flashback friday (natalie)

Remember Daniel? He's the REALLY cute kid at the Aldea who needs some medical testing to find out the cause of his challenges. Well, in our last newsletter, we decided to dedicate the money raised from the "Goodsearch" site to Daniel's medical fund.

So I just checked our Goodsearch site, and we already have $33.04 raised in October. It may not seem like much, but Daniel really only needs abouut $100 US to get his testing started, so Goodsearch should do it for us in just a few months at this rate. What's Goodsearch you ask? Well....

Goodsearch is a search engine powered by Yahoo and is dedicated to helping non-profit organizations such as us. You simply go to www.goodsearch.com and enter "Southern Cross Humanitarian" under the "Who do you Goodsearch For" line. If you want to use it as a search engine, we receive a penny per search. But the BEST way to use this site, is to use the Goodshop feature. Everytime I rent a car, book a flight, buy something on Amazon, eBay or a BUNCH of other companies, Southern Cross receives a percentage or a small donation. At first it was a pain to use, but then I downloaded the Goodsearch TOOLBAR and now my searches and my purchases AUTOMATICALLY go to Southern Cross.

It appears from our increase in money earned this month that many of you have answered the call and downloaded the toolbar. Daniel only needs less than 300 soles (about $100 US) worth of medical testing (that we know of so far) and at this rate, we'll definitely have it soon!

To re-read our intern Brian's account of Daniel's need...see below.

Thanks again....keep Goodsearching and Goodshopping!

Natalie

From Brian:

This week, I have noticed a few things. There is a boy named Daniel in the Aldea. He lives in Casa 1 with Tia Alejandrina and a number of younger children. He has some mental difficulties that affect how he behaves. It's not to say he misbehaves and fights with others. Just the opposite. He's socially awkward. He has a hard time listening well and chooses to ignore instructions at times when they are given, especially when he is being corrected for the better by the Tia who runs the house. He needs help. He's a good boy and the Aldea is waiting to accumulate funds to continue running tests on him to see what is wrong.
I talked with the Aldea nurse, Martha, this last week and she says the Aldea needs about 280 soles (about US $97) to continue running tests on him. There are also at least two other children with speaking difficulties who need some specialized attention from a Speech or Occupational Therapist. They are both under ten years of age and are the cutest kids you've ever seen. I know the nurse has seen these kids and that things are not progressing as rapidly as they could. The Aldea needs funding to run these kids through tests to get them to the therapy they need fast and the sooner the better. These two kids are growing up fast and the longer we wait to get help to them, the harder it will be to correct their impediments.