As many of you know, on Wednesday, I will be leaving for Ecuador for 12 days with 5 teenagers and 5 other adults from our local church.
While there, we will be building 5 structures in 5 villages that can be used as churches, schools or whatever else they might need a larger structure for. These are called "One Day" structures, meaning they can be put up in a single day and providing space to a village that does not have the means to meet their needs.
This is a great opportunity, especially for the tŧeenagers, to shed the entitlement attitude that is so prevelant in today`s culture and learn to contribute and help those less priviledged.
While there, we will also be providing some programs for the children to help educate and meet some of their non-physical needs.
The deal is that the village has to aquire the land, clear it and build the walls after the structure is up. Our job is just to build the posts and the roof. The cost of the walls is about $3000 per village, and they often have no way to raise that sort of capital.
Our church banded together, did a massive amount of fundraising and managed to raise the money from our community, not only for the 5 structures we're building, but also for another village in Ecuador who have not been able to raise the money for their walls from a past trip from another group.
I had two goals before I left for this trip, to learn enough Spanish that I would not need to rely on a translator at every turn (and I've done pretty good on that one), and to fundraise the entire cost of my trip. On that one I've failed so far. We've been so focused on fundraising for the structures and trying to get everything in order at home and at work so that I can leave without worrying, that I've completely forgotten to fundraise for my costs. I have a plane ticket to pay for, vaccinations, supplies, and some other minor expenses. All told it's about $1500. So far I've raised about $500 $1310 of it so there is about $1000 $190 to go.
A few people have asked how they can donate money to help me on my way. To make it easy, I'm accepting donations via the PayPal button below. Alternatively, of course we'll accept cash, cheques, email transfers, or any other sort of financial transfer.
If you want a tax receipt (and who doesn't this time of year), you will need to provide your name and address.
Thank you for your generousity in helping the people of Ecuador and in helping to provide an education for our youth that they can bring back home so they can build that mindset and continue to contribute in their local communities.