Dear Donors to the ASEAC-UNORCAC Scholarship Program,
First of all I want to give a warm welcome to all of our new donors and an enormous Thank You for all of your contributions and support for the program. It is your donations and support that this program can continue to grow and strive. With your donations we are able to help more kids continue their education to one day become strong and capable leaders of not only the Cotacachi community but of Ecuador as a whole.
For those who may not know me my name is Paige Fisher and I am the Peace Corps Volunteer in Cotacachi. I am from Vermont and graduated from the University of Vermont with a BS in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology. I came to Ecuador in February 2011 and arrived after three months of training to Cotacachi in April 2011. In my first year I worked with the Reserva Ecologica Cotacachi Cayapas but in February took over for former Peace Corps Volunteer, Roxanne Lee, with the Scholarship program. I live in the community of Morochos, a small indigenous community of about 800 people. I am working on a tree nursery and agroforestry project there, a composting toilet project, and giving environmental education and English classes to the local kids. I am working on these projects about 3 days a week and about 2 days a week in the office of UNORCAC with the scholarship program. You can find me in the office of UNORCAC Mondays and Wednesdays, but always best to contact me before hand to make sure that I am going to be there.
On August 17th,2012 there was a gathering in the Intag Cafe in Cotacachi, where the ex-pat community raised $10,100 for the scholarship program. I can't begin to explain the gratitude and thankfulness of everyone involved. We had also received another $2,200 from various donors, many from the states, which brings us to a grand total of $12,300 for the year 2012. This coming school year 2012-2013 we will have 65 scholarship students from 20 of the 45 indigenous communities of Cotacachi. We have added 13 students from last year. The money raised will be going towards our current students as well as being saved for next year.
For those donors who wish to donate to send a child to high school for all 6 years we will be matching them with a specific student and this donor will become what we call in Spanish a Padrino. Every year we will be sending a personalized thank you letter from the child and an updated photo. If the donor is from the local area we invite them to be as much part of this child's life as desired. I will be sending out notices of when and how donors can be involved. For donors who can only give one time we are extremely appreciative as this money goes to students who do not have a padrino. We also invite these donors to participate in the program as much as desired. I am in the process of organizing all of our kids and matching them with donors. I apologize that this is taking a while but hope to get this information out to everyone soon.
On September 8, 2012 at 9am in JAMBI MASCARI (one of the UNORCAC offices located on 10 de Agosto down past the bus terminal on the right.) we will be having a meeting to recognize our donors, to introduce padrinos to their scholarship student, hand out the scholarship money to the students for this school year, and have a brief presentation about the program. We invite all of our donors who are in the area to this event. I will be sending out another reminded next week with more detailed directions on how to get here. PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDARS!!!!
Again, I want to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts here at UNORCAC for all the support. With education we can move forward in this world and Ecuador can become a better place. This program is helping to make the dreams of so many students become a reality. I hope to see all of our local donors on September 8th and for our international donors, although you will not be there we recognize and are fully grateful for everything you do to support us.
Keep your eyes out for an official thank you letter from us as well as updates about your scholarship students.
THANK YOU!!!!
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Paige Fisher
Coordinator for the ASEAC-UNORCAC Scholarship Program
Cotacachi, Ecuador