Barrie high school students fundraising for PaM

On October 8th, 2009, PaM directors traveled to Barrie, Ontario to make presentations in four classes at Bear Creek Secondary School, to talk about the work PaM does in Peru and help the students develop fundraising activities as a project for their Community Involvement Program requirements. Students from the civics department were given a slideshow presentation and talk, outlining the plight of school children in this poor and remote region of northern Peru, and about the history of PaM's activities in support of education in and around Mancora.

The students will put together their own small fundraising projects over the course of this school term, and the money raised will go to support young Peruvians their own age. The project will culminate in a video-conference between the high-school students in both countries, allowing them to meet and speak to each other and foster a cultural exchange.

PaM directors have put together a presentation package that fits in well with many aspects of the Ontario high-school curriculum, including civics, history, geography, world issues and environmental science, and which can be tailored to meet individual class and topical needs. The program creates a unique opportunity for students to become directly involved in working with and assisting youth their own age in a developing country. For more information, please contact Josh Hehner (josh@paraelmundo.org) or Sean Jacquemain (sean@paraelmundo.org).

Daniel Castillo Surgery Update - Success!

We would like to update you all on the success of our fundraising campaign to raise money to assist 9-year old Daniel Castillo from Mancora, Peru, who has been suffering from a large cyst in his jaw. Daniel’s family are Primary School teachers from the remote area of Northern Peru where our partner charity, Para el Mundo (PaM), has been active since 2004, and have been unable to afford the surgery, biopsy, medical tests and imaging which were required to repair the large hole in Daniel’s jaw and heal the infection.

Thanks to the generous support of our friends, family members and the large network of kind folks we have been able to reach, we were able to raise the money required for his care. The first installment of $1,500 USD was sent to Peru via Western Union on June 16th, paving the way for the scheduling of Daniel’s surgery. Following a delay during which Daniel was recovering from a sinus infection, which temporarily prevented the surgery from taking place, Daniel entered the hospital on June 26th and was operated on during the day of June 27 by maxillofacial surgeon Dr. Santos of the University of Lima Teaching Hospital.

We have just recently received the wonderful news that Daniel’s surgery has gone successfully, and he is now recovering at home. The second installment of the $2,100 USD total that we managed to raise will be sent to the family this week, which will cover the rest of the hospital bill, as well as the expensive medications Daniel now needs to stimulate his body to repair the damage to his jaw bone. Although his jaw is now wired shut, and he will be eating through a straw for the next while, he is apparently feeling much better, and is healing quickly. The stitches will be removed this coming Saturday.

Daniel has written the following message to his many supporters, to thank you all for your contributions (translation below):

Hola como estan por alla bueno quiero agradecer por lo que están haciendo por mi y bueno yo estoy feliz, ah y tambien quiero agradecerle a los amigos mando saludos a everyone.

Los quiero mucho,
Daniel

[Translation: Hello. How are you all? Here, things are going well. I want to thank you for what you have done for me, and, well, I am happy, and want to thank all my friends. Please send my regards to everyone. I love you very much, Daniel]

To those of you who requested one, or who provided contact information via one of the online donation mechanisms (such as Facebook Causes or CanadaHelps.org), we will be sending out charitable tax receipts this week. If anyone who donated would like one but did not provide contact info, please feel free to write and request one (contributions of $25 CAD or over). To any of our American supporters, PaM USA has recently received its 501(c)3 status (charitable status), and can shortly begin offering charitable receipts for American contributions. Again, please contact us to inquire about this.

Peru is a very poor country, lacking any kind of public health care, and poor & working families are often forced to go without medical care. Without the generous contributions from all of you, this would not have been possible. We are eternally grateful for all that you have done to support PaM and Daniel’s cause, and we are overjoyed that, together, we have been able to reduce the suffering of this boy who has come to mean so much to our extended PaM family. His family’s thanks goes out to you, as does ours.

Fundraising Dinner Successful

After a few weeks of promotion and advertising in local English and Spanish media, the fundraising buffet dinner and celebration of Peruvian culture and cuisine at La Cocina de Doña Luz's was a success, with $500 in proceeds going to Para el Mundo (PaM). Also that evening, long-time PaM supporter Jennifer Balaishis donated a further $500 on behalf of her class at Langstaff Secondary School as part of their ongoing fundraising efforts to support the work being done in Peru.

Thanks again to everyone who helped make this event a success and for your continued support of PaM and Voluntraveler.

The photo above is of Josh Hehner (PaM/Voluntraveler) presenting La Cocina de Doña Luz owner Luis Parreto with a framed photo taken in Mancora as a gift for his continued support.

Annual PaM Dinner at La Cocina de Doña Luz

What? - A fundraising buffet dinner for Para el Mundo

When? - Saturday June 20th at 6:30pm

Where? - La Cocina de Doña Luz's (a great Peruvian restaurant in Toronto)

How Much? - $25/person

This is a dinner in support of Para el Mundo (PaM), Voluntraveler's partner charity in Peru to honour and appreciate the work of the organization and all it's supporters. Anyone who is involved or interested in becoming involved with PaM are welcome to attend. We look forward to seeing you there!

La Cocina de Doña Luz's

807 St. Clair Ave W

Toronto, ON

Tel: (416) 652-7430

If you can't make it on the 20th, you can still enjoy the same meal from now until the 21st of June as part of La Cocina de Doña Luz's annual Gastronomic Festival, celebrating Peruvian culture and cuisine. Restaurant owner Luis Barreto will be donating some of the proceeds to Para el Mundo.

The festival runs from Friday, June 12 to Sunday, June 21, open from 11am to 10pm for a sumptuous buffet-style all-you-can-eat meal for lunch or dinner. The cost is $25 for adults and $10 for children. Reservations are requested.

Toronto Walking Tour Fundraiser

Tour Guys (www.tourguys.ca) is hosting a fun and informative walking tour of downtown Toronto on Sunday June 14th to raise funds for Daniel Castillo's surgery. Para el Mundo (PaM) is 2/3 of the way to collecting the $2500 USD they want to raise, and this fundraising event could help them reach their goal.

The tour is free, but donations are requested and all of the money will be donated to Daniel's family in Peru via PaM.

The tour begins at the Peace Garden in front of Toronto City Hall at 2:00 PM on Sunday June 14th. The tour will happen rain or shine - so cross your fingers! After the tour, we will head to a pub for some food and drink and some socializing. How fun!

Here is the Tour Guys description of the tour:

"On this walking tour of the downtown core, I'll show you some cool places and tell you some stories that most locals don't know. Everyone visiting Toronto knows about the CN Tower, so that's not a part of this tour. Instead we'll cover rebellion, fire, epidemics, war, falcons, a family of jerks, zombies, whiskey, a rainforest, a labyrinth, a disco bomb shelter, bees, choo-choo trains, and geese with red ribbons around their necks. We'll also talk about beavers (our national animal), Canadian culture, and the weather."

If you have any questions, please email jason@tourguys.ca or call him at 647-230-7891

Please Donate: 9 year-old requires jaw surgery

Our partner charity, Para el Mundo (PaM), is scrambling to raise $2500 USD to provide emergency dental surgery for 9 year-old Daniel Castillo of Máncora, a small fishing town on the northern coast of Peru. Daniel is suffering from a painful cyst in his right maxilla; this progressed from an abscess that has gone untreated due to the family’s inability to pay for proper care. The bone is now involved, and the cyst is putting pressure on the adjacent teeth, causing him extreme discomfort. Daniel is well known and loved by PaM's Peruvian and Canadian staff and the international volunteers who have worked in Máncora. His Parents are both teachers raising him and his 3 siblings. Daniel’s father, Lucho, frequently has to make the overnight bus journey to the capital Lima where teaching work is available, and his mother Fanny struggles to make ends meet, working as a seamstress and craftswoman and making cakes and desserts for the tourist industry, while raising the children practically on her own.

Despite increasing tourism in Peru, most Peruvians live in extreme poverty, particularly on the northern coast, where a once thriving fishing industry has all but collapsed. Medical care is expensive and difficult to access, dental care even more so, and there is no publicly-funded health or dental care available for Daniel. Josh Hehner, PaM's Director for Community Medicine Programs says, "Only the richest have insurance, and so if we can’t raise the money to help, Daniel will have to live in extreme pain and discomfort and put his health at risk, or the family will have to take extreme measures to find the funds. We don’t even want to think about what this might mean, because they don’t own any property, have few possessions, and the family already lives in a very cramped space."

PaM is urgently requesting all sympathetic acquaintances, those in the dental profession, and past volunteers who have been touched by the kind spirit and community involvement of the Castillo family, to please give what they can to pay for Daniel’s care. Even the smallest amount is helpful.

Para el Mundo is a registered charity in Canada, the U.S.A and Peru. Their community liaison staff will make sure that 100% of any donation goes directly to Daniel’s dental and medical treatment. Ways to donate can be found here on the PaM website. They will then transfer the money to the staff in Peru who will oversee the disbursement. If you provide a mailing address and name when you donate, they will send you a tax-deductable receipt for your donation.

Danielle Lafond, one of PaM's Directors and a founder, adds,"PaM exists to help the community, but also to alleviate suffering in individuals. This child, Daniel, is very close to our hearts, and needs our help."

Fundraising for Volunteer Travel

Some of our volunteers have asked about fundraising for their trip to Peru. One of the great things about volunteer travel, as opposed to regular leisure travel, is that it's easier to ask people to contribute money towards your effort to help children in Peru than your effort to drink Tequila Sunrises at a poolside bar in Cancun.

Fundraising can be done in several ways, and I think it's helpful to look at your potential pool of contributers as occupying circles around you. 

Family and close friends

The first circle are those closest to you, like your immediate family and closest friends. These are the people you would feel most comfortable approaching directly to contribute with no strings attached and would likely contribute the largest individual sums. If they believe as strongly in what you are doing as you are, and they know that you need the financial help to make the trip happen, they could be your best bet. You could ask them to:

• Contribute financial help in lieu of gifts they would otherwise give
  
• Collecting donations on your behalf (think of the parent who sells Girl Guide cookies in their office on behalf of their daughter)
  
• Help you organize a fundraising event (silent auction, party, show, concert)
• Just give you money

In the case of Para el Mundo, we made use of our closest friends and their resources to put together a concert at the Rivoli in Toronto. Our headliner was Samba Squad, an exciting percussion ensemble that had everyone dancing. We had t-shirts and ball caps made and sold craft items previous volunteers brought back from Peru. After ticket sales, donations collected during the show, and swag and craft sales, we had raised about $2000 for PaM that night.

Friends and co-workers

Outside that close inner circle are the remainder of your friends and your co-workers, who would likely attend your fundraiser, kick in a few bucks to your cause, but not make a substantial contribution beyond that. This group is a lot larger than your inner circle, but they still know and trust you. Pitching your plan to fundraise to them should be easy, but they won't feel as obliged to help you out. The key to getting funds from this group is offering something in return, even if its recognition on your website for contributing, or promoting their own business or interest. If you have a blog or a website and they have a band, you can write up a post in return for their contribution. Some ideas:

• Start a blog about your effort to get this trip off the ground. People like these kind of stories, and want the hero (you!) to succeed. In your blog, publicly recognize and thank the people that help you. Be sure to ask for donations which can be done through PayPal or Facebook. Here is an article on collecting through facebook applications.
  
• Find something to sell. You could start an Ebay auction and ask people to donate items that you can sell. If you're really nice, you could offer to share in a bit of the profit! Check out the companies that schools use for fundraising. A simple Google search should turn up hundreds! Find something unique to sell. An educational tour company I worked for once recorded a Christmas CD and made it availabel to schools as a fundraiser!
  
• Hold a fundraiser. It could be something as elaborate as a concert or a show, or as simple as a dinner party. Figure out what your costs will be and sell tickets that will cover your costs and then turn a profit. Add to your profit by selling other items. Don't over-estimate your turnout or choose a venue and entertainer that will leave you struggling if people don't show up in droves. A general rule for expected numbers is only count on 50% of your "yes" responses to show up. People are more polite than they are honest and would rather tell you they are coming than tell you they are not, even if they don't plan on attending.
  

The general public

This is the largest group (obviously) and the hardest to sell. Everyone is asking for money. Everyone is needy. There are people starving all over the world, and with the current economy, people are generally less willing now to let go of their hard earned money to help strangers. The key to getting funding from strangers is having a compelling story, not asking for much, and offering something of equivilent or greater value than what you are asking them to contribute. Ideas for this group would work with the other groups.

• Ask businesses to donate something you can give away or auction/sell in return for advertising, mention of sponsorship, etc.
  
• Sell tickets to a show, or fundraiser you are hosting as above. Make sure to promote the heck out of your event in the media. Contact all the papers and local bloggers!
  
• Start a word of mouth or social media campaign (like on facebook) asking for contributions of $1. Set a target date and maybe a website. Try to find something of value to offer for that $1. Here is a guy who made a ton of cash by selling pixels of a website for advertising. This has laready been done, so you probably won't have any luck replicating it, but it might give you some ideas.
  

One last thing...

Figure out which kind of fundraiser will bring the biggest return for the effort spent. However, no matter what you choose to do to fundraise, don't expect the money to flow easily and without effort. Treat your fundraising like a job, create a realistic goal and work your hardest to achieve it. The surpass it. When you are successful, be sure to thank those responsible for helping you. When you return from your trip, make sure those who helped get copies of your photos and some kind of souvenier. 

Then share your experience with the rest of the world!