Friday, December 25, 2009

Maligayang Paslit 2009


The 10th Annual Maligayang Paslit was a hit! Once again,
Isa Mundo was the main sponsor for this event which hosted over 500 children in the village of Bambang, Bulacan, Philippines! We would like to thank Benjo and the Bambang Youth Association for their dedication to the children of Bambang! Thank you for providing Isa Mundo with the opportunity to sponsor such an amazing event for children!

Monday, December 21, 2009

Happy holidays!

Dear friends of the Isa Mundo Foundation,

This past year, with your support and contributions, we were able to help children, families, and communities in Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, India and the Philippines.

On behalf of all those who have benefited from your generosity, we at the Isa Mundo Foundation thank you wholeheartedly for your ongoing support and commitment to improving the present and future of so many.

We look forward to the upcoming year as we continue, together, to make a difference in the lives of those in need.

Happy Holidays!

******************************************

Chers amis de la fondation Isa Mundo,

Grâce à votre appui et vos contributions, nous avons pu faire une différence dans la vie de plusieurs enfants, familles et communautés du Mexique, des Philippines, du Nicaragua, du Guatemala et en Inde.

Tous les gens qui ont profité de votre générosité, ainsi que la Fondation Isa Mundo, vous sont reconnaissants et vous remercient d’avoir contribué à leur bien-être d’aujourd’hui et de demain.

Nous vous souhaitons tous de Joyeuses Fêtes!

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Children's Day in Goa



On November 20th we sponsored our first children’s day event in India in partnership with Grace Educational Foundation, an organization that provides learning opportunities to children in need. The children’s day celebration was organized in the small village of Betim Ramnagar, and was attended by almost sixty children between the ages of 2 and 12. The children, parents, educators and community members enjoyed many activities around the theme "what would your like to be when you grow up?"...imagination was running wild...children dressed up, performed and enjoyed eating lots of food and treats. Each child received a storybook and a set of crayons to take home with them to continue the fun...this is the first of many celebrations to come!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Monako Graphics Printing

We would like to introduce Monako Graphics Printing as the newest sponsor of the Isa Mundo Foundation. Monako contributed to printing Isa Mundo's business cards, brochures and postcards as a way to donate to our projects in 2010. We appreciate their committment to Isa Mundo and their belief that our work is making a difference in the lives of those less fortunate.

Thank for your support !!

Monako Graphics Printing is located at 102-300 West Georgia Street in Vancouver, BC. Click on this link to find their location.

Monako Location

Sunday, November 1, 2009

The New Look Website !!

The Isa Mundo Foundation website has been re-launched with a new look and design. The new site is more interactive and we hope to keep adding and improving the website with new information, pictures and updates. We would like to thank GeeGen for all her hard work in improving and maintaining the website.

In addition, GeeGen has officially joined Isa Mundo as a member due to her dedication in promoting the foundation in her work and design.

Welcome GeeGen !!

Sunday, October 25, 2009

First Isa Mundo Auction

Dear blog readers,

We decided that it would be a good idea to have an online auction to raise funds for our projects. We are in the process of gathering a bunch of goods for the auction. If you have any new items you would like to donate for this auction, please feel free to send us an email and tell us all about it. The more amazing things we have, the better the auction will be. And the more money we raise, the more we will be able to help those who need it the most! ; )

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Trip to Nica
















It’s about that time of year again…time to travel! This time, the foundation brought us to beautiful Nicaragua. Not many people know that Nicaragua is the second most impoverished nation in the Western Hemisphere. Once in Nicaragua it was hard to imagine that in such a beautiful country, 27% of its population is suffering from undernourishment. Despite seeing all the hardship, we had a very worthwhile trip. During our short week, we managed to meet with three organizations: Bridges to Community, Empowerment International and Caritas Feliz (featured on October 13).

Bridges to Community is a non-profit striving to create a world where basic needs are treated as human rights: shelter, nutrition, education, healthcare, and employment. Thanks to Miranda and Kevin who graciously toured us around amazing projects including community education, sustainable housing, small loan projects and leadership programs. Thank you to Miranda, Kevin, Jarred, Bonnie and many other community members for sharing your wonderful stories and for welcoming us into your homes and communities. Please check out the Bridges website to found out more about their amazing work in Nica http://bridgestocommunity.org

Empowerment International’s mission is to break the cycle of poverty before it is transferred to yet another generation, by building more educated and productive communities. Their vision is to enable every child to go to school and achieve the level of education they desire. One of the great things about EI is that they encourage the communities to make EI program their own and then empower them to raise their voices and tell their own stories. This is a great approach with working with communities – empower them to make the change! Thank you Deepa for meeting with us (twice!). Check out EI online at http://empowermentinternational.org/

We are now working with these great organizations on the possibility of future projects and we hope that through these projects, we will help empower the future of Nicaragua.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Carita en NIca



A few days ago, as we (or Isa Mundoers) were walking around Granada trying to orient ourselves and plan our next few days of foundation work, we walked through a poorer neighborhood of town and discovered Carita Feliz. It's difficult not to fall in love with these children (check out the pictures). The next day, we decided to walk back to Carita to learn more about this organization.

Carita was founded in March 2001 by Peder Kolind, a Dutch native. Having recently moved to Granada, he found many children hungry and begging for food. His first day here, he bought food from a street vendor to 70 children. The next day he found 130 children waiting expectantly for him. He soon realized that the community needs were so immense, so he decided to launch Carita Feliz.

Their mission is to work with children and youth, through education, to promote the development of attitudes, knowledge, abilities, and skills to encourage their full educational development. They are currently helping over 1,500 children and youth and their families, through meal and nutrition programs, after school programs, scholarships, medical and dental programs and many others. All services offered by Caritas are completely free for all.

They are doing fantastic work with the communities…and, one of the great things about Caritas is that it is completely ran by local community members and leaders. To learn more about Carita visit:http://www.caritafeliz.org/

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Isa Mundo Article on Volunteering

Isa Mundo Foundation's Director, Paul Lorilla, was interviewed by Latincouver regarding the importance of volunteering and giving back to your community. Read the short article by clicking on this link:

http://www.latincouver.ca/home_page_articles/en/volunteerism_giving_back_community

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Website launch

Back in April, we posted about our new website. Since then, Geegen has volunteered many hours to revamp our website, add a few projects and indulge our many requests for changes and updates. We are now learning the wonderful challenges of website design and the world of html.

We are just about ready to officially launch our new website, so stay tuned and keep visiting our site!

Saturday, September 19, 2009

The construction has started...



...and we have pictures to share with you! A few weeks ago, we blogged about the completion of the first phase of our Road to Success Campaign (the fundraising) and we are now happy to report that phase two has officially started! The best part of this project is that it is being done by local Mayan families…so the money we have raised is not only benefiting the orphanage, it is also benefiting the local families by providing them a source of income for their laborious work.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Road to Success Campaign is a Success!

Great news! We've completed another project (well almost...we raised the funds and now the work can get started!).
Casa de Sion will soon be building its access road connecting the orphanage to the water wells, providing potable water for the children and surrounding families. Thanks to your support, we were able to complete this project and add it to our growing list of amazing projects! Thank you for your support.

Monday, July 20, 2009

The Puerto Vallarta Dump is officially closed

We want to let you know that the Puerto Vallarta city dump closed in June. Several hundred people were working at the dump and unfortunately, this is going to intensify the poverty of the families living in the area around, since for many of them, the dump was their only source of income and support for their families. The people who use to work at the dump will now have to find other ways to provide for their families, meaning that some of the children, who were attending school, may be forced to work along side their parents to help provide for their families.

As a result, the organization officially changed its’ name to Feed the Children Vallarta (I know that some of you will be happy to hear about the name change!); they are no longer Children of the Dump; they are students and champions of Feed the Children Vallarta.

We will continue to provide yearly support to the School of Champions, which serves the children of the communities around the dump.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Puerto Vallarta

Our love of Mexico brought us once again to Puerto Vallarta despite the crazy media blitz around the H1N1 virus. And, just for the record, there were absolutely no signs of the virus anywhere…everyone looked very healthy and energized for the summer months.

Given that it was already June by the time we left Canada, we were well overdue for our yearly visit at the Children of the Dump (which is slowly becoming one of our favorite yearly traditions!). This time around, we brought many English books to be donated to the School of Champions, which will be building their own library over the summer months. Thanks to the Vancouver Public Library who donated these books to the Isa Mundo Foundation, the library will be well stocked and the children will be able to enjoy learning English and developing their reading skills while discovering great stories along the way.

We also took advantage of our trip to PV to visit Pasitos de Luz, a free daycare facility providing children with severe disabilities with a caring and loving environment, treatment for individual rehabilitation, nutritional meals, physical stimulation, massages and therapy. Pasitos also provides regular evaluations from medical specialists, including occupational and speech therapists; as well as providing free orthopedic equipment. In addition, Pasitos provides moral and emotional support to the families of these children. The people that work at Pasitos de Luz are an inspiration to us all; the enthusiasm and love that is felt for the children is amazing! Gracias Yolanda y todos a Pasitos! Ustedes son una inspiración para todos!

We are currently in full research mode in figuring out how to best help Pasitos...and we have lots of ideas!

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Latincouver - La Plaza Latina



Isa Mundo was invited to the launch of Latincouver, an organization that aims to strengthen and celebrate Vancouver's Latin American communities. Latincouver hopes to become the leading social, culture network and business portal for the Latin American community in the city by hosting a number of activities including business networking forum, social gatherings and cultural events.

Latincouver is aware of the growing Latin population and diversity in Vancouver and the contribution it is making in the art, music, culture, cuisine and business in the region. The organization will be a forum to help connect the city with the Latin community and share it's diverse cultures its residents.

To learn more about Latincouver, check out their Plaza Latina.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Host Papa Joins the Isa Mundo Family


As of June 1st, Host Papa is a proud sponsor of Isa Mundo and we are thankful for the support and committment of Host Papa to host our website as a way of contributing to many of our projects.

We are proud to promote Host Papa as their vision alligns well with Isa Mundo. The company has taken the initiative of going green by purchasing 100% green renewable energy to power their data center, web servers, office computers, laptops and office space. These energy sources supply its entire equivalent energy consumption into the power-grid with certified 100% renewable green energy sources, such as wind and solar-powered energy.

HostPapa has won numerous awards and is consistently being ranked as one of the Top 10 web hosting companies. They take great pride in servicing their customers and continually out performing even their own expectations.

Thank you Host Papa for taking care of Isa Mundo!!

To learn more about Host Papa and services they provide, please visit their website at www.hostpapa.com

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Update on our Road to Success Campaign II

We have already received many donations for our Road to Success Campaign and are only missing about $500.00 to complete this project. We hope to complete it by the end of this month in order to send the money to Casa de Sion by the end of the summer. Volunteers will be there to help build the road that will link the orphanage to the water wells.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Charity Village

Check it out! We are slowly expanding our network and are now part of the Charity Village Nonprofit Neighbourhood under the International Relief/Development/Peace section. To link to the page click on the following link: http://www.charityvillage.com/cv/nonpr/nonpr9.html

Friday, April 24, 2009

New website design

It has been almost two years since Isa Mundo was officially launched and to celebrate, we are revamping the design of our website. Thanks to Geegen's dedication and patience, the new look will be launched within the next few weeks...stay tunned for our funky new website!

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Road to Success Campaign II

Last year, we launched our Road to Success Campaign and raised enough money for the building of the service road at Casa de Sion orphanage in Guatemala. Unfortunately, due to political pressure from the Guatemalan government last Fall, the building of the new orphanage and consequently the service road was put on hold. Since we had already received many donations for the road, we decided to use to money to complete the Isa Mundo Education Center in Bambang (as you can see from our March 6 blog).

The construction of Casa de Sion is now in full swing and is almost complete...the only thing missing is the service road. We will be re-launching our Road to Success Campaign and hope to complete this project by Summer 2009. Please send your donations for Casa de Sion.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Isa Mundo Education Center



We did it !!!

On March 6, 2009, Isa Mundo completed the first Isa Mundo Educational Centre in Bambang Elementary School in Bambang Bulakan, Philippines. The computers will be used to teach basic programs to each grade level and to develop knowledge and skills of computer hardware, software and orientation to the world of Internet.

We would like to thank Contronics Computers Center in Manila for their cooperation and to everyone who contributed to this worthwhile project. We hope to continue this project to other communities.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

News from Puerto Vallarta

We often receive newsletters from various organizations. Children of the Dump in Puerto Vallarta have monthly newsletters, which they send out and post online. We always love reading them and thought you would too. Enjoy their February newsletter at http://www.kids.romamexico.com/newsletters/Newsletter-February-2009.pdf

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Grace Educational Trust

This month, we would like to highlight the great work done by Grace Educational Trust. The two co-founders, Neelima Pratap and Francis Dass were inspired to alleviate poverty through education and decided to launch Grace Educational Trust as a registered charity in India dedicated to providing educational opportunities for underprivileged children and women. Their vision is to support sustainable community development through education by providing new learning opportunities to children in need in the small village of Betim Ramnagar in Goa, India. They have several programs including early childhood development, bridging and tutoring. To find out more about the children and the great work Grace Educational Trust is doing, check out their website at http://www.graceeducationaltrust.com/index.html