(Aug 23)
Dora E Zúñiga is the Donor Guidance Director for Project Amigo, a US charitable organization founded in 1996 by California businessman Ted Rose and his wife Susan Hill, after seeing the extreme poverty in the village of Cofradia de Suchitlan in the state of Colima in west-central Mexico.
 
Project Amigo’s mission is to provide educational access to disadvantaged children there, with material support, enrichment activities and healthcare services otherwise unavailable to them. Project Amigo provides service opportunities for volunteers from developed countries to provide humanitarian service there and to become friends with these disadvantaged children to broaden their horizons. Many of these rural children in Mexico have been able to continue their formal schooling up to and including college level and professional schools. (Our member Marylyn Klaus has sponsored children there annually for many years.)
 
Sponsor a Child (K-6th) and establish a relationship as that child grows into adulthood. Sponsors receive a photo of the child and annual updates, and you can visit your sponsored child there. Sponsorships fund their Christmas Fiesta and an annual field trip, and purchase a new set of clothes and a pair of shoes. The children participate in an annual Community and Culture Work Week.
 
Educational Scholarship (7-12th) ($600/year) provides junior high and high school, without which their education would end at sixth grade, and they would begin working in menial, low-paying jobs. A $600 scholarship provides school uniform, bus transportation, nutritional lunch, books & supplies. The student must maintain a high GPA, provide 10 hours of monthly community service and a letter to the sponsor, and attend a weekly homework club.
 
University Scholarships ($4,000 per year) are for recipients who successfully complete high school. It provides tuition, bus transportation, books & supplies, and room and board in Casa Amiga for those whose homes are far from the city. Students must maintain a high GPA, provide 10 hours of monthly community service and a letter to the sponsor, and attend a weekly homework club. Project Amigo graduates have become doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers, and community leaders, breaking the cycle of poverty that has imprisoned their family for generations. (Sponsorship funds are pooled to assure that every child and higher education student in their program receives the same benefits whether or not they have a sponsor.)
 
President Victoria presented a $2000 check from our Club to Dora Zúñiga for Project Amigo. She is available at 608-345-6769 or dora@projectamigo.org. Donors can become involved through https://www.projectamigo.org/get-involved.