Legal Stuff
We are looking for a state other than California to set up our non-profit corporation, perhaps Texas. The reason for this is California has an $800 minimum income tax. That can be waived if the corporation is granted tax exempt status, but I have no faith in the California government right now to deliver the needed documents in a timely manner. I suspect that we would end up paying the tax. Eight hundred dollars would help a lot of kids.
Ideas and Action
Speaking of kids, I went out and bought a bunch of small size (all the way down to baby jumpers) clothing at a thrift store. I got a lot of nice stuff, but I realized that this will not be a sustainable way to operate. I have put out a call to family members to contact their friends and business associates to donate children's apparel that we can ship to Peru. This will be a first step that we hope to use to demonstrate that we are a serious organization dedicated to helping the children of the northern provinces.
We had a couple of ideas that we were considering. One of these ideas is a kind of radical idea to pay children to attend school. The premise is quite simple. Attend school on a regular basis, every day, you get a certain amount of money. At midterm and the end of the school year, good grades are rewarded. Now we realize that the money will probably not be used by the children, that it will go for the general welfare of the family unit. This is okay. Why is it okay? Our purpose is to keep the child in school, to prevent them from being yanked out of class to work, beg or sell things to support the family. This idea will have to be funded by a major donor or a grant.
The other idea was to provide hearing aids for those who need them. These would be rebuilt, donated aids from major hearing aid companies such as Starkey. Starkey has a wonderful foundation for this kind of work and they have, in fact, donated many hearing aids to the children of Peru. Here is the problem:
Please take a minute to watch this video. You will see that, to many people, Cuzco and Machu Picchu ARE Peru. The northern provinces are more or less forgotten: http://www.starkeyhearingfoundation.org/hearing-angel.php.
While we think their program is wonderful and it is obvious that a lot of needy children were served, we hope to redirect some efforts toward the northern provinces.
Other Stuff
Tom and Maribel are our people on the ground in Chiclayo. Tom is the infamous Chiclayo Gringo and you can google (http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=chiclayo+gringo) that to find more about him. They are busy right now assessing need and trying to get cooperation from local government officials and NGOs to see how we can best provide help. They have already made trips at their own expense to outlying areas of Lambayeque Province to talk with folks and see where we can help. Without them, we would be up the proverbial creek without a paddle. Thanks, Tom and Maribel.
On the US side, I am researching a number of things, the main thing right now being grant writing. I am actually hoping to locate a non-profit that needs a grant proposal written on a volunteer basis so I can practice for when we have our tax exempt status.
Here is a link to help you get an idea of the area we will be serving: Lambayeque Province
