Tag Archives: fundraising

Faces Of Hope 2016

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By Suyapa, Class of 2016

Faces of Hope is one of the events for fund raising for the kids in N.P.H. homes to provide the needs to our children, health care, education, faith, and moral values.

We want to say thank you for the people who work in N.P.H office to made these events good and successful: KATIE, CRISTI, HAILEY, AND GLORY.

At the same time all the students including Kara represented our brothers and sisters in the homes.

The people who attended these events help to make a child dreams come true by being a godparents or helping, and many different ways to create a beautiful smile.

Working in these events we have learned about these people who make it possible to continue the father Wasson’s legacy for children.

Sharing my story was a new experience for me.  Talking in front of many people and representing the family was an amazing opportunity.  The support we received during the practices for the event helped us to grow.  Thank you, Kara and Bob Bubar.

I shared my story in Seattle and my brother Jonathan shared his story in the event in Bellevue.

In conclusion, Faces of Hope was a wonderful experience that we had – the opportunity to represent our NPH family in Seattle, our second home.

 

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Public Speaking Workshops

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By Julio Cesar, Class of 2016

One of the common fears we the humans have is to stand in front of a multitude and speak to them. This fear comes from our lack of confidence in ourselves. We all have the ability to deliver any message we want, in fact we do daily without noticing it. For example, when ordering our food or asking permission to go through the crowd. However, delivering a message to a specific audience requires boldness, preparation and having the right information. The audience can be colleagues at work, scholars or strangers that we have never seen before. Mostly when you are speaking you are talking about something that you know; for example, a business speech or talking about a project you have accomplished or talking about your personal life. Between speaking about our lives and speaking about any other topics, I think sharing personal stories is the most difficult and overwhelming. Because of the fear of delivering public speeches it is recommendable to learn how to do it.

Taking Public speaking workshops with Bob each Wednesday in the evenings really helped me to improve in my public speaking skills. During the period of time that we worked with him we learned about self-confidence and the way to deliver a good speech. I personally learned and improved so much and so did my brothers and sisters. We are not yet perfect public speakers, but we are in the right track with all the skills we learned. The bottom line is this – we always will be afraid of speak in front of others, but when we really want to overcome our fears we will really go for what we want to accomplish.

Once again, I thank to Bob for his excellent talent in help me preparing a better speech. All the techniques really helped me to deliver a good speech at the fundraising event for our NPH homes: “The Carnaval”.

 

Our NPH USA Family

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In this blog post, Suyapa and Alberto reflect on their experience working at the NPH-USA office in Bellevue, WA.

Suyapa (Class of 2016):

In December we spent two days in the NPH office to sign many letters to say thank you for the people who support NPH International

Katie also gave us a presentation on the many ways to collect money for NPH, for example Galas or many trips to the homes or other activities.  I was really interesting to meet a lot of the staff people who support NPH, and I also heard some history about how one person decided to help one child and changed her life as a result.

I realized that the letters we write to our Godparents are as important to them as the letters we get from them are to us!

 

(Alberto, Class of 2016):

When Kara and Katie had invited us make calls to say thank you to NPH supporters, I honestly had no idea of the impact it was going to make on me.

We were 3 students who were able to make the calls that day: Jonathan (NPH Guatemala), Julio (NPH Salvador), finally me (NPH Haiti).  We had over 800 calls to make if I’m not wrong. At first I thought to myself how is it going to be possible because English is not our first language? In reality it was very easy. I made the first call and the person answered, I was very happy to talk with him, and so we had a short conversation, this person was very nice and kind and I didn’t want to hang up the phone!

What I found out is that our supporters are very proud of us, they like when they hear the recipients of their donations talking with them. They supported us not because they know they will get the money back, they do it with love, with joy, they simply want to change lives.

Finally we made nearly 700 calls and truly it was a pleasure for us to do it, and if I had to do it again I would do it for my family.

A big thanks to all of you supporters who are helping in this great work in one way or another, know that you will not regret it.

Thank you to you Kara for giving us your time, to always be there to us in everything we do. We love you.

Thanks to all our host family especially mine, the Fitton family, I love you.

Finally I want to thank the NPH USA office staff, (Katie, Cristi, Hailey and Glory, and all their super volunteers) thank you for your hard work, we love you!

 

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Cinema de los Cuates: A Lesson in Unconditional Love

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By Kara King (Program Director) & Florine St. Eloi (Haiti, Class of 2015)

About a month ago, we were at a leadership workshop as a group.  The task at hand was to bring a worry or concern to the group in order to receive feedback, to hear questions, and to perhaps find new ways to approach a problem.  As each shared, the group interacted and provided feedback to each other.

When it was Florine’s turn to share, I watched her struggle to give words to her concerns.  As she did, she honored herself and the group by being deeply honest about what she was facing.  She painted for us a picture of her mother’s current living situation: dangerous, unhealthy, and desperate.  Her description reminded me of what we called in teaching “first hour needs”.  How could I expect her to focus on leadership training when constant on her mind is that her mom is living in a violent neighborhood, breathing in fumes from the burning garbage of the city dump, and unable to stay dry in any storm?  No, these are “first hour” needs that must be heard if Florine is to be able to grow and develop into the strong woman and servant leader that God has created her to be.

And yet, we live in a complex and unjust world.  NPH cannot buy everyone a house.  We don’t have the resources, nor is that our stated mission.

As we sat there with our sister, Florine, I felt grief and despair and anger.  I feel proud of the group for staying with her in her worry, for praying with her, hugging her, and not offering ridiculous and empty words like “it will be okay”.  No, these are young adults who know all too well that is not always true.  Their ability to accompany her in her grief is beautiful.

It was Nelson who eventually spoke into that space wondering aloud: ‘can’t we do something?’.  None of us really knew what we could do, we didn’t know in that moment that if we worked together we would be able to help Florine and her family of origin.  But the group committed to try to do something – even knowing it might not work out.

And do something, they did.  As I write this, they have raised more than enough money for Florine’s mom and siblings to move into a safe and healthy home and pay the rent for one year.  It is a life changing gift and came about because six young people, who grew up in our NPH homes refused to ignore a sister in trouble.

When we teach our children at NPH to serve others, when we give them the opportunity to see how much they have to offer the world, we instill in them the idea that they are not victims but rather people who have much to offer their communities.  We empower them to be creative problem-solvers.  And they learn that in combining their efforts, they can make good happen.  They are living out our mission and vision, and it is a delight to witness.

I asked Florine to reflect on what the experience was like for her, and this is what she said:

“What would have happened if Kara did not ask us about what was bothering us?  This movie night turned into a successful event. Yes, that is what it means to me. Nelson, Luisa, Samy, Magda, Lucre and Kara’s participation to help my family and I was quite a powerful story. From them, I learned how it is important to work as a team. Of course they are part of my life because of NPH, but now it becomes stonger.

Do not hesitate when it comes to help others; that is also another lesson that I learned from this group after all the struggles that we have been through.  I did not have any solutions, but they found out what needed to be done.

Isn’t that the “unconditional love” that Father Wasson has left to us? There’s no other name for it. They acted as leaders, friends, brothers, and sisters. The supporters also made it possible. Thank you so much for coming and supporting, thanks a lot for those who could not make it but helped in different ways.

Words cannot express how grateful I am…thank you for everything that you all did for my family and I. Thank you for helping to find a place where my family can live normally, somewhere they can call “home”!  Good memories stay forever, and this movie night was one of the best that I ever had. Thank you to all of you who made it possible, I will never forget it.  From the bottom of my heart, thank you, gracias and may God always bless and protect you!”

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The Heart-Work of Fundraising

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By Lucrecia, NPH Nicaragua (in her own English!!)

In these four months here in Seattle, as a leaders group, we have had activities that have helped us more integrated in to NPH and understand better the work that NPH USA does here.

En estos cuatro meses de estancia en Seattle, como grupo de líderes, hemos tenido actividades que nos han ayudado a estar un poco mas involucrados y comprender mejor la labor de NPH desde aquí.

During my 18 years with the NPH family, I know that as “Pequeña” I never lacked for anything. I always had food, clothing, educations, medicine… in short all the basics for living.

Durante estos 18 años dentro de la familia de NPH me doy cuenta que como pequeña nunca me faltó nada, siempre tuve: comida, vestimenta, estudio, medicina… en fin todo lo básico para vivir.

When one is a child, one never wonders our parents provide all that we needs, we just have everything and we are happy (I think this was my best phase, carefree). As we grow and difficulties arise, we see more and more all that parents do to continue to satisfy our needs. Then the question arises: how do they do it?

Cuando uno es pequeño nunca se pregunta cómo hacen las madres o padres para proveernos de todo; simplemente sabemos que tenemos todo y somos felices (creo que esta fue mi mejor etapa, libres de preocupaciones). A lo largo que  crecemos vemos como van surguiendo  las dificultades y como se esfuerzan los padres para seguir satisfaciendo nuestras necesidades; entonces  surgen las preguntas:  Cómo lo hacen?, Qué hecen?.

Since I am in the NPH family, I know that we survive because of the noble hearts of many people (godparents, volunteers, benefactors…) but, How do you reach these people?

Desde que entré a la familia de NPH se que sobrevivimos de los nobles corazones de mucha gente ( padrinos, voluntarios, bienechores…etc) pero, Cómo se llega a estas personas?.

This is the point where I want to emphasize. I had the opportunity to participate in some of the many activities by people supported in the NPH family, here in the Unites States. And in my experience the work of fundraising is not easy! This work requires patience, dedication and lots of love.  It is satisfying for me, to help in the work that benefits my brothers and sisters and myself. I could see the hard work that these people do every day to make NPH possible. They work with the love that they would give to support their own children. It is rare to find people who work with such faith and love for others. The people in the NPH office are a great inspiration to me.

Y es ahí el punto donde quiero empatizar, he tenido la oportunidad de participar en algunas  actividades de las tantas que realizan las personas que buscan el apoyo a la familia de NPH aquí en los Estados Unidos ; y según mi experiencia no es nada fácil, se require de mucha paciencia, entrega y sobre todo amor. Aunque fue satisfactorio para mi apoyar en el trabajo que beneficia a mis hermanos y a mi misma. Pude ver el trabajo arduo que hacen día a día estas personas para hacer possible esta causa. Trabajan con el amor que trabajarían si buscaran el sustento de sus propios hijos; dificilmente encontramos personas que trabajen con esa fé y  con ese amor hacia los demás.

Thanks to this effort, children, teens and young have received formation and preparations for their lives. While we can not pay monetarily, we are grateful and are called to serve others. We thank God for those people who have made such a difference in the lives of so many.

Gracias a ese esfuerzo, nos hemos formado: niños, jovenes y adultos en personas de bien. y que si bien no podemos pagar monetariamente, tarde o temprano nos sentimos llamados a servir a los demás y dar gracias a Dios por esas personas que puso en nuestro camino y hacen la diferencia.

 

Thank you!

 

Gala 2014.
Gala 2014
NPH USA NW Regional Director, Katie, with Nelson and Sonia.
NPH USA staff and mentor, Cristi, with Florine.
NPH USA staff, Vicky, teaching at a leadership meeting.
NPH USA Staff at our Annual Christmas Party!
Class of 2014 with NPH USA Staff.
Lucre on her arrival in Seattle!