I want to extend a ginormous THANK YOU to friends and family that donated to my GoFundMe site.
To be completely honest, I was a little overwhelmed with all the donations at first. I was hoping for $300, knowing that would go SO far, and was hoping just to get basic supplies for the school I am working at. But within a few days, I had reached my first “goal” of $500 (which I originally thought was a long shot). Since that was met so quickly, I decided to double it to $1,000.
As of today, $835 has been raised!!!!
Unable to believe how much was coming in, I started making a list of things I thought the school could use. Basics like more toothbrushes, toothpaste, cleaning supplies, kitchen supplies, stuff for art and sports came to mind. Then, today I went for a walk with the director Paty, to see some higher priority projects I didn’t even know about… Connected to one of the classrooms, there is a locked classroom that is literally full of junk… all the windows are broken, there are no tables inside of it…nothing, just trash basically. Because of the amount of money being raised, we will be able to get new windows for that building, hopefully some tables/chairs, and paint so that we can turn that into a CLEAN, functional, multi-purpose study area for the kids. There is already a date scheduled for all the parents of the kids to come help with this project… April 10, woohoo! 🙂
Paty also mentioned, depending how much is raised, that we could help other schools in the area who don’t have anything either. She told me about another village that was totally messed up from an earthquake, where families are all pretty much homeless now and starting from scratch. Of course I said YES… Please, let’s do that!!
Excited about some of these bigger ideas and also hoping for some guidance because I’ve never done anything like this, I went to the Maximo Nivel office to talk to someone. I think this is where it hit me how big of a difference this money is going to make. I spoke with a girl, Chelsea, who has been here for a couple years, working with the Simataucca village. Her eyes completely welled up and she told me “We have been waiting for someone like you to come here.”
She then told me about Franklin, a 16 year old boy in that village whose parents are severe alcoholics/drug addicts and have totally abandoned him and his siblings. Franklin has about a 5th or 6th grade education, and has been left to fend for himself. I have met him a couple times (he stops in to help the younger kids with reading, etc.) and he is just the sweetest, kindest kid I’ve ever met.
What Chelsea told me made me basically cry also. She said that last year some volunteers came and promised to raise money to sponsor Franklin to go to a special school for older “campesito” kids/adults that are extremely behind on their education. For whatever reason, it never happened. She said Paty and the school were totally let down, simply because it was a promise the volunteers made and didn’t follow through with.
This school costs about 200 soles a month, which is about $67 USD/month. (Or it might have been $200… I need to figure that out!!) Still lots of details to figure out… I would LOVE to help sponsor Franklin go to this school. I am going to meet with Paty and Chelsea this week to chat more about what the highest priorities are, and what they want to do. My hope is that people will keep donating so that we can send Franklin to school, AND do all the other projects they need help with, AND help some other schools around here!! 🙂
Basically, the money is going to be put to VERY good use… and I am extremely excited, and thankful to you all who donated!!!
MUCHIIIIISIMAS GRACIAS A TODOS ❤ And please keep spreading the word 🙂 Even $5 will go FAR here!!!
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