It’s hard to believe that another year is ending; it seems like just yesterday that we started this organization and in March of 2016, we will be five years old! In that time, we’ve learned a lot about how to do all of this, we’ve developed a small but loyal following of donors and benefactors for some of our girls, and we have helped almost 30 young ladies stay in school and continue studying for their dreams. It’s really working!

We know it’s working because of some of our 2015 highlights…

• We are getting ready to welcome a couple of our girls to the ranks of graduates! Karina has one more year in high school and Klaudina will graduate in 2017. We are figuring out how to support them beyond high school, either into the university or in vocational classes.
• We welcomed Prachi to our organization, and she is doing great in her school in India.
• In 2015, two girls had to leave the organization. Although we were very sad to lose Bhumi and Guddi from India, we are happy that it was not because they dropped out of school. Both families moved away from our contacts and couldn’t stay with the program. But Guddi passed her exams to re-enter school! We hope Bhumi will continue to do very well wherever she and her family find themselves.
• Our other girls are studying hard and we are super proud of them. They are doing so well—Camila was on the honor roll again and all the girls in Nicaragua were able to march in the annual parade because they had high grades!
• In Mexico City, Angela’s grades are excellent. She is looking forward to taking exams at the end of this year to enter a good preparatory school for her last two years.
• ONE is now helping 24 girls stay in school, and we couldn’t be happier and prouder of them!
• We welcomed Meghan Haslam to our board in November. Meghan started the 4 Walls Project in Nicaragua, which was an inspiration for our organization. Meghan is a fluent Spanish speaker and an amazing woman and we are delighted to have her join us. You can read more about her in our Board page.

We want to thank all of our past, present and hopefully future donors who have helped so much. We are still entirely privately funded (with a few great fundraisers thrown in there!), so your help means the world to us and to these girls. We’d like to remind you of a few things as the year draws to a close:

• Please pass the word about ONE to your friends, family, workplace, schools, etc. We love involving students in this country in fund-raising or writing to our girls, and we can always use more donations! The more people that know about our girls, the more connections they will be able to make with the rest of the world. We think that’s really important.
• If you haven’t made a donation yet this year—or you want to make another—remember, we are a 501c3 non-profit and your donation is deductible to the fullest extent of the law. You do need to make the donation before December 31, 2015 for it to be applied on this year’s taxes.
• If you would like to be a Benefactor for one of our girls, please let us  know. It’s nice to have that connection with one particular girl and we will help you stay in touch.

If any of you are going to any of the ten countries in which we work, please let us know and we will help you get in touch with and visit our girl(s) there. They love to meet anyone they can from our family. Once again, we thank all of you for your financial, emotional and logistical support over the past five years. We are so grateful and happy to know you, ONE and all!

From everyone at ONE, we wish you all the happiest of holidays and an incredible new year, filled with joy, remarkable encounters with delightful people and much love and learning.

Christa, Alex, Janeece, Larami and Meghan