Christmas

The kids at the Majken Broby Children's Home still urgetly need food. Please help us buy these special kids some fresh fruit www.roatanchildrensfund.com

A Letter from a Young Supporter

To: Roatan Children's Home

From: Aidan
Age 6
Vancouver, BC, Canada

May 3, 2010

For my sixth birthday party, instead of asking for gifts, I asked my friends to make a donation to the Roatan Children's Fund. We raised 55 Canadian dollars for the kids. I hope to visit Roatan one day and meet the children.

Yours Truly,
Aiden

Childrens Home urgently needs food.

Just got an email today today that with the downturn in the economy the donated food to the children's Home has decreased. They urgently need beans, rice and flour to make tortillas. Please visit our web site to make a donation today. http://www.roatanchildrensfund.com/

Lynn

ROATAN EARTHQUAKE

The "Roatan Earthquake" struck early Thursday morning offshore Roatan. The epicenter was less that 30 miles from the Island and from all reports certainly awoke the residents to violent shaking. Most of the damage so far seems to be broken glass and things falling off shelves. We do not have a lot of reports of major damage.
All the children of the Majken Broby Children's Home are fine and they had the day off Thursday since all the schools closed for the day. We have yet to hear about damage from all the outlying schools we help support. It may take several days to get those reports.
Thank you to all the folks who sent emails inquiring about the kids and asking if they needed help. Our biggest need at this time is money for bottled water and vitamins. We also have books, clothes, schools supplies and some supplies for Clinica Esperanza in the US that we could use help with shipping costs so we can get them to Roatan as soon as possible.

Lynn Fanelli

Thank you for your support

Dear Friends:

On behalf of Glen Solomon and the staff of the Majken Broby Children’s Home, I wish to take this opportunity to wish all of you a happy and healthy holiday season, while also expressing our most sincere and heartfelt thanks for all the love and kindness that you have shared with the kids here over the last year. The help that you have given them has made their lives brighter. I am happy to say that they are all doing very well, and they all completed a successful school year. Thanks for all you have done to give these children a better life, and may God bless each and every one of you.

Sincerely, for the Majken Broby Children’s Home,

Mark Schuler

New Playground at the Children's Home

The kids at the Majken Broby Children's Home are enjoying their new playground equipment. The playground equipment was supplied by the Roatan Children's Fund and was installed by Pastor David Goode and all the wonderful volunteers who helped make this project a reality.

Roatan Children's Home 2008 Update

Last year all the wonderful supporters of the Roatan Children’s Fund gave up their Starbucks lattes for the weekend in response to a plea when the last of the two washing machines at the Majken Broby Children's Home gave up the ghost. We raised over $3400 in one weekend. Not only were we able to replace both washing machines with new ones but we also replaced a clothes dryer and a refrigerator and we still had our money left over to purchase a new set of furniture for the great room and have the dining room chairs sanded and painted. We thank you for your support that made this all possible.

This year "Stepping Up and Reaching Out Ministries" will be on a mission trip working at the children's home. Headed up by Pastor David Goode they will be erecting 500 feet of chain-link fence around the children's home. This will accomplish the goals of keeping the children safe and discouraging unwelcome people from wandering onto the property where the children are playing. They have already purchased the materials for this effort.

The mission volunteers will also create and install a new playground area but do not have the funds for this project. We at the Roatan Children’s Fund have made a commitment to them to make the playground area a reality. So now we are asking all our friends and supporters to give up their Starbucks coffee for one weekend again and make a donation so the children at the Majken Broby Children's Home will have a safe and fun place to play.

Please help the children of the Roatan Children's Home by making

a donation towards the purchase of a new playground.

Christmas Present from eScrip

Santa just brought the children of Roatan a special present because we signed up for eScrip. http://www.escrip.com/program/3ways/index.jsp We just received notice of our first donation. Yes, it was only $2.72 but it was just because I went out to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants that is signed up on the eScrip program. So easy......there are most likely a lot of places you already shop or eat at that belong.
Lynn

Hapy Thanksgiving

Dear Friends of the Majken Broby Children’s Home:

As we come to the end of the year, it is traditional to pause and reflect on life’s successes and remaining challenges. The year 2007 was a good year for the Majken Broby Children’s Home, and it is only fitting for us to express to each and every one of you our heartfelt thanks for the love and support that you have shown to the kids over the last twelve months. Whether you helped with school supplies, tuition for the kids at the Methodist School, clothes, toys or other items, the kindness shown to these kids has been a tremendous encouragement to them and to us. On behalf of Director Glen and Mrs. Aminta Solomon, the staff and the kids, THANK YOU for EVERYTHING you did to make their lives better. May the Lord bless you as we move into 2008, a year of additional challenges and opportunities! We look forward to continuing to work with you on behalf of the children.

With much appreciation,
Mark and Susan Schuler
Majken Broby Children’s Home
Roatan, Honduras

Christmas In Roatan

Dear Supporters,

This year the Roatan Children's Fund is going to try to reach out and do a more extensive project for the Children of Roatan.

This past year has brought wonderful donations for the children of the Majken Broby Children's Home and lots of school supplies for the schools and the Healthy Family project. So, this Christmas we would like to branch to help more of the children on the Island.

Since shipping boxes down is so incredibly difficult and expensive (we still have to pay duty on all items brought into the country) I thought it would be good for people to take advantage of the back to school sales now and stock up on loss leaders that you can just put in your luggage on your next trip to Roatan. So many of the families on the Island are so poor that a gift of pencils, crayons, or children's vitamins are more valuable than toys. I know everyone wants to give gifts like toys but we have to be practical also and remember that we want to help improve lives with items that they need like educational supplies and vitamins and shoes to attend school.

The children at the Majken Broby Children's Home get Christmas gifts from a church group in Tampa .The Roatan Children's Fund will buy a one nice gifts for all of the 18 children, so they will have a Merry Christmas. We will also have 4 different Board members in Roatan during the 6 weeks before Christmas to help coordinate all this. Our goals would be to hand out gifts to the children in French Harbor and Los Fuertes. Ideas for toys would be stuffed animals, coloring books, crayons, toy trucks,Frisbees,small puzzles, soccer balls, underwear, playing cards, vitamins, hair clips, dress shoes for school ( black or white). There are children on Roatan that do not go to school because parents cannot afford to buy shoes and uniforms. We will collect everything at Playa Miguel and distribute them at Christmas.The school supplies will be distributed in February ( back to school.) Don't worry if you are not going down before February because this will be an ongoing project and we will store items for next year. This will solve the problem and expense of shipping.

If this goes as planned we will make sure that all the CoCo View/Playa Miguel employee's children get a nice gift from us at this time also.

Thanks,
Lynn
PS you can order your 2008 fundraising calendar by clicking on the button at the top of this email

Ribbons for Roatan

I went to Roatan in 2003 on a scuba diving vacation. It was a very exciting trip because I was traveling alone AND was scuba diving for the first time after becoming certified 11 years before. While in Roatan in 2003, I hired a taxi driver for half of a day and asked him to take me to an orphanage and then to places tourists normally don’t see. He took me to the Majken orphanage and he suggested that we stop on the way to pick up some candy for the kids. I gladly purchased lollipops to hand out to the kids. The children were thrilled and we played and talked (or I tried to communicate using my feeble Spanish skills) for a little over an hour. I found the children to be so warm and surprisingly happy. I am not exactly sure what I expected. When I left after my very brief visit, the children held a very special place in my heart. I have a framed photo of three of the children on a shelf on my stairway at home. I think of them often and they are a daily reminder of my experience in Roatan and to give back and make a difference, big or small. It had been a dream of mine to return to that orphanage and be able to make a slightly larger difference.
The opportunity to return to Roatan presented itself when I decided to change the destination of a course I run in a local high school. We have travelled to Belize in the past, but decided that Roatan was a good choice as well. The course is called Tropical Marine Field Study and curriculum-wise centers on learning about the coral reef and its inhabitants. The course is about so much more than coral reef ecology: it is about travelling to an exotic destination, learning to live with roommates, discovering and overcoming fears, experiencing a different culture, learning to not miss a spot on the back of your leg with sunscreen ?, and learning a life-long lesson on how amazing it feels to give to others and make a difference.
There were six of us in the group ( four wonderful students and a terrific colleague with her significant other). We decided to hold fundraisers to offset the cost of the trip and to donate to the children at the orphanage. Fifty percent of the funds that were raised went to the orphanage. We had five different fundraisers over the course of February, March, and a few weeks in April. The fundraisers included the following:
- Letters requesting sponsorship to local businesses and in return they would have free advertising space in our formal presentation evening program
- A bowl-a-thon which was not an ‘a-thon’ at all but an afternoon of 3 pathetic games for which we acquired sponsors
- Recycling of used ink cartridges and old cell phones through Funding Factory.com
- Free car washes where donations were appreciated
- Ribbons For Roatan, in which we made and sold turquoise colored ribbons to represent the orphanage and the spirit of donation. The color of the ribbons was chosen because of the beautiful ocean that surrounds Roatan.
After raising the funds, we decided to give both a check and gifts. We researched what the orphanage needed on the website and then had a ball selecting items to purchase. We filled three extra suitcases with gifts and toys. We felt that the children would experience the joy of new toys and games and have something tangible to be excited about. The check was important for possibly making a larger and longer lasting difference in their lives (for their education or health).
The experience at the orphanage was incredibly rewarding. The children’s eyes just danced with the new toys that were given to them (not all the toys were given at once, of course). We played with the kids and watched them play with the new toys. Among the new toys were matchbox cars. One of my students noted as one of the things she learned was that ‘every little boy in the world loves toy cars’.
It was easy to see that the children stole my students’ hearts and they too now have a special place in their heart for these children and the orphanage. It is hard to explain the lesson that my students learned on this day unless you yourself have experienced it too. They may not know the children of the Majken Childrens Home well, but they will always love them. As my students grow up and find their place in the world, I know that giving back and making a difference will be important to them. That is the most important lesson of all.
Thank you!
Jill Blasi

Children in need of Medical and Dental Help...

We have just learned that there are several children at the Children's Home who seem to have trouble reading and the concern is that they may have Eye Problems.

We would love to find an Eye Doctor who would be willing to stop by the Children's Home for a few hours to examine a couple of the kids.

Please email Lynn

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.

New pictures

Thank you to everyone who brought down the lanterns. Mark and Susan now say that the children have some light to see at night. They were very much appreciated.

This link is to a picture story that was done by Jill a Co Co View guest. It captures the reason we are trying to make a difference.

http://www.roatanchildrenshome.com/kidsphotostory.wmv

Lynn

Roatan Children's Home

Urgent need.

This email is by Mark Schuler, the House Parent at the Children's Home. Here is a link http://www.coleman.com/coleman/colemancom/detail.asp?product_id=5375-750&categoryid=1045
RECO, the electric company on Roatan has serious operational and financial woes. Several nights a week, they cut lights for hours at a time, and the ladies at the home are at wits end; it is tough to manage the kids when you can see them, and even tougher when you can’t. Would it be possible for someone to bring us about 6 nice, bright halogen or metal halide battery powered lanterns that we could have here for use during the outages? We have looked all over the island, and all I have been able to find is kerosene lamps, which I am reluctant to buy for safety reasons. If this could be worked out, it would be a huge help, and THANKS!!

Mark

Mr. Bill 1939-2006

Bill Evans December 11, 1931 - April 27, 2006 Age 74

Bill was an avid sailor, fisherman, and boatman, whose varied and colorful career included auto racing, auto body shop owner, aircraft pilot, flight school owner, lobster fishing, construction contractor and more. In 1982 Bill founded CoCo View Resort, a dedicated scuba diving resort in Roatan, Honduras and spent the next 24 years with his wife, Evelyn, managing that business as well as several others he founded in the Honduras Bay islands. He sold CoCo View in 2004 and returned to Ft. Myers where he continued to work in real estate and property development until the time of his death. Bill was predeceased by his son, Michael, and is survived by his wife of 56 years, Evelyn, and their 4 children: Terry, Linda, Jill, Jodi; 10 grandchildren, and 3 great grandchildren. He was a great friend and surrogate father to scores of others in two countries.There will be a memorial service, 13 May, 2006, 2PMNational Cremation Society3453 Hancock Bridge ParkwayNo. Ft. Myers, FL 33903239-995-1113Open to the PublicIn lieu of flowers, contributions should be made to the Majken Broby Children's Home in Roatan, Honduras: Roatan Children's Fund,1966 Tice Valley Blvd. #145Walnut Creek, CA 94595 Visit their web site at http://www.roatanchildrenshome.com.

NOTE FROM A VISITOR

I just received this email from Linda and asked her if I could share it with everyone.


"When planning our cruise of Feb 2005, I happened upon the cruisecritic website and learned of an orphanage in Roatan. (It was the other one, the one more reknowned that they were referring to.) When we arrived in port, we hired a wonderful cabdriver named Audrey and asked her to take us to the childrens home, and Majken Brophy was the one she took us to. It was a life changing experience for us ( my boyfriend and my two daughters, ages 31 and 27). I had taken a collection at work and the high school students had brought me school supplies and medicines to take with me. I had dropped off some of the school supplies at the school just down the road and took the rest of the items to the childrens home. "

new non profit to form

Wonderful mention in the CoCo View winter newsletter. Many thanks to Elizabeth for the write up and for all the behind the scenes she has been doing for the home.

Thanks to the overwhelming response from CoCo View quests and others who have found the web site, the Children’s home has gotten many of their much needed supplies.. The children had a wonderful Christmas and continue to receive items on their wish list and get many welcomed visits from adults. So many people have expressed a desire to help in other ways that we are faced with a question on what do we do from here.

We are now in the process of forming a Non-Profit Corporation that will support the continuing financial needs of the home. As most of you already know the remaining 2005 tuition for 8 of the children who attend the bilingual school was payed for by a CoCo View guest and CoCo View will pay for all of the 2006 tuition for the 8 children who currently attend. The goal of the new Non-Profit Corporation will be to help even more of the children attend school, cover the expense of uniforms, books, school lunches and transportation to school.

The Non-Profit Corporation will pay the electric bill, medical, dental and other ongoing expenses. The home is in urgent need of plumbing repairs and as you can imagine any home with 26 children has need for constant attention. Long term, the home needs some kind of security fence around the property and the washer and dryer will need replacing soon.

To keep in the good graces of the IRS we will pay all the bills directly to the suppliers. There are restriction to how this is done and we want to maintain the non profit standing so the donations will be tax deductible for US citizens and also be eligible for matching funds by many large corporations. There will soon be a PayPal button on the web site and an address where folks can send checks.

All the set up costs and yearly administration costs will be paid by a private donor so everyone can be satisfied that ALL the money donated will go to the children’s care. An audit will be done once a year and the financials will be available for anyone to view.

We would welcome all your ideas on how to continue to help these children.

Thanks,

Lynn Fanelli

Update

We have just updated the web site with new information on the ages of the children and a new list of items needed. There was such a wonderful response at Christmas time that the home has many of the past items listed. Right now they still need clothes to go to church.
We are also working on a new way to make cash donations since so many people have expressed a desire to help pay for more education and help with some much needed repairs. We are working to get this information as soon as possible.
Thank you. We are making a difference.

Christmas for Children

Wow, what a Christmas for the children. Thanks to so many CoCo View guest the children had new toys, clothes, dvd's and many, many more gifts. Thank you to everyone who sent gifts and to the guests who went grocery shopping and spent time visiting the children.

Now for the even better news.......Nancy Panther told a friend of hers that she was going to visit the children when she was at Coco View at Christmas with her family. Her friend Pam gave her some money and told her to spend it on the children. Well, Nancy and Pam paid the remainder of the tuition bill for 2005 for the 8 children who go to the bilingual school. Now for even more news.... CoCo View has offered to pay for the ALL the tuition for the 8 children for 2006. No wonder so many of us think of CoCo View as our "home" . What wonderful news. Now the children have the opportunity to continue to learn English so they will have a better chance of employment on an Island that depends so much on the travel industry. Thank you so much.

Now even more news......Cynthia Cheak , a friend of mine who works for Dell, is helping me pay for a new laptop computer. The webmaster is going to load it up with learning games. So if anyone has kids games for math , english or other subjects let me know. Since I don't have kids I don't know about this stuff.

Thank you all so much......we are making a difference.

Now we have to work on the plumbing.........that's another day.

Lynn

Missed call

Maria,

you called me yesterday and left me a message on my phone. Please call back as I did not get the phone # to return your call. Please also leave the # in English if you can. Or email me your #. You can email me in Spanish.

Lynn

Christmas gifts on the way

Joe Hamm and dive buddy Wayne who visited the home in September during their week of diving at Co Co View wanted to do some Christmas shopping for the children. They enlisted their friends Heather & Jason, Diane & Chris, Lauren & Chris, Jeff and Joes mother. They all took a part of the children's list and went shopping. Now two large boxes are on the way to Roatan.

Lots of other CoCo View guests are also packing their suitcases with extra goodies for the kids. Everyone's help will make a great Christmas for the children. I understand that some letters are on the way to me. I will post them her as soon as I get them.

Notes from CoCo View guests

my hubby and i just got back from our 1st trip to ccv last sat. night.

we had a superb time at the resort with great weather and awesome diving!



one of our week's highlights was our visit to the children's home on friday afternooon. we hired luis ( the cab driver) to take us to see them.

we had a 50lb bag of goodies that we lugged all the way from our home here in canada.

when we drove up to the home, one of the boys peeked in the cab, saw two white people and went "YIPPPPPPPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"!

what sweet and wonderful kids. i got hugs and kisses like crazy!

we distributed the goodies and visited for about an hour.



one of the older girls gave me a card to take back to my daughter as a thank you for all the dolls she sent down for them. my daughter is 12 and would like to become penpals as well. aminta gave me their address and i have the names of all the kids but not their ages. i'm hoping to get my friend's kids going on being penpals as well.



anyways, it's definately worth lugging and extra suitcase or two done for those sweeties. i look forward to seeing them again.



michele
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We just got back from a great week at CoCo View. We are a family of four with 2 teenage boys. We visited the Children's Home on Friday afternoon and it was a moving experience. The home sits across from the waterfront and while we were there, two huge cruise ships were moored just to the east in full view of the front yard.

We skipped the island tour($25) offered at CoCo View and hired a cab at $10 per person to drive us. Yannie took us to Eldon's supermarket and shopped with us for food staples and cookies for the kids. We had a great tour through Coxen Hole on the way. It was well worth the trouble because the kids were so happy to see us, proud to show us their home and were bright eyed and said thank you many times.

We took Barbie's and small Cars for each child. If you look at the website , many of the kids want computers. On further explanation, what they want are the learning toys from companies like V-Tech for helping with English, colors, math etc.


From Beth Melone

Thanksgiving Day 2005

It is Thanksgiving Day in the United States and we all have much to be thankful for. The children of Roatan do not celebrate Thanksgiving Day but I do know that they are thankful for all the wonderful folks who have contacted me in recent days inquiring about what the children would like for Christmas. There is a new list written by one of the older girls that you can view by clicking on THE CHILDREN on the home page. Than clicking on WHAT THE CHILDREN NEED. Also click on A NOTE FROM THE CHILDREN. I hope to have some new notes up soon.
Right now the need is for clothes for school and church.
Please contact me if you want any more information
Lynn Fanelli

Visit Nov, 4, 2005

Kathy and Bruce, two CoCo View guests and Yannie from Playa Miguel and myself visited the children on Friday. We delivered a van full of goodies ,much of it donated from the Gypsy Divers who were at Co Co view the week before. The supplies included new sheets for all the beds, toothpaste, shampoo, books , videos, dolls, stickers, clothes, shower curtains, soap, crayons, coloring books, towels, cough syrup, vitamins, band aids, combs, hair brushes , hair clips, toys and toothbrushes to last for a year. Each child also received a teddy bear.
We delivered a special box to Karla from Joanne who visited the home with me last trip.
On the way over we stopped at Eldon's and spent the $150 the guests left and we stocked up on rice, beans, powered milk, cereal, Mack and cheese and flour.
Bruce took a picture of each child and Keith the webmaster will post them on the web page as soon as he has time.
I am also working on a way we can write to the kids and can get letters back from them.
There will also be an updated list of what the home needs in the way of supplies.