UPDATE - IMEC in Bambang, Philippines

After months of research and negotiating how to purchase supplies to expand the Isa Mundo Education Centre (IMEC) in Bambang, we have decided to purchase 3 additional desktops computers, projector screen and additional school supplies in Vancouver, BC with the help of our new friends at Staples Store #254.

We will be sending these tech supplies in two boxes via freight this month and should arrive in the Philippines by August. We hope that this will further improve the IMEC in Bambang which is our Foundation's first completed education centre project. Since 2009, the IMEC in Bambang has proven to improve students' grades by accessing world wide web educational resources and on-line information.

3rd IMEC in Mexico

The completion of the third Isa Mundo Education Centre (IMEC) project is underway in the Volcanes Primary School outside of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. After finalizing the purchase of brand new laptops and other supplies from our new friends at Staples Store #254, the next challenge was finding a way to ship the supplies to Mexico.

In partnership with Café Roma's Kids program, we will be using volunteers travelling to the Puerto Vallarta area in the next few months and requesting them to deliver each laptops to the school. We hope to have the IMEC in Volcanes completed by September 2011.

As always, we are grateful to all our volunteers who are continually doing their part to help complete our projects. The 3rd IMEC in Mexico would not be a success without your support and dedication. Muchas gracias!

Cathy Bélanger Award for Paul Lorilla

Isa Mundo Foundation's Director and Founder, Paul Lorilla was recently presented the Cathy Bélanger Award from the Deputy Minister of the Department of Canadian Heritage. This award honours a person who has made an exceptional contribution to his community as well as the as the Canadian Heritage workplace.

The statement from Canadian Heritage summarized that:

"Paul exemplifies the best of public service ideals and values. His commitment to excellence is reflected not only in his work with Canadian Heritage but also in his work with Isa Mundo, a private foundation that he started to ensure that healthy and sustainable communities could be achieved in all corners of the world. Paul works tirelessly to ensure that the poorest communities in the world see prosperity by bringing together people and resources in a way that maximizes impact. We have seen that same energy and dedication applied to his work with Aboriginal communities in Canada. In his work at Canadian Heritage, he invests significant time and energy mentoring and coaching other staff. As founder of Isa Mundo, Paul demonstrates great leadership in leading positive change."

Congratulations!!!

IMEC in Nica

We are happy to announce that a small Isa Mundo Education Centre (IMEC) was completed in Granada, Nicaragua in partnership with Empowerment International (EI). Isa Mundo was able to provide Acer netbooks to allow students to have access to technology as part of their learning environment. We will continue to find ways to support the expansion of this IMEC by providing additional tools such as education software and school supplies.

We would like to thank our volunteer, Neeraj Jain, for travelling to Nicaragua and working with EI to set up the IMEC. We are also grateful that he took his time to offer an orientation on basic computer and internet application skills to students.

Isa Mundo is committed to work with EI to improve student's access to technological and learning tools in order to progress their education.

Soccer Without Borders

Soccer Without Borders (SWB) is a not for profit organization dedicated to use the sport of soccer as a vehicle for positive change in the lives of marginalized youth around the world. SWB provide programs to youth in disadvantaged communities through sport-based and extracurricular activities. One of the countries that SWB has completed their work is Nicaragua. Upon learning that SWB staff and volunteers will be travelling to the city of Granada in May 2011, Isa Mundo contacted the organization to request their help to deliver our netbooks that will be used to create the first Isa Mundo Education Centre in Nicaragua.

Isa Mundo partnered with SWB and was able to deliver the netbooks successfully to our volunteer in Nicaragua to set up the IMEC at Empowerment International. We would like to thank SWB for their support and we hope to find a way to work together to complete a future project in Nicaragua.

To learn more about SWB, please visit their website at SoccerWithoutBorders.org.

A special thank you!

Since having launched Isa Mundo in 2007, we have been blessed with supportive colleagues and friends who have made significant impacts and contributions toward the success of the foundation. It is amazing how one person, one team, one group of people can make a difference in the lives of so many children and youth! Our colleagues and friends have also spent many hours listening to us talk about the foundation, our site visits, and our projects and have helped us grow the foundation.

This blog goes out to everyone who has listened, contributed, donated and gave us the opportunity to share our passion with you!

A great big thank you! merci! salamat! and gracias to you!

Introducing Café Roma's Kids Program

Isa Mundo Foundation has found new friends and partners in Mexico. We would like to introduce the Café Roma's Kids Program to our supporters and we happy to also announce that we will be partnering to complete our 3rd Isa Mundo Education Centre (IMEC) project in the Volcanes School outside of Puerto Vallarta. Isa Mundo recently completed a site visit at the school and decided that we have the capacity to contribute to improving the education facilities in this school.

Café Roma's Kids has been involved in supporting education and social programs in the Puerto Vallarta region by providing school supplies, funding teacher's wages, hosting fundraising efforts and even creating Pizza Party days to help feed less fortunate children in the area. The organization decided that they wanted to get involved with another school in the poor Colonia of Volcanes and immediately began supplying teacher assistants and school supplies to students. The organization also envisioned starting a computer centre as part of the students' curriculum and this idea fits well with Isa Mundo's IMEC concept.

We are looking forward to this partnership and we hope to finish our 3rd IMEC project (and the first) in Mexico with the help of the Café Roma's Kids Program. Stay tuned for updates!

To learn more about our new partner, visit their website at Café Roma's Kids Program.