Your vote, por favor!

For those of you reading this blog who have a Facebook account, we could really, really use your vote for the grant we are hoping to win for the Centro de Esperanza Infantil here in Oaxaca. Looking at the photos I've uploaded here of the living conditions of many of our students, I think you'll understand why winning the $10,000 grant is so important for the poor children of Oaxaca served by our organization. There are so many programs which we could add to the existing classes at the CEI, so many medicines and other supplies we could purchase with the grant, and on and on...

This week I attended several days of short meetings with the officers of both boards (the Centro de Esperanza Infantil has its own non-profit status with the Mexican government, and Oaxaca Streetchildren Grassroots, Inc. is the non-profit in the US which supports this valuable program).

Today's all day meeting included the board members from both groups who were able to attend (there were five of us from the US), and later included all the staff and volunteers who work at the CEI. The results of the few days of meetings were very positive! We agreed on some changes which will streamline and improve the record keeping of our 600 students and their sponsors, have a plan in place to purchase more computers and software for our new computer lab, and were able to share many other ideas which will improve the lives of our children and their families even more. I can guarantee that any help you give our organization is much appreciated, and that any donations are carefully used to benefit our needy children.

So, if you have a Facebook account, please go to: www.cultivatewines.org. Click on The Give, then click on voting and videos (you will need to login with Facebook to cast your vote). The voting ends on June 30th, and you can vote once per day for the next two weeks. If the voting were to end today, we would be one of the 6 winners! We need your support to keep us in the winning circle! You can also visit our website: www.oaxacastreetchildrengrassroots.org and can vote through a link on our site.  Please spread the word--I thank you, both our organizations thank you, and 600 students also say "gracias" for helping them to make huge changes in their lives.