Fundraiser #37 Has Launched!

Fundraiser #37 is for Adriana in Colombia.  The fundraiser will provide a bunk bed and single bed that will be enough for Adriana and her 2 siblings to sleep on.  Right now, all of the girls and the mother sleep in one bed while the one boy and his father sleep on a mat on the floor.  As you might imagine, this fundraiser will help the family immensely!  To donate to this fundraiser, visit Adriana's fundraising page here  Thank you for helping this deserving family!

Fundraiser for Ana is Complete! Thank you!!

Just in the nick of time, John completed Ana's fundriaser!  Now she will get her bed in January!  Yay!  Thank you all for helping Ana to get a good night's sleep!

Christmas Package Received- Diego in Ecuador

The Christmas package to Ecuador arrived just in time.  Here is Heather G's sponsor child Diego with a BUNCH of Christmas stuff. 

Only $50 more needed!!

http://www.firstgiving.com/wardrobe4ana

We only need $50 to complete Ana's project!  If we can pull this off in the next 3 days, she will get her bed, dresser and clothes in January!  If you can help Ana, please visit her fundraiser using the link below.  Even $1 helps!!  Thanks so much!

Vernon family- CHILDHOPE-ZAMBIA

Translation by Chim:
I asked the lady in the video what her name was. She told me that she was Banji Moonga and the children in the video were hers. I asked her if the children were in school and she told me that they were not and they would start next term when everybody else opens school. I asked her the name of the child in green gum boots. She told me that the boy`s name was Joseph Moonga while the small girl was Charity Moonga. Asked how we would help her children, she told me that the children require books, school fees, shoes etc. I asked the lady how the health of her children was. She told me that the smallest girl`s body temperature gets high and she usually develops Malaria. If you would like to sponsor Charity (#1122) or Joseph Moonga (#1121), send a e-mail to macandmic@gmail.com To see more about this great organization in Mazabuka, Zambia, visit www.childhopezambia.blogspot.com

Christmas Visit Between Mack & Barbara

Post from Barbara:

In a previous article last year you may have read about CI and ChildHope Zambia sponsors Macky and her Mum, Carolanne (who made the lovely quilt for Macky's recent raffle), from Washington State and Barbara from Vancouver, Canada meeting in Vancouver for an Halloween visit.. This Xmas they visited again this time for two days with Macky's grand-mother, Dorothy, a spry 80 year old in order to take in the sights and lights of Chrismas in Vancouver. We had great plans for a carol cruise, the Bright Nights in Stanley Park and several other sites.

 Unfortunately, since everything was booked ahead with so many other prospective visitors all descending on the same sites we could not get tickets for the 'children's Xmas train ride' until nine p.m. but we filled in the time taking several photos of the many beautiful lighted Xmas scenes. Since both Macky and I have two little boys in Zambia we tried to find appropriate photos to take which wasn't hard to do since there was such a variety. Because two of the proposed raffle prizes, the Grinch and his dog Max, were not claimed we were going to send the Grinch to Macky's sponsored boy, Fanwell and his dog Max to my child, Maxwell. So, naturally when we saw the Grinch in lights we had to have our photo taken with him to send to our boys. We also took other photos to show them how Christmas is celebrated in the West and also the igloo to teach them about the Eskimos and penguins.

After filling our stomachs at a well-known chinese restaurant we returned to Stanley Park to take our turn on the Xmas train.. We had thought there there might be fewer people for the last rides but, boy we wrong!! There were literally thousands of people all hoping to get on the last rides and mostly adults like ourselves. We had to wait in line for almost two hours with Dorothy and I frozen to a park bench under a blanket until Macky and Carolanne made the front of the line. It was a lot of fun on the train with the music, some brave people singing carols and the many lights and scenes set amongst the forest portion of the park. Here are a few photos for your enjoyment and Happy Xmas to all our sponsors.

Christmas Gift- Cost= only 30 cents a day!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

And the Winner for Day 12 is...

Maria and Roland!!  Katja writes:  "This time I also used random.org like some of the others did. There were 74 raffle tickets as follows:


Sara 1 - 5

Amanda 6

Maria and Roland 7 - 31

Inga 32 - 36

Steve 37 - 61

Heather 62 - 69

Jim and Mack 70 - 74

The winning number is 20 = Maria and Roland! Congratulations!

A big thank you for everybody, who donated for Ana's fundraiser! It's so great to see how many people already helped.

Katja"

December 2010 Fundraiser Update

I wanted to give everyone an update on how our MAC funraisers are fairing.  We currently have 2 active fundraisers that you can donate to.  Remember 100% of your donation is tax deductible, so get in your donation before the end of the year!

35. Candace- Maria* current fundraiser- we need $230 more to complete this fundraiser.  To help us reach this goal, visit http://www.firstgiving.com/igpformaria

36. Katja~ Ana Gabriela in Guatemala- current fundraiser- we need $124 more to complete this fundraiser.  To help us reach our goal, visit: http://www.firstgiving.com/wardrobe4ana

37. Candace~ Adriana in Colombia

38. Cherise~ Sabrata in India

39. Barbara~ Miguel in Mexico- COMPLETED 12/13/10!!

40. Bernie~ Josselyn in Ecuador

41. Shana ~ Sonia & Yiseth in Colombia

42. Dorothee ~ Sayonika in India

43. Heather G ~ Diego in Ecuador

44. Holly ~ Yoselyn in Honduras

45. Jennifer~ Santanu in India

46. Candace~ Johel in Colombia

47. Mack ~ Mercy

48. Inga ~ Yuselfi in Colombia

And the Winner for Day 11 is...

Thanks for your donations to Mercy everybody! We got a great start on her fundraiser for later when her turn comes up at #47!

I'm really, really busy today (and no family members are in the raffle), so I skipped shooting a video of my Random.org visit. You'll just have to trust me (and the laws of statistics) when I announce that JOHN is the lucky winner. Hooray! John gets to choose between two quilts and a set of Dr. Suess stuffed toys!

Thanks again, everybody!

Mack

And the Winner for Day 10 is...

Mack! Congratulations! Thanks to Mack and Sara for adding some funds to help get a laptop for the Zambian office after the other was stolen. We still need a little under $500, but we are one step closer!

On the 12th Day of Christmas...

This raffle is for Ana in rural Guatemala again. The prize consists of the following Germany /Christmas themed items:

- 1 dark-blue mug with a winter motive (bought at a Christmas market in Cologne)
- 1 rubber duck, which is dressed as a clown and is holding a beer and the Cologne Cathedral
- 8 cork coasters with pictures of Germany / Rhine river
- 1 bar of Lindt Christmas chocolate (with almonds, cinnamon and coriander)
- 20 tea bags of winter tea (fruit)
- 5 tea bags to make mulled wine
- German lebkuchen (gingerbread)
I might also include some postcards of Germany for those who wish them.

Ana's fundraiser is here: http://www.firstgiving.com/wardrobe4ana . For every $1 you will receive one raffle ticket. You have until December 13th at 10PM CST to get in on this raffle.

And the Winner for Day 9 is...

Barbara!!! Congratulations! Barbara, you know the drill =) Contact Candace and let her know your info. Thanks for everyone's dedication!

On the 11th Day of Christmas...

Today's raffle is for your choice between two Christmas quilts (made/donated by Carolanne Miller), both with colorful, soft flannel backing or a set of stuffed toys.

The first quilt (smaller) is mostly red and green, with sparkly (glitter?) blue snowflake squares.

The second (larger) one is nicknamed the "9-11 Quilt", because it was made with fabric issued post-September of 2003 when our nation was feeling especially patriotic. This might not be a good choice for a blanket to send to a sponsored child (or for a Canadian), because if you look closely you'll see that the ornaments decorating the material are Red/White/Blue and the little snowmen are wearing "US flag" clothing. There are also flags around the quilt's border.

The 3rd option is two cute and soft Dr. Suess toys - the loveable "Grinch", and his even more loveable dog "Max". These stuffed animals will make an awesome Christmas gift when combined with a copy of the book "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (don't worry, he gives it back at the end).

The raffle will benefit Mercy in Zambia. You may remember that she is the little one that is in need of a bed. Mercy and her siblings currently sleep on mats on the floor. Beds will give them a better night's sleep and allow them to hang mosquito nets safely over the frames. To help Mercy and get a chance to win one of these gift quality quilts, simply donate here by December 12th at 10PM CST:

http://www.firstgiving.com/help4mercy

$1 gets you one 1 raffle ticket. The more you donate, the more chances you have to win!

On the 10th Day of Christmas...

Doll #1

Doll #2

Doll #3

Today's fundraiser raffle is for any of the 3 active CHILDHOPE fundraisers* we currently have going on. The winner will have their choice of the following items:

Doll #1 shipped to you or your sponsor child in the CHZ program!

OR

Doll #2 shipped to you or your sponsor child in the CHZ program!

OR

Doll #3 shipped to you or your sponsor child in the CHZ program!

OR

Set of 3 beautiful handmade African necklaces for you or to be shipped to CHZ.

OR

$20 credit to be used on anything in our Etsy store

OR

$20 gift card!

Is that enough choices to pique your interest? To enter the raffle, send an e-mail to macandmic@gmail.com Then, I will send you an invoice for the amount you wish to pay toward any one of our 3 causes. And $1 gets you 1 raffle ticket until December 11th at 11PM CST. The more you donate the more chances you have to win!!!

By the way, in order to up the ante, anyone who donates $2o or more will automatically get their choice of a necklace made by our MIC group- regardless of who wins the raffle!

*The 3 current fundraisers that you can choose to donate to are:

1. wheelchair for Kaonde. Kaonde is the young man that is currently using crutches to walk. If you watch the video, you will see the strain it is for him to walk with crutches. He really needs a wheelchair, and this will help him to continue his education. His wheelchair is adult size because he is 20 years old, so we need to raise $785 for this. You can see his video here: http://childhopezambia.blogspot.com/2010/10/meet-kaonde-wasco.html

2. laptop- The Zambian laptop was stolen, and we need another $500 in order to replace it.

3. feeding- This will be used to purchase food for distribution and during the medical exams.

And the Winner for Day 8 is...

(We are still waiting for the results of raffle #8. They will be posted as soon as they are received.)

Barbara writes:

Without a scanner or knowledge to work a complicated computer programme the draw was done old fashioned and done on the honour system. Each person who participated in the raffled was given a raffle ticket for each dollar donated and their names deposited in a bowl. Then, my elderly neighbour, Jack, without looking picked a name out of the bowl and the name drawn was........John. So, many thanks to him and others who also participated in helping Miguel's family to open their own small business. I know they will be delighted. John please let me know what you would prefer either the $20.00 donation to a fund-raiser of your choice or the leather cushion covers.

Many thanks

Cheers

Barbara

On the 9th Day of Christmas...

Today's raffle is for a $20 donation to any fundraiser of your choosing (this could mean that you would be able to put $20 into another raffle for another chance to win as well!).

OR

Two small or one large soft real leather cushion covers from Morocco. The larger one is a light brown colour - about 17 inches across and when stuffed 2 inches high hand tooled with squares and gold stars. The two smaller covers are about eleven inches across and one inch high. One is dark green with similar tooling to the larger one and the other is a cream colour with a central gold tooled star and square and eight extensions ending in a decorative square. These would make an exotic gift for the person who has everything but loves decorating their house with eclectic items.

The raffle will benefit Miguel in Mexico. His family would like to start a business selling milk, soda, and tortillas. Every $1 gets you one raffle ticket. To enter the raffle, click here to donate by December 10th at 10PM CST:

http://www.firstgiving.com/generalstoreigp

Good luck!

And the Winner for Day 7 is...

Maureen! Maureen, let me know which one of the prizes you would like. Also, everyone who donated $20, make sure to tell me your necklace choice =) Ya'll rocked this fundraiser!! We raised $125 in less than 24 hours for this deserving young boy- and that $125 is matched to bring the total raised today to $250!! Then, add that to the total we raised during the first raffle ($76), and that is $326!! The wheelchair will cost $500, but if we can come up with just $87 more by Saturday, we can still get the dollar for dollar match!

I appreciate all of those that came out to help with this wheelchair purchase. This will be the best Christmas ever for a sweet 8 year old in Mazabuka!

On the 8th Day of Christmas...

Today's raffle is for a $30 Amazon gift card or a $30 donation to the winner's fundraiser. $1 gets you one raffle ticket and every dollar counts. Make sure to get in to get a chance to win! The more you donate, the more chances you have.

The fundraiser this raffle is benefitting is Johel and Sebastian in Colombia. They need home repairs and a bunk bed. As you can see, the bed that Johel sleeps in is too small for him (it is a crib!)

To enter the raffle and help these two boys get a comfortable bed to sleep in, donate here:
http://www.firstgiving.com/bunkbedfor2brothers

On the 7th Day of Christmas...

Doll #1 is 12" long with shiny milk chocolate brown skin

Doll #2 is a mommy doll with baby and beautiful chocolate brown skin. The baby can ride on hr mother's back or tummy. Mommy is 17" long and baby is 6".

Doll #3 is a Spanish-style doll with black hair and cream pearl skin. She is 17" long

The necklaces below are the traditional east African necklaces around 60" long and can be doubled and tripled up depending on how long you want the necklace to be.

Today's raffle is for Hanatonga. Remember that he is the little boy in Zambia that is in desperate need of a wheelchair. We need to raise a little over $200 to make his Christmas dream come true! Up for raffle to make this happen are your choice of the following items:

Doll #1 shipped to you or your sponsor child in the CHZ program!

OR

Doll #2 shipped to you or your sponsor child in the CHZ program!

OR

Doll #3 shipped to you or your sponsor child in the CHZ program!

OR

Set of 3 beautiful handmade African necklaces for you or to be shipped to CHZ.

OR

$20 credit to be used on anything in our Etsy store

OR

$20 gift card!

Is that enough choices to pique your interest? To enter the raffle, send an e-mail to macandmic@gmail.com Then, I will send you an invoice for the amount you wish to pay toward Hanatonga's wheelchair. Remember that your donation is matched dollar for dollar!! And $1 gets you 1 raffle ticket until December 8th at 10PM CST. The more you donate the more chances you have to win!!!

By the way, in order to up the ante, anyone who donates $2o or more will automatically get their choice of a necklace made by our MIC group- regardless of who wins the raffle!

And the Winner for Day 6 is...

...Sara. Holly used random.org to pick a winning number = 3
Sara 1-5
Heather G 6-10
Jim & Mack 11-15
Heather M 16-20

Congratulations, Sara on winning the digital photo keychain! Now you can show off our fair pictures to eveyone at work. LOL! (side note from Heather M)

And the Winner for Day 5 is...

Thanks so much to everyone who donated to Mercy's fundraiser! We raised $95 toward the cost of her bunkbeds/blankets! I used random.org to select a raffle winner, the results of which are shown on this incredibly boring silent video. For those of you who do not have the time/desire to watch an incredibly boring silent video, I'll go ahead and give away the ending. The winner of the MP3 player is ... Congratulations to the Ladenberger family! (The only Facebook friends who responded to my plea for contributions) Thanks again everybody, and see you all next time!
Mack
PS: A video isn't absolutely necessary when using random.org (we all trust each other, right?), but since my father was a contender, I thought it would be best to have "proof" if he happened to win.

On the 6th Day of Christmas...

Today's raffle is for:

Tao Digital Photo Key Chain
It comes in 6 different colors: blue, pink, purple, red, black & gray
1.5-Inch TFT photo display (128x128)
8MB internal memory, save 100 photos
Rechargeable Battery
USB 1.1; no memory cards
PC / MAC Compatible
a perfect gift for your family member or sponsored child

The fundraiser the raffle is benefitting is Yoselyn and will help her mother start her own business. You get 1 raffle ticket for every $1 you donate to
http://www.firstgiving.com/vendingigp You must donate by 10PM CST on December 7th in order to qualify for the raffle. Good luck!

And the Winner for Day 4 is...

Heather G used random.org to choose a number which was 29.

Sara 1 -5
Melinda 6 -10
Heather 11-15
Barbara 16-20
Katja 21-25
Jim & Mack 26-35

Congratulations! More fun raffles to come! Thank you to all who have helped!

On the 5th Day of Christmas...

"Hi" to all you blog-followers!

Today's raffle is for an Ematic 2GB MP3 Video Player with 1.5" Screen! This small, but useful, device makes a great gift for a loved one - especially if you pre-load it with special photos, videos, or songs.

An MP3 player is also a great gift for an older sponsored child. I have purchased one each for my two teenage boys in Honduras, and I will be loading the players with some of their favorite music + the videos that I took of them during our water park trip. Not only will these be fun and personalized gifts, but they are also little, light, and cheap to mail!

The Ematic MP3 Video Player up for raffle is bright green, because green is my favorite color. Please see the description below (stolen from Amazon.com):

Product Description
This player has 2GB Capacity and 2GB Flash Memory, which stores up to 1000 songs, hours of videos or hundreds of pictures. The built-in FM Tuner and recorder lets you listen to your favorite radio stations and record songs right off the radio! It has a 1.5-Inch Color Display with Video Playback, and for easier navigation and viewing of artist and song titles, or playing your favorite videos and movies. Use the voice recorder to record lectures, notes or anything else. This includes Conversion Software so you can play MP4, AVI or MPG format videos. This also supports MP3, WMA, MTV, BMP, JPEG and Protected DRM Files. The Built-In Equalizer lets you tweak your music just the way you like it (Over 19 Different EQ options). The player has ID3 Tagging and Lyrics synchronization. The E-Book Function allows you to browse Text Files including Electronic books, TXT docs and more. The High Speed USB 2.0 Connection ensures quick transfer of music, videos and pictures onto the player. It also has a Hold button so you can place the player in your pocket without worrying. Languages supported: English, Spanish, French, Portugese, Hebrew and many more. PC and MAC compatible. Comes with a 1 Year Limited Warranty.

The proceeds from this raffle will go to help buy a set of bunk beds, so my Zambian child, Mercy, and her 3 younger siblings no longer have to sleep on a concrete floor.

Remember $1 = 1 raffle ticket. The more you give the more chances you get to win this awesome prize! To enter the raffle, make your donation here by 10PM CST on December 6th:
http://www.firstgiving.com/help4mercy

Thanks for your support, and good luck!

Mack

And the Winner for Day 3 is...

Barbara! Barbara, Candace wanted you to know you can take the $30 Amazon gift card or $30 towards your own child's fundraiser. Just e-mail her and let her know which you prefer.
Thank you to all who participated!!