For the past 6 years we have been a part of an amazing work that is taking place in Guatemala in the community of Rio Azul. Last year we began work on phase one of the sanitation treatment project. A project with a price tag of $66,000 per phase. In March of 2013 we asked you to be a part of this project by participating financially to help us reach this goal. A lofty goal, one that we weren’t even sure we could reach. We took an offering and raised a total of $28,000 from the people in our community. We also had an amount of $33,000 set aside from money that we saved as a result of making the move to our new church location. Also our previous Project Guatemala team raised $5000 which was set aside for the start of the sanitation project. These funds combined helped us reach our goal of $66,000 for the first phase.
This year we began to raise funds for the second phase. We talked about the $66,000 and challenged you, our community to be global water carriers. To consider the investment you could make in the lives of the people of Rio Azul as we continue the fight against chronic malnutrition. Well we want to celebrate because you have once again show your generosity and knocked it out of the park. We thought $28,000 was an amazing number and this year you shattered it. We brought in over $36,000 for the second phase. We currently have $44,000 sitting in the account ready to be deployed. We will continue to raise the remaining $22,000 and will get creative to ensure we reach our goal of $66,000 just like we did last year. These funds will be released as soon as the municipality begins work on the pipes for the sanitation. This is a huge win and we want you to hold your head high and celebrate this accomplishment. Proud is an understatement when we talk about the Friends Church community and their commitment to make our world a better place.
To date this year we have raised $102,000 for humanitarian projects outside of our church our annual budget to this point of the years is $104,000. That is something we get super excited about. Great job.
