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We delayed our Summer Newsletter a bit to be able to debut our new mobile-friendly website! www.theforgottenintl.org When you get a moment, please look it over. We will be making some updates and adding more information very soon, but for now, please let us know what you think. Another big change for us is that we must part ways with our landlords, Perkins Coie, LLP. For over six years, Perkins has generously provided us with free office space in their Embarcadero Center location, and it has made all the difference for us as we were trying to build up our small foundation. At the end of July they will move into a new building, and we both thank them for their kindness over the years and congratulate them on their new digs. We will be moving into temporary space through the end of the year a few blocks away from our current location. All of our contact information will remain the same. More importantly, our work is ongoing, and we've benefited from some events this past spring. In short, our Donor Groups and gifts with matching corporate funds have made it possible for us to help some very deserving projects in Cambodia, India, and Uganda, and our summer Fellows are already hard at work in Cambodia and Kenya. Furthermore, I just returned from a trip to New York where I gave presentations to corporations interested in working with TFI through their Corporate Social Responsibility programs. Stay tuned for more on this collaborative work in our fall newsletter. Finally, it was wonderful to celebrate His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama's 80th Birthday in Anaheim, California, over the July 4th weekend. Over 30,000 well-wishers gathered for three days of events. His Holiness continues to be the underlying inspiration in much of the work we try to do, and we were happy to find him in good health and good spirits as he starts his 8th decade. The Dalai Lama's one wish for his birthday is to globalize compassion to create a peaceful world. No small feat, but it is possible if we work together and never give up hope.
Sincerely,
Tom Nazario, Founder and President
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Many thanks to the Atlas Club of Riverside High School in Greenville, South Carolina, and the Kiwanis Club of San Jose, California.
We are grateful to our Donor Groups for providing much needed help to programs TFI supports.
You can see from the before and after photos above, the dramatic difference the gift from the San Jose Kiwanis Club made to the Angels Care School in Kyegegwa, Uganda. The school building has been repaired and new doors, windows, chalkboards and desks were built and purchased with the $1,500 gift. So much can be accomplished abroad with very little funds!
If your group can sponsor a project for a school or community, please contact us.
The Atlas Club, a student-founded and student-run organization at Riverside High School in Greenville, SC, held fundraising activities all year to support the Cambodian Child's Dream Organization (CCDO). Each year the Atlas Club chooses one TFI program and the students hold fundraising events at school, such as a global market and an international fashion show. This year they raised $2,623.12! These funds will go towards the purchase and installation of a solar electricity system for the CCDO's new computer lab, which is set to open this fall. This is a perfect example of young people helping other young people!
Thank You!
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TFI Fellows Making a Difference
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TFI Human Rights & Economic Justice Fellowships: Trinetta Chong and Christina Stellini
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TFI Fellow, Trinetta Chong, on site at
the CCDO in Siem Reap, Cambodia
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Two exceptional summer Fellows are placed and already working abroad. Trinetta Chong, a graduate student at U.C. Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy, is working with the Cambodian Child's Dream Organization to help them organize their collected data by compiling a database to include all aspects of the student body activities through their education programs. She is also working on their Water And Sanitation Health (WASH) Survey to help create a better system of tracking the repair status of all the water wells the CCDO builds for the rural community around Siem Reap. She arrived in June and will stay for three months.
We also asked Trinetta to visit two other programs TFI supports in the area: Working for Children and the Landmine Relief Fund. She reported back the needs of these two organizations, which is useful for us to know when we cannot be there ourselves.
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TFI Fellow, Christina Stellini, for St. Vincent's Children of Kibera
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Christina Stellini just arrived in Nairobi, Kenya, to work with St. Vince
nt's Children of Kibera with their local development efforts over the next three months. Christina has many years of fundraising experience and has worked as a program officer for NGOs that serve Sub-Saharan Africa. She will help St. Vincent's develop and track their resources for better overall management of their education and orphan rescue programs.
Our Fellows are invaluable to the agencies they serve as volunteers as well as help us keep up with the programs abroad that we try to help.
We have two Fellows scheduled to go to India this fall to work with the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy. Unfortunately, due to the recent earthquake, we had to postpone sending a Fellow to Nepal this year.
We have our sponsors to thank for providing the stipends for our Fellows again this year.
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Small Grants Program and Children's Fund
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| Tabitha Enabling Academy in Kohima, Nagaland, Northeast India. A school for children with special needs. |
Matching Grants Double Your Impact!
Through our
Small Grants Program, TFI continues to help under-served schools and grassroots nonprofits that are doing much good in their communities.
The Tibet Fund provides educational and vocational scholarships, humanitarian aid, and community development programs for Tibetans living in Tibet and as refugees elsewhere. They are an organization we support regularly.
One Heart Word-Wide is a program we are giving to for the first time. Their clinics offer prenatal care and safe childbirth services for women living in remote areas of Nepal, as well as related training for local health care providers.
Both Tibet Fund and One Heart provided direct aid for the earthquake relief efforts in Nepal. This work will be ongoing for many years as Nepal begins to rebuild. Any who are seeking trustworthy local agencies to donate to should strongly consider them.
Another new school TFI will make a grant to for the first time this year is the
Tabitha Enabling Academy in Kohima, Nagaland in India which serves children with special needs.
Through our partnership with specific donors, namely the
Brandenburg Family, our
Children's Fund continues to sponsor six children with all their educational needs: two girls in India and three girls and one boy in Ghana.
Finally,
Zilla Parishad High School, Unguturu in Andhra Pradesh, India, has been slowly receiving improvements over the year as a result of the efforts of
Mr. Bobba Venkatadri and the matching funds given by the
Amgen Corporation. ZPHS now has a water filtration system, digital classrooms, as well as much needed general repairs. All this is possible because the gifts go twice as far with the matching funds.
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Awards for Living on a Dollar a Day
Author,
Thomas Nazario and Photojournalist,
Renée C. Byer continue to speak and make presentations locally, nationally, and internationally about their award-winning book. The short documentary,
The Making of Living on a Dollar a Day, will have a limited debut this fall. We are looking forward to bringing it to you.
We are humbled by the recognition our book has received, but more importantly, we have heard from so many of you that it has touched your heart, and it is a book you are proud to display at your home or office
. We cannot thank you enough for your kind words and support.
- International Book Awards Winner for Non-fiction Narrative Writing
- Scripps Howard Photojournalism Award Finalist
- Moscow Foto Awards, Honorable Mention Picture Story
- World Understanding Award Finalist, Pictures of the Year International
- International Photography Awards, 1st Place Documentary Book,
- National Press Photographers Association, Best of Photojournalism,1st Place Environmental Picture Story
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In honor of the Dalai Lama's 80th birthday, here is a motivating quote from His Holiness from the recent Global Compassion Summit and birthday celebrations:
"I sometimes think that peace can come to the world, but not in my lifetime, but if people really are showing such enthusiasm as this in different parts of the world, and they have the deep realization that the ultimate source of peace is within ourselves, then ... it may be possible to have peace in the world in my lifetime."
THANK YOU & HAPPY SUMMER!
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