David's Educational 2/15/16 Opportunity Fund Dear Friends of David's Fund: We continue to express our deep appreciation for your ongoing support for our students in higher education in Quito, Ecuador! Second semester is rapidly approaching and we want to tell you how our students are doing. We have four graduates of our program with good jobs, three students completing their class work in the next ten months, and another ten who are currently students or who will be starting soon. They include future teachers, doctors, nurses, and engineers. One basic goal of David's Fund is to develop students whose educations serve as catalysts in their family and community. If this happens, the impact of our program grows exponentially, and indeed that is what is happening. Verénica Guamba graduated from our program in 2014; she teaches pre-school children {ages 2 to 3) in her barrio. She now serves as mentor for another of our students, Flor Chicaiza, who also wants to be a pre-school teacher. Others in Verénica's family have gone back to school. Her brother David, who had completed ninth grade, will finish high school next year. Her sister-in-law Maria, who had no formal education, is completing eighth grade. Verénica is also working to establish a small lending library so that parents of her students have books to read to their kids at night. We see very similar patterns in other families. Lorena Cafiar will graduate this year from university in clothes design. Her brother Carlos and sister Maribel have seen the possibility and value of the education Lorena is acquiring. Both want to be engineers. They recently did well on the national entrance exams and hope to enter universities this year. Jenny Narvaez is in her third semester of veterinary studies, This year her cousin Fernando got some help from David's Fund in preparing for the national exams; he did extremely well and won a scholarship to study at an excellent private university. We thought that you would be interested in knowing what it costs to offer this kind of opportunity to these young Ecuadoreans. In 2015, we sent out a little over $62,000 in direct support for our students; our overhead (for the summer fundraiser, semiannual letters, some accounting help, mainly) was low, about $1500. At US rates, this money is going a long way! ‘Again, on behalf of Gaby, Vero, Jenny, Dario, Sofia, Flor, Blanca, Gabriela, Lore, Patricio, Mishell, Paola. Lorena, Richard, Erick, Maritza, and Angie, muchisimas gracias por su apoyo! Sincerely, Taupe b Mapper Mike Byrd and Maggie Felker, DEOF Jenny's Family with ike David's Educational Opportunity Fund 5725 Biterswoct Pace Madison, WW 53706