Delivery to Children in Black Mesa, Navajo Nation

Quilts Beyond Borders has been working with Forgotten People, an organization dedicated to helping the Navajos living in the Bennett Freeze Area. The people who live there were legally prohibited from even putting electricity and running water in their homes until recently, and nights get cold there this time of year so the quilts we provided were very happily received by the children living there. We recently received photos of a delivery by Forgotten People to children at the Mesa View Baptist Church in Black Mesa.

The smiles on the faces of the children are wonderful to see!   Great thanks to all the quilters who helped to make this delivery possible!

Regards,

Carla

Quilt Delivery to Casa Vallado Orphanage in San Luis Potosi, Mexico

Nancy Sheppard is one of our new Regional Coordinators. She started 2013 in a wonderful way by going with some of her church members to San Luis Potosi, Mexico, about 260 miles north of Mexico City. This area of Mexico is about 6000 feet above sea level, and normally is 40-55 degrees Fahrenheit throughout the year, so the warmth of a quilt is certainly welcome at night.

Here is the wonderful picture that Nancy sent of her group with the children and their quilts:

Casa Vallado is an orphanage in San Luis Potosi, Mexico that cares for children who have either lost, or been abandoned by, their parents. The orphanage began in 2003 when a group of Christians sold their businesses and possessions to lovingly care for children who were living on the street. Casa Vallado functions 100% on charitable donations. The Vallado Project supports Casa Vallado through monthly sponsorships. The members of the Christ Community Church in Austin provide food, clothing, and educational needs to the Casa Vallado children, enabling the orphanage to better care for the children and to allow the volunteers to enjoy a better livelihood as well.

Nancy was particularly impressed by the women who took care of the children in the orphanage. “The volunteer moms are amazing and really touched my heart. The three young women give their lives to these children without receiving compensation of any kind.”

If you would like to learn more and would like to get involved go to:

http://www.cccaustin.com/mission/vallado-project/

Great thanks to Nancy and the members of Christ Community Church in Austin for making this delivery possible. You can see that the children are very happy with their new quilts!

Regards,
Carla

Quilts for Orphans in Russia

As our regular readers may know, we have a current initiative where we are gathering quilts to give to 24 young ladies who are graduating from an orphanage in Russia, and 12 babies there. When we were calling for the quilts I was contacted by Meena Schaldenbrand, a very talented artist in Michigan, who has a wonderful blog that displays a lot of her artistic endeavors:

http://meenaschaldenbrand.blogspot.com

Meena offered to make us a quilt for one of the young ladies, and last week I received a box with this absolutely beautiful panel quilt in it. You can see in the close-up that Meena has adorned some of the flowers with beads and 3-D flowers. Very pretty!

 

I know the young lady who receives this quilt will treasure it!  It’s really quite stunning!  Thank you, Meena!

The initiative for the young ladies and babies in Russia was not our only summer initiative.  We’ve also delivered 200 quilts to Orphan Outreach, an organization in Plano, Texas that works with orphanages in Guatemala, Honduras, Russia and India.  Some of the photos from their travels came back today.  Here are photos of their delivery of quilts to the younger kids at the Nikolsky orphanage just outside of St. Petersburg, Russia.

  

 

Those happy smiles are our greatest reward!  Great thanks to the quilters who created these quilts, and all the others we’ve received.  We’re looking forward to more pictures, and as we receive them we’ll bring them to you!

Regards,

Carla

Call for Quilts Going to Russia

Orphan Outreach

Quilts Beyond Borders has forged a new relationship with Orphan Outreach, located in Plano, TX. Orphan Outreach’s mission is to improve ”the lives of orphans and at-risk children in Guatemala, Honduras, Russia and India through early intervention, education and evangelism.” This is a similar mission shared by Quilts Beyond Borders, which has motivated the work we have done in countries in Africa, as well as Haiti, and Central America. We are grateful to have an opportunity to team up and help Orphan Outreach with an up-coming mission trip to Russia.

The Request

The organization has asked Quilts Beyond Borders to help fulfill a special need for 24 young Russian women, who will soon be graduating from the orphanage and moving into their own apartment. The 24 quilts need to be 42X60 inches long and the style should be considered for a young woman, aged 17-20 years old. They should also be machine quilted and machine bound in order to hold up to severe laundry conditions.

As well, Orphan Outreach has requested 12 additional baby quilts for those girls who are currently pregnant. These quilts should be at least 36 inches by 48 inches.

Pease include a label for each included quilt you send. The label should read:
Quilts Beyond Borders
Made for You with Love
By (Quilter’s Name)
Belongs to (Space for Recipient’s Name)

The Deadline

We are asking Quilt Beyond Borders volunteers to commit to making one or more of these 36 quilts by Friday, August 31, 2012. This means the quilts need to be finished and ready to send no later than this date. Please email Quilts Beyond Borders  to inform us of your commitment to completing one or more of these quilts by August 31, 2012. We will respond letting you know where you may send the quilt(s) once completed.

We thank you in advance for your willingness to continue your volunteerism with Quilts Beyond Borders. This is a new opportunity and country for Quilts Beyond Borders, and we cannot express our enthusiasm enough. We hope you are equally as excited about enriching the lives of young orphan women and children through your love of quilting.