Shameless Pitch!

The scope of the tragedy in Haiti has so overwhelmed us of late that the help so needed in Guatemala seems to have taken to the back seat. One of the most proven ways to end the cycle of poverty in any country of the world has been through education. To that point I am shamelessly making a pitch here and on Facebook for an education project currently underway in Guatemala. My friend Vanessa has been traveling to the Panajachel region regularly over the past couple of years bringing food, medicines, and Project Santa to as many people as she can as a way of 'giving back' to the birth place of her daughter Arianna. (See the Shoe Drive link at the side of my blog----->) This May she will be returning and the hope had been to paint, making book shelves, and loading those shelves with books for a library in the village school of San Antonio Palopo . The director(aka principal) has had a dream for his children to have access to books of any kind and was working with Vanessa towards that goal. Then in one of those moments when you don't know whether to rejoice or break down and cry, he found that his student body of 215 suddenly became 500+ when registration day came this past January!!! The room designated for the library is now crowded with additional students and there is still not enough room for those that wish to attend school! The principle has offered up his teeny, tiny closet sized office for the proposed library project in May because he is so desperate to achieve literacy in this destitute population. Now what the school REALLY needs is some generous sponsors to provide $6000 needed to build two new classrooms and a proper library. In the meantime, Vanessa has organized with the good people of Usbourne Books for a book sale to benefit the school library!! This is a win/win kind of book sale. You see, you can either go online and order Spanish language books which can be shipped directly to Vanessa for the library OR you can order books for yourself and the sale generates a % credit towards free books for the school. Books such as these which are on the Usbourne site!! Just imagine the excitement the children of that school will feel to hold a real book in their hands for the first time!! By the way, did I forget to mention that the nearest public library to this school is an hour and a half car ride away...and these are kids who often barely eat let alone have access to a car!!!!! So if you have a few extra aid dollars left in your budget would you please consider visiting http://www.ubah.com/BF37599 ? And if my some miracle my words are touching the heart of someone with $6000 extra dollars in their budget, would you consider sponsoring the new wing of the San Antonio Palopo school at Heart4Children which is the Shoe Drive link at the side of my blog??? Thanks for listening.