Fundraiser #19 is COMPLETE!!!

Carla's Fundaiser is now complete!!! Scratch fundraiser #19 off your list because she is taken care of!!!! Thank you to all who made this fundraiser a success! You are the bomb!

Fundraiser #19 Raffle & only $96 to go!

Don't forget that the deadline to enter the raffle for a penguin beanie baby to your sponsor child is tomorrow at 10AM CST (only 18 hours left!) I have two to give away, so I will be drawing two names. $1=1 raffle ticket. To enter, make your donation here. These 2 little penguins need a child's love. Won't you find them a home? :o)

Fundraiser #7~ Photos & Thank You

FINALLY! After months of waiting, then searching, and wondering where Jester's photos and thank you letter could have gone- They have finally been located (the scanned versions, anyway). As you can tell by the letter, Jester is very gratefull for the IGP. All of the stuff in the photos, along with the tropical background, makes me want to head to the beach!

Fundraiser Spotlight: #19

Carla's fundraiser is almost halfway to completion! That means only a little over $100 is needed to complete this project! I am making a special offer in order to get this one funded this month. Above, you will see a beanie baby. It's a cute little penguin. It can be sent to your sponsor child in HH4H, CUS, or CI (as long as they are in the Dominican Republic, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Philippines, or Honduras).

For only $1 you can enter the raffle to win one of these adorable penguins. I have 2 up for raffle, so I will draw 2 names & announce 2 winners!!! To enter, just make your donation to Carla's fundraiser by Wednesday 1/27 at 10 AM CST.

How you can help

To help Yamileisy and Jose Manuel, click here

To help Carla, click here

To help Michelle, click here

Eveline Germain is in need of a sponsor. She is 8 years old and attends the preschool class in Danda. She has 1 brother & 6 sisters. She needs a very special sponsor. Details below...

I decided to break down and make my "How you can help" post. With all that is going on, I could use all of the help I can get! So here are some ways you can help. Depending on what works for you and how much time you have, here are the things that are needed:

1. There are 3 fundraisers currently. There are so many ways to help with those:

a. Donate to the fundraisers.

b. Add a link to the fundraisers on the signature line of your e-mails to family, friends, coworkers, etc. You would be surprised at how many people will say, "Hey, I saw your link, what is it about?" You have now opened a discussion for fundraisers & new sponsorships!

c. Add a fundraiser link to your social networking sites: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Blogger, Google & Yahoo Groups, among others.

2. I need someone that can do up some FirstGiving pages for me for our upcoming fundraisers. This can be done in whatever spare time you have. Once you figure out the site, the whole process shouldn't take more than 15 minutes per page. I will have a little under 20 pages that need to be set up between now and March. If that is something you can help with, please contact me for start up details.

3. The little girl shown above, Eveline Germain is in need of a special sponsor. She is in the HH4H program and recently lost her sponsor. The HH4H crew is concerned about her health, so they do not want her to be without a sponsor. She remains small, even though she has gotten older. This is why the crew is concerned. If you have space in your heart for this little girl, please send an e-mail to Jamie at jamie@hishandsforhaiti.org

4. I am starting another group called MIC- Mothers Inspiring Change. This group will be based on the whole IGP process that we have done for our families through the fundraisers. The difference is that this group will partner with a group of mothers to provide them with a business. The business will provide income for 15+ mothers and their families (there are 15 mothers right now ready to get started, but we will probably have more mothers total in the business by the time it starts). How can you help? I need someone who has set up web-sites before to put together a web site for this group. It will be similar to the one we have for the MAC group. Someone with experience in IGP's and east africa is preferred but not necessary. If you can provide this service, please contact me for start up info.

5. You can donate items to raffle/ sell in the web store that can provide money for our fundraisers. Sara S is a good example of this- She provided 25 barbie-like dolls that have already provided over $100 to the fundraisers! There are still dolls she donated that are waiting to be bought, so after all of them sell, she will have given $200 to the fundraisers!! Donations should be mailed to: Make a Change, c/o Heather McLaughlin, P O Box 847, Anna, TX 75409

I am going to go ahead and post this, so that you can see what is needed. I may have some more things to add about helping later, so I will put those in a new post if that happens.

Please keep me posted about Eveline Germain, as well, so that I know when she has a sponsor. Thanks!!!

By the way, of those who have children in the HH4H program, do any of you have children in Danda? If so, send me an e-mail. There is another special project in the works for the Danda children.

More Help for Haiti

Pamica Jean, age 7

Jolanda Geffrad, age 7

Mikerange Chery, age 7
Mikerange Joseph, age 7

Very Great News!!! Several of the Haitan children shown last night now have sponsors!!! I know these girls will be taken quickly as well. Just remember that these children are very young, therefore, you probably will not get letters until they are older. The illiteracy rate in Haiti is very high. It is possible that the parents of these children can not read or write. If you send a letter, they children will get it. If they can't yet read, it will be read to them. It is possible that they might color a picture or something, but it is probably be to gently prompt them about how much it would mean to you to get a picture from them (plus, send some paper, crayons, etc).

The main thing is that because of you, these children will be able to get an education!

Now, for an update on the children that were posted yesterday:

Barbara took Islande Demesva

Sara S took Rose-Guerlande Decimus

Sara S took Djerlinx Gomez

Stephanie took Rose-Mirlene Volmar

If you would like to sponsor one of these children, please send an e-mail to jamie@hishandsforhaiti.org Put the child's name in the subject line and give your name, address, and state your intention to sponsor child "x"

Coming up next- the little men of the group!

Current Fundraisers 1/15/10

#18 is for Yamileisy and Jose Manuel's family in the Dominican Republic to start a business. They need about $330 more to start the business. Here is the link

#19 is for Carla in Chile. The fundraiser is almost halfway to completion with only a little over $100 to go!! Here is the link

#20~ Is for Jerry's family in the Philippines. They only need $100 to buy a table, cabinet & family-sized mosquito net. Here is the link

Sara S. capped off fundraiser #15 yesterday!!! YAY!! Now Maria & Ullysette will get the beds and food they need. Thank you, every one who helped make that happen for these two precious children!

These are the 3 fundraisers we now have going on. I expect them to fund quickly. 2 of them are almost complete, so it shouldn't take long. We have lots of families waiting in line, so I am anxious to get these completed ASAP. (20 more families are waiting for us- Can you believe it!?)

I will be adding some funds that I have today. Please join me in helping these 3 families. I think we can get at least one of these funded today, and the more we fund, the more people we can help!!

Thank you again for all you do! Have I ever told you how much I appreciate each and every one of you? Well, If I haven't...

I APPRECIATE YOU TREMENDOUSLY!!!!

**By the way, the money made from the princess dolls discussed in the post right before this one will be donated immediately! That being said, 8 dolls have already been purchased, and $64 has been donated to the fundraisers listed above. That means it will be even easier to get these funded!!

Three Active Fundraisers

Carla's fundraiser only needs $148 more!!!

Jose Manuel & Yamileisy's fundraiser needs $410.40

Maria & Ullysette's fundraiser only needs $74!!!

Look at how close we are to finishing Robyn's fundraiser!! I know we can finish it off this week- probably even today!! Stephanie's fundraiser only needs a little over $100, too! After one of these fundraisers funds, I will launch the next one. The next one is only for $100, so we are moving right along!!

If you have a fundraiser coming up, please make sure your donations match up with what you need to have donated before your fundraiser begins. I had to stop my inventory of donations because the end of the year got hectic, but I will be back counting again in a few days. I want to make sure that everyone is doing their part to help everyone else. The 3 people with fundraisers coming up soon whose doantions I have not checked yet are:

Tamara

Cherise

Kate

Please double check your donations and make sure that you have already donated your 25%, so that your fundraisers can go off as planned.

Also, I have been adding more items to the web store. I will go more in depth about the web store in my next post. Check out the store and you will see many new things! I am adding more candy & games a little later in the week. Here is the store link

Fundraiser #19 has launched!

Meet Carla! Carla is one of Stephanie's sponsor children in Chile. Stephanie would like to set the family up with an IGP. She has already raised most of the funds on her own. We would like to raise $200 to provide the items for the store.

You all know how I feel about Income Generating Projects, and this one is no different. This could change their lives! This would make purchasing food and other necessities a whole lot easier.
To show Stephanie your support, here is her fundraiser:

http://www.firstgiving.com/happyhogfarm

Thanks in advance!

Jester's Fundraiser~ Update!

We only have $193 to go for Jester's IGP fundraiser to be complete!!! We have come a long way. Though I have not received the info needed to start Wilfredo's fundraiser, I want to make sure that his fundraiser can start as soon as I get what I need from CI... I have big hopes that it will come this week.

With that being said, I have something to sweeten the fundraiser. In addition to getting the raffle tickets for the blanket that Stephanie knitted, I am offering something. For everyone who donates $50 or more, I will send you a keychain (like the ones above) with your sponsored child's photo. On this keychain, there is room for 2 different photos (one on each side).

Even better, you can include the amount you have already donated!!! Make sure that after you donate, you send me your name and address & photo attachments in an e-mail. Please allow 4 to 6 weeks for processing. Thank you, everyone for your continued support of our children!!!

Welcome to Project #7!!

If you were a sponsor in April of 2008, you may remember Jester. He was in a slideshow of children waiting for sponsors: http://www.children.org/flash/WaitingChild08/slideshow-WaitingChild-4-15-08.asp
Stephanie became his sponsor, and has been sponsoring him now for 1 year.

A message from Stephanie:

Jester lives in Tabaco, Philippines. He is almost thirteen. I sponsored Jester when he was featured in a slideshow of children who had been waiting for over two years for a sponsor. My son considers Jester to be his sponsor child. They write letters back and forth and have a great relationship. It's amazing how well they connect when they are worlds apart in so many ways.
Jester is a wonderful, funny boy. He shares his hopes and dreams in his letters to us. Recently, Jester was chosen to be on his school's ping pong team. He worked very hard with his coach after school. Jester's team ended up winning the tournament and he won a trophy. We were very proud of his hard work and dedication!
Jester's home has a dirt floor, tin roof and concrete walls. Jester sleeps on a mat on the floor. The cooking is done over an open fire and the family uses a community latrine and community water faucet. Jester has three brothers (two older and one younger). His father has abandoned the family. Jester's mother Agnes works as a maid in another city. She would like to open a business with a friend in which she will sell ready to wear clothing. She will sell the clothing at a stall in the local market. This business will enable her to live with her sons who currently live in Tabaco with their Grandmother. The money we raise will be the capital needed to purchase the clothing for Jester's mother's Income Generating Project.

Here is the link to the first fundraiser over the $200 limit: http://www.firstgiving.com/clothingsalesigp This one was actually project 11, so that is why it is close to $500. The other smaller fundraisers will begin as soon as the information for them is received from the field offices.