By Vanessa Ferrer | Project Leader
Thank you! Gracias! From all of us at Para Adelante!
All of us at Para Adelante are very humbled and grateful to submit our first report after being fortunate to be accepted into the group of organizations supported by GlobalGiving and all its supporters. We would like to thank everyone who donated and helped spread the word about our project which helped us raise $9,011 of our $9,500 and graduate the GlobalGiving accelerator program. These funds will be used to cover the scholarships for next year for the three women. We have also been busy spreading the word about our online store where we sell all sorts of beautiful, one of kind accessories handmade by women in Guatemala with 100% of the net profits going to fund the scholarships. In the last few weeks, we have attended 3 holiday markets and between the markets and online sales we have sold $500 and hope to sell more for the holidays. These items can be found on our website (http://paraadelante.org/shop/) with more inventory to be posted soon and we hope to launch an Etsy store to reach even more people and fund more scholarships to help more women and their families.
Now to the important part and why we do what we do - the inspirational women and scholarship recipients of Para Adelante. This time we’d like to share with you an update on one of our newest recipients, Dolores. Dolores was granted a scholarship in January 2019. She is a domestic abuse survivor who had to stop studying to be a Social Worker because she could not afford to go to school and care for her elderly mother, her two disabled younger siblings and her young son after she made the difficult but worthwhile decision to leave an abusive situation. On our very emotional post semester touchpoint and coaching call, Dolores shared how she felt better about herself and her abilities to complete her schooling and internships. She said she feels more worthy as a woman and a mother. She feels good knowing that even though she herself was an abuse victim, she can relate to and empathize with her clients and help them see their own worth and strength to make the way through difficult times.
We were so humbled and grateful to receive a thank you letter from her and would like to share a portion (translated into English) – “Day by day; I say, full of happiness as a daughter, mother, student, dedicated, responsible person, able to face the barriers of life, once again I thank the people who placed their full confidence in me, even though we initially only knew each other remotely, you just believed in my abilities. Thank you very much to each of you for helping me realize my goals set for this year of 2019 and to move forward and scale another level of my academic training.” Dolores is looking forward to the remaining 2 years of her 5 year education and then her formal internship following that, so she can officially become a Social Worker and continue to work with those in need. Below are some pictures of all the hands-on great work she is doing in her community to pay it forward and as part of her career coursework. We would love to share more photos of her work, but out of respect for the privacy of the disabled and abused women and children she is working with, we have left some photos out.
Our other two recipients, Yeymi and Angelique are also doing very well and completed their year of schooling with good grades and are looking forward to classes next semester and taking steps closer to completing their degress, with Yeymi already working on her internship in Social Work and Angelique starting field work projects in Psycholiogy. You can find more updates on all the women by following our social media pages below.
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ParaAdelante.org/
Instagram - @paraadelantewomen
Thank you all for the continued support! As we say at Para Adelante, no matter what life throws at you - Keep Moving Forward! Para Adelante!
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