Project COLORS International

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Create Hope…Create Change…Create Opportunity


Project COLORS International
Children’s Overseas Learning Opportunities & Resources


Do you believe that the most basic assistance can make a difference?

Create Hope…Create Change…Create Opportunity
Give one child a chance at a better life,
And YES, you can make a difference!

It has been a project packed year for Project COLORS International.

Because of the ongoing support from our dedicated volunteers and donors, we have been able to start many hands-on practical projects getting supplies and programs directly to children in need.

Here are some of this year’s project highlights:……To start, we assisted in tackling the lice and parasite problems of over 40 orphaned children and initiated the new-start baby food project for malnourished babies in the Dominican Republic. There were multiple emergency supplies gathered for the D.R children’s home as they ran out of milk, diapers, and food. Thanks to the prompt response from our donors, we were also able to help with the children’s water crisis (filling up the well and buying needed purified drinking water). Many street kits have also been handed out to street kids through global volunteers who are working hard to make a difference in the world everyday. Our educational program continued on this year, assisting young children with basic education…..and let’s not forget the street dog project, medicating orphaned street dogs with parasites.

Good news!!!! There was enough funding for the educational and fruit snack program to keep going at Jackie’s children’s home in the D.R until the end of the school year. Our dedicated teacher, Charlene from Alberta, is making this possible by staying on and helping the children with their schooling each day. Charlene has decided to stay on in the Dominican Republic helping the children.

HAITI: Through an important contact with UN staff, COLORS was able to get supplies to young girls in Haiti aged 12-17, who were unjustly imprisoned. Care packages of underwear, hygiene products, art supplies, and medicines were given to the girls and there is more on the way.

AFRICA: Supplies to help start a pre-school program have been sent to Tanzania with a volunteer from Nova Scotia. Volunteer Allyson Chisholm, is currently working in Swaziland helping with a water pump project for a rural village and she has bought supplies and Christmas presents for the street kids that she works with daily. With the AIDS pandemic at hand, we hope to focus more assistance to the children of Africa during this time of crisis.
~More and more AIDS orphans are in need of the world’s support every day.~

Distribution program: Over the last few years, travelers and volunteers have distributed supplies to poverty stricken schools, homes for street kids, AIDS care facilities, community centers, and aid missions all over the world. Through this program, countries such as South Africa, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Cuba, St. Vincent, Eritrea, Uganda, Ukraine, Guatemala, Mexico, India, Tanzania, Haiti, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Swaziland and Honduras have received supplies from Project COLORS International.

Supplies to Sierra Leone will soon be on there way thanks to Caroline who is going to volunteer with League of Peaceful Schools. She has organized free space on a cargo ship for donations, giving her the opportunity to deliver a large amount of supplies to schools all around the country. COLORS was happy to add on to her supply of donations by providing school books, clothing, reusable diapers and boxes of footwear and flip flops for her project.

NOW: We are currently collecting donations of toothbrushes, tooth paste, light-weight school supplies, basic medical creams and first aid kits for our Distribution and Street Kit programs.

From water emergencies to lice infestations, it has been an exciting project packed
year for Project COLORS International.…and each step of the way, you have been there to
encourage us to keep going by supporting our project goals.

“THANK YOU”…..from all of the volunteers at Project COLORS and from
all the children, (and dogs) who have been touched by your kindness.


NEW AMAZING PROMO VIDEO FOR COLORS....let our kids lives touch yours..NOW!

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Monday, October 23, 2006


Project COLORS International

www.projectcolors.com

* Fruit and snack program meets education with COLORS.

* “Water!”…..oh man, … this again! Alright I’m over that little break down…. now let’s do something about it.

Greetings everyone,

With the wonderful success of this years preliminary projects here in the D.R, we feel that it is due time to bring you up to speed on some of our new project plans and updates.

November 1st, we hope to start a new project incorporating snacks into the children’s classes. We also hope to gain on going support for our educational program and to extend our initial water program since there is yet again a dyer need for water for the children’s home.

~ For more information on these new projects please read “Project Plans” below .~

On a brighter note, thanks to an amazing donation of medical creams and shampoos, the lice are under control and we now have a back up supply among other medications to tackle future problems!

Hands on in the field:

It was a fun girl’s weekend here in the D.R. Two of the children from the home

(Jamie age 4 and Wendy age 5) were chosen to come and spend the weekend with ‘Tia Sunny’ and ‘Tia Charlene’. In a strange way, it was actually sad to see how truly happy and excited the girls both were to sleep in a real bed, in their own room, with a real bathroom, even if it was only for the weekend. For me, the sad part was the realization that this was a completely foreign concept to these kids because they never ever had these things before.

We took the girls to the beach and made the day as special as we could because who knows when they would ever get to do this again.

Street kits

With the two young children in hand, we also went around giving out our new “ street kits” filled with basic school and dental supplies, small toys and dry foods. We gave them out to other street kids and mothers begging. These kits were made from the donations brought back from my visit to Nova Scotia.

Thanks everyone!

Project Plans

Fruit and snack program meets education.

Start date : November 2006

“It is a difficult task to learn if youre hungry or thirsty” highlights Charlene our new school teacher. This is why we have decided to merge our educational program with a new fruit and snack program.

It is not often that the children at the children’s home receive fruit in their diet.

By introducing this new program, we can not only ensure that the kids have eaten, but that they have eaten something healthy as well.

Based on funding, we hope to personally bring a piece of fruit to each kid at the orphanage at least once or twice a week. This will be done during the school program.

Budget

Ex. Each banana is around 5p X 40 kids = 200p

200p = around $7 a day for each kids to get a piece of fruit.

Total: $210 Canadian (Roughly each month)

Water Project

Start date : Mid November

How many times have I heard “tia… agua!” ….which translates to “auntie in want a drink of water!”

As it comes to the end of the 2nd month completion of the initial water project, we are now faced with the recurring problem of water at the children’s home.

Ahhhh…..yes, again.

Such a basic necessity, but such a major problem in this country.

We still have some funding rationed out for this problem for the next few weeks thanks to everyone who donated for the two month lice and water project. However, longer term I am personally feeling the stress of the reliance on this funding to keep the water coming since a new solution has not been found for the children’s home.

Budget

Purified drinking water

40p each bottle…. For each kid to get an adequate amount of water, about 3 bottles a day is needed

Total = 120p a day

(I increased the number of bottles from 1 to 3 since I really underestimated how much 40 kids can drink in one day)

120p= $4 Canadian a day to provide drinking water to all the kids

Total: $120 Canadian for purified drinking water each month

NOTE: The truck loads of water and fees for any city water (if it ever works) for cleaning and washing is a separate project. It is also a long term and costly project.

To sustain this, COLORS or the children’s home needs to create a partnership with a larger NGO to sponsor and facilitate it. If any company or organization wants to take this on, please let me know and we can make arrangements.

Current projects taken on by Project COLORS for November 2006:

*Fruit/snack program in school

*Street kits- for kids on the street

*Educational program-teacher for young children and supplies

*Purified water project- drinking water

*Street dog anti-parasite project- made possible by the Hope for Wildlife Society

· *If anyone wants to help with these projects, please e-mail me:

· sunnychoyce@yahoo.ca or choyce@projectcolors.com

Sincerely,

Sunyata Choyce

P.S. Check the website for updates and photos.
Apologies for any cross-posting!

For those who want to help, please read below:

In terms of help, any support for these immediate projects will go along way.

Remember, this is a small project; COLORS is not a registered charity.

Those who would like to donate through pay pal can do so through the COLORS website:

www.projectcolors.com

Then click on ‘donate’

The other option :

1. Pledging an amount.

2. E-mail me how much you would like to put towards the project.

3. (Sunyata or Charlene) pay’s for supplies now on the donors behalf, since we are here in the D.R.

4. Actual pledges can be sent to my (Sunyata’s) parent’s house.

5. My parents are collecting funds back in Canada and putting the funds in my account for the project. This way I have access to money through my own bank to buy anything needed (without a middle man).

(I have done this before here in the D.R and in South Africa to cut out unnecessary costs.)

6. Checks can be made out to:

Sunyata Choyce

83 Leslie Rd,

E. Lawrencetown

Nova Scotia

B2Z 1P8

Canada

There is also the Western Union option, but that is more costly for the donor.

If you would like to donate to the children’s home directly, I would be more then happy to get you in touch with the Director. COLORS will not be responsible for any follow up on donations made directly to the home.

If any of you are here in the D.R, I could set you up to do some volunteer activities with the children as well. They love the extra attention.

Thank you everyone for your on going support and interest in
these small but needed projects!

Cheers,

Sunyata Choyce

Project COLORS International

www.projectcolors.com

choyce@projectcolors.com

My number at the UN office is:

#1-809-685-2111 ext.232

Because of YOU!!!


Project COLORS International
www.projectcolors.com

Aug 2006

Great news everyone,

Our new project is well on the way!!!!

Not only on the way, but it is happening right now.

The response from everyone back in home has been truly amazing!

When I arrived at the children’s home they were so excited to receive the lice shampoos and funds for the water from all of you.

They jumped on the phone right away to call the water delivery truck.

While I was there, the truck arrived and filled up their very dry well.

Perfect timing, because they truly had almost no water. Crazy!

I got lots of photos.

I was happy that we could start implement everything outlined in our project goals so fast. Thanks to you!!!

The truck loads of water will continue to come whenever the water gets low until we come up with a more sustainable solution.

More lice shampoo and other remedies are on the way. It has actually been kind of funny dragging around my UN co-workers to help me inquire (in Spanish) about discounts on lice shampoo and hauling random home remedies for lice from the grocery store.

Shortly, COLORS will like to branch out again into helping the children’s home with food donations, school supplies and other needed items.

EVEN MORE EXCITING NEWS: We are seriously looking into the possibility of hiring a school teacher for the young children (who currently have no access to education). Meetings, budgets and contracts are in the works to try and make this a reality really soon.

Thanks again everyone for making all this happen so fast.

Regards,

Sunyata Choyce

Project COLORS International

choyce@projectcolors.com

www.projectcolors.com

No water .................. but lots of lice!


Welcome Back to Project COLORS International

www.projectcolors.com

Aug 17th 2006

No water .................. but lots of lice!

~Can you imagine a children’s home full of lice and not enough lice shampoo or water to remedy the situation! Not only can I imagine it, I’m seeing it,

but they are the ones living it each day.~

Greetings fellow COLORS supporters,

I find myself once again here in the Dominican Republic. Luckily I have had the pleasure to revisit the kids of Jackie’s Children’s Home which many of you helped support last year.

Wow, the babies are now walking and talking! So nice to see.

They have a bigger house now, however, the number of children has grown as well. Last year they had 25 kids… now they have over 40 small children.

As you all know, I often have the luck of walking into the middle of a crisis of some sort.

Yesterday, when I was visiting the children, they were in a mini state of emergency.

Lice, has taken over the children’s home (yes, again… fun stuff!!).

Not only that, but they are also out of water (even better!)

What a mess.

Since they have had so many children coming through that need various treatments for lice, fungus etc… they have exhausted their supply of these medications. The lice is so bad that many of the children must have their hair cut short (there were many new hairdos yesterday!!!!)

To add to the drama, they have also been out of water of several weeks now.

Twice a week they have to order expensive loads of water that are delivered to the house. This is 800 pesos (around $30 each)…. That is $60 a week, plus the purified drinking water ($40 a month), since the water in the DR is undrinkable.

Can you imagine a children’s home full of lice and not enough lice shampoo or water to remedy the situation! Not only can I imagine it, I’m seeing it first hand, but they are the ones living it each day.

However, believe it or not, this is an easy one problem solve!

This will be a one or two month emergency project. (I can start ASAP)

Through COLORS I would like to directly purchase the water to be delivered to the children’s home for the next month or two (while we wait for the landlord to fix the main problem or find a sustainable solution).

I can also purchase the lice shampoo right now.

· *If anyone wants to help with this project, please e-mail me so I can arrange the budget and time frame.*

· sunnychoyce@yahoo.ca or choyce@projectcolors.com

Welcome back again to Project COLORS!

Sincerely,

Sunyata Choyce

P.S. I’ll have new photos soon I promise. Apologies for any cross-posting!

For those who want to help, please read below:

In terms of help, any support for this immediate project will go along way.

Remember, this is a small project; I am not a registered charity.

Those who would like to donate through pay pal can do so through the COLORS website:

www.projectcolors.com

Then click on ‘donate’

The other option some people are doing is:

1. Pledging an amount.

2. E-mail me how much they would like to put towards the project.

3. I pay for supplies now on the donors behalf, since I’m here in the D.R.

4. Actual pledges can be sent to my parent’s house.

5. My parents are collecting funds back in Canada and putting the funds in my account for the project. This way I have access to money through my own bank to buy anything needed (without a middle man taking a cut in extra fees).

(I have done this before here in the D.R and in South Africa to cut out overhead costs.)

6. Checks can be made out to:

Sunyata Choyce

83 Leslie Rd,

E. Lawrencetown

Nova Scotia

B2Z 1P8

Canada

There is also the Western Union option, but that is more costly for the donor.

If any of you are here in the D.R, I could set you up to do some volunteer activities with the children as well. They love the extra attention.

Thanks again for all your help.

Cheers,

Sunyata Choyce

Project COLORS International

www.projectcolors.com

choyce@projectcolors.com

My number at the UN office is:

#1-809-685-2111 ext.232