We surpassed our Giving Tuesday goal, which was luverly! Just stupendous! And those of you who helped are just wonderful and we are grateful, so grateful.
With that good news, here comes the not-so-good...
We still meet weekly and wonder where we are going to get the month’s income to do all the unsexy things that take money…and frankly we are exhausted trying to find money and asking for money and stressing out in the middle of the night about how we are going to meet this week’s payroll (as I write this, it is 3:30 AM because I couldn’t sleep). So, we are girding up our loins and asking anyway…we really want to finish this llama spit of a year in the black.
In the words of Pres. Elect Biden... "here's the deal:"
People were amazing in raising money for the ultrasound machine, but the paper is $200/box then there is the air conditioning to keep it working, the maintenance, and the gel…not to mention the salary of the wonderful doctor, Jorge.
People were brilliant in raising money to put in dental chairs, but the supplies are about $450/month especially with no donations of dental supplies coming in the country…not to mention the salaries of dentist Julio, hygienist Lydia, and assistant Fabiola…two air conditioners and the high electric bill as well as maintenance for running the equipment.
People were remarkable about raising money to hire the therapist, Dominga, but we have to cover the PPE for her and all the staff and supplies for her to work with patients, especially arts and crafts with the kids.
People were superb in raising funds for the Giving Tuesday so that we can get our charts and medicines on-line, but we spend anywhere form $2,000 -3,000/month in medication costs.
People were fantastic in raising construction money but we have three builders/maintenance staff salaries...for Rogelio, Lucas, and Pedro…and then there is the money for the truck to haul materials and maintenance supplies like door knobs, screening, lighting fixtures that blow with surges in electricity, water pump replacements, waste filtration materials, and on and on it goes.
And while people are wonderful about raising money for special equipment, we have financial books to keep for our projects, our donors, both the Nicaraguan and the U.S. governments which take staff, printers, copiers, paper (blech!), phones, and cars to run in and out of banks and government offices.
All those are things that the CDCA has to pay, but who wants to fund boring stuff like that? Really?
Well, we hope you will. All those boring facets of our work mean that each year we can:
People were fantastic in raising construction money but we have three builders/maintenance staff salaries...for Rogelio, Lucas, and Pedro…and then there is the money for the truck to haul materials and maintenance supplies like door knobs, screening, lighting fixtures that blow with surges in electricity, water pump replacements, waste filtration materials, and on and on it goes.
And while people are wonderful about raising money for special equipment, we have financial books to keep for our projects, our donors, both the Nicaraguan and the U.S. governments which take staff, printers, copiers, paper (blech!), phones, and cars to run in and out of banks and government offices.
All those are things that the CDCA has to pay, but who wants to fund boring stuff like that? Really?
Well, we hope you will. All those boring facets of our work mean that each year we can:
- Support 3,000 farmers through the organic agriculture cooperative with loans, phone minutes as Mike and Becca spend hours on the phone with buyers and the cooperative staff, fuel to run the vehicles to go to the sesame plant, meet with farmers as well as the wear and tear on the trucks.
- Provide health care, dental care, psychological care for thousands of people
- Provide eye exams and corrective lenses for hundreds
- Provide lab tests for thousands of people
- Provide medicine for all those folks above
- Provide family planning for hundreds
- Provide monthly visits, labs and medicines for 143 people with chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension
- Provide wheelchairs, crutches, walkers, beds, etc. for hundreds
- Provide public health classes to hundreds
- Provide ultrasounds for hundreds
- Provide Personal Protective Equipment and a clean environment to slow the spread of COVID-19 and other viruses
- Educate people to the issues of poverty and Nicaragua
-Kathleen
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