2013: Our Year in Review

The Forgotten International operates entirely on donations and focuses its limited resources into four project areas: Small Grants, Volunteer Service through our Fellowship Program, Donations of Needed Goods, and Building Awareness of global poverty issues.

Small Grant Program

 TFI makes targeted grants to trusted community organizations, village schools, charitable medical clinics and orphanages that make the most of their resources.

Cambodia: First Visit

In January, Daniel Baker volunteered to make an exploratory visit to Cambodia on behalf  of TFI. We learned much about the specific issues of poverty affecting Cambodia in our research for our upcoming publication, Living on a Dollar a Day (see below). As the poorest country in South East Asia, it is still recovering from years of brutal war and devastation. In difficult circumstances, the poor suffer the most and women and children are typically the most vulnerable. Trafficking of young women and girls is a lucrative business where there are few other opportunities available. We were uplifted to learn of several concerned NGOs that care for and educate orphans and impoverished children, particularly in the rural areas. We gave mini grants to four such agencies: the Cambodia Landmine Relief Fund, Friends of Cambodia Child's Dream, People Improvement Organization, and Working for Children. We have since made additional gifts to these organizations, including sponsoring a water well through donations made by the law firm of Perkins Coie, LLP.  

Kenya: The Nest Baby Orphanage and Children's Home

A student club from Riverside High School in Greenville, South Carolina, called Atlas (see below) has for the fourth year in a row, spent an entire academic year holding fundraising activities for TFI's programs. This year they chose to dedicate their annual gift to

The Nest Baby Orphanage and Children's

Home in Limuru, Kenya. The students held a variety of events, including an International Fashion Show, to raise money from their community. This was their best year yet, raising over $3,000, all of which went to the Home. Additionally, the students made and sent gift bags for each of the children. The Director of The Nest, Irene, said she will use the funds to pay for the children's tuition and school fees and was so thankful to the Atlas Club for their tremendous effort and thoughtfulness. In part inspired by the Atlas Club, TFI decided to initiate a similar effort in the Bay Area with our Compassion Education Project (see below).

Inspirational Gift: Tibet Fund

TFI's work first began to take root with a visit by our president, Tom Nazario, to the Tibetan community in Dharamsala, India, in 1999. Because of this work and our relationship with the 14th Dalai Lama, we continue to remain dedicated to the Tibetan cause and the efforts made by NGOs in India and the U.S. to preserve the rights and culture of the Tibetan people. Last spring TFI made a small grant of $5,000 to the Tibet Fund in New York which helps pay for educational scholarships for Tibetan youth, care for refugees and elders, as well as other humanitarian endeavors.The Tibet Fund is an example of what we call our "Inspirational Gifts."

Before the year is out, TFI will make additional small grants to several programs in India, among them are Harmony Through Education, which serves youth with physical and mental challenges, the Sirjana Institute, which offers vocational training to impoverished young women, and Tibetan Delek Hospital, which serves anyone who needs care regardless of their ability to pay. TFI supports grassroots organizations around the world that are helping to make a positive change to the lives of women and children living in poverty. All of this is possible because of your kindness and compassion. Thank you for giving what you can to expand these efforts to reach even more women and children in the years to come.

Fellowship Program 

Through our Fellowship Program, TFI sends skilled volunteers to live and work abroad for at least two months with NGO's, village schools and grassroots organizations in five countries.

Fellowship Program

In January, as part of her graduate study in Public Health and with the support of TFI and the medical director at La Comunidad de Ninos Sagrada Familia, Sherry Shen ran workshops and trainings for health care workers to better guide members of the community in discussing health topics and creating forums for dialogue in a compassionate and mindful way. Sherry completed her Master's thesis in Public Heath, using the data she collected on site, and graduated last spring. Sherry had previously volunteered at La Comunidad outside Lima, Peru, as a TFI Fellow in 2011. As a result of her experiences, Sherry was compelled to return to work with that community of over 800 youth once more. She is pictured here (in sunglasses) bringing some donated items her daughter's school had collected for La Comunidad.

Sherry was our only Fellow in 2013 because we decided to put our program on hold this year to focus on raising the funds necessary to make it sustainable.  We offered individuals or groups the opportunity to sponsor a Fellow and get involved in the process of meeting and selecting our future volunteers.  We are pleased that our friends and donors believe as much as we do in the importance of sending young people abroad to contribute their professional skills to NGOs around the world working for human rights and economic justice.  We received sponsorships of $5,000 a year for a minimum of three years to fund up to five Fellows each year and maintain the program. On our website you can read about the experiences of all our Fellows since 2007 when we began the program with a single volunteer. (www.theforgottenintl.org/fellowships)

This winter we will begin to recruit five volunteers for our 2014 program. We anticipate these Fellows will be selected for placement opportunities in the summer and fall at NGOs and grassroots organizations in Cambodia, India, Kenya, Nepal and/or Peru. Our website will have specific information and guidelines to apply.  

If you know someone who might be interested in applying, please check our site

Building Awareness

TFI seeks to raise awareness of the problem of global poverty through community presentations, videos of our programs, our upcoming book and documentary, Living on a Dollar a Day and our Compassion Education Project. 

Living on a Dollar a Day: The Book

Our book Living on a Dollar a Day will be in bookstores in April 2014 and we are looking forward to seeing the book in print. This project actually began in the summer of 2009 when we first put out a notice to find the right photographer for the huge task of traveling to 10 countries on four continents to collect the stories and images of some of the world's poorest people, typically women and children. We were fortunate to find Renée C. Byer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist from the Sacramento Bee. Renée and a videographer George Rosenfeld traveled throughout 2010 and 2011 through Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and South America and came home with dozens of potential stories. Ultimately, 44 profiles were chosen for the book written by TFI President, Tom Nazario. The book was beautifully designed by David Griffin and His Holiness the Dalai Lama provided the Foreword.  

We were further honored to get the attention of legendary independent publishers W.W. Norton & Company based in New York who signed on to publish Living on a Dollar a Day. Founded in 1923 with the vision to "bring to the public knowledge of our time," Norton is known for their progressive general knowledge books. Many of Norton's authors are Nobel laureates and Pulitzer Prize winners who continue to bring important and challenging issues to the forefront of our public conversation. We hope to live up to that tradition with the publication of our book.

Copies of Living on a Dollar a Day can be pre-ordered through Amazon.com.  

We are in the process of arranging private book signing events. If you would like to host one at your home or work place, please contact us and let's discuss it.  

Thank you for your support!

Living on a Dollar a Day: The Documentary

Our next venture, once our book is in bookstores, is a documentary film based on Living  on a Dollar a Day. We are honored that actor and activist Pierce Brosnan has narrated a short trailer for this film project.  If you have not seen it, it is on our website's homepage (www.theforgottenintl.org).

After viewing the trailer, an anonymous donor pledged to match up to $100,000 of donations raised for our documentary project! We are pleased to announce that with the help of our friends and donors we were able to meet the challenge grant and reach our goal of $200,000! We want to thank all of you for making this possible, and we look forward to begin work on the film in the new year.  

Compassion Education Project

  For some time, TFI has been exploring ways to do the work of poverty alleviation in a meaningful way in our home state of California where copious displays of wealth coexist with unthinkable hidden poverty. As a small organization, with limited resources ourselves, we finally decided that the most significant impact we can make is through educating our young people about poverty and encouraging them to help make a difference in their local and global community. With support from donors Kathleen Patterson, Rocío and Michael Haas and The Betsy Gordon Foundation, this year we launched a pilot program called the Compassion Education Project. To help develop this program, we are fortunate to bring on board Ms. Kelly Quayle, a career educator who has taught socioeconomically disadvantaged youth in public, charter and rural schools both locally and internationally.

Over the spring Tom Nazario and Kelly developed a curriculum called Doing Good, featuring examples and activities designed to introduce and inspire young people to philanthropy and helping others.

The Compassion Education Project held its first teacher training workshop in August led by Tom and Kelly. They introduced our curriculum to over a dozen educators and representatives from five Bay Area schools and demonstrated classroom activities from the curriculum. Our special guest was Anne Snow from Riverside High School in Greenville, South Carolina, whose students started the Atlas Club (see below). The all-day workshop provided the opportunity to exchange ideas with career K-12 educators. We thank all who gave us their time and feedback that day and look forward to bringing compassion education to more and more communities that see giving and caring as important values our children should possess and practice.

Atlas Club

Tom Nazario is pictured (second row, in yellow shirt) with Teacher, Anne Snow (second  row, far left) and the students from the Atlas Club at Riverside High School in Greenville, South Carolina.  Atlas is a student-led club formed in 2009 that has been raising money for schools and orphanages TFI supports around the world. We were honored to have Anne Snow come to San Francisco this summer to present some of the work her Atlas students have done at our Compassion Education Workshop (see above). Moreover, in October, Tom was invited to Riverside High to make three presentations to the student body and faculty groups about global poverty issues. TFI later received a bundle of hand-made thank you notes from the students! We are very proud to have this relationship with these amazing young people and thank the community at RHS for caring about those less fortunate.  

If you are associated with a local middle school or high school and want to bring our curriculum, Doing Good, to your students, please contact us to get started.

Ways to Help TFI

All of TFI's work is a direct result of your generous giving, and all the people we help have you to thank. We are grateful for your support and kindness over the years. Below are some ways you can and have helped us, and we greatly appreciate it.

We'd Love to Have Your Miles

TFI recently partnered with Mileage.org, a new miles sharing organization which makes donating airline miles to nonprofits a painless process. Travel is crucial to our work, and as a small nonprofit, if we can save money on travel costs, it will make a big difference to our programs. Please consider donating your unused frequent flyer miles to TFI. It's easy and miles from all the major airlines are accepted. See our enclosed postcard and thank you for anything you can give. (www.mileage.org/theforgottenintl)

Special Events for TFI

Another Board TFI Member, Rocío Haas, was kind enough to have a "Ladies Coffee" at her home in April and invited her good friends to learn about the work of TFI. Her guests got a sneak preview of our Living on a Dollar a Day video trailer, and we were happy to make new friends. We thank Rocío for a lovely afternoon with such kind and caring women from her local community. All funds raised that day were dedicated to our programs helping impoverished women around the world improve their lives.

In a very gracious gesture, one of our Board Members, Mrs. Diane Brandenburg, dedicated her birthday to TFI this year and asked friends and family to make donations to TFI in lieu of gifts. We were greatly humbled by her thoughtfulness and thank her good friends for their support.

Additionally, Mrs. Brandenburg and her daughter Karen found a clever way to de-clutter their closets this year. They teamed up to hold a spectacular "Once Every 20 Years" sale one weekend in September. Designer shoes, clothing and handbags, along with household and garden items and holiday decorations were sold with proceeds benefiting TFI.Needless to say, we can't thank the Brandenburgs and all their supporters enough for all their efforts.  

The Gift of Time

Finally, we'd like to thank our volunteers who lend their professional skills to TFI to help us in a variety of ways. Ms. Dee Grimm came on board this time last year to help us with our accounting and bookkeeping, and she still checks in with us regularly to make sure we are on track. Ms. Ayn Lowry recently joined us to help us get ready for upcoming book signing events, another teacher training for our Compassion Education Project, and other new ventures we are looking forward to in 2014. Their gift of time is invaluable to us, and we couldn't do what we do without their help.

If you have an idea for a fundraiser, or would like to learn more about our programs, or would like to get involved in any way, please contact us by phone or email. We look forward to meeting with you.

The Forgotten International is 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.  

Tax ID 26-1484826

All donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

You can donate online at www.theforgottenintl.org or by mail:

P.O. Box 192066, San Francisco, CA 94119 · 415-517-6942 www.theforgottenintl.org

THANK YOU!