By A Delleman | Coordinator
The start of the Fundacion Ruach
A lot happened in August, not in the least the 5th anniversary of the Ruach Community on 26th August. Five years is not just a number. For Ruach 5 years is very significant as it was for 5 years that Ruach’s mother foundation in the Netherlands, Vivir Juntos, promised financial support to help Astrid Delleman, (Ruach’s coordinator of its Community Home and all other related work), establish the Ruach Foundation as a fully fledged independent organisation. Vivir Juntos has lived up to its promise and has also agreed to continue its help for some more time. The big a mission for the Ruach Foundation is to achieve the growth to the point where it can raise the necessary funding nationally and locally.
What has the community home added to the core members (6) who live there? A little history to see how the lives of Daniel and Loyda (brother and sister) were transformed by joining the Ruach community 5 years ago.
Daniel and Loyda: then and now
One way of measuring ‘success’ is to simply look at brother Daniel and sister Loyda who were the 2nd and 3rd core members who joined the Community from its start 5 years ago; (my son Jonathan was the first). Here is a picture of Daniel and Loyda before they joined the community. They were living on the floor of a shed behind their house away from the prying eyes of society, with a poor family who did not know how to cope with the intellectual disability of these two. They were just about kept alive by not very nutritious food which was brought to them in the shed, but with lack of everything else which humans need to be alive. They were deeply turned inside themselves when they arrived: emaciated, not toilet-trained, almost the living dead. Progress was slow, but progress there was. I still remembers clearly the moment Loyda gave me a smile for the 1st time only after several years. Now they are loved members of the group and enjoy being part of the life of the community, including trips to the swimming pool or occasionally the beach.
To see how the other core members are doing
A video which was prepared for the 5th anniversary. The video is about the lives of the core members in the community. Besides Daniel and Loyda, they are Jonathan, Miguel, Maria Helena and Manuel. It’s well worth a watch to find out what makes each of them tick, most of the time fairly happily! In itself is proof of the success of the our work. The link to the video is https://youtu.be/BOfP1AtWKwo
GlobalGiving and the Fundacion Ruach
Partners of GlobalGiving are asked to renew their due diligence every two years to keep the records current, and to give donors confidence that we are doing great work in our community. Because of due diligence expiration of the Fundacion in December, it is not sure that we will be able to receive funds using the GlobalGiving platform after wards.
In Nicaragua, every year NGOs need to submit documentation to the government agency ' Gobernacion'. If a submission is approved the NGO has the right to exist for another year. With a new more stringent law last year to control any foreign interference it has become more and more difficult for Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to function in Nicaragua. With Presidential Elections later this year, the Government keeps an ever-closer eye on the activities of NGOs, and wants to control any foreign interference in the elections. Many NGO's, 100% or partly depend on funding from abroad.
We started on time the procedure. Now we are in October and we are still waiting for the approval by Gobernacion. Because we still have not the approval like we explained just above, we cannot renew due diligence for the moment. We appreciate, you feel yourself part of the team. We will let you know as soon as possible how the procedure is going. If you have questions you can mail me directly: asjedel@hotmail.com
Gratefully yours,
Astrid Delleman
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By Astrid Delleman | Coordinator
By Astrid Delleman | Coordinator
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