No water .................. but lots of lice!

Welcome Back to Project COLORS International

www.projectcolors.com

Aug 17^th 2006

No water .................. but lots of lice!

~Can you imagine a children’s home full of lice and not enough lice shampoo or water to remedy the situation! Not only can I imagine it, I’m seeing it,

but they are the ones living it each day.~

Greetings fellow COLORS supporters,

I find myself once again here in the Dominican Republic. Luckily I have had the pleasure to revisit the kids of Jackie’s Children’s Home which many of you helped support last year.

Wow, the babies are now walking and talking! So nice to see.

They have a bigger house now, however, the number of children has grown as well. Last year they had 25 kids… now they have over 40 small children.

As you all know, I often have the luck of walking into the middle of a crisis of some sort.

Yesterday, when I was visiting the children, they were in a mini state of emergency.

Lice, has taken over the children’s home (yes, again… fun stuff!!).

Not only that, but they are also out of water (even better!)

What a mess.

Since they have had so many children coming through that need various treatments for lice, fungus etc… they have exhausted their supply of these medications. The lice is so bad that many of the children must have their hair cut short (there were many new hairdos yesterday!!!!)

To add to the drama, they have also been out of water of several weeks now.

Twice a week they have to order expensive loads of water that are delivered to the house. This is 800 pesos (around $30 each)…. That is $60 a week, plus the purified drinking water ($40 a month), since the water in the DR is undrinkable.

Can you imagine a children’s home full of lice and not enough lice shampoo or water to remedy the situation! Not only can I imagine it, I’m seeing it first hand, but they are the ones living it each day.

However, believe it or not, this is an easy one problem solve!

This will be a one or two month emergency project. (I can start ASAP)

Through COLORS I would like to directly purchase the water to be delivered to the children’s home for the next month or two (while we wait for the landlord to fix the main problem or find a sustainable solution).

I can also purchase the lice shampoo right now.

· *If anyone wants to help with this project, please e-mail me so I can arrange the budget and time frame.*

· sunnychoyce@yahoo.ca or choyce@projectcolors.com

Welcome back again to Project COLORS!

Sincerely,

Sunyata Choyce

P.S. I’ll have new photos soon I promise. Apologies for any cross-posting!

For those who want to help, please read below:

In terms of help, any support for this immediate project will go along way.

Remember, this is a small project; I am not a registered charity.

Those who would like to donate through pay pal can do so through the COLORS website:

www.projectcolors.com

Then click on ‘donate’

The other option some people are doing is:

1. Pledging an amount.

2. E-mail me how much they would like to put towards the project.

3. I pay for supplies now on the donors behalf, since I’m here in the D.R.

4. Actual pledges can be sent to my parent’s house.

5. My parents are collecting funds back in Canada and putting the funds in my account for the project. This way I have access to money through my own bank to buy anything needed (without a middle man taking a cut in extra fees).

(I have done this before here in the D.R and in South Africa to cut out overhead costs.)

6. Checks can be made out to:

Sunyata Choyce

83 Leslie Rd,

E. Lawrencetown

Nova Scotia

B2Z 1P8

Canada

There is also the Western Union option, but that is more costly for the donor.

If any of you are here in the D.R, I could set you up to do some volunteer activities with the children as well. They love the extra attention.

Thanks again for all your help.

Cheers,

Sunyata Choyce

Project COLORS International

www.projectcolors.com

choyce@projectcolors.com

My number at the UN office is:

#1-809-685-2111 ext.232