Happy Almost New Year, Everyone!

What a strange and challenging year this has been, for everyone around the world. We know a lot of people are glad to see this one disappear in the rear view mirror, but there have been some positive things that have come out of the year for One New Education and our girls.

We’ll start by saying that, thanks to your generosity and kindness, ONE had its best fundraising year ever! As of this posting, we have received more than $30,600 in donations! This has allowed us to help our students through this unprecedented year with things like Internet time, and tablets for remote learning. It also means that we can consider taking on some new students when others graduate.

Some other things that your donations have made possible:

• Despite all the challenges associated with remote learning, lack of Internet access and illness in their families, all our students have passed their grades and will continue on to their next year of school. Some have gone back to in-class instruction already, and we hope they stay safe and well.
• We have accepted another scholarship applicant for university studies. Elizabeth Espinoza Torrez from El Sauce, Nicaragua, will be receiving a scholarship from ONE to help defray the costs of her university education that are not covered by her scholarship from the National University in Leon.
• We have received another scholarship application from Sua, in Nicaragua. Sua graduated in 2019 and took a year off to figure out what she’d like to do. She has applied for a small scholarship to attend cosmetology school and help her family by starting her own business. We will be making a decision soon about this, but without your help, we couldn’t even have dreamed of helping her beyond high school.
• This coming year, we will have several students graduating from high school: Alondra, Belen, and Tatiana from Nicaragua, and Angela from Mexico. We hope that we will be able to help them with their future plans in our post secondary scholarship program.
• Some of the schools we work with were having a lot of trouble economically, and we were able to help a little by paying the entire cost of a student’s schooling. For instance, Linda Maria’s school in Honduras has always been kind enough to give her a little break in her costs so that we didn’t have to pay quite as much. This year, they’ve had several students have to drop out for economic reasons. This is hurting what is a wonderful school, and we were able to support them by paying the entirety of Linda Maria’s costs this year.
• The funding that we provide for our students has been a godsend for their families, this year more than ever. We have been told that several of our students would have had to leave school because of their families’ economic struggles due to the pandemic. They are so grateful to have been able to continue studying.

We cannot begin to express how grateful we are for the support you have shown for our students. It has been such a delight and a joy watching them grow up and move forward with their dreams—dreams they couldn’t have imagined even putting into words (much less reality) without all of you. Thank you so much. We will be in touch in the next few weeks with our official Annual Report and more news, but until then have a wonderful New Year. Stay safe and  healthy, and hug your loved ones tight.

All the best,

Birgit, Christa, Heather, Janeece, Leslie, and Meghan