End-of-Term Update

Moses Machara, the Home's proud Papa, just reported that 10 of our children were the top performers on in their respective levels at the 2nd term examinations. Four of them were the first in their classes!

Minnet is the top student in first grade.



James is the top student in second grade.



Joyce is the top student in fourth grade.

Christopher is the top student in fifth grade.

We are so proud of all of the children, and grateful to the wonderful housemothers and tutors who assist them with their studies. We look forward to being able to provide a secondary school soon, for all the students to receive a complete education in Cura Village.

Moses reports, also, that a returning volunteer has provided the Home with 50 brand new foam mattresses for the children's beds. This generous gift was much needed... Moses says:

"I wish you were here to witness the mood of happiness that engulfed the whole Orphanage when the mattresses were presented to the children!"

Many thanks to Nicole!

-H

Summer Sparks

It is safe to say that the Farm Dinner to support Cura Orphanage was an incredible success! We are awaiting a final total for the event, but we anticipate approximately $2700 as a result of the generosity of the Little Spark organizers, the willing volunteers and the diners themselves.

The guests could browse the information table to learn more about Cura...

while Olaiya and her crack team worked on the delectables for the evening!

The Dog Mountain Farm provided plenty of reminders of the local, sustainable agriculture projects the fund-raiser would be supporting in Cura,

and the diners were treated to a glorious Seattle late afternoon.



Each place setting held a "thank you note" on behalf of one child in Cura--and we spent the whole day thrilled at what the event was going to do to improve the lives of the whole family there!

I love the spirit of Little Spark--the notion that small actions can inspire others and turn into some thing much larger than themselves. This was the impetus of the farm dinner, and it looks like other little sparks are in motion elsewhere.

One recent visitor to Cura, for example, was David Lansing, a writer for National Geographic. He fell in love with the place, and his blog entries about us are already inspiring others to do what they can for the children there. We've heard of at least one child dedicating his lemonade stand profits to the cause...

Thank you to everyone who's keeping Cura on her mind and in his heart!