Tia Foundation

Tia Foundation will be holding a 5K Run/Walk on March 27th beginning and ending on the Thunderbird School of Global Management Campus. There will be a kiddie run around the Rugby pitch too. Lots of fun, games, prizes and food, so SAVE THE DATE: MARCH 27TH!  More details to come…

Greetings!  My name is Efrain Diaz, and I will be serving as Fundraising Intern for spring 2010.  Upon entering Thunderbird as a Master’s candidate in Global Affairs and Management in the fall of 2009, I became acquainted with the Tia Foundation and was immediately impressed by their efforts to create sustainable health strategies in rural Mexico.  I was especially moved by their work in my family’s hometown of Guadalajara.  I am greatly looking forward to this new experience and hope to contribute to the success of the organization!

In La Presa, Jalisco, Guadalupe receives the first bag of medical supplies.   Inside, Lupita found a large supply of Tylenol and Ibuprofen, very useful during this bad influenza and cold season.  She received lots of extra lancets and glucose tests strips for her glucometer, since diabetes is a major chronic problem among her neighbors.  We also stocked her up on other commonly used medicines and first aid supplies.

Still more to come…

Our old friends from the municipality of Ojuelos de Jalisco were there not only to greet us, but to lend a hand too!  Above, you can see Maurilia Huertas Salas and her mother counting out sterile gloves for the holiday care packages.   Patricia Garibay and Laura Libman delivered the parcels to all Tia’s Promotoras in the area, which includes La Presa, Morenitos, La Granja and La Paz.

More to come…

Patricia Garibay smiles as she goes over the list of medical supplies that we will be taking to Tia’s Community Health Workers beginning tomorrow.  Laura and Paty will be visiting all the Tia villages over the next four days to do follow up surveys, visit with our Promotoras and surprise them with some extra stock of medical supplies.  As bad as the economy is in the U.S., most of our communities suffer from tougher times.

Tomorrow the two Santas will be heading to the villages near Ojuelos de Jalisco, on the border with Zacatecas.  Keep checking back for updates and pics from the visits!

In case you missed it or don’t live in Arizona, you can still see Laura interviewed on Horizonte.  The show, hosted by Jose Cardenas,  airs every Thursday evening at 7:30 p.m. on Arizona PBS Channel 8.

Catch the show tonight to see one of Laura’s friends, Mark Walker, discuss the AFP/Hispanics in Philanthropy Event which Laura attended yesterday.  Mark Walker is the new Vice President of Development for Make-A-Wish Foundation International and Member at Large at AFP (Association of Fundraising Professionals).

The AFP Luncheon was followed by a stimulating panel discussion, featuring:

• Belen Gonzalez, Grants Manager, Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust, “Women’s Giving Circles.”
• ErLinda Tórres of ALAC, Advocates for Latino Arts & Culture Consortium , Inc.
• JP Dahdah, President of Entrust and the Advance Guatemala Foundation.
• Patricia Lewis, ACFRE, Senior Professional-in-Residence, ASU Lodestar Center

If you miss seeing Mark tonight, you can watch him online by going to Horizonte’s web site.

We will all be shopping for the holidays, but with a tighter budget this year.  With GoodShop.com, you can buy your gifts and make a donation without spending an extra penny. Helping someone else is the very best cure for the Economic Blues.

Plus, you will shopping at the same places you would shop anyway: Toys R Us, Amazon, Apple, Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Best Buy, HP, Barnes and Noble, Sephora, Sears, Macy’s, PetSmart.  You can even buy gift cards or e-gift cards at the stores or through American Express.  Some stores allow you to buy online and pick up at your local store!

It takes just a few seconds to go to www.goodshop.com, select your charity (we hope you choose Tia Foundation), and then click through to your favorite store and shop as usual.

To give you a sense of how the money can add up, the ASPCA has already earned more than $17,000!

Also, Yahoo has teamed up with GoodShop’s sister site, GoodSearch.com, to donate a penny to your cause every time you search the web. This is totally free as the money comes from advertisers.

Please tell 10 friends about GoodShop and GoodSearch today. They’ve been featured in the NY Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, Oprah Magazine and more.

Charities need our help to spread the word now more than ever!

P.S. Tia Staff uses GoodShop to make all our travel arrangements with sites like Travelocity, Expedia, Cheap Tickets and others.  We buy all our office supplies thru Office Depot, Staples, Office Max and Sam’s Club.  We always check GoodShop first before buying anything!

Confirmed cases of Dengue Fever now number in the thousands in the state of Jalisco, Mexico, though some estimate suspected cases as high as 25,000+ and the season is far from over.  Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever cases, the more serious strain, comprise more than ten percent of all reported cases.  During a normal 52 week year, Jalisco sees an average of less than 2,000 cases.  Unfortunately, cases are popping up in areas that do not normally see Dengue activity.

There is no cure and no vaccine to prevent Dengue.  The best defense is to eliminate places where mosquitoes like to breed, properly apply mosquito repellent, and use screens to prevent mosquitoes from entering homes.  Any standing water containers should be removed and cleaned to eliminate the mosquito eggs and larvae.

Tia staff (Laura and Kate)  currently in Mexico liberally applies strong mosquito repellent and follows all the recommended guidelines.  Our Community Health Workers (Promotoras) also have received thorough education, thanks to UAG’s PMC brigades,  in preventative measures as well as how to care for Dengue patients and how to identify when a patient needs escalated care.  Our partners at UAG’s clinics, hospitals and PMC brigades are working tirelessly to offer excellent care to all those afflicted.

We hope that our friends here in Mexico at UAG, Global Vantage, ITESO, etc.  recover quickly and stay well!