how about a little preview of one of our shows...Yippee!

Want to help us? Then join ONE CAUSE...we all have to shop and everytime you purchase something the merchants will donate money to our missions.Thanks

Kids Show at the health fair at the old Pearl's Airport St. Andrew's area

Limes After School program- these children are sponsored by the Peace Corps for assisting them with their learning.

Wow...the show at the health fair in Apres Tout...was HUGE! Lots of people, lots of children...and what's best is they want LOTS more of the shows!!!

Kids FEST!!! Lots of kids, lots or people...lots of FUN!

Here's the crew doing a show for the HIV Kids Camp...we repeated it later at the Spiceland Mall

Okay, okay...I know I said I would upload the video, but all I could do was still pictures.More will be on the way.

Hooray...they're here!

After a long flight and layover in customs...the puppets have arrived. We traveled down to the customs department at FedEx, and after singing paperwork greeted them happily...Natalie, our young girl with a quite long ponytail, Sabrina, our young woman...who by the way has hair just like mine!, Anthony, our transitions puppet, and last but certainly not least..."meow", the calico domestic shorthair cat!!!
They are all sooooooooooooooooo cute, well handsome in Anthony's case, and ready to go...So the next thing is to have a photo shoot!

Puppet Order

And so, in April earlier this year I purchased the puppets (specifically Natalie, Sabrina, and Anthony), in addition to the official and approved scripts and manual for the "Kids on the Block" program.
Sabrina and Natalie are involved in all the HIV education scripts and Anthony is considered a transitional puppet. He and a beautiful calico cat are involved in "transitional" segments in between the HIV scripts, to allow for the children to have a bit of respite and "wiggle" time. The transitional scripts deal with behavior and attitude as well as animal interactions.
The whole program is GREAT! So we need to be sure and adhere to the specifics, including training, etc. to assure we follow the KOTB protocol and methods.
So.....now we wait, as the puppets are handmade and take about 10-12 weeks to produce.....................................................ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Concession

Once we obtained approval for the project by the Ministries, we needed to obtain the puppets> Here in the islands, we needed to have concession so as not to pay customs taxes, etc. And, since this was for the good of the children, we were able to obtain that concession prior to our ordering of the puppets.

Donation certificate

Donations...now that you did some fundraising, you need to offer acclamation for amounts donated which are more than just from bake sale items, etc. When someone wishes to either "adopt" a puppet, or make donations (one time or on a continuing basis), we needed to provide a certificate of donation. and, so here is IS!

Marketing...here's a slide show we did to get the word out!

Adopt a Puppet!

Fundraising

Well fundraising can be tedious...not unlike grant writing, but in a different way. Still you expend alot of energy, and many times you get little return. But we put alot of effort into our fundraising programs and so I will give you a couple examples...

Grant Proposal

When you write a grant...you usually do a proposal sheet.

Once the organization has reviewd this statement, they will ask for more information and an indepth proposal giving specific details about objectives, activities, expenditures, etc.

That said, I have attached an example of the grant proposal to the National AIDS Directorate prior to thier requesting a more detailed version.

Writing the Grants

Grant writing is a tedious...not to mention arduous task. Not very thankful to sya the least. I have written more than 50 proposals over the past 3 years, and have received many, many denials. The good news is, that my office in the US was approved for non-profit status (501(3)C) and it allows me to attempt grants form many other sources.
The good news is that I did receive a grant from Gilead Sciences, a pharmaceutical company that is invloved especially with HIV management, so it fit right in with the cause. And, second, the National AIDS Directorate of Gthe Ministry of Health in Grenada, has told me of their approval of the grant I submitted to them. I am awaiting receiopt of those funds as I write this note.
Otherwise, I have put my own funds from Angel Mountain, Ltd. into this project with my while heart and soul...so that the children WILL receive simple and correct information about disease and behavior.

KIDS on the Block

Truly a Kodak moment. Here are the "core" group of kids...but certainly not ALL of them. I am hoping that we can access 3 of them to start our programs. Two to do specific ones on disease, and a 3rd to do transition programs in between. This way we will use the KOTB approach true to their protocol.

Kids attention span is short so two separate program with a short "review" at the end will be "just enough".

Now to get the Ministry's approval and write the grant(s).

The KIDS

Okay here's a family picture of all the "KIDS" from the puppet program. Now I can't guarantee that we will ever be able to obtain all of them...but we will start with what we can and work our way up!

And so the story goes...

We have been trying to get this program going for a long time now...and it has FINALLY happened! To give you a little background, in going around the islands, I found that many people do not have access to the fundamentals of health education. And, since I am a medical provider, I have a great need to have my patients understand not just disease, but also preventative strategies that will help keep them well.
At our health fairs, it is easy to talk with the people about disease, etc., but we were just not able to reach the children. After many creative efforts, I saw the "Kids on the Block" listing on the internet, and decided to inquire. And, after much research and reading, I decided to incorporate their method of teaching children to meet the health and behavioral needs of our children here on island.