We’ve recently redone our main website and have integrated a blog right into the site with our projects. Therefore we probably won’t be using this particular blog much longer. Please mozy on over and visit us at: http://aurashouse.com We’ll have five new projects launching as of February 9 or so. They are mainly income generating projects for families in Honduras, Guatemala, Ecuador, and the Philippines.

Hope to see you over at the new site!

Best,
Kristen

Myself and the Aura’s House Team are wishing you and your families a wonderful 2009. Already, thanks to your support, over 40 families will be sleeping better this year. On December 29, 2008, the Guatemala Bed Project was completed at Aura’s House. Over $4200 was raised to buy beds for 40 needy families in Guatemala. Now instead of sleeping on a cold, dirt floor, these families will have a softer, healthier, and more comfortable place to sleep.

At the moment the site currently features Small Project #22. We are already over halfway to our goal of $505 to buy badly needed roofing materials for a Guatemalan family. You can learn more at http://www.aurashouse.com

Stay tuned for our next upcoming main project that will feature a series of income generating projects for several needy families in Latin America and beyond.

Thanks again for all your help and all the best for a Happy New Year.

Best,
Kristen Palana
Aura’s House

Over $1200 was raised from November 3-December 3, 2008. Extra funds beyond our goal will go towards Aura’s tuition for 2010. We’ll have the exact amount soon after Children International sends us our weekly spreadsheet.

Special thanks to Steve Krumholz and Olivia Palana for their matching challenge. Also special thanks to Mike Epler who donated $300 and Cheri and Dennis Yecke who finished off this project with a donation of $250. And of course, thanks to all the donors for helping my sponsored child Aura have a shot at becoming a teacher.

Our December Newsletter is also now online. Check it out and thanks in advance for those of you willing to help our Guatemala Bed Project. There are still 16 families sleeping on a cold, dirt floor who could use a lift this holiday season. Every bit helps, even $1.

24 out of 40 families have been helped so far

Best wishes,
Kristen
(I’m off to Singapore to give an animation course at Siggraph Asia until next week. The Aura’s House website will be in Christina Sidoti’s capable hands.)

Hi Everyone,

Thanks to the generous matching challenge from AH super donors Steven Krumholz and Olivia Palana, all donations up to $500 will be doubled for this new project that aims to give Aura Yesenia Solis Hernandez of Guatemala an education that will enable her to become a teacher in 3 years. Visit Small Project #21 to meet Aura and learn more.

Aura Hernandez: A future first grade teacher?

In just the first two days of launching Small Project #21, we are over halfway to our goal of $1200. All donations help, even $1 and are 100% US Tax Deductible.

Best wishes and thanks in advance for your hep.
Kristen
Founder of Aura’s House
www.aurashouse.com

We’ve now finished Small Project #20 for Lesly in Guatemala! Stay tuned to see photos of her gifts when she receives them. Also, just $50 needed to buy a needy family a bed in our current Guatemala Bed Project. 24 out of 40 families helped so far. Can we help the remaining 16 families by the holidays?

Stay tuned for Small Project #21 for Aura Hernandez (now age 15), the site’s namesake. It should launch today or tomorrow. This Small Project aims to raise $1200 for Aura’s tuition for her first year of high school. She wants to be a teacher but since no one in or around her village in Guatemala can teach beyond the 9th grade level, she needs our help to make her dream come true. At the end of this 3 year program at a private school one hour and a half away, she’ll earn a teaching certificate and be able to become a teacher and help children in her community learn to read.

Help Aura’s House’s small projects and make a world of difference. Every $1 helps.

Just a reminder that all donations should go through the website at http://www.aurashouse.com . It’ll take you to a page set up for us on Children International’s secure website.

Thanks for all you do and Best Wishes,
Kristen Palana
Aura’s House Founder

Visit Small Project #20.

This is an interesting article from Beliefnet.com on different ways people can improve conditions on Earth for our fellow creatures. Check it out.

]]> http://aurashouse.wordpress.com/2008/10/27/how-we-can-help-animals/feed/ 0 kristenah 179a0de4f45d432fa1fcddd33c07743b http://aurashouse.wordpress.com/2008/10/19/double-your-donation-for-small-project-20/ http://aurashouse.wordpress.com/2008/10/19/double-your-donation-for-small-project-20/#comments Sun, 19 Oct 2008 09:01:15 +0000 kristenah http://aurashouse.wordpress.com/?p=42 ]]> Posted by Kristen

Our goal is to give Lesly Viviana Culajay Larios (7) and her family of Guatemala City, Guatemala the following gifts: a bunk bed for Lesly and her siblings, a bed for Lesly’s mother, a wardrobe closet, a small table top stove, and bed linens. We aim to raise $500. All donations are 100% US Tax Deductible.

MATCHING CHALLENGE: Thanks to longtime Aura’s House donor Steven Krumholz, as of October 12, 2008 all donations made to this project will now be doubled up to his matching amount of $150. Donate today to make double the difference. Visit this project.

Lesly with her family

By Gavin Hewitt
BBC News, Ethiopia

A woman walks slowly down a track between eucalyptus trees. On her back is a boy, his head emaciated and swollen.

She is just one of several hundred mothers who have walked for hours to find help. But her son, whose name is Tareknge, is starving.

His is the face of hunger and the face of a crisis that is developing in Ethiopia’s south-west.

Read the rest of this article

It was made by my students at The American University of Rome. They are top 5 finalists in the UN’s Hungerbytes Video Competition. The authors of the video that receives the most views by October 16, 2008 (World Hunger Day) will be sent to a developing country to film a World Food Programme Feeding Center. Pass it on! Thanks.

Here’s the URL: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=FMnyfvgJALg