Friends of Alalay (Santa Cruz)

We want to take a moment to say the biggest Thank You to every single person involved in our Alalay story over the past 14 (!) years.

Our amazing volunteers: you have checked our kids’ teeth and eyes; painted murals on their walls and helped them keep their bedrooms tidy; walked them to school every day, spent hours on homework and taken them to the Doctors when they are ill; cooked them the biggest and best cakes; taught them the wonders of cricket, Muay Thai, Jiu Jitsu, Zumba and rugby; discussed politics and shared music with them; run interactive workshops on healthy relationships; patched their wounds, taught them basic hygiene and how to wash their hands properly; spent hundreds of mornings/evenings in drainage canals talking to kids still on the streets; danced, sung, played football, painted, played, drawn, run around, laughed and cried with our kids; been jumped on, learnt so much and given a million piggy backs…

You have offered these children your time, talents and most importantly, your love.

Our wonderful supporters: you have jumped from ‘planes (with a parachute!); painted yourself purple and walked around school for the day; run marathons; cycled many thousands of miles; offered your talents at music nights and concerts; baked cakes and sewn bags; spent many hours on “Whack-the-Rat” and praying for our work; dressed in crazy costumes; helped at/bought items at stalls and sales; stuck together hundreds of Christmas cards; poured freezing cold water on your head; waxed your legs in front of hundreds of classmates; slept outside in cardboard boxes in the rain; climbed mountains; heard me (and others) speak; and told hundreds of other people about our work…

To you all: We salute you. We thank you.

We could not have done any of this without YOU.

Awesome Alalay supporter Manny (of Seraphim Corps International) recently returned from Bolivia, and sent us these beautiful photos. Manny is a registered paramedic and taught basic first aid to many of our houseparents and children so they would know what to do in an emergency, plus much more…

He has promised to return to Alalay as soon as he can, and in the meantime is setting up his own charitable organisation to help even more people around the World.

We (and the kids) can’t wait to have you back Manny! 🙂

Read more about Manny’s future plans and his time spent at Alalay HERE.

We can’t quite believe that 2019 is the fourteen year anniversary of Friends of Alalay! During that time you have helped us raise over £200,000 to help Bolivian street children to help themselves.

You can always read more about our previous supported projects by clicking HERE (detailed by year, drop down tabs), or find out more about the Alalay Foundation and FoA projects by watching our film (2011) HERE.

Specifically, this year, we will:

When I am in the UK I speak regularly at primary and secondary schools, churches and other groups of all ages about the plight of the street kids. Please do get in touch if you’d like me to talk at any event or find out about upcoming fundraising events here.

Have any of our eagle-eyed supporters spotted the changes we’ve been making to our website over the last few weeks?? If not, here’s a few key changes/additions:

• Re-jigged home page, with new banner and video put back up
• Updated projects pages –> our 2019 current projects plus all previous supported projects (drop-down menu details each year)
• Updated upcoming events page plus all previous events (drop-down menu details each year)
• Quick links to read/download all of our one-page newsletters since 2012!
• New page regarding our important policies
• Updated links page listing (only a few!) of our wonderful supporters

Despite a small team (!) we aim to give a brief update on all things Alalay both here and on our Facebook page every couple of weeks, so do “like” us, share our stories and keep your eyes peeled!

And please, if you spot any broken links / have any suggestions for further improvement, do get in touch to let us know.

We were recently invited to join two great local events: the Southfield Road Annual Street Party and St. Matthew’s Church “Party in the Garden”.

We offered the ever popular “Whack the Rat”, the world premiere of “Catch the Carrot” (for vegetarians, vegans and smaller children!), plus beautiful Bolivian goodies (including some handmade by the children) and many as-new items for sale.

Our heartfelt thanks to all those who helped us on the day, bought any items or came and spoke to us about our work 🙂

A big thank you to long-term Alalay supporter Hilary for successfully managing the first 16 days of “Dry January” to raise money to give the street kids a better future!

Follow Hilary’s progress and sponsor her HERE. You can do it Hilary! 🙂

We (and all the Alalay children and staff) would like to wish our wonderful Friends of Alalay supporters a very Merry Christmas.

With your invaluable help, during the past twelve months we have:

• paid for 10,000 panettone to be made in our onsite bakery and sold for profit
• funded all the Alalay children through school
• paid the salary of a house-mother
• financially supported our teenagers through their vocational training courses

Thank you so much for your fantastic encouragement and practical support for our work during 2018. With your help, our kids are now looking forward to much more optimistic, safe and satisfying futures.

We hope that 2019 brings you happiness, peace and much joy!

We have agreed to make a major investment in renovating an old house as living accommodation for a number of ex-street children. The house is currently in a very dilapidated condition and we need to raise another £8,000 to fix it – we are confident that we’ll reach our target, but it is a bit of an act of faith!

Yet again, this Christmas time the children have made and baked 10,000 panettone and we hear that they are selling like hot cakes! The children are on track to make a considerable profit – remembering that every penny raised helps the children to help themselves. In fact, kind donations from our supporters allowed us to buy all of the ingredients for this venture!

Our local church recently held a very successful wine tasting and wine auction and gave half of the proceeds to help with the support of our street children – for which we are very grateful!