Spring 2010 Newsletter

Welcome to the Spring e-Newsletter for El Refugio de Esperanza (The Refuge of Hope), a school for children with disabilities in Peru!

This season we are raising funds to help the Refuge of Hope purchase a vehicle. Transportation has always been an issue for students and teachers. The "tuk-tuk", or motorized rickshaw (shown in the image below), is often the only form of transportation available, especially since The Refuge's bus broke down (irrepairably) several years ago. Needless to say these tuk-tuks are not quite what you'd consider "handicap accessible", unless that includes holding your wheelchair in your lap while your bump along muddied dirt roads.

Please help us raise money to purchase a vehicle/bus for the Refuge of Hope. We need about $10,000, and we're almost half-way there. To donate, send a check written to "The Refuge of Hope" to the address at the top of this page, and include "bus" in the for line. Or donate online by clicking the link on the right. The Refuge of Hope is a 501c3 organization, and donations are tax-deductible.

Thank you Global Impact!

Twelve volunteers (Group photo of Volunteersphoto right) from Global Impact, the missions ministry of McLean Bible Church in McLean, VA, spent one week in December of 2009 at The Refuge of Hope. They fixed two sidewalks on campus, worked on a roof, tore down a wall in one of the classrooms, built a new wall in the classroom in order to make more space for students. At the "Quince" reforestation ranch, they planted trees and built a fence. They also spent a lot of time playing with the kids and building community with the staff. Thank you Global Impact! If you are interested in taking a volunteer team to The Refuge of Hope (minimum 6 persons) click here to contact Chris Eaton with Bridge Builders.

It started with one braille letter....

The photo on the left shows a woman named Brudit Machuca Castillo, born in a small village in Amazonian Peru called Tocache. Brudit lost her vision at the age of 4 and never learned to read or write braille until two years ago when she came to the Refuge of Hope. While most of the students at the Refuge of Hope are children or teenagers, it is not uncommon in the blind community to find adults who have never had the opportunity to learn braille or attend school. They are eager learners, and the Refuge of Hope receives them regardless of age. Brudit was bothered that there was only one braille typewriter for a school of 500, often when there are anywhere from 5-10 blind students. So, she typed a letter (in braille) to the president of Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, MA, and ask for a donation of 7 Perkins Braillers.

I translated the letter from Braille to Spanish to English, took the letter home with me after my trip to Peru in July of 2009, and mailed it to the President of Perkins. No response. Six months later, I attended a special lecture at Brown University given by a remarkable man named Mike May. Mike May is a blind olympic downhill skiier and inventor of the first GPS system for the blind who regained his vision through experimental stem cell surgery. I told him about Brudit and the Refuge of Hope. He initiated a cascade of emails among his friends and contacts. One of them worked at Perkins and contacted the President of Perkins directly to get us a donation, and another named Vicki Nagano bought and donated two braillers! By remarkable teamwork and spreading the work, Mike May was able to round up 6 Perkins braillers which will be delivered to The Refuge of Hope this summer. Stay tuned for more details in our Summer newsletter.

The Refuge of Hope is now raising and selling chickens in efforts to develop more self-sustainable and profitable projects. A $3 dollar contribution is seed money that will buy a chick and the chick's food and care for 40 days, at which point it is ready for market, and can be sold for nearly twice it's original value. The project serves the school in 3 ways:

• a source of income for the school
• actual source of food (chickens and eggs) for the school
• vocational education opportunity for students in animal husbandry

Northeast Presbyterian Church (NEPC) in St. Petersburg, Florida, ran an Easter-Chick Fundraiser in March 2010 and donated $1126 in chicks. Thank you NEPC!