Casita Copan
I had the pleasure of sitting in on the “Skype” meeting of the US board of Casita Copan tonight. What an interesting new world this is when you can conduct board meetings internationally on skype. Main topics included their plan for Casita Copan in the coming year, expanding their fund raising base, and a report on the extensive survey Emily has done of their recipients to establish needs for future program planning. Some of the common themes from the interviews were a lack of trust in relationships, sexual violence in the womens lives (60% verbalizing abuse but Emily believes it is closer to 100%). At the present time A Better World is supplying the funding for the Women’s Literacy program. The exams for the year are on Monday but probably the most remarkable accomplishment is that these 7 women committed to attending the Literacy classes and followed through. Some of the other benefits were the development of relationships among the women and some obvious development of confidence in these ladies who became more willing to “talk” and share their thoughts, feelings and ideas.
An ongoing dream is to one day make this a children’s home. At the present time there are two children who have been abandoned and are parentless… Casita Copan has
made sure these children are looked after.
Emily the Casita Copan Director and Jessie, a board member meeting over Skype tonight
One of the projects that Emily and Casita Copan are starting is a bed project. Many of the 14 families have NO bed and others have one that the entire family shares. Her hope is to provide a basic frame and foam mattress to each family. I will investigate the actual cost per bed and perhaps have A Better World provide some funds for the project.