is donated will get you a number. (Donations that have already been made will count!) So if you donate $25 you will get five numbers and so on. When Jester's project is fully funded I will have a random number generator choose the winning number. Then I will announce the winner and mail them the blanket. Simple as that!

Here is the link to Jester's Project.

PS - I will also be offering similar prizes/thank yous for the projects at Aura's House as well. So look for those in the next few days. :)

On the Subject of Dogs, Contacts, Charity and the Fugliest Sweater Ever Knit

I haven't had much time for blogging lately. We're in the middle of the inevitable end of the school year frenzy of activity. Every year we are pretty much booked solid for the last four weeks or so of school. It's exhausting but at least it's all nice busyness. :)

So I'll just sum up:

I don't talk about my kids on the blog so all I can say about them is that they are awesome!

Some other things I'm happy about:

1.I got contacts and I'm absurdly pleased. I'm convinced I'm actually better looking now that I have contacts. Maybe I'm just not as blurry? :) The only sad thing is that I can't find colored, daily wear lenses in my prescription. :( Bummer. I totally want to change my eye color everyday.

2.I got an update on my projects from Aura's House. There was a long but unavoidable delay but happily the totals have still gone up!

Aura's House update:

Ana's Project: $1419/2770 - we're over halfway there!!
Nyslin's Project: $389/550 - only $161 left to raise!!
Zoila's Project: $293/824
Joey's Project: $236/723
Lesly's Project: Completed!

Hopefully Hubby and I will have a chance this weekend to complete the quilted placemat sets and get them up in the Etsy shop. We should be able to raise enough money to finish Nyslin's project.

And I got some beautiful pictures of Ana today so I will post those ASAP. She is such a gorgeous girl!

3. My fellow sponsors (and friends!) from our sponsor group are helping me to raise money for yet another one of my sponsor children! Click on the link to see Jester's fundraising page. We have started a fundraising group using a "pay it forward" philosophy that has helped us as a group to raise funds for Special Needs and Income Generating Projects for six children so far! Jester's project is to set his mother Agnes up in a reatil clothing sales business. If she can get this business started she will be able to live with her children rather than her current situation where she has to work and live in another city. If you think you might be able to help with Jester's project that would be awesome. Any little bit helps and, like Aura's House donations, these are also tax deductible.

4. I'm also happy because I was able to make another Kiva loan! I think I have 8 going right now. And I am tickled pink that the one that has been the most successful so far has been the one I made supporting a crafts group in Bolivia. Go crafters!!

5. In non-charity related news - After much thought we decided to get Clementine and Sarah ready for summer with some pretty drastic haircuts. Here they are sporting their new looks:



Clementine had hair that a showdog would kill for. Her feathers were literally down to the ground. But it was a really big pain to keep up with because it tangled and matted very easily. She also gets the typical spaniel problem of ear infections so I thought taking away all that extra hair would help get some healthy air circulation going there.



You can't tell it from this photo but Clemmie loves her new haircut. It's like we cut off a couple of years of her age rather than her hair! She has been playful and happy and frisky like a puppy. Actually exactly the opposite of her usual self. :) Some dogs act ashamed and embarrassed when they get a drastic haircut. Not Clemmie. She gives her new look two paws up! We will be keeping her hair trim and tidy from now on.

We let Sarah keep her long ear hair. She doesn't have the same tangly type of hair as Clemmie and no ear infection problem. The rest of the fluffy hair had to go though.



Sarah always looked like a fat little muffin with all of her hair. Now she looks like a lowfat muffin. Both of the dogs are so soft and pettable now - they feel like bunny rabbits.

The verdict on the haircuts is: A+.

Sadly, there is also one item on the unhappy list:

I recently knitted the worlds ugliest sweater. I'll try to get a photo to show you (if you think you can hack it) before I frog the beast. It's pretty appalling. Not only did I knit the whole thing, but in defiance of logic I actually sewed it all together too. Shudder.

I had to cast on for a February Lady in Noro Cash Iroha and Silk Garden to try to erase the memory of the fugly sweater. It's really that bad.

Aura's House News and New Lesly Video

Lesly with her "summer vacation package" 2008

I thought I'd share this news from the latest Aura's House newsletter about my ongoing projects for Ana, Nyslin, Joey and Zoila as well as an update about Lesly's roof project.

"Hello there Aura’s House Community,

Here are the latest goings-on at the Aura’s House website. We’ve been making great progress on all of our current projects, with some just a few hundred dollars away from completion. For example, donations to Ana’s Income Generation project are still being tripled up to the first $1500 raised. The goal for this project is to help Ana’s disabled father start an electronics repair business. We’re just about halfway there! Also, we are only $306 away from being able to help Nyslin and family of Guatemala purchase chickens that would enable them to earn extra income and lift some of their financial burdens. Finally, there is just a little over $500 to raise each for Joey’s Hog Income Generation project in the Philippines and Zoila’s Chicken Income Generation project in Honduras. Thanks again to all who have helped these families so far get a little bit closer to a better standard of living.

We’ve also recently finished our Roof Project for Lesly and family of Guatemala on April 17, 2009. Thanks to our generous donors, Lesly and family soon will have a safe and sturdy roof that keeps them dry and healthy during Guatemala’s rainy season. Our goal was $393 and $554 was raised in total. The extra funds will go towards other pressing family needs such as food and clothing supplies. Stay tuned for photos and updates of the gifts purchased!"

I'm very excited about Lesly's project. I can't wait to hear how the family reacted when they learned they would be getting a new roof! Lesly's father Hugo will be doing the labor himself. I think Children International will also send before and after photos so we can really see the improvements in their home. Yay!

Check out this sweet video fellow sponsor Steve made for me of Lesly and her mother Aura at the community center in Guatemala.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9x_L0kT7m0&feature=related

Aura is telling Lesly what to say and then Lesly repeats it in her little high voice. Adorable!! Lesly keeps trying to shyly chew on her fingernails and her mother keeps "reminding" Lesly not to do that by pushing her hand down. Too funny. Mom's are the same everywhere eh? :)

And in other news, Hubby and I spent part of last weekend making some more quilted items to sell in our Etsy shop to raise money for the sponsor kids. I'm really happy with how this last batch is turning out! Hopefully we will finish them this coming weekend - So watch this space!

Ana - I'm Proud of You!

These are photos of the "summer vacation" package that we sent to Ana in Ecuador.



Ana is very special to me. She's like a daughter that I have never met. She has such a great attitude and is so thoughtful and really takes her schooling seriously. I hope that she will go on to gain a higher education. I've told her to keep up the good work because I will help her with whatever she needs to continue her education.



Since sponsoring Ana and Jhonny (and now also Alison and Stefany) I have the impression that the Ecuadorian people must be quite friendly as a whole because all of my Ecuadorian sponsor children are super sweet.



If Ana could read my blog I would tell her that I love her, send her a big hug and tell her that I am so proud of her!

Ana's Income Generating Project is still on going over at Aura's House. While you are there check out Joey, Zoila and Nyslin's projects too. The project totals so far are:

Aura's House update:

Ana's Project: $1334/2770
Nyslin's Project: $244/550
Zoila's Project: $288/824
Joey's Project: $200/723
Lesly's Project: Completed!

This Is What Poverty Looks Like

Let me take you on a tour of Hermelinda's family home in Guatemala, courtesy of Steve. These are still photos taken from the video he shot for me.


The trail leading up to Hermelinda's isolated home - 200 steps up a very steep hill.


Hermelinda's father Victor holds her two year old sister Marlyn in front of the tin sheets which comprise the walls of their family "home".


The kitchen. Hermelinda's mother Dorca cooks here over a fire in the open air.


Hermelinda's family in a photo from 2008 that I got from Children International. Mother Dorca holds baby Marlyn, Hermelinda next to her mother in a purple skirt, Yessica and Victor holding little Dulce. Since this photo the family has added one more child - I think a boy. After that birth Dorca had her "tubes tied". I think this was a smart decision for the future of her family.


This is the "pantry". A large barrel I assume is for water storage that hopefully will keep out the worst of the bugs, animals, rain and dirt.


The "bathroom". This looks like it is also in the open air with a curtain for privacy.


The family stands by the "front door" in 2008.


The "bedroom". The family has two metal bed frames for seven people.


The "living room". Hermelinda's family also sleep on the floor here.


Hermelinda's isolated home and extreme poverty readily explain the rarity of her smiles.


Hermelinda waves goodbye to me through the camera.

I have Children International looking into options to try to arrange better housing for Hermelinda's family but it is a problematic situation since they are essentially squatter's on the land that their "home" sits on. If I provide them with new materials to build a more secure structure there is every likelihood that the owner of the land will kick the family out and keep the new house to rent out to people who can pay. The only other options will probably be to buy them a piece of land (likely to be out of the range of what I can afford - thousands of dollars) or to attempt to relocate them to a rental (hard to see how they could afford to rent anything but possibly a move to a less isolated area may enable me to set them up an Income Generating Business). Anyhow - the housing situation outlook remains rather bleak.

In the meantime I have sent a special needs donation and have asked CI to enquire about portable household items the family could use - bunk beds, cooking utensils, furniture etc. - that will help make their situation better in the short term and can be moved with them if they can get into a better home.

The good news is that in addition to Hermelinda, Victor and Yessica also have sponsors. Please - if you can - consider sponsoring little Dulce:


or Marlyn:


Sponsorship is $22 a month and the aid this family gets from sponsorship is literally the difference between life and death for these kids. Without the food, medical and schooling help I don't see how they could survive. Contact me at the email link in the sidebar if you think you can help.

If you can't commit to a sponsorship please consider donating to one of my Income Generating Projects for some of my other families over at Aura's House. Donations seem to have slowed down so I really need your help!!

I'd also love to give out some surprise gifts to anyone who donates so please email me or leave a comment and let me know if you do!