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Dear All
Welcome to our 5th newsletter giving you an update on events by Charity
Bolivia and Colonia Ecologica in Cochabamba. We have had a new addition to
our family, our baby daughter Carina who was born 10 weeks ago, so we hope
you will appreciate why this newsletter is a little overdue!
It has been a busy few months at Colonia Ecologica and there is quite a
lot to report. For more detail on many of these events, please follow the
blog link on the website, or click on the link below.
www.charity-bolivia.org/blog
Kiko’s annual report has also been translated and put onto the website,
it tells you more about what has been going on over the last year in his
own words and you can read this by clicking on this link;
http://www.charity-bolivia.org/blog/2006/12/annual-update-from-kiko-and-carmen.html
Fundraising
The calendars were a big success and we managed to raise over £400 from
their sale – thank you to everyone who bought a calendar. We plan to
produce them again for next year, in the larger format, although we hope
to make the calendar more general with photos of South American wildlife
so that the calendar has wider appeal.
We also held a charity cocktail party with people donating money for each
drink instead of bringing a bottle – this was a very successful evening,
and the grand total raised was £203.26, which was far more than we had
been expecting, so thank you to all who attended and donated, we really
appreciate your generosity.
Sponsorship
There are several people now preparing to undertake sponsored events with
money raised being donated to Charity Bolivia – these include Claire
Booth, David Moore, Greig Horton with staff at Mouchel Parkman and Bob
Hamnett with staff at Lancashire Rural Futures. Thanks to all involved;>
more detail can be found on the website blog.
Volunteers
There are currently two long term volunteers working at Colonia, Abi Young
and Sarah Hodgson. Abi has been there since October and is staying for
nine months, and Sarah arrived in February and will be staying for a year.
There are already some updates from them on the website blog, giving us
their personal insight into what is happening at Colonia.
Trufi
This has at long last been purchased and paid for by Charity Bolivia –
the children and Kiko and Carmen are delighted with the new minibus as it
gives them a lot more freedom to do various trips out of Colonia, as well
as making it much quicker and easier to get everyone to school on a daily
basis.
Construction
There is still a lot of building work going on – the washing and shower
blocks are now complete, and there are new study huts too. A libreria has
also been built, where children can get their school supplies. Still to
be finished are the toilets and the downstairs of the house, as plans
changed during the year with different priorities.
Regular income
A key point to note is that there are now more children than ever at
Colonia – and of course this means that more money is needed each month.
Charity Bolivia currently gives $150 per month to Colonia to help with
monthly expenses but we would really like to increase this amount.
Several of you have expressed an interest in donating a regular monthly
amount to the charity – this would be a real help to all of the children
there. Even as little as £5 a month would be a big help. If you feel
you are able to do this, the easiest way is to set it up yourself through
your own bank - full details are on the website. You could also use
PayPal to do this, please see www.charity-bolivia.org/donate.
A number of you have already been donating monthly by standing order or
via PayPal, for which we are very grateful. Some of these have now
expired after 12 months, so if anyone this applies to wishes to reinstate
their monthly donation, this would be much appreciated.
We would also like to remind you to fill in the Gift Aid form if you have
not already done so, we can then claim 28 pence tax for every pound
donated to make your donation go even further. You can fill in the form
online by clicking on this link:
http://www.charity-bolivia.org/uk/giftaidit.shtml
Thanks to all of you who have supported us over the last year in whatever
way, and thank you for your continued interest,
Claire and Gertjan
Charity Bolivia
(Newsletter No.5 - May 2007)
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