Hello Aura's House Donors, Friends, and Supporters,
WE DID IT!! Thanks to all our generous donors, a desperately poor family of ten (with an even bigger extended family) will soon have a safe, sturdy brick home in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Please take a moment to pat yourselves on the back. You are living proof that one person CAN make a difference.
On July 25, we received a very generous $500 donation from Tanzanian volunteer pal, Mike Epler of Los Angeles, CA. that brought us to our goal of $5500 and started our furniture fund for the Rojas Family. Also, thanks to the heroic fundraising efforts of Anastasia Yecke and David Santana of Miami, Florida, we reached our goal months earlier than expected! More info on Mike, Ana, and David in the Featured Donors section of this newsletter.
There's so much going on now behind the scenes at Aura's House. We're still raising funds for badly needed furniture for the Rojas Family who only have a few old mattresses propped onto cinder blocks and broken plastic chairs. See photos. I'm currently planning to redo the entire website (hopefully in a few weeks) to add new online features and to kick off two new projects - A water well for an entire village in India, and a project in Zambia where just $30 can get a school uniform and supplies so a previously denied child can finally attend school. See complete details regarding the status of previous, current, and upcoming projects at Aura's House.
You may have also heard that in June 2005, Aura and her family finally moved into their brand new brick home in Guatemala. Click here for new thank-you letters, house details, and photos. It won't be long until we have more details and pics to share with you as the Rojas's new home is built in the upcoming months. Stay tuned...
THANKS as always and Happy August!
Sincerely,
Kristen Palana
The looks on their faces when they found out... 
Click here for more photos.
August's Featured Donors:
Mike Epler, Los Angeles, CA.
Mike Epler and Kristen Palana (Aura's House founder) both helped set up the Maua Hills Vocational Training Centre in Rau Village, in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania this past June and July. It was in Tanzania that Mike first learned about Aura's House and our small-scale do-able projects that make a big difference to real people in developing countries.
In his own words:
"After getting a leave of absence from the family for 5 weeks, I went to Tanzania and met Kristen at Cross Cultural Solutions and worked with her at Maua Hills Training Center. When I returned home and checked on the status of the Rojas Project I thought it would be a great finish to the summer to move the project to it's end goal and help the team move forward with the next project. It was great working with Kristen in Tanzania and think highly of her and the great Aura's House team! Keep up the great work! Our whole family looks forward to seeing pictures of the new digs!"
Mike, Helene, Danielle, and Alexandra Epler
Mike (left) at the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro, July 2005.
David Santana, Miami, Fl.
David Santana lives in Miami Beach and is the owner of Tropic Landscaping. He became involved with Aura's House after learning about the project from Anastasia Yecke when they met at a party. She gave him an "info card" about the website, and on their first date he surprised her by asking for more cards to pass out to his business associates (what a way to impress a lady!). The results have been phenomenal: in addition to his $100 donation, he collected another $350 from 7 businesses/clients *AND* hosted a wine-tasting fundraiser that netted another $960 for the Rojas family's house! We admire David's commitment to Aura's House and look forward to working with him on future fundraisers.
And if you're wondering, he and Anastasia are still in cahoots. :-)
Anastasia Yecke, Alonzo Mourning of the Miami Heat (wow!), and David Santana.
|
Maria Rosa Rojas and her parents celebrate, moments after they found out they were getting a new home. It was a complete surprise! 
