It seems that circumstances are conspiring so that some of the people involved with our organization have had to leave, which is sad, but definitely understandable. Our board members Ryan and Cole Heinsius have decided that the demands of having a small baby and two full careers, plus trying to keep their sanity, mean that they have had to leave the board. We are sorry to see them go, and we most certainly understand. They assure us that they will remain involved, so we’ll hold them to it! Luckily for us, there are a couple of amazing women who have joined our board and we are already getting some great ideas and feedback from them!

• Janeece Henes, art teacher and activist extraordinaire from Flagstaff Arts and Leadership Academy, and Larami Sandlin, energetic owner of Dark Sky Brewing here in Flagstaff (as well as a couple of other businesses) have been voted onto the board and we are super excited to have them! You can read about them on the board page of the website.
• Another door has closed and opened in India. We were excited to hear that Guddi passed her exams to allow her to enter 10th Std. and go back to school, but just about the same time, our contact Aarti informed us that Guddi will be moving away with her family due to some family issues. We are very very sad to lose Guddi, since she worked so hard to get back into school, and we hope that she will find a way to go back to school wherever she and her family end up.
• But just as we were feeling sad about Guddi, Aarti sent us information about another young woman who could use our help. You can read all about Sangami and her incredible mother on her page. That’s Sangami, hard at work at Aarti’s center, as the photo for this blog. Once we heard her story, needless to say it was a no-brainer to support her. So welcome to Sangami!
• We are waiting to hear about one other sad, but unavoidable event. Bhumi’s family was so traumatized by the earthquake in Nepal that they decided to all move to Kathmandu together, taking Bhumi with them. She will most likely have to leave the program, but our contact Subash is looking to see if he can find a trustworthy contact in Kathmandu so that we can continue to work with her. If he can’t find anyone and Bhumi has to leave the program, Subash assures us that there are several girls who could use our help. We’ll keep you posted.
• On the GOOD NEWS front… We’ve received letters and grades from several of the girls and they are doing so well! Bharosha’s, Mireya’s and Angela’s grades are stellar, Bencille, Mireya and Angela all wrote wonderful letters, and we are as pleased as we can be, and so proud of them. Please check out the girls’ pages from time to time to see how they are doing and what they are up to.