Lantern Project Lauch: Educacion y Futuro Shelter for Homeless Girls in Tarija, Bolivia


It is official--the magnificently effective Lantern Projects non-profit has accepted our Educacion y Futuro initiative as a featured project for the months of September and October.

Scrolling down to the June 13th post to learn more about Educacion y Futuro and about the construction project at a shelter for homeless girls that we are going to be funding.  (And I will go into a little more detail below in this post.)

But being endorsed by Lantern Projects is huge.  Lantern Projects is a US-based non profit that offers the following:

  • Credibility.  Lantern Projects has  been around for nearly two decades and has funded over 400 small charitable and social development projects from around the world. (See the map below--and note the as-of-yet uncolored Bolivia!)
  • Personal History.  A similar (if more ambitious) project at the Kimbondo Orphanage in the D.R. Congo Foyer House Rennovation Blog was undertaken with the help of Lantern Projects.  We have a personal and trusting relationship with Lantern CEO Gail Uilkema.
  • No overhead.  Lantern Projects sends 100% of all donations directly to the project organizers, in this case Educacion Y Futuro in Tarija, Bolivia.  Lantern collections the donations for us, and guarantees that they arrive where they should, without even charging for wire transfers or any other expenses.
  • Lantern Projects is a 503(c) organization, meaning that all donations by US taxpayers are tax deductible. This is critical. Most of you are generous people and it makes sense to try to make your money go further by making as many tax-exempt contributions as possible.

 How To Donate:

Well, beginning in September, our project will be one of the four featured on the Lantern Projects webpage.  But as we want to get started as quickly as possible (at last check, EdyFu had 22 girls staying in a single building that contained only 16 beds, so the sooner the semi-dilapidated second building is renovated, the better), and Lantern has assigned us a project number and is allowing us to beginning taking donations.  So, you got $5, $20, $50, $100, etc. burning a hole in your wallet or bank account and want to help safely and securely house an abandoned girl in Bolivia?  Alls ya gotta do is:

  • Go to The Lantern Projects Website
  • Click on the "Donate" button at the upper right
  •  Use your credit card, Paypal (or better yet, ask me for the Zelle transfer info, which is free and saves the 2.5% processing fee) to donate what you can.  You can also send a paper check to the address on the website.
  • Important:  Please specify "Project 430, Bolivia" or something along those lines, so that the funds will be earmarked for our project. (And if ya don't mind dropping me a line if you make a donation, that will help us to keep track.)

And that's it.  You'll receive  the tax-deductible receipt.


My partners Vincente and Virinia of Education and Futuro will be personally supervising this endeavor and will be regularly reporting back with photographs and other updates.  And as this process unfolds, you'll be able to learn a lot more about EdyFu and this construction project.  But in the meantime, I'll simply repost the video of the introduction to the project:






 

 

 

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