Build a Brighter Future for 80 Kids in Guatemala

Hello dear donors!

Greetings from Guatemala and we hope that you are doing great!

Guatemala is a festive country, with many street fairs, open music events, parades and fireworks.

This culture of festivals also extends to the children, which of course we celebrated with the children from our newest kindergarten in Panorama, Guatemala. Here are some photo from the Day of the Child and as you will see the kids really love their piñata!

And, also on somewhat of festive note, we have been using the meeting area in this kindergarten location for our weekly team meeting (we used to use our home for that in the past). We had a wonderful visit from Jeff Carreira, Director of Education at EnlightenNext just recently and he came along to sit in on our meeting as you can see it the photo below.

We look forward to a great year in 2013 and will be in touch again with our end of year newsletter from The Integral Heart Foundation.

With Warmest Regards,

Mick, Debora and all team Team.

Links:

• Our home page
• Holiday Sponsorship Drive for Kindergarten Kids

Hello to all of our GlobalGiving partners and supporters!

The rainy season here in Guatemala has been quite mild this year with very little flooding and no landslides. We have our fingers crossed that this ease will continue for the next six weeks or so to the offical start of 'summer'!

In the meantime, our new Kindergarten in Jardins d'Antigua is officially open. The 4-roomed house is divided into kitchen/dining area and office downstairs and upstairs, we have the lesson/play room, the nap room, and a private meeting room.

We have on average 5 to 7 youngsters attending each day under the great care of our Kindergarten Progam manager, Marisol, and her trusted assistant/teacher Lizeth, both of whom are also native Guatemalans.

The mom or dads drop the kids off at 7.30am and come back for them after 3pm. We have heard great news from both Marisol and Lizeth on the progress the kids have been making and especially with one little girl who over the period of one month showed tremendous visible improvement from her malnutricion because of the regular meals all of the kids recieve as part of their day at the kindergarten.

We also contracted our solar company Quetsol to install a solar lighting system at this kindergarten. The installation took 1/2 day for two of their workers and now we do not have to use grid power for lighting and all small appliances!

Thank you again for all your support in this project!!

With love from Guatemala,

Debora and Mick.

Links:

• To suppor our work in Guatemala.

Hello GlobalGiving Supporters!

And greetings from all us at http://www.integralheartfoundation.org this sunny Monday in Guatemala.

Over the past two weeks we have signed the contract for our new kindergarten location, we have been busy putting some happy paint on the walls and are now beginning to move our donated supplies of toys, clothing, bedding and games into this new space.

We have also interviewed and hired a (Guatemalan) teacher, Lysette, and promoted one of our local staff members, Marisol, who has been with us now for over two years, to manage this location, as well as our first Kindgarten location, which has been operating since early 2011.

The 14 families right here in our own neighborhood whom we will be serving have been notified that we plan to officially open this month.

We are also making arrangements with our solar supplies to come by and install and their system prior to opening.

And, finally Marisol and Lysette are in training this week with a non-profit partner organization that specializes in Kindergarten management and operations!

We would like to thank you for your support of this project and we will be sending another update and photos when the first of the tots arrive and begin their new life of fun, play, and education.

Our annual budget is $12,500 is almost reached with only $2,475 left to fund completely.

With warmest regards,