Letter of the President ---- December 2011

Dear friends of the Chilean-American Foundation:

I would like to thank each and every one of our volunteers, donors, and members for your commitment to help vulnerable Chilean children through our Foundation. Let me take a few moments of your time to inform you about two of the topics addressed in our November meeting--an update on our current projects in Chile and the status of our fundraising,

2011 PROJECTS -- 2011 has been a very successful year for the Foundation. During this year all 5 Maule projects to assist children victims of the 2010 earthquake were fully disbursed and successfully completed. These projects addressed the emotional and social needs of children affected by the earthquake through different interventions such as emergency preparedness training, psycho-social support, and recreational activities. We were able to help over 300 children and their families in the towns of Cauquenes, Pelluhue,Talca, and Curico.

In addition we supported three projects to help children in Metropolitan Santiago. Siempre Contigo-in southern Santiago, provided children with attention deficit disorder intervention strategies to cope with bullying in a positive manner. El Umbral organized academic and recreational activities for at-risk children in Maipu district.Moviliza helped children get along with each other through circus activities and promoted community engagement to improve their safety in one of the roughest neighborhoods of El Bosque district.

We are very proud of our efforts in these eight projects and invite you to visit our website www.chileusfoundation.org for more details on each project.

PROSPECTS FOR 2012 -- On a more somber note, we have raised far less funds than normal this year. Last year (in part because of generous donations for earthquake relief) the Foundation raised over $35,000 – considerably above our average annual funding of about $20,000 a year. For the first 11 months of 2011, we have raised only US$11,000 – less than half of our goal of US$25,000. Given this reduced income, the projects committee presented a proposal to fund only two projects: One would be with Moviliza, that will build-upon a very successful community based approach to help disadvantaged children in an extremely poor neighborhood of Lo Espejo district in the metropolitan region of Santiago. The other proposal, in the region of Valparaiso, would be a pilot project with Paicabi—an organization that helps victims of child-abuse.

FUNDRAISING -- What happened to funding this year? The Foundation has two major sources for fundraising-- membership dues and fundraising events. We are very thankful to the 51 members who have already paid their dues and are hopeful that with Rita Mayer’s reminders, we will receive many more donations by the end of the year—but so far the income from members and their donations is considerably below an average year. Fundraising events are the other part of our funding. This year the Foundation had two very successful events: the movie Padre Nuestro in April and the Peña Folklorica in July. Unfortunately our last fundraising event of the year –the Bingo-- had to be cancelled because of the weather. While the Bingo has been rescheduled for April 21, 2012 – it will not help in this year’s fundraising.

Please join us in our End of year Matching Fund Campaign -- In order to make up in part for the loss of the Bingo revenue, we have received a matching grant to request additional end of year contributions. The goal is to raise an additional $ 2,000 to be matched dollar for dollar so that our 2011 fundraising and hence the amount available to fund our projects for 2012 will reach at least $ 15,000. We hope that all of you will make an extra effort to make full use of the matching grant to continue helping disadvantaged children in Chile.

Send your tax-deductible donation to Chilean-American Foundation, P.O. Box 53448, Washington, DC 20009. Or, if it is more convenient for you, you can donate electronically through our Google button in our webpage. We prefer the old fashioned approach since Google charges a transaction fee.

Again, thank you for all that you do to help disadvantaged children in Chile. Over the years we have touched the lives of 7000 at-risk children and youth. Let’s keep making a difference one child at a time.

Best wishes for the Holiday Season!

Anamaria Viveros-Long
President
Chilean-American Foundation

Who We Are

Executive Board of Directors of the Chilean-American Foundation

Letter of the President ---- December 2011