When: Friday, May 4th, 2012 from 12:00-1:00

We will gather at the Salem Conference Center in Salem, OR for the 3rd Annual Friends of Pimpollo Cinco de Mayo Celebration.

Come to hear “Real Voices of Friends of Pimpollo.”

The food will be amazing as always. The program will be short and informative. We will share video footage recently gathered in Oaxaca that is sure to inspire us all.

Please RSVP to info@friendsofpimpollo.org. Remember that, as always, there is no charge.

We would love to see you there!

Let me to introduce you to Marisol, a truly incredible college student who has overcome so much in order to persevere with her studies. She is our highlighted student for the month of April, and I think you’ll agree that she certainly deserves to be recognized.

Name: María Hernandez Ruíz (Marisol)

Major: Engineering and entrepreneurship

Family: Marisol has twelve brothers and sisters, including a little sister and a little brother with disabilities. Her family lives in a tiny indigenous town called Chuchilton Municipio de Bochil, up in the mountains. The people of the community wear indigenous dress and barely make enough money to sustain themselves. There aren’t any schools, so Marisol had to leave home at the age of twelve to attend boarding school.

“When I graduated from high school with the nuns,” she says. “I had to find a place to work, because I didn’t have any support from my parents…When I decided to go to college, they didn’t like the idea. It scared them, and they were afraid I wouldn’t succeed….it made sense that they were afraid of the university because it was expensive and I might not pass.

They have recently started to accept it, and now my dad supports me.

If I hadn’t joined ECOSER [Friends of Pimpollo's college scholarship program], I’d probably still be in my little town. I might be married right now; a lot of people get married early because their parents make them. I’d probably have a family or be working, but I definitely wouldn’t be studying right now.”

Graduation: December 2012

Goal after graduation: Start her own business using the groundwork she has laid with her senior class project. Her project/business makes a product from banana nectar that has never been sold before. She is learning about all levels of the business- production, marketing, sales, etc. She hopes to turn it into a real business and call it Delicias Platanin.

Hobbies: Listening to music, singing, drawing.

Favorite FOP memory: Driving for hours and hours on bumpy roads to reach the home of Marisol’s family. Seeing how excited Marisol was to be spending time with them, even though we only stayed for about three hours. Seeing how much they loved having her home, how much love they all had for one another. Having dinner with them, and eating an entire meal of home-grown food: turkey soup, avocados, even coffee beans. The only exception? The giant bottle of Orange Fanta soda we all enjoyed.

If Marisol could say anything to our donors and to everyone who supports Friends of Pimpollo, she would say: “Thanks to all of you. It means so much to me that you are supporting me and helping me; without you, I would never be here. This is such an amazing program, and every day, I thank God for all of you. With your support, I have been able to continue studying, and now, I am able to be an example for my little brother and sister. Thank you.”

And yet… there’s another side to fundraising, a side that we too often forget. We focus on our shortcomings, stress about our failures, but we don’t stop to remember the funds that we have raised and the difference they’ve made. Quoting statistics sometimes helps: 28 scholarship students, 9 schools supported in the extremely poor Vicente Guerrero community, 7 college graduates. Sometimes, though, those numbers just feel like numbers. Telling others about our organization sometimes helps; you can’t sound uncertain or less than 100% enthusiastic when you are trying to convince someone else.

This week, as I’ve divided my time between preparing materials for our big Cinco de Mayo fundraiser and translating the backlog of reports from our programs, I think I’ve found a side of fundraising that I’ve never seen before, a way to help myself remember the positive. The theme of our Cinco de Mayo luncheon this year is “The Real Voices of Friends of Pimpollo,” because we will be showing some video interviews with the students we serve in Mexico. We decided that their voices are more important than ours, that they can better represent the strength of Friends of Pimpollo.

As I translated biographies and reports this week, I got my own taste of that “real voice,” and I’ve begun to see how important it is. When I read the reports from Pimpollo Home for Children, I remember how it felt to sit on the moonlit sidewalk and make shadow puppets with the kids. When I read Boni’s report from Vicente Guerrero, I remember the preschoolers who sang “La Foca Ramona” with me and the grins that dominated their faces. When I read the report from our Education Scholarship director, I can hear the voices of the college students who told me so firmly that getting an education is their only chance at a future for themselves and for their siblings and future children.

They are the reason we fundraise.

Our Cinco de Mayo luncheon is around the corner, and I’d like to invite you to participate. If you are near Salem, Oregon at noon on May 4, 2012, join us for lunch (but first contact info@friendsofpimpollo.org to RSVP or get more information!) If not, join us here on the blog, as we post more photos and updates about the Real Voices of Friends of Pimpollo. Participate by linking with us on Facebook or Twitter, by supporting our organization as a one-time donor, or by beginning to sponsor a child. However you choose, we are thankful to have you as a part of Friends of Pimpollo.

John Kerr, the founder of Friends of Pimpollo, often speaks up at the end of meetings to remind us that regardless of the obstacles we’re facing, our programs are thriving. They can always use more support, but they have done amazing things with what we’ve raised so far. Whether you are supporting us or another nonprofit monetarily (thanks!), or volunteering your time to help others (thanks!), or running a nonprofit of your own (thanks!), keep that in mind. We may not see the rewards of our work every day, but know that your fundraising and your donations are changing lives. Hearing the “real voices” helps us remember just how much.

The graduate with her diploma, at long last!

“I’m really glad that I’ve finished this important period of my life. Without all of the marvelous people who have helped me, this wouldn’t have been possible. My graduation was a very pleasing and special day for me, because I was with the people who have been very special throughout this wonderful journey: Father Francisco Herrera [the priest who founded Pimpollo Children's Home], Señora José [Flaviano and Lidia's mother, who works at Pimpollo] and little Luis Carlos; my mother, Mr. Felix and Mrs. Consuelo [the program directors of ECOSER], Jorge [another FOP employee who helps with several programs], and all of the ECOSER members.

Padre Pancho, Tanya, Luis Carlos, Mago, Doña José, Chelo, Mago's mother, and Felix

I also know that two angels in the sky shared this joyful day with me, Madre Estela [the house mother from Pimpollo who passed away two years ago] and my father. Thank you to all of the Friends of Pimpollo; without your help, this wouldn’t have been possible.

Mago and her mom.

On this special day, all of you were in my heart, celebrating this great achievement with me. THANK YOU!”

Name: Horbelí López Domínguez

Year in school: sophomore

Major: Education

Why? He likes to share his knowledge with others, and he likes interacting with youth and kids. He also hopes this major will help him to be independent.

Family: He grew up in a small town with his parents, sister, and two brothers. His parents are farm workers, and his older brother and his sister have followed in their footsteps. Horbelí was the first in the family to decide to stay in school, which wasn’t easy. His hometown only has an elementary school, so he moved away from his family when he was thirteen to go to middle school. Back then, he could go home on weekends, but now, he finds it much harder to stay in touch. He lives six hours from home, and to even talk on the phone with his parents requires them to travel to a different community to have access to a telephone. Horbelí says it is hard, but “I have adjusted. And I love going home and seeing my family (during holidays).”

Hometown: San José de la Revancha, Las Margaritas, Chiapas

Favorite FOP memory of Horbelí: Team 50 was singing the name song to all of the ECOSER students (Blanca Blanca, bo-blanca, banana-fana-fo-fanca, fee-fi-mo-manca, Blanca!), but Horbelí’s name had too many syllables. So one of the team members offered an alternative: the chorus of “The Happy Wanderer.” We rode all the way through San Cristóbal in the back of the truck, singing at the top of our lungs, “Hor-belí, Hor-bela, Hor-belí, Hor-bela-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.” It took a few rounds, but Horbelí decided he liked it and joined in too!

Hobbies: Play board games. Wander the city center. Dance. Have good discussions. “Lately, I’ve been reading more, because I think it’s a good habit to develop.”

Goal after graduation: “I’d like to start working as a teacher in a middle school…I might have to teach in Tuxtla, but I’d like to get a job near my family’s community. If we could have a school there, that would be wonderful. I’ve been helping with a project there to get more kids in school, those who can’t afford it. I want the community to take education seriously, to take the teachers seriously. I’d also like to see a project to help the adults in the community learn to read and write. This is a project that I’ve been working on at home during vacations, and it is starting to make progress. Right now, they are beginning to build a school. I think I can be very helpful there, because I have ties with the youth and I’m involved in church.”

Challenge Horbelí has faced: His family has had multiple medical issues that have sometimes made it difficult for him to attend school. His mother has been very ill for the last year or so, which has put a strain on the family’s finances and emotions. In addition, both Horbelí and his younger brother have eye trouble: “I can’t recognize anyone who is more than a certain distance away. My vision is fine- it doesn’t affect landscapes or buildings. It’s just seeing people, which makes it hard to travel or take buses or things like that. The sun really affects me too. When I was in middle school and high school, teachers had to write with black or red, because I can’t see blue or other certain colors. I think it was a little annoying for them.” Doctors haven’t been able to diagnose Horbelí, and although they have tried to ease the problem with glasses, the prescription isn’t very useful and the glasses often hurt him.

Horbelí’s eye problems and his mother’s illness have been difficult for their family, so Horbelí says he is lucky to be a part of ECOSER. He is determined to repay his family and the ECOSER program by working hard and serving others. He stays very busy, usually attending classes and observation periods in local schools from 7 am to 6 pm. Chores and homework fill his evenings, and that doesn’t even include the extra English classes he’s taking, the business he and his housemates run, or the service projects he participates in.

Horbelí is an impressive young man, and we are very proud to have him as a part of our ECOSER program. When I interviewed him last fall, I asked him what FOP support has meant to him, and he said:

“Without your help, this program wouldn’t exist. We all want to succeed, but without that support, we couldn’t do so. I just want to say thanks to all of you and to everyone at FOP.”

Our college student sponsors are an important part of Friends of Pimpollo, and we are truly thankful to have all of you. If you are interested in sponsoring Horbelí or any other child or student, please contact us through our website or by emailing info@friendsofpimpollo.org. Your donations will make a difference in the life of a student, just as they have for Horbelí.

Our beloved Mago graduates this week!

Mago (right) with fellow student Lula

Mago sent a note about her upcoming graduation, and her words say it far better than I could:
“I want to share with you my greatest achievement. This Thursday will be my graduation, which my mom will be attending. I am really happy and proud of myself. You know that my mom has worked really hard to give me an education- she is an incredible woman. Ever since my dad passed away, she has been the pillar of strength in our house, allowing my four siblings and I to keep moving forward. I adore my mother, and I know how happy she will be to see her dreams come true, to realize that her efforts were not in vain.

Thank you for the help that you guys have given me; without you, I couldn’t have made it this far. I love you so much. God bless you and everyone who supports this program… I would love it if you were here with me, at my graduation, but I know that it’s a difficult journey for you guys. I want you to know that even if you aren’t here in person, you will be on our minds and in our hearts.”

Mago, we love you and we are so proud of you. Way to go, girl!

Slide #1

Slide #2
Foundation for Support of Education Huapahualixtli A.C; Vicente Guerrero Educational Community Center.
Created by: Computer students, with the assistance of their teacher.

Slide #3
Welcome Friends of Pimpollo!
Vicente Guerrero welcomes you with our arms open and our hearts full of hope. It is a pleasure for us to have you visit. Thank you for sharing your time with us.

Slide #4
Thank you to John Kerr and each of the Friends of Pimpollo members for making our thirst for learning possible. At this point in our lives, if it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t have access to computers, Internet, English, and each of the benefits we receive through your support.

Slide #5
With the computers that Friends of Pimpollo so kindly donated, we have created small groups of children and adults to begin learning about the world of computers.

Slide #6
From October 2, 2010 until today (November 17, 2011), 120 children have attended computer classes.

Slide #7
We have learned to draw, to write in a word processor, to make presentations, and to do simple operations in Excel. We have also learned to use the Internet.

Slide #8
In this space (the community center), we have the benefits of English classes and summer camps.

Slide #9
In cooperation with Conafe (National Council for the Promotion of Education), we provide classes for children ages 0-4 that are intended to help them develop and stimulate their abilities.

Slide #10
Early Childhood Development Classes

Slide #11
The goal of the community center isn’t just the education and development of children, but also the education of adults who haven’t had opportunities to study.

Slide #12
The community center, in partnership with INEA (National Institute for Adult Education), supports adults ages 15 and up who don’t know how to read or write, or who haven’t finished elementary or middle school.
Helping dreams become reality.

Slide #13
We currently have 130 enrolled students. 33 of whom will graduate (from elementary or middle school) today.

Slide #14
One other activity that the community center supports is the mobile library, with the help of the Alfredo Harp Helu Foundation. Its primary objective is to support reading in Oaxaca and in Vicente Guerrero, where the students don’t have the resources to get books and where it’s not possible to visit a public library.
You have to support the new readers.

Slide #15
Once again, thank you for coming to visit us.
We feel so lucky that you care about us that we don’t know how to express it.

Slide #16
Come back soon!

While this statement is true and while it reflects the basic philosophy of all our programs, it leaves out so much. It doesn’t tell you about the college students in Tuxtla and San Cristóbal, who live in houses with six or seven students and no running water, who say that pizza is their favorite food and estimate that they can afford to eat it maybe once every two months, who have “House Rules” handwritten on a poster in the living room and follow the rules to the letter, who are the most responsible young people we’ve ever met.

We believe in the power of education, but our students are the ones who live that belief.

Starting this month, we will be introducing you to our college students, one by one. The first blog post of every month will be a biography of one of our Education Scholarship students. Today, we begin with:

Name: Blanca Lilí García Pérez

Year in School: 12th grade

Will graduate: 2017

Major: Nursing

Why? She likes to help people, and she thinks it is interesting.

Favorite FOP Memory of Blanca: When we were sitting around the dinner table at Mago’s graduation party in San Cristóbal, and John Kerr (founder of Friends of Pimpollo) tried to stand up but accidentally tipped his chair over. Blanca was by his side before the rest of us could even react. She helped him up, righted his chair, and stayed at his elbow for the rest of the night. She will clearly make a wonderful nurse!

Extracurricular Activities: English class

Hometown: San Antonio, Siltepec.

Family: Mom and Dad, who still live and work on a farm in Siltepec. Two sisters, Nancy and Iris, who are also in the Education Scholarship Program.

Favorite FOP Memory of Blanca: Going to church in San Cristóbal. The church was very full, so we stood against the wall and watched an old man walk around among the parishioners and beg. Most people ignored him; Blanca and her sisters pulled coins out of their pockets and put them in the old man’s hand. Later, we went to a market so the FOP team members could buy souvenirs. Blanca saw a shirt that she liked, but she decided that she didn’t want to buy it because she had more important things to spend her money on.

Hobbies: Listen to music, read, and chat with friends.

Career goal: To return to Siltepec and work as a nurse, providing medical care to a community that currently has none. To support the ECOSER program [the Education Scholarship program for students in Tuxlta and San Cristóbal] and give other students the same opportunities she has had.

Final words from Blanca: “ECOSER is my second family. I am here because I want to improve myself and do something with my life, so I can support my family and serve others without receiving anything in exchange. For everything you’ve done for me, thank you and may God always bless you.”

Blanca is a wonderful student and person, and we are very proud of her. To see photos, videos, and more information about Blanca and the ECOSER program, please visit our website www.friendsofpimpollo.org or find us on Facebook.

Simbolos Patrios is an elementary school located within smelling distance of the Oaxacan dump in Vicente Guerrero. It has about 120 students, and they are some of the sweetest children we’ve met. In a previous post, we talked about our visit to the school, when they met us at the gate with ear-to-ear grins, when they put on a program for us with native dances and dances about la foca Ramona and poems about the Mexican revolution, when they sat on our laps to watch their classmates and played with our cameras.

Their parents make a living from the dump- sifting through garbage, finding things they need and things they can sell, using those sales to support their families. Sounds like a fun job, right? Despite that, they are committed to helping their children get an education, so they support Simbolos Patrios however they can. Not through monetary contributions or magazine drives or candy bar sales, but through PTA-style committees and volunteering in classrooms. The government is supposed to support the school monetarily, but that doesn’t always happen and the school has been stuck with poorly constructed classrooms and leaky roofs.

Which is why we were so excited at that Thursday night dinner when Boni told us the news: The government had agreed to build six new classrooms at Simbolos Patrios. Real classrooms. With concrete floors and foundations and real windows. The whole project would cost $90,000, and the government was willing to fund 95% of it….

…if the parents paid for the other 5%.

Five percent of $90,000 isn’t really a lot of money, only about $4,500. But to parents who live beside a garbage dump, $4,500 and impossible are synonyms. Even worse, the government gave a one month deadline: if the Simbolos Patrios parents can’t raise $4,500 by mid-December, the project is off.

As we sat at dinner on that Thursday night in late November, Boni told us this story. He told us that we would be going to see the school on Friday, and he knew that we would love the Simbolos Patrios kids and parents as much as he does. He said he hoped that our hearts would be moved and we would want to contribute to this project, but he didn’t want to guilt us or make us do so.

It didn’t take more than thirty seconds of silence for the first member of Team 50 to speak up. “Well, I’ll go ahead and start the ball rolling. I want to give a donation.” No hesitation, no debate, no waiting to see if the school deserved the money or waiting to feel touched by the students and their situation.

And so it began. Within ten minutes, four others had also donated to the fund, also without hesitation or deliberation. They gave their hearts to these children, investing in their futures without a second thought. Over the course of the next two days, almost everyone on Team 50 decided to contribute in some way. Not everyone had the ability to give the same amount, but they offered as their situation allowed. The final tally puts us above $4500, but the excess will be put to good use supporting Boni and the FOP programs.
Throughout all of this, Boni sat quietly at the table, playing with his water glass and trying to follow the conversation with his limited English. When the final team member had spoken, we looked at Boni.

“Did you understand?” we asked Boni in Spanish. Boni shook his head.

“It is finished,” we said. “We have the money for the project.”

Boni’s eyes widened. He buried his head in his hands, but not before we saw the tears forming in the corner of his eye. “I didn’t think it would happen so quickly,” he said. “I never imagined there would be people with big enough hearts to just give the money, just like that, without even seeing the project. Thank you.”

Thanks to the members of the Team 50, Friends of Pimpollo wired $4500 to Boni last Tuesday, just in time to meet the government’s deadline. Construction has already begun, and the classrooms should be finished by January or February. Six new classrooms, real classrooms, ready for use by the spring.

This week, FOP is paying tribute to those who have helped support our programs in 2011. To the Team 50 members, who made these classrooms happen. To the 120-ish donors who attended our Christmas party two weeks ago and who have been supporting us with monthly, annual, or one-time gifts all year. To the many, many other donors who weren’t able to attend the party but who deserve our thanks just as much. To the 980 recipients of end-of-the-letters and to the anonymous donors who are matching the first $18,000 in year-end donations that come in. And to all of you, who support us via comments on the blog or posts on Facebook or simply spreading the word. You make our work possible, and we are so thankful!

Merry Christmas!