Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Another Day another terrific activity for the Kids

  The wonderful people of Picadilly Restaurants invited the kids of Fundaninos to a Christmas party at their flagship store. It was a great time for everyone!!


Monday, December 19, 2011

In my other life...

  I play a financial executive with an expertise in Performance Measurement for Money Management Industry. It is an honor to be involved with the First Rate Investment Company in Arlington, Texas.
Their annual user conference has turned into one of the most important events in the Performance Measurement industry.


Arlington, TX, December 19, 2011 First Rate today announced 
Jamie Waller as its 2012 First Rate Performance Conference distinguished moderator. Mr. Waller has substantial knowledge of the performance measurement industry and is recognized as a thought leader in performance reporting, portfolio construction, compliance, technology and operations.

Taking place at the Four Season Resort and Club Dallas on March 26th and 27th, First Rate’s 2012 Performance Conference provides a great opportunity to stay abreast of industry trends, learn more about First Rate solutions and network with peers in the performance measurement industry.


This exclusive two-day event examines and explores a wide range of performance measurement topics that are sure to be valuable to both current and future First Rate Performance clients with presentations and contributions by acknowledged leaders in the wealth management and financial services industries.


For more information about the 2012 Performance Conference, speakers or agenda, please visit:



Sunday, December 18, 2011

Fundaninos 15 year olds Party and 18 year olds!!

  A wonderful extravaganza giving these kids a chance to celebrate their special birthdays like kids from intact middle class families. This well planned and beautiful event allowed several young woman to wear beautiful, new and special formal gowns to celebrate a rite of passage.  Probably similar to a sweet sixteen party in the States. A Quincenaro is a 15 year olds party and often parents spend more on this event than any other single event in a daughter's life. In Latin countries it is HUGE??


Friday, December 16, 2011

One year anniversary of Father Rocco's passing

This morning Father Michael Della  Penna  celebrated a very moving and meaningful Mass to commemorate the one year anniversary of the death of Father Rocco.
Father Rocco Famiglietti was an amazing Franciscan Priest who had a huge impact on the children in this country with so much poverty. His vision created the lasting legacy of
   Valley of the Angels 












Father Rocco Famiglietti, OFM

                   1919 - 2010






Father Rocco was a Franciscan Friar of the Immaculate Conception Provence for more than 60
years.  He lived in various parts of Central America, primarily Guatemala, where he saw first hand the
devastating effects poverty, sickness and lack of education had on the young. 
From his early days as  a missionary, formed by  faith, he sought to create a place to meet the needs of the forgotten children.  Focusing on their integral human development, he founded the Valley of the
Angels Orphanage which opened in January 1993 with 26 children.  When he passed away on December  18, 2010 the Orphanage had over 200 children.  
Papa Rocco has left us a legacy of love, supported by  solid education and good moral teaching.

Thank you! The Village Church and the June Missions Team !!

  The donations arrived!!  A suitcase weighing over 100 lbs filled with educational materials!!
Wow. Some really great and appropriate teaching tools. God is good. We are also very thankful for the financial  donations that arrived at the same time. But the best present of all was your  "presence."  In fact, presence is always a better gift than presents. Everbody still asks for you and asks when you are coming back. What a wonderful week that was.
The materials will be put to good use and they are very much appreciated!!


Merry Christmas !!



Thursday, December 15, 2011

Please pray for Juan Pablo.



  He's been in the hospital for three weeks. He nearly died from a mass in his intestines.  He is still unable to eat and the mass may have been cancerous. He is one of our kids who happens to be in his early forties.  He's a pretty nice kid and had lived  with a foster family prior to be sent back into the "system."

Monday, December 5, 2011

Please Give This Year


    As many of  you know, I have spent the past two and a half years here working with the neediest and most deserving populations: the orphaned and profoundly handicapped abandoned children   here in Guatemala City.  Our foundation currently employs a staff of five:   one  Physical Therapist, Carmen Marie Guatebein and four nurses aides (Nineras).  Our foundation has also  funded and participated in a wide range field trips, educational initiatives, hydro therapies  and sports activities such as the Special Olympics.

 Since we started this ministry in March of 2009 our focus has been to supplement the basic care these children receive from the Guatemalan Government. There are approximately 80 children in residence and the Government has approximately 45 full time employees. Our modest contribution of five staff is a help to the center, but the ratio of adult supervisors to children remains woefully inadequate. It is now our hope that the newly elected Guatemalan Government will significantly increase staffing to more adequate levels. As such, it is our intention to continue to expand our staff and programming. 
 
 One of our more significant  projects  has been the opening of, “Rincon de Suenos”  a pre-school like setting for  18  of smallest and most vulnerable children. The objective is for them  to spend their days in a safe, creative and stimulating environment.  Through generous gifting we have been able to re-design and decorate the largest available work space in the center. We opened the school with two teachers and one Ninera.  The physical space is terrific and local friends have donated educational toys and materials. Unfortunately, the ratio of teachers to children is still quite low and the amount of time spent individually with each child is less than optimal.

    Part of this  mission’s  vision has been to create a charity that assures donors that 100% of their gifts goes directly to serve the children and their caregivers. We have been fortunate to be able to tell people that all administrative and overhead expenses are covered by  some  generous gifts from a  Family Foundation. That  same foundation also  covers as much as 50% of the operating budget.  The monthly expenditures is based primarily on one metric; the number of women  employed.  We view this as a two for one investment:  a) we provide employment to impoverished single Moms and b) the children in the center receive far better care.  The Nineras continue to earn about $250.00 per month and our Physical Therapist earns about $400.00.   As you can imagine the $250 salary for the nineras is a large step toward leaving the lowest levels of poverty,  but they still live an extremely modest lifestyle.  Food here is nearly as costly as in the United States and the population adjusts to that difficulty by eating very simple meals or rice and beans with very little high protein content foods.

   Please  click here   Click for Website Fundaninos    and read how we are thinking about our threefold mission and challenge. Also please visit out blog for more insight into out activities and the day to day challenges the children face. In this letter we refrain from highlighting the heart wrenching anecdotal stories of some of our saddest and most difficult cases. Suffice to say, that we think that  these children’s lives remain some of the most  complex, heartbreaking and meritorious for your consideration.

Please consider giving to,  “The Orphans of Guatemala, Fundaninos.”  We are in the midst of planning programs and ministry for 2012 and are trying to expand and improve services for the children.

Please send Checks to :    Fundaninos   ℅ Jamie Waller 4 Franklin Pl.  Summit NJ 07901-3617

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Kids Caregivers and Culture Cadanino 2011

As year end of 2011 draws near we are focusing on three things:
 
                                                KCC
   The Kids, the Caregivers and the Culture 

                                          Cadanino Today!
                                                                                                

Cadanino is a small Christian Ministry operating in Guatemala for the past two and a half years.  Our mission is threefold:     The Kids,  The Caregivers and The Culture.  We are explicitly a Christian mercy ministry and focus is on the kids inside a government hospital/orphanage for profoundly developmentally challenged orphans.

The Kids:

The center where we work is a government residential center for  some of the most intellectually and neurologically challenged children. There are 80 children ranging in age from 7  years old into their thirties. Technically, the government mandate is for children from ages 6 to 18, but several stay on after they reach an age of majority  because there simply is no other place for them.
Nearly half the population wears adult diapers and have limited ability to pursue basic grooming or feeding. The children that Cadanino has focused on are the nine children  that are in wheelchairs and completely unable to communicate or be self sustaining.  Cadanino has taken on the task of working with them during all their waking hours and providing them with physical and play therapies.  Prior to our arrival these children were restrained in wheelchairs during daytime hours and languishing in their beds all night long.  Their already problematic limbs were atrophying because of almost no movement or physical activity.  Today some of these children are crawling, standing up and with assistance taking some first steps toward walking.  

The Staff:

 Cadanino employs 5 Nurses-Aides types  (Nineras) and one Physical Therapist who also serves as the general manager of the team.  Most of these Nineras are single Moms living in extreme poverty.  The $250.00  per month that they earn has to cover all their living expenses. The cost of living in Guatemala is significantly lower than in the USA, but food costs are nearly as much as here and the majority of their earnings goes towards feeding their families.  We attempt to witness to them and encourage them. Initially, we told them the job would be for six months so that they  could transition into better employment.  Almost universally, they have been unable to find improved employment opportunities and have stayed working with us. Several of them are approaching their two year anniversary working with us and we are looking for ways to offer them personal development. Currently, Cadanino is sponsoring upcoming classes for our staff as well as the government’s 45 person staff classes in,   “Teamwork,  Self Esteem, and Managing Stress.”   We have hosted a few American Missions teams and they have provided excellent appreciation activities such as, manicures, pedicures and messages. While providing basic employment and some kindness, this area of our ministry has  significant room for improvement.

The Culture:


Cadanino exists to serve Christ and Worship our Lord.  We want  our initiatives to bring Glory to the Kingdom and change lives in the here and now.  We have been called to run this ministry inside a secular government run institution. We work side by side with the 45 government employees who suffer from a variety work related burn out and grinding poverty. As Guatemala moves from a third world nation into a first world nation we want to encourage their government services, local philanthropies and the local Church. Our goal is to serve as a catalyst in encouraging them to take better care of their neediest citizens. What better benchmark of a society’s culture than the care they give to their least fortunate. The second half of the cultural objective is to change hearts and minds back home in the USA.  As John Piper says, “ Missions is not the ultimate goal of the Church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man.”
This third tier of our work is difficult to analyze in terms of effectiveness and impact, but we continue to pray for guidance. A newly elected government in Guatemala gives us hope for gradual change.

  This link to our blog will give you a better idea of what we are doing and some of the lives we are effecting.   

 
Click here to see Cadanino Blog

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