Dear friends, family, those I look up to, and those I learn from,

I wanted to ask of you a few minutes of your time, to read about something that is very important to me.

If you know me at all, even a little bit or as a best friend, you may know that Honduras has stolen a part of my heart (or maybe the whole thing) two years ago. After my third trip to Honduras this past January, I am setting out to do just what I have done for the past two spring semesters, and that is fund-raise like crazy for the most gorgeous, appreciative, happy, free-spirited, and poverty-stricken people I have ever met. The progress I have seen in the past two years has absolutely blown me away, and shows me that truly, anything is possible.

Here is my “ploy” for donations. My birthday is February 11th, and I want nothing more than to receive donations towards my fundraising page that will get 12 girls INSTANTLY out of the horrifying government run orphanages in Honduras, and into a brand new children’s home. Even just three dollars, up to five dollars, ten dollars, or twenty. Any amount would probably make me start jumping up and down and/or crying of joy, because I actually do that.

And this is why I’m asking you to donate:

As a third world country, Honduras is one of the most dangerous on earth. Poverty, violence, drugs, and gangs lead orphaned, abandoned, and poor children with very little hope of rising out of the poverty they were born into. But borders are on the map, and where you are born shouldn’t be the reason for suffering.  The non-profit organization Students Helping Honduras (SHH), breaks that cycle right in its path. Providing a bilingual education to these children who have NOTHING, is the one way we can give them hope for a future. Even with so little, the people who live in the poverty stricken areas of Honduras are some of the most inspiring people I have ever met. And that in itself is amazing. 

I wanted to share with you a few stories from my most recent trip to Honduras. This past trip 35 Towson students visited a state orphanage run by the government. Although I have been here before, it never ceases to rip my heart into a million pieces. They don’t go to school, have toys, any remote kind of education or programming. There are three caretakers for over 200 children, many with special needs, in which cases are stuck in cribs. And among these special needs children, are also children with impeccable intelligence, which is also heartbreaking, being as they’re stuck inside of these walls with no opportunities to thrive.

At this orphanage I met a boy named Elias. Ten years old he could read and write, even some words in English. We were outside, surrounded by the plush green palm trees and mountains. Kids and volunteers were running around on what was considered the playground, but Elias and I were drawing. He drew a school, swings, a slide, a cat, a dog, mountains, clouds, and a sun. He wrote his name. The fact that Elias could even write his name and understand some English shows me he used to go to school. Someone taught him; but somewhere along the line, he ended up here. At ten years old, Elias doesn’t go to school. He doesn’t have a mom or a dad, or even a caretaker figure in his life. He only has himself. But he still laughed and smiled and acted like at this moment in time, what we were doing was all that mattered. When it was time to leave he quickly asked me to write my name on a piece of paper he was going to keep, and I had to look him in the eyes and give him a hug goodbye, not knowing the next time someone would hug him or appreciate that bright shining smile that I won’t forget.

I also held a baby named Lillian. She was four months old in a purple dress with purple footie socks with big brown eyes and curly black hair. I asked a woman in Spanish what her name was, and was told they called her “miracle”. Lillian was found in a cardboard box, in the trash, covered in ants at a day old. Someone dropped her off at this orphanage, and now Lillian has no hope of being adopted internationally, because international adoption is illegal in Honduras. She is only one of at least 10 babies I saw that day, the youngest being 25 days old. 

I know there are more than a million world problems. I know that I can’t fix them all, and I know I won’t get even close. I know that you may be facing something right now, that I can’t even imagine. But just because I can’t fix everything, I don’t have all the answers, doesn’t mean I won’t do what I can do. Because I know this is what I can do.

We can help get these children out of terrible orphanages and into the SHH children’s homes where they will have access to the greatest education for children in Honduras.

Towson students are currently fundraising $40,000 by the end of this semester, to sustain a children’s home for 12 girls in desperate need of a way out. A way out of the life they were born into, to achieve things they have only dreamed of. You can help us get there, and be apart of something that will impact lives forever.

If you have read this far, I can really only say THANK YOU for caring about what I have to say. 

If I have moved you to make a tax-deductible donation, you may do so using a credit or debit card at:

http://ceciskids.org/fundraising/profile.php?id=903

If you would rather send a check, let me know and I will tell you how!

Please help me have the best birthday ever and get me closer to my goal of $3,000!. 

If you are unable to donate, thank you for reading my story, and I ask you to pass it along!

Love and best wishes,

Mary <3