At the beginning I was on charge of the Tutoring Program. Volunteers come and go and the main problem I had was not havingthe necessary people all the time. Many kids need special attention and sometimes we choose give attention to few of them in stead of helping big groups.

Please, do not forget this kids: Ruth: She lives in the house next to UPAVIM an she went to the States to get surgery. I dont know how this went out. Please let me know. She is really bright but needs lot of personal attention. Easily distracted.Because her mom is overweight and his father is a dwarf, neither of them can walk her to the school. I do not know what is the situation now.Bertha y Betsaida: They are Oralias daughters. They are bright but their problem is doña Oralia. She is alcoholic and, as far as I know, she sold the small piece of land she had in order to get alcohol. Please, keep an eye on them.Wendy: She is Esmeraldas daughter. She needs diapers because she suffers spinobifeda. She needs to get clean with, at least, once a day, with manzanilla the, otherwise she gets terrible infections. PLEASE take care of her. Specially now that she should be about having her first period (!!!) Dont forget we are working there with kids who are being abused in many ways, whose parents are either drug addicts or alcoholics.

We need to be really careful with the way we talk at them and with the things we teach them. We cannot change their lives at home but we can tell them that a better education means a better life in the future. I think the best way of improving UPAVIMAs life is training people from the community to work with us. We talk a lot about getting people from the universities. They have to do what they call a servicio social If UPAVIM can offer this possibility to the students, maybe students from Psychology, Social work, and similar careers will be interested in helping kids of their own country.

UPAVIM needs other services like AA sessions. We had a group for women with alcoholic husbands (ALANON) but I dont think thats working now.The women in this group understood their husbands won't change but her attitude facing the problem can. Ask Angela. Kids need to play. For this purpose Betty May is unique. She is the bomb! The kind of activities she organizes is just what kids need to believe in themselves. About the newsletter Barbara used to do that. She should have a e-mail book address in the computer at the office. Ask Angela. Many people used to support Upavim in many different way and Barbara used to have them up date.