THE AMERICAS
BOLIVIA
#14: Shoes, Cochabamba, Bolivia: Amanecer was founded in 1981 by the Daughters of Charity to serve the abandoned and mistreated boys, girls, women and babies who might otherwise be living on the streets of Cochabamba. Amanecer is operated under the auspices of the Archbishop of Cochabamba and is recognized by the Bolivian government as a non-profit organization. Amanecer operates 12 facilities to provide shelter, prevention and rehabilitation, education, vocational training and day care services.
The boys who received shoes live in a shelter where the focus is on motivation and rehabilitation for those who have experienced the street culture. The activities encourage boys to create habits of work and study. The boys are involved in counseling, academic tutoring, workshops, outings, sports and chores to help maintain the house.
Program Associated with the Project: www.amanecer-bolivia.org
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CHILE
#63: Burn Treatment: $50.00 pays for 1 month of treatment at a specialized clinic for a Latin American child who has been burned. Treatment is provided free of charge to the family, giving new life to the child through both physical and emotional healing. Associated organization: COANIQUEM Burned Children Foundation, www.burnedchildren.org.
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COLOMBIA
#101: Cooking Supplies, Colombia: Commercial cooking supplies are needed for a women’s cooperative on the Pacific coast. Pans $45.00 - $50.00; steel table $100.00; 60 cup coffee maker $135.00; and oven $325.00. Associated organization: International Center of Education and Human Development, www.cinde.org.co.
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ECUADOR
#39: Sewing Machine and Materials, San Vicente community, Ecuador: $400 will provide a sewing machine for regular and overlock sewing and materials for an 80-women cooperative in the San Vicente community, Ecuador (8 hours from Quito). This cottage industry supports local families.
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EL SALVADOR
#64: Children’s Dental Care: $2.00 buys a toothbrush and toothpaste; $10 buys one year of fluoride treatments for a child. Most children under the age of 6 in rural El Salvador suffer from severe tooth decay caused by poor nutrition and poor oral hygiene. The Salvadorian Association for Rural Health, www.asaprosar.org, and University of California, Berkeley are training community health workers and families on nutrition, tooth brushing and dental care for children.
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GUATEMALA
#18: Training Supplies and Clothing: FUNDAESPRO (Foundation for Effort and Progress) provides early childhood education programs, medical services, training and women's empowerment workshops for families living in squatter communities. They are in need of supplies to provide resources for their early learning programs and training programs for mothers. web site: www.whole-child.org
#47: Stoves, Guatemala: $65 will buy an iron-top stove with reduced wood-burning feature for a rural community in Chibaquib, Guatemala. By removing the fire from the ground, sanitation and health are improved. Associated organizations: Rotary and Improvement of the Quality of Life in Rural Community Guatemala. Matching funds may be available.
new replacement stoves:
in-ground cooking fires to be replaced:
#75: Helmets, Gloves and Jackets, Guatemala: $53.00 will provide a motorbike helmet, $33.00 will buy a pair of gloves and $55.00 will purchase a protective jacket for local outreach health care workers. They travel to the remote regions to identify patients for needed surgeries, which are available free of charge to poor people. Rotary is raising funds for the motorbikes.
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HAITI
#100: Medical Clinic Supplies, Haiti: A medical clinic is being built in rural Haiti that will serve 4000 people. They need: Gloves, $6.00/box; Digital Thermometers, $6.00 each; Scales, $15.00 each; Blood Pressure cuffs and Stethoscopes, $20.00 each; Exam Table, $100.00 and a Generator $360.00. Associated Organization: www.sionfunds.org.
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HONDURAS
#78: Food and Water, Honduras: $20.00 a week provides clean bottled drinking water and $50.00 supplies food for one day for the 21 children, ages 3-13, at the Majken Broby Children’s Home in Roatan, Honduras. Associated Organization: www.roatanchildrensfund.com.
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MEXICO
#21: Mexico, musical instruments: A talented musician has offered to teach over 200 indigenous street seller children in the project, CASA TATIC, to play simple instruments and know the joy of playing music together. How this would brighten their lives and perhaps give them a skill that will help them survive financially! These children, often as young as three, sell on the dirty and dangerous streets 12-14 hours a day and live in squalid conditions. Each $5 will provide the instruments for one child. The fund-raising goal for this project is $1000 - 2000.
VAMOS! Inc. of Weston, VT is an IRS approved 501c3 non-profit with nearly 20 years experience working with the Mexico poor. They currently have projects to feed, educate, and provide health care to 2000 impoverished children and their families in Cuernavaca. 100% of donations goes to the projects. www.vamos.org.mx
#23: Tools and Equipment, Chacala, Mexico: The pueblo of Chacala is located on the coast, north of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Several organizations are helping this community to achieve self sufficiency. The Berkeley, CA Rotary Club has established a tool lending library so villagers can borrow tools to construct houses.
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NICARAGUA
#11: Library Books: Santa Rosa de Lima School is located in Comarca, Nicaragua: In an area with no roads. It is accessible by horseback or walking. All of the 35 children (grades Kindergarten - Fourth) walk to school on small, narrow footpaths. The school is a one-room building with a metal roof and porch. The chairs are arranged around the three sides of the room with the backboard on the fourth side. Each child has one "copy book" and pen. There are very few textbooks, so the older children share. The teacher's name is Santo. The Lantern Project books are purchased in the capital, Managua. They are carried on a truck until the road ends (about 9 hours). Then the books go up the mountain on horseback or by the older children carrying them.
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PANAMA
#59: Chickens and Supplies, Panama: $45.00 buys 3 dozen baby chicks, $75.00 buys fencing, $60.00 buys wood and nails, $40.00 buys zinc roofing, and $20.00 buys drinking bins for a chicken coop and $15.00 provides chicken feed for a project to help elders in the jungle town of Jaque to produce their own food. Associated organization: Bridges Across Borders.
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PERU
#6: Wool and Looms
Q¹ero, remote highlands of Peru
TAPPT, The Association for the Preservation of Peruvian Textiles, an international non-profit organization, seeks to help the Q¹eros preserve their traditional lifestyle by training young girls in the skills of their ancestors. Methods include on-site documentation and education, grassroots fundraising, and collaboration with arts organizations and collectors. The results will recapture historical traditions and create new sustainable economic activity for indigenous women in Peru¹s evolving economy.
The Q¹ero people have lived in the remote highlands of Peru for thousands of years. Chosen by the Incas as their weavers, the Q¹eros became the keepers of an ancient tradition. Without a written language, the Incas communicated their wisdom in cloth. The Q¹ero weavings map an ancient understanding of how humans are interconnected with Pachamama (mother earth) and with the universe. This understanding has enabled their community to maintain a lifestyle of harmonious existence with their environment for millenia. Now the waves of our planet¹s modern disharmony are threatening to break the Q¹ero traditions and wash away the remaining wisdom that can potentially play a vital role in the restoration of a balance on earth for the benefit of all.
In recent years the tribe has been forced from the highlands into cities to cater to tourists. Their weavings have become commodities. Today, only a few women remember the ancestral designs.
Further information: www.weaversofwisdom.org
#48: Gardening Equipment, Peru: $10 each will buy a pick, shovel, rake or clippers; $120 will pay for a bike and $240.00 will purchase a weed whacker for former street youth who have been trained as gardeners. These items are needed to start small businesses to earn a living in Lima, Peru.
#93: Manicure and Pedicure Tools, Peru: $200 will buy all the necessary equipment for one trained woman to start her own manicure and pedicure business. The beneficiaries are women rescued from the sexual exploitation industry when they were children.
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UNITED STATES
Special Project: School Supplies and Clothing for students affected by Katrina: Alabama
$10:00 - $25.00 will buy a book bag; $15.00 - $30.00 will buy shoes; and $40.00 will provide a school uniform for students in the Mobile, Alabama School District. This includes over 1000 displaced students from Mississippi.
#22: Braille Signs: Oakland, California: Almost 5% of the San Francisco Bay Area residents under the age of 65 are mobility impaired. This includes thousands of children. It also includes parents whose restrictions limit their ability to accompany and share activities with their family. An Oakland Rotary Club and the East Bay Regional Park District have developed a plan to benefit all the children and families in this region. The plan pays special attention to the details allowing kids and adults with diverse physical abilities and disabilities to have full access to the fun at a new, specially designed, barrier free playground and park located within the Roberts Regional Recreation Area. Graphic signs and maps throughout the play areas provide instruction for the seeing and the sight impaired. Push buttons activate different sounds and provide directions to playground elements. The main play structure is a large steel and wood structure which allows wheelchairs to maneuver between three raised access points and raised deck areas via bridges and ramps interconnecting many activity panels and play components. Net climbers, vertical and horizontal ladders and climbing poles give alternate means of access. Slides offer a variety of ways to descend back to the playground surface.
#27: Literacy Program , Oakland, California: The problems of under-education, violence and crime in west and east Oakland, CA are well documented. The U.S. Census shows that 26% of Oakland adults 25 years of age and older have less than a 12th grade education. A 2003 Oakland Tribune article stated that only 1/4 of the Oakland students who were in ninth grade in 1998 graduated from the city's schools. High school drop-outs are more likely to live in poverty, be unemployed and be involved in crime. The Next Step Learning Center provides educational skills in an innovative and supportive way. A small core staff and a volunteer corps of 40 volunteers provide intensive programs in basic literacy and GED (Tests of General Education Development) preparation for disadvantaged Oakland residents 17 years of age and older. Services are offered free of charge and include one-on-one tutoring, small group instruction and supervised independent study. More than 300 former Oakland high school dropouts have now achieved full GED certification and the increased access to opportunity this represents.
#102: Books, Dublin, CA: $5.00 - $10.00 provides a book to a child (infant to 12 years) who is waiting to visit a family member who is an inmate at Santa Rita Jail. The children can take the books home after their visit. Associated Organization: Alameda County Library Foundation, www.aclf.org, Start with A Story Program.
#109: Art Supplies, San Leandro, CA: $5.00 will provide art supplies (crayons, brushes, paper) for children who are patients or visitors at the George Mark Children's home. This is the only pediatric respite, transitional and end of
life house in the US. They provide quality care for children and families. www.georgemark.org.
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