Mom and I just had a restful night in Seattle and we are on our way
this morning to Ethiopia. In case you are wondering about the picture
above, that is the only way I can sleep in the same room with my mother!
And I thought you would find it amusing. T left a day before us,
routed through China. We are both reminiscing about our last trip to
Ethiopia together and how different this one is. We have four huge
checked bags full of donations – thank you to everybody who donated
medicine, toys, toothbrushes and shoes! And Tawnya had a huge bag as
well, including the laptop we scored for Faya Orphanage from BC Tree
Fruits.

I think all of us have different goals for this trip. T said
she’s looking forward to meeting all the people she’s been working with
over email for the last 2 years. Mom is looking forward to meeting the
kids and their guardians in the House 2 House program. As our update
lady, she knows all their faces, but she is looking forward to seeing
their smiles in person. She is also very interested to meet the
guardians of the kids… She says that they are the real heroes in our
program, taking care of vulnerable children who are often extended
family. Mom says they deserve our respect and she’s excited about
meeting them, especially the grandmother who takes care of the little
boy she sponsors. Of course we both have personal goals for the trip,
but that’s another story.

As for me, I think I’m really happy about meeting with our Ethiopian
partners and figuring out so many details that are hard to explain while
on the phone. I’m looking forward to meeting the government officials
and the folks at the HIV clinic who refer our families, checking in with
the families and seeing what their needs are, and really understanding
the whole system. We’re also doing exploratory work on this trip- we’ve
been thinking of starting other programs like micro finance and small
plot gardening, and I’m very interested in hearing from the families
what they think would be most beneficial to break them out of the
poverty cycle and enable them to care for their families self
sufficiently. The other goal for the trip is to work out kinks with our
updates and to figure out some more Vulnerable Children oversight and
engagement measures as our projects and activities continue to grow.
We’re considering hiring a (very) part time administrator in Ethiopia,
and have candidate interviews planned for next week.

Well, we’re now off to the airport. We should be arriving in Addis Ababa tomorrow.

Thanks for following along! Read more about Vulnerable Children

Nicky

Folks – I am SO please to announce this! We’ve worked REALLY hard to get to where we are at, and I thank so many of you for sponsoring and donating over the past year and a half. If you have been waiting for Vulnerable Children to become a charity and start issuing tax receipts – the wait is over!!! Please consider making a donation or sponsoring a child today! ~ “Nicky”, aka President of Vulnerable Children Society

Reposted from: Vulnerable Children Society

Vulnerable Children Society is proud to announce that we are now a registered Canadian charity! This means that we are now able to offer tax receipts to our wonderful sponsors and donors.

For clarity on the difference between a non-profit society and a registered charity, click here.

Tax receipts will be offered for donations or sponsorships over $30 starting on March 1, 2012. As a small volunteer-run charity, we have decided to use CanadaHelps.org to facilitate our sponsorships and donations. This means a small increase in our internal administration costs, which we consider a very reasonable expense for the receipting service provided.

NOTE: Sponsorships and monthly donations must be made through CanadaHelps in order to receive tax receipts. We simply don’t have the people-power to keep track of all our monthly donations any other way. One-time donations over $30 received via “check in the mail” will receive a tax receipt on an annual basis.

Existing Sponsors

For existing sponsors, we are asking you to visit our CanadaHelps page (just click the link to the left!) to set up your current sponsorships on the new system.

Once we have received notice of your sponsorship set-up through CanadaHelps.org,  we will cancel your previous PayPal agreement.

Note: ONLY monthly sponsorships through CanadaHelps.org will receive tax receipts!!! The tax receipts come directly from CanadaHelps.

Instructions to set up your existing sponsorships on CanadaHelps:
#1 Click the box below

#2 Select “Repeating Donation”
#3 Add the amount of $35 for Community Child and Faya Child sponsorships, or $75 for Community Family sponsorships. You can only do ONE monthly payment to VCS through Canada Helps, so if you sponsor more than one child, please add the total of the sponsorship amounts together into one monthly amount.
#4 Add a start date of March 1, 2012 and an end date of “never.” Press continue.
#5 Complete your monthly donation. You will receive your tax receipts directly from CanadaHelps.

Note: Please click the button that shares your name, address and email with the charity, as we really want to know who you are and be able to send you updates on the child and newsletters!
Thanks so much!

We are SO grateful for your support to date, and so pleased that we can now offer you the benefit of tax receipts. Thanks a million times over!!! for your graciousness over the past year and a half.

New Sponsors / Donors

For new sponsors who have been waiting for Vulnerable Children Society to gain charitable status and be able to receive tax receipts, the wait is over! Please visit the following pages to learn about our amazing sponsorship and donation opportunities:

• Sponsor an Ethiopian child to survive and thrive in their own community, through the House 2 House program!
• Donate to Vulnerable Children Society, and enable amazing projects such as Faya Orphanage for HIV+/HIV- children, caregiver training, educational supplies for vulnerable rural Ethiopian children, food aid for drought relief, and much more!

Researchers at the University of Alberta are looking into the language development of young children adopted from Ethiopia. Cool!

“Speech-language pathologists and early intervention specialists are increasingly involved in assessing the communication skills of internationally adopted children, and in many cases providing language stimulation or speech therapy services. “

These researchers are looking for “volunteers who have adopted children from Ethiopia.

If your child is between 9 and 42 months of age and has been home less than 12 months, you are eligible to participate” in their on-line survey.

To learn more and fill out the survey, click here.

School is almost out for summer!  Report card time!

Each year the

writes report cards for the wealthiest countries in the world, grading them on their contributions and achievments to providing education for all children.

Here is Canada’s:

Now, 8th place, for a country that prides itself on it’s global contributions, 8th is pretty dismal. 

If you would like to see the other countries’ reports, click here.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns3BMxwYEgM]

When’s the last time your wrote your MP (or federal government respresentative) and had your voice heard?

Jrock and I write a letter about twice a month, as we become aware of an issue (animal rights) or it’s decision-making time (ie, the budget.)  It’s actually so easy to do… just fire it off to your MP or the relevant minister.. and don’t forget to CC a copy off to the PM. You would be surprised at the answers you get back…

How to’s:

• Find your MP here.
• Get some help letter writing
  • Environmental issues
  • Human rights / poverty issues (sign up for updates – they’ll write the letter for you)
• Print 3 copies of your letter. 
  • Mail one to your MP at their local office (need to put a stamp on it) or drop it off
  • Mail one to them in Ottawa (postage free):
    Person’s Name, MP
    House of Commons
    Parliament Buildings
    Ottawa, ON, K1A 0A6
  • Mail one to the PM:
    Prime Minister Stephen Harper
    Office of the Prime Minister
    80 Wellington Street
    Ottawa, ON, K1A 0A2

Of course, you can always email pm@pm.gc.ca but I think the emails don’t get as much attention as paper.  (But if you would never write a letter, for sure, send an email.)