Dreams Come True
"Stories and Good Times"
(continued from "About Us" page)
Meanwhile Sue's students launched into their puppet project; first making the
puppet characters, then writing original and adapted bi-lingual plays complete
with music and sound effects. The final performances were video taped to
show to their new friends in El Alisal.

The Andean students were given the rare art materials to draw colorful
pictures depicting their everyday life. Back the US, these wonderful drawings
were made into a calendar which was sold to raise funds to renovate the
dilapidated El Alisal School. The $2800 profit ultimately served to fix the
school's bathrooms and broken windows, upgrade the foundation and lunch
kitche,n and give a fresh coat of colorful paint. The labor done by El Alisal
parents in a communal effort called a "minga".

Thoroughly inspired, each of Sue's US students went the distance by filling a
shoe box full of vital school supplies for their new Ecuadorian schoolmate.
The 40 decorated shoeboxes finally arrived in Ecuador after months of
shipping saga, and were brought up the cobblestoned mountain road to El
Alisal school. Until now, each El Alisal student had at best received a pencil
and a notebook for school. It was incredible watching each student carefully
receive her/his box and gingerly open to see it chock full of markers,
scissors, pens, compasses and all the neat items one could hope for. The
boxes brimmed over with the thoughtful care sent across miles, from child to
child. The kids were beyond happy.
Four hours from Pimampiro is the Pacific Ocean, but most children of the
Andes have never seen the coast nor enjoyed the wonders of a sandy
beach. Our dream was to someday rent a bus, load it with our little
Andean friends and go for an overnight in paradise. Well, this dream came
alive one day whilst I was standing in the customs line at the Quito airport
having just arrived to Ecuador. Asking Arturo, the American gentleman in
front of me what he was doing here in Ecuador, he replied that he owned a
seaside hotel and had been coming here from Seattle for eight years. He
asked what I was up to and the following sharing about Mountains of Hope
and our projects to help the children was enough to inspire me to also
relate our dream of the hopeful trip to paradise. He thought for a minute,
then retorted, "Yes, you can have my seaside hotel for free. Just let me
know ahead of time!"

A month later, at 4 AM, we were loading 32 kids and a few parents into
the cruiseliner bus for the four hour trip to Las Penas on the coast and two
days of total joy. The kids were completely awash with expectation and it
was exciting to see the landscape change through their eyes as we
journeyed down from the mountains to the heavy air of the coastal region,
another world.

The shouts of glee as we finally caught the first glimpses of the endless
blue vista were nothing compared to the pandemonium on reaching the
beach. The sight of these amazing children running across the wide sand,
bubbling with bliss, and hitting the surf like so many fish out of water, was
spectacular. For the rest of the day and the next we played in the
gracious surf till wrinkles had wrinkles. The beach had junior waves and a
very gradual incline so it was wonderfully kid-friendly as they learned to
leap, porpoise dive, float and swim.

The requested fare from each child was to contribute food, so we had a
major stash of Andean potatoes, avocados, lettuces, pasta, bananas and
beans along with us. Arturo arranged for his neighbor-friend to loan us the
use of her seaside cafe. So together we cooked up grand fare, including
the fresh fish from the local market. The kids provided coconuts gleaned
from the palm trees. And we brought a dufflebag full of board games,
which between beach fun the kids enjoyed like it was Christmas.


This "Dream Come True" made one thing
very obvious, this life is designed for joy!
Thanks Arturo!
Above Pimampiro in a high Andean plateau sits Lake Puranta, the
source of pure mountain water which feeds the sloping agricultural fields
below through an intricate, partly ancient irrigation system. In this
agrarian region water is sacred and vital. Daily discussion among locals
is often about either the weather or water allotments

The children are always begging us to take them to the river in the
valley to play. This is a big deal and it is wonderful to join them with the
elements in total abandon, braving the bracing clear water.

And this frolic is just a splash against three whole days in February
when all of Ecuador plays Carnival, a national free-for-all with water,
when a walk through town can be a drenching affair and old grudges get
washed clean in rukus fun.

In 2007, Pimampiro launched a renewal of local Carnival activities
bringing three weeks of events and a cultural rennaisance to area
communities. Mountains of Hope participated by co-sponsoring with
FODI the first Children's Festival, "Festival de Ninez".

Carnival Festivities culminated in a special day of water-fun down at the
river in Valle Hermosa, or "beautiful valley". Volunteers cleared a huge
site by the river and made it ready for music, dancing, food, and full-on
splashing, dunking, & drenching for the 1200 locals who came. The fact
that everyone knows everyone else makes for a massive "family affair".
Working with children naturally leads to creative expression. The idea
came to us to sponsor a children's festival in Pimampiro and involve
Lehigh Valley, PA children through film and song. Sue Brown called
together a talented group of ex-students from East Penn schools and
gave them each a CD with four songs in Spanish to learn. They had
two weeks. In Pimampiro we partnered with the splendid FODI group of
pre-school teachers who organized a similar kids choir, put together
skits and dance and vowed to dress up as clowns.

Two weeks later we filmed the read- to- go "IntiChoir" of Lehigh Valley,
singing and dancing their way through four songs. They nailed it!

On top of it all, we were informed that the date we had chosen for the
event was during the revived "Carnival" in Pimampiro and would be
included as an official part of the festivities.

Sue wrote a theater piece about the dangers of too much TV in the
home and gathered some first time actors for practice. Staging,
backdrops and sound were arranged and acts lined up; poetry reading,
little ones singing, a mini fashion show, a short film based on a native
American tale, and the indigenous dance group Dansa del Aqua.

400 children and parents came, enjoyed, got candy, clapped and went
home to their mountain communities feeling a little special!
Traditional back-strap loom weaving is one of the original forms of
creating fabric. This time-tested and arduous artistry produces fine
detail in Andean design and symbology. Mountains of Hope assists a
group of young artisan weavers who live in Paragachi, a very poor
village just below Pimampiro. They have learned under the tutelege of
Luis Angamarca, the first weaver in the village. Luis carefully works
with four local teens who appreciated this opportunity to learn a
meaningful trade as well as to have some employment.

MoH supplied funding for making improvements on the backstrap
looms and to purchase shuttles, fine wool and special seats.
Some of the beautiful work has been creatively incorporated into
ladies bags, vests, boots, belts, shams and bed spreads.
Luis's weaving is so fine that it has been designated by
textile experts as museum quality.

Commission work by Luis is available.
Puppets are absolute magic. The ancient art of puppetry is used
throughout the world to present comedy, drama, cultural stories and
teachings. In Pimampiro MoH has made puppetry a special focus with
amazing results.

Puppets bring unique abilities to the educational process:
~ the theatrics deftly cross language barriers
~ the pupptes bring the creative muse alive in even shy children
~ they address delicate and important social issues with craft and humor
~ simply making the puppets is a wonderful expressive art using fabric,
wood, glue, adornments and many specialty materials.

It started with Sue Brown's East Penn school classes making hand
puppets which were brought to Ecuador for the children. In Pimampiro
Sue led classes in puppet making and gathered a troupe of puppeteers
who learned a small theater piece about being eco-friendly to the
environment.

We toured local schools and rural communities with an innovative
portable stage. The results encouraged teachers to employ the
puppets in story telling and class lessons. Part of the 2008
Intiligencia Program sponsored by Rotary International will
supply puppet making materials and workshops to enable more
children to discover the joys of puppetry.
An seventeen hour journey in caravan to Santa Lucia proceeded three
days of direct delivery to the flood victims. Five social service
agencies worked together in distributing the disaster relief family kits
to those most in need. 1800 lbs of emergency food was expressly
turned over to Corazones Unidas, a local group helping the critically
affected handicapped and elderly people of Santa Lucia.

Thanks to the rapid response of the Prem Rawat Foundation and the
tremendous volunteer effort, vital food, water, clothes and even
school supplies arrived to a grateful people who had waited almost
three months for this crucial assistance.
The coast of Ecuador experienced the worst flooding in 25 years during the first
three months of 2008. Three million people were affected, crops distroyed and
whole villages inundated. Mountains of Hope received a generous humanitarian
aid grant of $26,000 from The Prem Rawat Foundation to deliver 35 tons of
emergency food to 1500 families in the coastal village of Santa Lucia.
For two weeks in April MoH coordinated assistance
agencies and volunteers. The Pimampiro Municipality
donated an eighteen wheel trailer, driver and gas. The
Imbabura Red Cross in Ibarra contributed twelve
trained volunteers, emergency vehicles and
expertise. Over 200 young people in Pimampiro
worked hard during one long weekend to repackage
630 one hundred pound bags of beans and grains into
1500 family kits of emergency food.
This was the first time such a relief effort had been mounted by the Pimampiro community and the mayor
commented that this humanitarian aid initiative had profound social value for the youth participating.
Press Release

TPRF Provides US$4,500 to Bring Prem Rawat's Message of Peace in Native
Peruvian and Ecuadorian Quechuan Language

Los Angeles, September 2008 —The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF) has donated US$4,500 to Mountains of
Hope (Montanas de Esperanza or MdE) to translate and produce DVDs, CDs and text materials to bring Prem
Rawat’s message of peace to 20,000 indigenous people in the northern highland areas of Ecuador, Peru and
Bolivia.
"This message is very beautiful. It helps the families here stay together, and that is why I want the message to stay
in the community", says one village leader. Currently, Prem Rawat’s message is available to more than nine million
households in South America via Infinito TV and other cable networks airing the award-winning Words of Peace
(WOP) series.
Leaders in several Quechuan villages in Ecuador have requested DVDs featuring Prem Rawat’s message in their
own language after events introducing it were held in the mountain villages of Tucara, La Esperanza, Aqualongo and
Otavalo, Ecuador. Word has spread to villages in Peru, which have joined in the request for materials in their
language.
Mountains of Hope, a nonprofit organization focused on educational enrichment, cultural exchange and
sustainable community development for children and adults in Ecuador, has offered to take on the translation
project. To date, four video presentations of Prem Rawat’s message have been translated to Quechua and
have generated interest in Andean communities. TPRF has agreed to provide the funds to translate, produce
and duplicate six more DVDs as well as text materials over the next four to eight months, some in Peruvian
Quechuan and some in Ecuadorian Quechuan.
MdE will work in collaboration with the grassroots efforts of local volunteers to translate, produce and duplicate
the new materials that will be used for village events, regional Quechua TV, radio programming and individual
distribution, in order to maximize the outreach.

The popularity of WOP is increasing across the world. Since the first U.S. Words of Peace broadcasts in
1999, cable and satellite stations throughout Europe, North and South America and Asia have aired Prem
Rawat’s message of inspiration and hope to millions of households, with subtitles or translation in more than
20 languages. Currently, 875 screenings are available to 25 million households in the United States.

Prem Rawat reminds people, "The peace you are looking for is within you. Peace for each human being is not
impossible, but very, very possible." According to Paul Murtha, Executive Director of MdE, "The Quechua
peoples are very appreciative that such an important message comes to them in their native language. They
are culturally well-aware that these days are a crucial passage for humanity to a renewal of the human heart."

The Quechuan language (written also as Quichua and Kichwa) was widely spoken across the central Andes
long before the time of the Incas, who adopted it as the official administration language for their empire.
Quechuan is spoken today by some 10 million people throughout regions of Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador,
Argentina and Chile. Including its two main dialects (Peruvian and Ecuadorian), it is the most widely spoken
language of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.
About The Prem Rawat Foundation
The Prem Rawat Foundation was created in 2001 by Prem Rawat,
known also as Maharaji, and has a dual mission of bringing his
message of peace to people around the world and providing
essential humanitarian aid to those in need. TPRF partners with
other humanitarian organizations to bring food, water and rapid
disaster relief where it is most needed. To learn more about
TPRF’s humanitarian initiatives, Prem Rawat and his message of
peace, please visit www.tprf.org.
The New Hope Sponsor Program provides vital assistance for many children
outside of Centro Artesanal. Dalila, 11, lives with her single mother and
seven brothers in a dilapidated adobe home overlooking Pimampiro.
Sponsorship has helped Dalila with school supplies, clothing, family food
and a new roof. Rosa and Leonora are two orphan children living in rural
communities with their grandparents. They also receive help with school and
basic food supplies. Marcia, Amanda and Viviana were the first girls we
sponsored three years ago. They graduated from Centro Artesanal and are
now happily enrolled in Colegio de Cuero, the best leather trade school in
Ecuador. It is exciting to see how much their self-esteem and sense of hope
have blossomed.
Dalila
Dalila, Sue and Rosa
Marcia, Amanda, Viviana
Leonora
Evelyn graduated with honors and
wants to be a doctor. A Rotarian
picked up on her wish and his
family is sponsoring her all the way
through to graduation.

Evelyn and parents
Nathaly with family
Nathaly will follow her sister Amanda
to Centro Artesanal next year. MoH
renovated their family apartment.
Robert Frank is a prostesis specialist. He has
been coming to Ecuador and serving partients
for over 12 years. Now stationed in Ibarra at
the Rotary sponsored clinic," Prosthesis Para
Todos", Robert regularly arrives with
dufflebags full of donated components which
help make it possible to offer this vital
assistance free of charge to everyone.

Mountains of Hope is a partner in this project
by serving as the legal channel for funding in
Ecuador and by handling the paperwork to get
the valuable components freely through
customs.
Robert has received a generous donation from ALTSO (A Leg
To Stand On) and will spend Jan. - April 2010 giving new limbs
to many hopeful people of the Imbabura Province.
A community receives long awaited emergency food
Volunteers make up bags for the family "kits"
Unloading the trailer at the distribution site
A contented beneficiary
Video event in Otavalo
Robert Frank evaluating a patient
Group of prosthetic recipients
A very useful arm!
Robert and assistants on Pimampiro outting
3 year old walking for the 1st time
Prosthesis team treated to an evening of
traditional music and dance
Puppeteer's dress rehearsal
The variety of puppets made by the children
The first visit of puppets to this rural community
Puppet making class
If you are interested, special arrangements
can made for custom weavings and
applied crafts by contacting us.
Labor intensive work is highly detailed and museum quality
Fine weaving is combined with expert leather work