Hope Graduate Meets President of Germany Last Thursday, March 8, Hope Graduate Nayana Reis had an opportunity to meet German President Horst Koehler and tell him about our program. At right, she prepares to give him a brochure translated into German. Nayana was at the President’s reception at the German Consulate on the invitation of her boss, who’s family owns the large private university where she works. The university has an extension program in Germany. Hope Unlimited Brazil Indirect Recipient of USAID Award Since 2003, Hope Brazil has received funding through a program called “Entra 21” to expand our traditional residential care and provide vocational training opportunities to impoverished day students from surrounding communities. Hope Unlimited is one of 30 projects comprising Entra 21, operating in 18 countries. This month, Entra 21 was selected from among 400 nominees to receive a U.S. Government award called the “Global Development Alliance Excellence Award.” Read below: Entra 21, an initiative of the International Youth Foundation, was selected from among 400 alliances worldwide as the recipient of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)’s 2006 Global Development Alliance Excellence Award. The Award is given annually to showcase exemplary alliances that have a positive impact and bring new partners into the development community. Award winners have shown the ability to bring various resources together with innovative approaches to solve particular development challenges. Entra 21, is an innovative workforce development program now operating in 18 countries throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Entra 21 has provided training to more than 19,000 disadvantaged youth in information technology and basic work skills needed for success in the modern workplace. The employment rate for Entra 21 graduates is 50 percent, and the majority of those working have jobs that pay minimum wage or more and provide one or more benefits. The average employment rate cited was 50%, while Hope’s was 63%, with ninety-five percent of graduates placed in internships. These are official numbers compiled by external auditors representing the InterAmerican Development Bank and Entra 21. (Note: Hope guarantees internships to day students, while our residential graduates are guaranteed jobs as well as preliminary internships). Entra 21 officials have encouraged us and the other program participants to share the news of this award with our supporters, like you, who are co-recipients. Congratulations to us all! The Spawning of New Generations The spawning of new generations, being raised in Christ, has become quite an industry at Hope Unlimited. Every month, as our graduates get older, marry, and start their own families, we are welcoming brand new Ambassadors for Christ into our community of believers. We have been inviting U.S. churches to recruit a fellowship team of couples to visit the City of Youth and host a special romantic couples retreat, perhaps coupled with a mini marriage seminar. If your church has an interest, please let us know. Meanwhile, please keep Hope’s newlyweds in your prayers, as they experience the challenges of any newly married couple, times perhaps five, not having had the traditional role models or family support that most of us have. That’s why I am so proud of them! (The only down side to all this has been my getting stuck with baby sitting duty once a month during our graduate worship service. But what a blessing). A Daily Encouragement: The other day I was chatting with a group of house parents. They were discussing how the recently ended summer break was the best ever with the children; few disciplinary problems and no runaways. One house parent told of going alone with a whole busload of boys for an outing to the mall, and having the group behave perfectly. Saying how close and connected they felt with one another, they attributed this in large part to their Tuesday evening prayer time, starting after the children were in bed and sometimes continuing until 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning. They also talked of how supported they felt by director Pastor Derli. How wonderful to see so much unity and ownership among the local ministry leadership! It is also comforting, because the local staff is where the rubber meets the pavement: the love they convey represents the transformation of our gifts of time and money into action and ministry. Thank you for your belief in and support of not only our children, but the Brazilian ministry team ministering to them. Your belief is contagious: as you know, more and more folks in the local community are coming to believe that there is hope and a future for these children. Most importantly, the children are coming to believe in themselves. Thank you brothers and sisters for all of the ways in which you give – time, energy, recourses. Yours are the gifts that, in so many ways, just keep on giving! In His Hope, Philip