Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Your donations have been distributed to the elderly (Click on the picture for larger view)


















Total amount of donations I was able to collect was $362. My mother collected $300 from her friends in New York, which brings a total of $662!!! That is $62 over our goal.
Upon my mom's arrival to Honduras this past July, she met with Sonia Argueta, who has been our point of contact in Honduras and went straight to work. My mom and Sonia were able to distribute corn,beans, rice,clothing, canned foods, flour,juices, blankets and babyfood to the elderly in the little town of San Jose de Colinas. As you can see in the pictures, items were placed in the plastic bags, loaded on a truck and distributed to the extremely poor elderly who have been abondened by their families. For two days they loaded the truck very early in the morning and drove to the mountains of San Jose De Colinas to hand out the bags. My mom would not stop telling me how these two days have been one of the most rewarding days of her life. She said she could not stop crying as they went from town to town visiting the elderly who have no electricity, running water and whose homes are about to fall down. Her heart would break as she would see the elderly who could barely walk trying to run towards the truck to be able to receive a bag. But what moved her the most was when an elderly man gave my mom a broom he made himself with his name signed on it to show his appreciation for the items he received. Since he could not give her money he wanted to giver her something he valued, something he was proud of, his new broom. I think he wanted to give back to the people who were helping him and this broom is the most he could do. Doesn't this break your heart? It sure does make me feel grateful for EVERYTHING I have. I always thought that I would do anything to support my family financially and wondered why there are some people who seem to be too lazy and rather die in their gloom and misery. But I never really thought about the people who are too old to physically be able to help themselves. It makes me think alot about my future when I grow old...
Over 700 bags were distributed!!! So please feel very proud for donating to this cause. I know there are millions of people who need help and it seems like 700 is not much BUT IT IS!
And I know I have said this before, but thank you so much for allowing my family to have this life changing experience. It has been so rewarding for us since we started doing this last year and I invite all of you to live your own experience. I think helping 700 people at a time is not bad, not bad at all. THANK YOU and thanks so much to my mom who basically has been finishing or executing the work that I get started ;-)

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Please help. Last Day to donate is June 15th (Click on picture to enlarge)

The lady above, her name is Arcenia. She is suffering from advanced stages of malnutrition and "CEPUDO" helps her with medicine and special milk she needs to be able to get better.
A volunteer dropping off bags of essentials to the elderly.
Sonia Argueta (the tall lady on the far right) has been my point of contact. She is an angel. I could never catch up to all the marvelous work she's done to help people in need.
I have no words for this picture. Please donate to the $5 pledge. Thank you.


I just received more pictures of elderly who need help. My point of contact, Sonia Argueta who belongs to an organization called "CEPUDO" helps tons of people in that town. I am trying to raise $600 to send to Honduras to help feed these people. I cannot do it alone so I'm kindly asking for your help. Looking at these pictures made me sick to my stomach knowing that there are people out there who live under these conditions. This makes me feel soooo grateful for EVERYTHING I have and for having my family in good health. It even makes me feel guilty everytime I throw food away. I would like to say, "I know one person cannot change the world" but when I think about it deeply I realize that statement is not true. So I'm saying "I know I can help change the world to a better place and so can you". My intentions are not to make you feel depressed but to hopefully open up your eyes a little more to what is going on around us. Thank you so much to all of you who helped me last year and who have helped this year also, thank you, thank you, thank you and I wish I could personally hug you. Thank you.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Yard Sale Sat. June 6th

Thanks to the people who donated things to sell for the yard sale. We sold a total of $244.47 yesterday. My family donated 40 hot dogs to sell and we were sold out, next year I'm going to have to buy more. Thank you to my friends who have committed to the $5 pledge. I've decided to set the goal to $600. I am completely confident we can reach this goal. Just think of all the people we can feed with this money!! I know we can do it!!!! This should be easy compared to the $3000 we raised last year. Don't forget June 15th is the last day to donate. Thanks soooo much!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

2nd Time helping Honduras

This is the line of elderly and single women waiting to get food and other basic supplies.
The line for the men.
My mom, Suyapa, with the white shirt. On her trip to Honduras last year, she helped distributing food.
My mom and another volunteer.
One of the elderly who survives because of programs like this who help people in need.


Hello guys,
Can you believe it's been a year since we helped the Alfaro family?! After doing this last year and receiving an overwhelming response from so many people and seeing how we changed a family's life, how can we not do it again this year. To be honest with you I have been extremely busy with so many other responsibilities that I almost felt I could not handle doing this again. But it just breaks my heart to miss out on the opportunity to help people who need it the most because I'm too "busy". So this year will be a little different. Instead of building a house for a specific family, I'm doing a fundraiser to get money to buy food which will be distributed to the elderly in the same little town of San Jose de Colinas, which is in the state of Santa Barbara in the country of Honduras. There are a lot of elderly and single women who live in the mountains which surround the town who are almost to the point of starvation. There is an organization who through donations buy the essentials such as, corn, beans, rice and blankets for these individuals to help them survive. A lot of these elderly people have been abondened by their children and relatives and they have to provide for themselves. As you can imagine this is very difficult for most due to sickness and simply old age.
My mother will be going to Honduras again the end of June to spend the summer there and she will be in charge of taking the money and buying the food supply. And because she is going it is the perfect opportunity knowing that I will be giving the money to someone who I trust 100%. I could spend all summer trying to raise money and then sending the money but I rather have my mom there dealing with the money herself, that way there is no doubt that all the money gets used to buy supplies for these people. Just like my mom did last year when we raised money to build a house for the Alfaro family.
Plan of attack: Same as last year. I'm doing a yard sale this Saturday June 6th and everything I sell will be donated. I will also sell Hot dogs and soda during the yard sale which was a success. I am also asking friends and neighbors to donate their old stuff or anything they want to donate for the yard sale. Honestly I barely have stuff to sell since I sold it all last year. So, please donate stuff if you have any. I'm also asking my close friends and anyone interested to join the $5 pledge. Last year I was able to raise most of the money through this venue. You can either give me a check, cash or donate through the link here for "paypal". Just so you guys know, paypal will keep .45 cents for every $5 donated. Unfortunatley paypal did not accept my paperwork to be categorized as a non-profit organization.
My family was so blessed for helping out last year that I just have to keep doing it. It was such a humbling experience words cannot express. And I really want to express my gratitude for all of you who trusted me with your money to help the Alfaro family last year. It means so much to me knowing you trust in me. So let's make this happen again guys, I truly cannot do it without you. June 15th is the last day to donate since I have to mail the money out to my mom in New York so she can take it with her to Honduras. I will kee posting in detail how the money is spent.

p.s. My mom will go visit the Alfaro family and I will give you guys an update on how they are doing and show pictures once she gets back from her trip.

Thank you so much for all your help.

People who have joined the $5 (or more) Pledge:
Amasio Family, Utah
Juileanne Nielsen, Utah
Christine Prieto, New York
Leach Family, Utah
Stewart Family, Utah
Pond Family, Utah
Bishop Family, Utah
Sydney Nielsen, Utah
Carson Family, Utah (You put us on the $300 mark, yeah!!!)
New York Donations:
Kawaljit chandi and vivian Pereira

Judith McAlister
Delva Brown
Cynthia Perez
Wendy vittini
Claudia vaca
Alexis jovel
Nancy Arce
Gladys Rivera
Graciela Johnson
Andrew Casella
Luis Vasquez
Airleen Fernandez
Francisco Gonzalez

People who have donated stuff for yard sale:
Brenda Fisher, Utah
Shalair Jones, Utah
Cheryl Adamson, Utah
Kristin Hilman, Utah
Parra Family, Utah
Kara Reber, Utah
Valerie Burtenshaw, Utah
Franc Family, Utah

Monday, July 21, 2008

July 20th "...the house is coming along" (click on the picture for larger view)






Top picture: The older of the Alfaro girls
2nd pic: Sonia (white shirt) my point of contact in Honduras. She does a lot community work
3rd pic: The house is coming along great
4th pic: The handyman who is building the house
Last pic: Mrs. Alfaro (white t-shirt) with her 3 little girls & people from the town

The Alfaro family went from having a house made out of plastic walls to this. All thanks to YOUR donations. Please be so proud of this accomplishment.

July 9th 2008 "Getting Started" (click on the picture for larger view)

1st picture: My mom (white t-shirt/jeans) & one of the Alfaro girls leaning against her mother
2nd pic: My mom with one of the volunteers helping one of the Alfaro girls do her homework
3rd pic: Mr. Francisco Alfaro with blue hat and two of his kids watching him work
last pic: Clearing the area to build the house