PICNICS AND SOLIDARITY
Solidarity means constructing chains; human chains of love which can change the world.
I mean, this is what we think it means, it is not what the dictionary will tell you! We can say that is how we visualize this word in Puerta Abierta and how we visualize you, dear Donor. Because we feel that with your support for their education you’re holding our girl’s hands, thanks, we feel your presence always.
It is said that the most important thing in educating children is giving them the example through our behaviour; it is not easy at all to give a “ quality education“ to our children. Well, here in Puerta Abierta we want to thank you because we think that YOUR EXAMPLE of solidarity has taught our little girls to hold each other hands. They support each other, they love each other. You’ll be proud to know that Karla, one of our girls, is currently attending a school near Mexico City where she’s learning professional gastronomy. It is a big success for her, because just after having finished high school she had to pass a test to be accepted. As I mentioned, the others girls supported her emotionally. They really acted like family, which makes us extremely happy.
And now that Karla is there they can visit her once a month and… guess what? The last time they went they prepared her favourite sandwiches and had a beautiful picnic. I can imagine that what I’m telling you may seem a small thing but believe me that it’s a wonderful thing for these children; because to learn the solidarity of love, to accept to be part of a human chain of love, for children like ours who have been emotionally hurt, is a big challenge.
So dear Donor.. once again THANK YOU for being an example for our little girls: thanks to you they have a quality education, thanks to you they know what unconditional love and solidarity mean .
I hope you can join us for the next picnic with Karla ! You’re invited of course!!!
With all our love
Puerta Abierta I.A.P
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Hi! My name is Belen! I’m 8 years old, I live in Puerta Abierta and I attend a bilingual school thanks to you! In our foster home they love me very much but I know that all the possibilities I have are because of you and your generosity !
Do you really have an idea of the big opportunity you are giving me? It is all possible because you believed in me and in the others girls living with me, careless of the fact that we passed through a very big “soul hurricane “. You’re so brave and so confident, and this is so because you are changing the world by believing in us, children.
I want to be honest with you, I didn’t write this letter all by myself! !! They helped me at school, but I promise you that soon I’ll be able to write you without making any mistakes.
Dear donors, PLEASE! Allow me to keep on studying in this bilingual college! My care keeper Lucy told me English is very important, therefore I‘d love to continue learning!
How can you help me? It’s really really easy! On June 15th Global Giving will organize a BONUS DAY matching the donations given to us! What do you have to do?
1) Click or paste in your browser this link to our project and to fall in love with it!!!
http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/family-and-school-for-9-abandoned-girls-in-mexico/
2) Do your donation from 9:00:01 EDT and 23:59:59 EDT on June 15th
Now I have to go, I was baking cookies …do you want the recipe? Sorry I have to ask Magui (the oldest of us) to help me! She’ll be back from work soon and then in the next e-mail I’ll tell you the secret of our cookies!!!!
Bye Bye
Belen
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BIENVENIDOS A SU CASA!
The last time we spoke with you we invited you to our non-carnival party ! Do you remember it? We really want to thank you because thanks to you our little girls are able to continue their therapy and to take off their masks!
Yes but then I thought: I didn’t give the address to come and visit us! That’s why today we want to invite you to our home: we want you to see and feel Puerta Abierta!
Have you ever been in our wonderful country? I was just wondering… I write you all the time but I think I never introduced our city and myself! You have to be really angry with me! But don’t worry: this time is the right one, you’ll not be disappointed!
So are you ready? Pack the luggage and close your eyes: you’re taking off for Queretaro.
Hi! Welcome home! You’ve just arrived to Puerta Abierta I.A.P, here you have your home and our girls are really happy to meet the wonderful human beings who allows them to continue studying and living with their “mothers” Lucy and Gris.
Probably you’re thinking what does Puerta Abierta mean and who are Lucy and Gris; right, let’s start from the beginning. Literally Puerta Abierta means “open door”, this is the name our founders Constantina Duran Robertson (you can call her Connie, as she likes) and Guadalupe Rodriguez (Lupita for friends) gave to the institution when, just like you, twelve years ago they decided to open their hearts to the millions of abused children in Mexico ; so they took action and built the foster home which today you’re visiting. But then, much before having to look for donors like you, they had to confront with the decision of who should be taking care of the children. And they had the luck to find Lucy and Gris. Lucy is the one who is probably opening the door for you and welcoming you with a big smile while Gris is more shy and I’m sure she’s in the kitchen cooking a wonderful “enchiladas” in order for you to eat some really good Mexican food.
Lucy and Gris are our angels coming from the sky because they also have a family of their own, but nonetheless they work hard to love and grow these little girls. Just to give you an idea, Gris wakes up at 5 a.m. in the morning to reach the foster home and Lucy lives with them all the time. They make sure the girls go to school and do their homework, they listen to their hearts and look through their eyes. Yes you’re right , they also scold them because I’m sure right now one of them doesn’t want to prepare the table!
Yes, the table! It’s time to eat! Ready to try the best enchiladas in the world?? Grab a seat , the girls are already in the kitchen waiting for you ( pay attention: if you decide to seat close to Angeles or Maria, our twins , they will not stop talking and making you a thousand questions!) .
We “eat , pray , love “ because we had the blessing to have food also today , because you were with us and because Gris and Lucy have filled this place with love and peace.
We hope you enjoy the meal and please don’t leave: there so many things we want you to show here in Mexico. Please stay, help us so that these girls can continue in their studies and hope for better future.
You’re room is on the right; please tell us if you need something.
Have a good nap and when you wake up we’ll be still here saying THANK YOU!!!
With love
Puerta Abierta I.A.P
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Hello there! How are you doing? Already back from your carnival party ?
Do you know what Carnival is?It’s a Christian holiday in which people wear masks and costumes during many different celebrations, allowing them to lose their everyday individuality and experience a heightened sense of social unity. Well yes, they lose their individuality because of their mask; as we all do sometimes during life. Think about social networks, for example: Facebook shows thousand of smiling faces, as if the world was always happy! Oh God! How good would it be if it were true. But the truth is that we wear a mask to be part of society because we are social animals, they say we born to be part of it all.
Suddenly you don’t know who you are; you can just remember your character and continue playing it.
What does this mean to us? To our foster home? To our little girls? Mostly we receive abused children, they always wear a mask called “ it doesn’t matter, I don’t care.” To find a way to get rid of this attitude is not easy.
For example, we just received in Puerta Abierta a little girl called Belen. She just turned eight years old and guess what? It was the first time she saw a birthday cake. She couldn’t believe everyone was there just to celebrate her birthday. Moreover, she is not able to conquer people’s love. She steals things from the other girls to give it to someone else in order to please him or her. She is literally living an “heart-quake”; when we received her she was happy to finally be in a safe place, but now after a couple of months she seems to have forgotten what she went through and she invents wonderful - made-up - stories about her mom.
Belen is our little girl and we are starting to work with her as we did with the others. We provide her love, true love. This is our magic ingredient. And besides that, we are looking for a good psychologist to help her mind, body and heart find peace and order. She’s attending a bilingual school where they really care about her feelings and this is possible just because of you and your help.
Thanks to you we can work very hardly every day to help our children to lower their masks in order to find themselves.
You could say that we work for a non-carnival party! A party where everyone of us doesn’t need to wear any mask!
You’re invited of course!
Thank you so much for keeping us dreaming !
With all the love
Puerta Abierta I.A.P
Dear Santa
You’re almost here and we want to thank you. It was a wonderful year, it was a year full of joy and tears. Yes, we are grateful also for the difficult moments we faced; because we learned that happiness doesn’t exist without sadness and we also learned that tears and suffering were very important to us in order to grow strong as trees.
Santa, now we are trees… yes you got it right; do you know why? Because we are putting down our souls like roots in the ground . We think we feel better every day , we think our hearts received a lot of love and comprehension during this year; so what? Thanks Santa, you made it possible because you gave us what we asked ymonth GlobalGiving is matching any ou in the last few years: peace, respect and a family.
As you know, dear Santa, here in Mexico a lot of people need your help: half of the Mexican population live below the poverty line. Often living in poverty, Mexican children are vulnerable to violence both in the home and at school. Violence experienced at school has dramatic consequences because it pushes children to abandon their education in order to look for a job. Furthermore street children also find themselves victims of violence at the hands of their employers or even traffickers who exploit them.
As we were talking to you Santa, we were lucky because we found a new home through Puerta Abierta I.A.P where all the people which are working with and for us give us all we need in order to feel happy and loved. They bring us therapies with psychologists as well as a quality education, which will help us to have a future: now we know that we can dream even if we suffered abuse and abandonment. Now we know we can trust people, now we know that after all we can hope and love ourselves.
Please Santa , we don’t need dolls or games (even if we really like them) ; we just need to dream! Make our wish come true: make people continue to help us with their invaluable donations!
This month Globalgiving will match recurring donations for our project ! Tell all the kind donors to DONATE a little so we can reach our dreams!
https://www.globalgiving.org/dy/v2/pe/project-edit/edit-page-1.html?project.projId=9451
Hopefully one day we will help back someway, as we wish. For the moment, Santa, bring them our Christmas gift too: a big hug and smile from all the children they helped.
The girls of Puerta Abierta I.A.P
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