2012 Audit Complete

Each year, Circle of Hope International arranges for a GAAP audit over all of our financial activity. This audit keeps us on our toes financially and also allows you to have a picture of the financial stability of our organization. We are excited to share with you the financial statements from our 2012 audit completed this week.

In addition to providing a transparent financial view of our organization, the GAAP audit also provides support for our partnership with USAID.

In April 2012, we were awarded the opportunity to participate in USAID's Limited Excess Properties Program. This program allows us to receive excess property from the US government. This will include things like medical equipment, school equipment, computers, and much more.

Click on this link to read Circle of Hope International's Financial Statements for 2012.

Mill Money Raised!

For the women living in the community surrounding the Grace Center long walks to the mill with 30 or 40 lbs of corn on their heads will soon be over!

Two weeks ago, we contacted a donor about giving to the mill. He and his wife offered a matching gift of $15,000! Circle of Hope took up the challenge. We prayed, called donors, talked about it on Facebook and prayed some more! In two short weeks, the matching $15,000 was raised! Imagine our excitement as the last pledge came in. We have been celebrating!

But the real celebration begins when the mill is finally in place and the first bag of corn is ground. 

And even greater joy comes as the Grace Center begins to help cover the costs of paying workers and future developments on the campus through the profits made from the mill. 

The Process for Preparing Corn to Eat:The corn is harvested and stored in sacks.

 When there is no mill in the community, corn is ground with a mortar and pestle.

Our Mill House at the Grace Center. A picture of a mill

Not Another World, Our World

She wakes up as the sunlight slowly saturates her bedroom through the holes in the straw thatched ceiling.  The soft morning glow tells her it is time to get to work. She quickly gets dressed in her long, modest skirt and begins her morning routine. After sweeping the dirt floors and starting the fire, she walks the half-mile to the Aida was left to care for her siblings for a year after their mother died. They now reside in Timothy's Home. community well, with her paint can and water basin. Drawing up the water can-by-can, she anticipates the day ahead. Cooking, cleaning and carrying water only begin her duties.  There are siblings to look after and food must be found somewhere. If only her mother were still alive. Her mother always knew how to feed the children. Living meal-by-meal was hardly living, but they were all still alive. AIDS and starvation had taken a lot, but it could not take their will to live.

Today will be a good day, she decides. Today she will get work, and tonight the family might actually have food. What does dreaming hurt, after all?

I wake up to my iHome blasting country music. I stretch, not wanting to get out of my comfortable, pillow top bed. I go into the kitchen and pour my coffee and grab my breakfast bar. I flip on the news as I finish my coffee and start doing my makeup and hair. I have to look my best after all. The news is depressing, so much negativity. Why can’t we talk about the good things?

 I tune out the monotonous blare of the television as I think about the day to come. I have a political science quiz this morning, classes all day and tonight I am going to a concert.  Facebook status time, “So excited for the concert tonight, I am so blessed to have such a great life!” Then it hits me, if I am so blessed, what am I doing to spread those blessings? How much am I taking for granted? What will today be like for other people around the world?

Kaitlyn True, Summer Intern 2012This contrasts a typical morning of a Malawian girl with one of mine, a typical American 21-year-old. When looking at the basics it is hard to believe we live on the same planet; worlds apart does not adequately describe the differences in our daily routines. But what can be done?

This summer I will be traveling to Malawi, Africa on a research and mission trip. I had been looking for an agricultural mission opportunity for months, I am an agricultural student and wanted to serve in a capacity which I had something to offer. Finally, after nothing seemed to fit I emailed my advisor. Not long afterwards he told me he was sending me to Malawi. Texas Tech University Department of Animal and Food Sciences had partnered with Circle of Hope International and they needed me to go to Africa. The research is centered on iron deficiency research in the children and mothers of Malawi.

I will be traveling to Malawi as a Circle of Hope intern and a Texas Tech student, but more importantly a Christian.  It is each of our duties to go out into the world and share the good news of Jesus Christ. This is not a task to be taken lightly or to sit on the back burner until college is complete.

I think of my sister in the situation of the girl I first mentioned and reality hits me, this is not just a different side of the world; it is our world and our responsibility. It is time we take action as a global community and reach out to our brothers and sisters across the oceans. If many hands make light work then let’s enlist everyone we know.

It may not be your personal calling to travel to Africa. Some of us are called locally, some internationally; the point is to take action. Love is a verb that is characterized by selfless action. Find someone to love today; a child who needs help in your community, a single parent struggling to see God’s plan, a business man who does not realize there is more to life or donate to an organization such as Circle of Hope.

Water At Last!

There is a lot of dancing and rejoicing going on these days both here in the COH office and in Malawi! Please join us in a great celebration that we finally have water at the Grace Center!

In partnership with the Levelland Rotary Club and Rotary International, this project began in November 2009. Rotary raised funds and in November 2010 those funds were sent to Malawi. Regretfully, the funds arrived just as the economy in Malawi was nose-diving to disaster. Fuel became almost impossible to obtain and prices sky-rocketed on everything. But the Bwaila Rotary was not silent or discouraged. They persevered on our behalf and formed a partnership with Water Missions International.

On Saturday, May 5th, drilling began and soon water was bursting from the drilling pipes!

This week, workers are busy setting the casing for the well, installing a solar pump, digging ditches to lay underground pipes to two large tanks, and plumbing 4 taps: one at the clinic, one at Timothy's Home, one for the Orphan Kitchen and one for the local village!

One extra bonus that came as a part of this project was the purchase of an additional 25 acres of land for the Grace Center. The best spot of land for setting the tanks was on the property adjacent to the Grace Center. Thanks to a generous donation, we were able to purchase the land this week. Room for the water tanks and for the future!

Yellow and Purple are the original Grace Center site. Green is the land we purchased in December. Red is the new land purchase.

We want to express our thanks to the Levelland Breakfast Rotary Club, Rotary International, The Bwaila Rotary Club, Water Missions International, Caprock Springs Church (Post, TX) and private donors who have made this well possible! Thank you so much!

A Gift for Your Sponsor Child!

We are often asked, "What can I send to my sponsor child?"

This summer we want to take t-shirts to all the children in Circle of Hope Programs.

You can order a shirt for your child for $5 at the COH Store!

If you want to purchase t-shirts for more children, just add more to your cart!

While you are shopping, get a t-shirt for yourself, too and perhaps a hat or a rug! We will be adding more items to the store in the days to come. Especially as we bring back items produced at Hands of Grace Textiles.

All proceeds from the sale of items in the store will benefit the children in our Circle of Hope programs. Sales from the Textile center provide fair wages for our ladies who are employed through the textile center as well as helping to develop the projects at the Grace Center!

Thank you for supporting Circle of Hope! Happy Shopping for the children and for you!