Easy Money for Miracles in Action: We Need Your Help
We need 106 more people to “like” Miracles In Action in order for us to earn $1000 from a donor. This donor has pledged $2 for every “like” we get. Please go to our page at: http://www.facebook.com/miracles.in.action and then”like” the page, simply by clicking on the like button, on the top center of the page. Each “like” is worth $2 (up to $1000 total). How much easier can it be to raise money for a great cause?
If you liked us on facebook already, then please pass the word to your friends and family. Consider it your good deed for the day by posting it on your facebook wall.
You may wonder, what can $1000 do in Guatemala? It can buy 8 sewing machines so 8 women can have a sewing machine upon completion of vocational school. This will enable a woman to stay at home and earn an income while being able to care for her children. For some of these women it means the difference between being able to provide their children with food or having them go hungry. $1000 could also buy 20 pigs for a village so that they can raise the pigs, breed them, and then sell the offspring for income. Pigs also mean valuable food for the village, as meat is a rare commodity in most villages. $1000 can also buy 25 water filters for 25 families, which will prevent serious illness from drinking dirty water. With many villages getting water from dirty ponds and streams (the woman carrying jugs on their heads to get the water), it is so important that they have some way to filter out diseases and parasites. These are just a few of the ways we can stretch $1000 in Guatemala to make a difference in the world.
Why YOU should “Like” Us
By Dr. E. Magdalena Battles
We have been working hard this past week to get more people to follow us on Facebook. We have a donor who has pledged $1 for each person we can get to follow us on Facebook, up to $500. All a person needs to do to follow us is to go to our Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/miracles.in.action and then”like” the page, simply by clicking on the like button, on the top center of the page. How much easier can it be to raise money for a great cause?
WAIT! It gets better. We now have someone matching the money. That means for every follower we get, it is now valued at $2. That $500 just became $1000, as long as we reach our goal of 500 followers. We are on our way. We have over 200 followers (“likes”) now. Please help simply by going to our page and “liking” it.
You may wonder why you should you “like” us. Well, we are helping the poorest of the poor. We help people that are living in extreme poverty which is defined as living on less than $1.50 a day. The villages we help are typically people living in one or two room huts with dirt floor, no running water, and little or no educational opportunities available, to learn even the basics of reading and writing. Our goal is to help these people to help themselves through sustainable development projects. In the past 6.5 years here is what we have accomplished helping the poor in rural Guatemala:
-Over 20 water systems have been built (providing clean, safe, running water into villages)
-Over 1600 safe wood burning stoves have been installed (these save lives, lungs, and trees)
-School #35 is now underway!
Why are we different than other organizations you may wonder? Well, we have no paid employees running our organizations. Miracles in Action is run entirely by volunteers! How many organizations do you know that can say that? We are also proud to say that 100% of donor money goes directly to the project. If you donate $125 to buy a sewing machine then ALL of that money goes toward the purchase. None of the money donated for a project goes toward overhead. Our overhead is covered by the sale of Mayan handicrafts that we bring back to the states. We have a team of wonderful volunteers who have devoted a great deal of time and effort to selling the handicrafts, to cover any overhead and extra projects that we want to do, but don’t quite have enough donor money.
I can personally attest to the work of Miracles in Action. I am on the Board of directors, but I began as a donor wanting to make a difference in the world. Back in 2007, I donated the funds for school #15 located in Canton San Antonio, which is in the mountains of the Huehuetenango in northern Guatemala. What is amazing to me is that the money went to buy the supplies and the villagers built the
school! Yes, you read that correctly, the villagers did all of the work under the direction of a mason. I visited the school after it was completed and words cannot describe the experience. The villagers (almost 600) were kind, grateful, loving, caring, giving, Christian people. I had prayed for the school and the people, and when I met the people, they said that they had been praying for me!
They were so grateful and happy to now have a primary school in their village. Their children will now be able to learn to read and write. Guatemala has a shortage of schools, but not a shortage of teachers. Once the school was built the government hired and paid for 5 teachers to teach in that remote village (something their government actually does right).
School #15 in Canton San Antonio.
Magdalena inside a typical home in Canton San Antonio, where school #15 was built.
I know I have made a difference in the world though that school. How have you made a difference lately? Perhaps you can’t build a school, but you can help simply by following on facebook. If you haven’t yet, plese help us raise money for a wonderful cause: helping the poorest of the poor. No need to make a donation, just click “like” on the Miracles in Action PAGE and for each “like” the Miracles in Action Page gets, donors have promised to donate $2, up to $1000 total. This offer only lasts for the month of May, so please help raise the funds simply by “liking”! http://www.facebook.com/miracles.in.action
Helping Malnourished Children
Miracles in Action is Working with Naru to Help Malnourished Children in Guatemala
Miracles in Action has partnered with Yvonne Sinclair of Naru, a non-profit charity working in Guatemala with focus on treating severely malnourished infants. Yvonne works with the local health clinics and small hospitals where the staff assesses the children and identifies the level of malnutrition. They obtain lists from the hospitals of children’s names, weights, heights, and the type of malnutrition for each child. Naru provides incaparina (a highly nutritional beverage) to families of the children who are severely malnourished. Naru monitors weights during the program to assure each child is getting the food and making progress. Many village women walk for miles to receive the powered Incaparina for their children.
Yvonne developed three educational videos in their local indigenous language and Spanish. The videos are viewed in the waiting room at the hospital, so that mothers can learn about how to prepare Incaparina (the nutritious beverage they will receive), what foods to give children at different ages, and basic health and hygiene information. Since the videos play continuously, anyone sitting in the waiting room will view and hear the videos.
Penny (Miracles in Action’s President and Founder) met Yvonne three times on visits to Guatemala, and she was impressed by Yvonne’s strong drive to help these children who would die or suffer developmental problems without her intervention.
Yvonne is a remarkable person. The World Link Partners (see their link below) had this to say: “Yvonne – who is from the U.K. – first came to Guatemala six years ago at the request of a friend who sought her help to save his coffee project. Yvonne realized that it was too late to rescue his project, but was so impressed with what she saw and the villages needs that she resigned her lucrative position in London and has dedicated her life for the past six years to serving the people in the Senahu area. We have worked closely with Yvonne for the past 5 years, and have witnessed up close the tremendous personal sacrifice she has made including her own financial resources (selling her flat in London to have income for the projects), countless hours of work, disappointment and frustration, and her own personal safety (hitch hiking isolated village roads alone at night).”
Currently, Naru does not have a website. It is in development. You can view some of Yvonne’s photos of children in the program “before” and “after”. http://www.flickr.com/photos/33625367@N08/
Yvonne does not have paid staff. She and a handful of volunteers/supporters donated their time and funds to this worthwhile program. World Link Partners introduced Penny to Yvonne, and they have a good intro to the work of Naru on their website http://www.worldlinkpartners.org/index.cfm/our-projects/nutrition-health/
If you are interested in helping Miracles in Action with this life saving cause please feel free to contact us at info@MiraclesInAction.org or at the below contact information. You can also donate now by clicking on the “donate” button on the upper left-hand of this page.
Miracles In Action, a 501(c)(3) non-profit
Helping poor families to help themselves…
Building our 32nd school in rural Guatemala. Established 19 vocational workshops and libraries. Installed 20 water systems for remote villages. Join us, and support a sustainable development project, where 100% of donation dollars go directly to the project.
