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Amistad International | PO Box 455 | Palo Alto | CA | 94302 |
I just read eNotas, and also went to your website. The website is gorgeous - it's so full of pictures and stories. So many different projects, all of them so touching. Your web designer is a genius. And eNotas, too, is such a wonderful report. Your graphics and design are outstanding. I loved the stories there, too.
Bravo, dear friend!
Love,
Sandra Margidian
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THANK YOU SO MUCH, KAREN!!
I've already been emailing this around to a few friends and will send to more. I LOVE these communications and am always filled with pride, awe, inspiration and joy at the amazing work that Amistad is doing, powered in large part by the management skills of YOU!!
Susie King
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Karen, I'm not internet connected - or savvy - to be able to see your web. I feel frustrated not being able to help these wonderful projects, but now I know what I'll do with the small gifts I got after Elwood went to his rest on Sept. 6.
Three weeks later I managed to trip on a friend's doorstep and break my left hip. Recovering okay.
We'll be in touch.
Esther McCluskey
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Hi Karen~I always enjoy reading your e.notas! Noticed Dale Twomley in it!! Inspiring stories as well! We're off to Michigan for Thanksgiving, short trip up and back. Hope all is well with you guys! just returned from a trip out west-southern california, very nice to enjoy the sun and watch the waves!
Diane McDermott
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Hi Karen - Your newsletter is awesome....so inspiring.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Ann Down
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Dearest Karen:
Very well done!! A great web site with meaningful stories for each project. I hold you in my highest esteem for the amazing compassion and kindness you share with the poor and disenfranchised.
I keep praying for special blessings for each of your worthy projects.
I still remember the refreshing salt sea air we breathed in at Asilomar.
Countless blessings this thanksgiving. I am privileged to count you as a friend.
Love and hugs!!
Rainbow Iris (Landa)
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Amistad International | PO Box 455 | Palo Alto | CA | 94302 |
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Some sad news has come to us since the printing of our recent story on Buddha’s Smile School (BSS) in the summer edition of Spectrum.
Several weeks ago, the husband of BSS director and Unsung Heroes awardee Rajan Kaur Saini, was involved in a serious motorcycle accident. Sukdev was nearing his house in Sarnath, India, one dark evening when he heard the sound of a car coming toward him. Seeing no headlights, he moved his bike over to the side of the road to let the vehicle pass. But rather than passing, the vehicle sped up, struck him, and then bolted from the scene. Neighbors came to fetch Rajan, who quickly took her husband to the hospital. Things did not look good for Sukdev, and for nearly a week his life hung in the balance. Sukdev sustained numerous lacerations, broken ribs, internal injuries, a crushed hand, and damage to his right leg that was irreparable. After receiving 22 units of blood, Rajan finally made the hard decision to have her husband’s leg amputated.
Sukdev is doing well now. He is recovering at home and is keeping himself busy by searching for new recipes to try at his café once he is mobile again. He will be fitted for a prosthetic leg in a couple months. Meanwhile, the driver that struck him has not been found. It is likely that he was targeted because of the family’s commitment to serving Varanasi’s “undesirable” residents. Besides Dalits and the children of people with leprosy, BSS also educates Muslim children of the Bangladeshi immigrant community. Varanasi is one of Hinduism’s most historic cities, and the Sainis have already received threats connected with their openness towards Muslims. Some speculate that the accident was an expression of Hindu extremism.
More tragic than Sukdev’s accident is news we received only a few days ago. A twelve year old graduate of BSS, Pankaj Kumar, was murdered. Pankaj was attending a local middle school on scholarship funds and was receiving evening tutorials at BSS. He was a talented child, mentally strong, compassionate, and liked by all who knew him. Investigations have revealed that last week Pankaj came across four boys raping a young girl in Sarnath, which he threatened to report. Out of revenge, the four boys took Pankaj from his home later that night and murdered him, throwing his body above a temple. He was found several days later in a road drain with his hands tied behind his back.
The teachers, friends, and sponsors of BSS are grieving right now. There are no words to express the meaning of this act; it wounds us in our deepest inner places. Rajan is in the beginning stages of setting up a BSS scholarship fund in his name. Please join us in prayer for the friends and family of little Pankaj, who is yet another unsung hero.
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Amistad International | PO Box 455 | Palo Alto | CA | 94302 |
began in 1980 when Karen Hanson Kotoske raised enough money from family and friends to provide food and medical care for several Huichol villages in Mexico's Sierra Madre Occidental. Since then Amistad has expanded around the globe, to India, Africa, and Asia.• Assist a limited number of worthy projects, run by creative, compassionate people with a high degree of responsibility and accountability
• Stretch the money we receive to help as many as we can, using only a minimal amount for foundation expenses• Maintain personal relationships with both donors and project leaders• Communicate to our donors frequently about the effect their gifts are having• Let our donors help us to solve problems and work on rewarding projects
• Telephone: 650-328-1737
• Mail: PO Box 455, Palo Alto, CA 94302
• Email: tomamistad@aol.com
• Website: http://www.amistadinternational.org
• Facebook: Amistad International
One of our saddest, but most rewarding projects has been Lambano Sanctuary, a home in Johannesburg, South Africa for young children and babies with HIV+ status
to stand up, separate her legs or move her right shoulder and elbow. Her caring mother brought her again in June. I promised that I would do something when I returned in September, not knowing if I would have the help I needed to do the case. Fortunately we were joined by Dr. Duncan Miles, a plastic surgeon from Loma Linda University. After 5 hours of surgery we were able to excise the scars around the hip joints and rotate some normal tissue into place, allowing her once again the freedom to stand up. 
We thank Murwira Orphanage super volunteers Diane and Bruce Hamberger and Jenna and Josh Schaa for their amazing variety of tasks them completed at Murwira orphanage. We also thank Greta Schuler (Washington DC), Magali Schroll, (Belgium - in photo), Cesar Plaza (Los Angeles) and Kourtni Knobel (Colorado) who volunteered this year to work with Paula Leen. We also thank Carol and Russ Johnson, (Haines, Oregon) who are now at Murwira Orphanage volunteering. Cesar was a huge help in getting orphanage vehicles back in service. We also thank Carol and Russ Johnson of Haines, Oregon who are at Murwira Orphanage now helping Paula Leen. 
nearly 2,000 people alive with food from her gardens and orchards, and help from donors worldwide. She works tirelessly despite government instability and surrounding violence. An impossible situation, but she keeps at it and, in the process, is saving thousands.
Donna Peters has donated 220 brand new dolls and stuffed animals to each of the children at Buddha's Smile School in Varanasi India. Donna and her husband Larry, of Verona, Wisconsin, are long time strong boosters to BSS. This year they have also purchased a DVD recorder so that the teachers can play natural sciences and history DVDs to the students. The Peters also provided uniforms for the students this year. Thank you, Donna and Larry!
In June, a young Huichol woman was bit by a poisonous snake on her leg. Innocencia Lopez's wound became badly infected and part of her leg had to be amputated. In the ensuing weeks 26 year old Innocencia became despondent about her handicap: a young woman living in the rough terrain of the mountains, where a wheelchair is almost useless. Sadly, Innocencia tried to take her own life.
Has it been a tough economic year for you? It has for many of us. And when the economy suffers in the wealthy nations, those who live in poor countries suffer even more.
Zimbabwean authorities recently brought a nearly dead baby to Murwira orphange. The tiny boy had been found in the pit of an outhouse toilet, where he'd been intentionally abandoned. Police were able to pull him up by the handles of a bag he was in. He had maggots in his nose and mouth and was very ill. Initially he was hospitalized, but Paula reports that he's now drinking a rich baby formula and gaining strength. She feels confident that the baby, who they've named Moses, will survive. 
Amistad has participated in delivering nearly fifty tons of food from South Africa to Paula Leen's Murwira Orphanage from December '08 to June '09, to feed thousands of hungry people in the Marenge/Mutare area. The shipment contained maize, flour, peanut butter, cooking oil, rice, powdered milk, beans, baby formula, and a nutritional drink.
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama presented awards to Rajan Kaur of Varanasi, India who is the founder/director of Buddha's Smile School; and Urmi Basu (pictured at left), the founder/director of New Light in Kolkata, India. Rajan and Urmi and 47 other honorees were the guests at a reception of 600 who came to pay them their respects. These Unsung Heroes were selected because "they have set the course of their hearts toward truth and love. In doing so, they have become beacons, lanterns, mentors, inspirations and exemplars for us all. "
Amistad is helping Pathfinder Academy in Kenya with strategic campus improvements, including building seven classrooms, kitchen and dining hall.
The 150 students of Amri school in Kenya have been receiving not only an education but also one nutritional meal per day day, thanks to Amistad International donors. These are often children who are in "child-headed households" (having neither parent), so there is little or no food at home.
Thanks to all who contributed to the medical fund for Sukdev Saini
Maria Luisa is an employee of Casa Huichol, a place of refuge for Huichol people who have to come to the city of Guadalajara. She does work of all kinds for the lodgers, for very little salary.