Saturday, April 21, 2007

Happy Anniversary

Happy 1st Anniversary to the Roatan Children's Fund
Dear Friends and Supporters,
This has been quite a year. What started out to be a small non-profit to help some of the Children on the Island of Roatan has grown way beyond our wildest dreams.
Thanks to all of you we have contracted with Mark and Susan Schuler to take on the responsibility of the new House Parents for the Majken Broby Children's Home. I'm sure those of you who have met them know first hand what a difference they have made in the lives of these children. There are currently 18 children who reside at the home either because they have no family or their family situation is not appropriate for children.
This year has seen Laura and her sister Berta be reunited with their Father and brothers in Coxen Hole. The Fund continues to support their education and uniforms for school. Carla has moved to San Pedro Sula with her Mother. The situation is now safe enough for these girls to live with a parent.
The Fund continues to provide the children at the home with fresh bottled water. The visitors to Roatan, both divers and cruise ship guests have showered the Children's Home and school with many needed items. The highlight of the year for the children was the shipment up 6 large standup fans at the home.
The kids all started the new school year on Feb 6th. Alex is in "college" now and 5 of the children go to the bilingual school.
The most important gift we could give these children is an education. As most you know the major business on the Island is the tourist trade and it is necessary to learn English to get reasonable employment. The cost of the bilingual school is $75 US dollars a month, very expensive, but we believe it is the best way for these children to be able to support themselves in the future.
The Alnaldo Auld school now has 520 children enrolled (9 of the children from the Children's Home attend this school). This year we delivered over 1000 pounds of school supplies to them. This year all the children will be able to have their own pencils and notebooks. We also delivered school supplies to The Jose Santos Guardiola school in Punta Gorda and gave school supplies to the children whose 17 homes were destroyed in the fire in French Harbor.
The Arnaldo Auld school has just sent us an urgent request for $887 for wood to complete a room where they will store some books that will be delivered to them from the Honduran Government. They cannot accept the delivery of the books without a place to store them.
We continue to collect supplies for the Familias Saludables for children whos Mothers have AIDS. We started our first fundraiser this year. Board Member Bruce Brandt single-handedly (oops...Kathy too) put together our first Roatan Children's Fund calendar. It is a fabulous pictorial of Roatan and has many wonderful pictures of the kids at the Home. They are still available for a small donation of $20.
We have made a contact with a Rotary Club in California and La Ceiba, Honduras and look forward to working with them in the future.
This letter would not be complete without thanking our partners on Roatan, CoCo View Resort, Dockside Dive Center and Playa Miguel with a specials thanks to Yannie for all her hard work.
We have many more projects planned for this upcoming year and with your help we can continue making a difference for the children of Roatan.
Please consider a donation at this time in honor of our 1st Anniversary.