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Banner Photo -- Painter Kevin MacPherson brought his talents to San Martín as a member of a recent Xela AID Volunteer Vacation. Model Catarina and others were captivated by Kevin's stunning works.
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SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:
XELA AID ENDOWMENT MILESTONE REACHED!
We are so pleased to announce that Xela AID's endowment established in 2010 has surpassed $100,000. This was made possible by a supporter who shares our passion for our mission, and through a substantial gift this quarter has helped ensure that Xela AID's outcomes continue in Guatemala and beyond! We are extremely grateful for this anonymous gift! "Our goal is to reach $750,000 in our endowment, at which point, a conservative payout will fund yearly expenses for the operation of our headquarters and clinic in Guatemala," says Mel Dinkel, Xela AID's chief financial officer. "We are pleased to have reached this initial milestone as we work toward a sustainable funding model." Others wishing to help us reach that goal can donate now by clicking HERE, selecting a donation to the KCO Club, and sending a follow-up email specifying that the donation is to our endowment using this link: Email - Donation to Endowment."We are grateful to all our supporters," says Dinkel.
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 | | Xela AID Study Center teacher Juana Lopez Gomez visited Lake Attitlan with a recent Xela AID volunteer team, baby on board. |
WE'RE PROUD OF OUR NUMBERS
Many charitable organizations spend 30% and more of contributions on office space and administrative overhead. We are proud that Xela AID is able to apply 98% of your valued contributions directly to funding education, health, clean environment and empowerment projects in Guatemala!
Of Each $1 You Contribute:
90 Cents · Goes directly to health, education and other projects you've elected to support that directly benefit underserved children and families.
8 Cents · Augments other donations to pay our doctor, medical director and caretaker at Xela AID's June Russel-Glennon Clinic and Community Center in San Martín Chiquito. These professionals are there weekdays serving the needs of the community. 2 Cents · Covers the minimal costs of staying in touch with you and our other supporters (largely, without cutting down trees) including costs of our website, email, newsletters, and postage.
ZERO! · What we spend of your donations on employees in the U.S., expense accounts, office space, or telephones. This is possible because our Xela AID Board of Directors is 100% volunteer and our office is efficiently virtual! Thank you for your support!
*** ABOUT US
Xela AID recognizes that education is key to overcoming poverty and to creating abundance.
We aspire to ensure that every child in our current area of focus is safe, healthy, well-nourished, educated and equipped to be self-reliant.
Xela AID partners to address the health, socio-economic and environmental challenges that threaten well-being and pose obstacles to learning.
We pursue an integrated model of community development, and solutions that are comprehensive, sustainable, scaleable and transferable.
The important work of Xela AID is made possible by the generous gifts of ordinary people who wish to do extraordinary good for others -- people just like you! Learn how to get involved, or donate now.
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CALENDAR 20TH ANNIVERSARY VOLUNTEER VACATIONS
JUNE 2-JUNE 14, 2012
JULY 21-JULY 29, 2012
JULY 29-AUGUST 9 or 12, 2012
Please Note:
All trips for the summer season are CLOSED. Follow the link above to review trip applications and sample itineraries in anticipation of next year's volunteer vacation opportunities!
Xela AID Volunteers and local friends at Lake Atitlan, summer 2011.
Lend your time and talents to the development of the community of San Martín Chiquito and surrounding communities in 2013.
For more information, click on Volunteer Vacations link above.
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Xela AID Partnerships
for Self Reliance 3571 Windspun Dr.
Huntington Beach, CA 92649
www.xelaaid.org
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YOU CAN RAISE MONEY
FOR XELA AID BY GOODSEARCHING
Most of us search the Internet. Did you know that by using GoodSearch as your search engine, you can raise money for Xela AID each time you search? It's a great search engine, rivaling Google or others you may use. Why not switch and make your searching count?
Switching to GoodSearch with Xela AID as your beneficiary is easy: Simply go to GoodSearch and follow their easy, step by step instructions. Xela AID will show as "Xela AID, Avalon." That's us! Thanks ahead of time for GoodSearching to benefit Xela AID! |
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Dear ,
In this, our 20th Anniversary Year, we are pleased to announce that just this month we reached our first major milestone in building the endowment that will help ensure that Xela AID's important community development work continues in perpetuity. Please join us in celebrating as you read our special announcement at left. At the same time, we wish to thank our many contributors who we salute here in our 2011 Honor Roll of Donors. We thank each and every individual and organization that lent their time, talents and financial support to make Xela AID's work possible during 2011! Also in this special year, Xela AID welcomes THREE volunteer groups to Guatemala traveling in June, July and  August -- a record number of groups and people traveling. We are very excited to host more than 50 people this summer who will work side by side with our friends of San Martín in leadership training, literacy, education and health projects, doing light construction and more. Watch for updates form the field over the summer. We hope you enjoy this update, and we deeply appreciate your continued support. Warm regards, Leslie Baer Dinkel, President
and the Xela AID Directors
Luis Enrique de León, Guatemala Operations
Mel Dinkel, Chief Financial Officer
Patricia Maxwell, Educational Scholarships
Carlos de la Rosa, Environmental Initiatives
Sheryl Fontaine, Study Center
Frank Long, Medical Projects
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Teachers and nursing students joined in to rid children of all classes of parasites. Here, a youngster gets a good scrubbing with medicated shampoo.
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XELA AID LAUNCHES EXPANDED
OFFENSIVE AGAINST PARASITES
"It's a revolution," says Xela AID In-Country Director Luis Enrique de León speaking passionately about Xela AID's full-on offensive against parasites completed last month. "The support for the effort has been tremendous."
Year 'round, Xela AID's June Russell-Glennon clinic offers treatment against bugs -- not the ones you can readily see, however. Intestinal parasites, microscopic amoebas and tiny lice plague families in San Martín Chiquito and surrounding areas, often disrupting school classes and the ability of children to participate and learn.
But even though parasite problems are common throughout Guatemala, families often feel embarrassed about suffering with them and don't avail themselves of services at Xela AID's clinic or elsewhere. So this year, with generous funding from Santa Barbara World Dance, Xela AID was able to take services directly to school children who needed them most.
"Upon hearing of Xela AID's plan, teachers, families, health care workers and students united to take advantage of the resources," Luis said.
To implement the plan, Luis partnered with San Martín's local health center, local "comites" or committees (who govern small communities) and a local nursing school. Committee members were given Chlorine and instructions for disinfecting water tanks and water supplies; teachers from local schools gathered to learn how to best dispense educational information about the prevention and treatment of parasites, and to distribute medicines with the help of nursing students and teachers.
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A child takes one of the two tablets needed seven days apart to rid her of intestinal parasites.
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In some classrooms where many students had lice, teachers and nursing students took a hands-on approach, scrubbing young heads with medicated soap and combing out "nits" to quell the blight.
"Teachers and families were extremely grateful for the expanded program," said Luis, who noted that regular "de-parasiting" such as Xela AID's program is the only opportunity that many underserved families have to get help, and is a key tool in keeping children well and in school.
"It was a great success, and was very much appreciated and well accepted by the community," he said.
In all, more than 900 children at 4 schools received assistance through the effort, which Xela AID hopes to continue each year.
Thanks again to our supporters at Santa Barbara World Dance who made this expanded outreach possible!
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BREAKING THE CHAINS OF ISOLATION AND DEPENDENCE WITH THE GIFT OF LITERACY
Fabiana Lopez Gomez, a young grandmother, had never written her name -- until recently. "Sometimes I have felt like a prisoner," she says. Her crime? Likely, "having been raised poor, and female," according to Alicia Lucia de León Lopez, Xela AID's literacy teacher who's focus is to teach adult women to read and write. Alicia says most of the women she teaches had always wanted to study. "Some didn't have the resources, and others come from homes where their father thought that women only needed to be in the kitchen or serving men. For this reason, many of the women have low self esteem," she said. Last year, 15 women began in Xela AID's literacy program and study with Alicia several times each week. Each are now able to write their names, as well as read and understand simple texts in Spanish. Alicia says that it is slow-going at times.
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Alicia (right) helps students practice writing.
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"Many of the women arrive with their children on their backs and at their sides, and sometimes, without having eaten," she says. "It is not always easy for them to concentrate, but they are very committed."
Another barrier is language, since most of the women speak Mám as their first language. Learning to read and write in their case starts with actually learning to speak Spanish. "Still, they come with much desire to learn," says Alicia. Funding for the adult literacy program is made possible through Xela AID's Karen E. Edwards Women's Empowerment Fund which received initial funding from friends and family of the fund's namesake who served as a Xela AID director for many years. In late 2011, the fund received a large contribution from Santa Barbara World Dance. The literacy teaching position is funded by Marissa Grimes who has been extremely generous over the years in her support of Xela AID's education projects. To these groups and all individual donors who are making this important work possible, Xela AID says a resounding thank you. Sums Alicia: "Some of the women say that they are studying because they one day want to be able to help their children study. They want to help their children to have a better life." |
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Look for upcoming updates from Xela AID. Thank you for your continued interest and support!
"Poverty must not be a bar to learning and
learning must offer an escape from poverty."
--Lyndon B. Johnson
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