By the end of May, we should have our final phase of houses completed in St. Helenacita!
Right now, we have 20 families and contractors working daily on the homes to finish them
as soon as they can.

On January 15th, we selected these 20 families for our final phase of houses from a pool of
45 families. Families qualified for the final raffle after a lengthy screening process. This
transparent and fair selection process was spearheaded by a new community committee,
which Josh helped organize. In addition to selecting candidates for the raffle, the committee was also responsible for educating families on the application process and the expectations of the Foundation if they were chosen for a house.

On the day of the raffle, the air was pretty thick with tension and emotion, but by the end of the day, we had 20 families whose lives will be forever changed and improved, thanks to
their new home. Their excitement that day and in the succeeding weeks has been contagious!

We should be having our final Home Inauguration at the second week of June, and we would love for you to join us for this celebration.

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs!

We’ve always known that creating a sustainable job market is the measure of success with this project. With a country whose unemployment is close to 40%, the creation of job opportunities where none existed before is quite a challenge. Last year we hired Josh to help us run our Jobs program, come up with creative ideas, and try to implement some jobs in the area. He has been hard at work all year and we are pleased to report that as you read this newsletter, we have begun to see this dream become a reality through our investment in a Malanga processing plant.

During our work trip to Empalme, we also had presentations from two other potential enterprises. One is honey processing – preparing the product for market in either bulk or pre-packaged form. The group was able to see the enterprise from start - beekeepers working the hives - to finish – a bottle of honey in their hands! The other enterprise is a small manufacturing business of foldable, anatomical seat cushions, a product developed by
two of our own scholarship program alumni! Amy and Robert are ramping up their business to produce 500 cushions for sale at universities throughout the country

We continue to look for new opportunities to grow, or start, a business in Nicaragua – to encourage everyone in Empalme to dream big!

Our Employment program started off with a bang this February when, after months of
tireless work on identifying investment candidates, Josh proposed the project’s investment
in a Malanga processing facility.

What’s Malanga? Widely grown in the tropics, Malanga is a vegetable and a close relative of the Hawaiian taro root. Malanga is a popular product with Latin Americans in the United States, but growing locales here are limited, as the crop requires a tropical climate to thrive. Markets like Nicaragua, where Malanga is grown easily, are more than able to fulfill this growing need.

The board approved Josh’s proposal on February 19th and within days we watched 40 men and women processing the produce for export to the United States. What an exciting feeling to walk into the plant on the first day of operation and see people working – LOTS OF THEM! When the plant is fully operational, we hope to employ over 50 full time workers on a year round basis.
By April, we should have 13 containers of Malanga exported to the U.S. and a fantastic foray into our new ventures in Empalme.

What a joy it was to see the smiles on the faces of the new employees; our operations
partner, Marta; and Josh. It brought tears to many of our eyes as we saw the first steps
towards our goal; full time, dependable jobs. Congratulations on a HUGE success - we hope it
bodes well for our future efforts to start businesses in the Empalme area.

October 4th will be our FINAL BLOWOUT auction!

This will be our BIGGEST and LAST auction event ever!

Our goal is to raise $500,000, which will take us into the next decade of this project. We’re planning on having fantastic auction lots, fantastic bidding, and fantastic fun.

Please join us for our final event -

Saturday, October 4th , 2008 at Sutter Home Winery, the location of our successful 2006 auction.

Daniel Glazier – Our newest addition

We hired Daniel Glazier in February to allow Josh more time to focus on our Jobs program.

Daniel finished Peace Corps in 2007 and brings many fresh new ideas and a welcome smile to the project. Daniel oversees the different construction projects, seeks new projects at the schools, acts as a liaison between all our committees, and is working on bringing the Internet to Empalme.

We’re proud to have him on the team.

Group trip

On Feb 13th, seventeen volunteers boarded the plane in SFO for the annual pilgrimage to Nicaragua. Most had not seen the progress of the last year and I knew they were in for a treat!

During this trip the volunteers tackled a small rural one-room school house, about a 20 minute drive up a nasty road from Empalme. The school was built 15 years ago, but was dark, dirty and due to the broken roof – wet inside. Over the next three days, a group of workers and parents cleaned, painted, and fixed the roof. The results were amazing, a bright and dry classroom for 30 kids.

At the same time, another group was working at the baseball field building a new outfield wall to keep out the non-paying spectators and COWS, while other workers at the housing site were mixing concrete and pouring foundations for 20 homes. Finally, we had our surveying team out taking measurements of all the properties, the school, and the houses. It was a packed week, every day, all day.

On day 5 we set aside these work projects for a day of planning. This was a very important day for the board, as we received in country updates from Josh and our newest employee Daniel; construction updates on the houses, community center, and second phase of the Secondary school from Peter Stanley; and an update on the Job Creation program from Peter Snowden. Things are really busy! I finished the afternoon with my vision for the coming years, for the schools, the houses, the jobs, and the community at large – some lofty goals, but the group is “in” and ready to work this year to make these visions reality.

After returning to our various projects for the remainder of the week, we finished our trip with a little R&R at the beach at San Juan del Sur before coming home to our “real” jobs. It was an inspiring trip for the group, yet, there is so much still to be done –we are just now starting to see the results of our work.

On December 12th, 2007 the new Secondary School was dedicated in Empalme, with a large
crowd of students, parents and local dignitaries on hand. Gregorio, our job foreman, did an
excellent job and truly showed quality workmanship in the finished product. The first day of
school was February 4th, 2008 and as expected, too many kids (279) showed up for school,
with only FIVE teachers and not enough chairs or desks for everyone! The teachers and
administrators spent the next two weeks wrangling with the government to get this sudden
influx under control, and as a result, the school is now pointed in the right direction.

The explosion of students has pushed up our timeline for our construction of the school’s next phase, as we observe this reality: Education is WANTED, and education is a HIGH PRIORITY for people living in our community as it is the only way for a better future.

“When all this is in place, our school will have a national reputation for higher learning. Imagine what type of student would be graduating from this high school – a computer literate, English speaking student…ready to move on to university with more tools than most students in the country. This education will lead to better access to jobs, to job creation possibilities, and will raise the level of income and lifestyle to the area. I would also envision one of these students becoming our community “employee” to implement our visions and do the work that are currently being done by our expatriate employees.”

Scholarship Program

With 89 scholarship kids and counting, our scholarship program is still booming – it’s the best thing we have going! Our new Scholarship Coordinator, Lenore Hirsch joined us in Nicaragua this February for her first trip, where she fell in love with the students and the country. Lenore has a background in Public School Administration for the Napa Valley School system and has many new ideas how to promote this successful program. The first thing she did was to establish a PO Box in Nicaragua, only for our program, so the sponsors can write directly to their students. We welcome her to the team, a much needed addition.

Goals for our Foundation

I mentioned that we spent an entire day planning, strategizing & brainstorming during our work trip in February. We have some lofty goals for this project and we wanted to share them with you. I shared a “speech” with the group to finish out the day and I thought I would share this with you – this vision of what I see in the future of Empalme de Boaco

“Imagine the year 2012, the country still struggling to survive – but the little town of Empalme de Boaco is a hotspot for education, alternative energy, technology and hope for a better future, in spite of the daily challenges. It will be an example for the rest of the world, while there are so many organizations who are searching for a efficient model. The locals will be managing these programs by themselves, proud of their reputation and knowing they have been blessed by a group from the “outside” to subsidize viable new ideas and promote new programs. The vision is to someday have Empalme’s citizens be in charge of their own visions
and future.”

Though we have accomplished so much with this project, I feel like we are just getting to the core of this project. It feels like we are switching over from Act 1 - into Act 2…I hope you are excited about this new direction we are taking. It’s bound to be a challenge and I thank you for supporting our efforts and goals.

For more information contact:
Jake Scheideman - 1156 Main Street St. Helena, CA 94574
email: jake@sthelenacyclery.com phone: (707) 483-3852