Take a look at what we accomplished so far  in 2014!

Two houses are complete in the Dominican Republic and we are about to get started on a third and fourth homes thanks to the generous donation of Stu and Lori Wheelwright of Ogden, Utah and The Eric Williams Family of Arizona.

Stu and Lori Wheelwright with Hillary & Liz

Eric and Monya Williams

Here is a look at part of the building process that took place during Winter 2014!

We have donated to build a new library in the Dominican Republic that we just broke ground on June 2014.

Color My World built a school kitchen in Nicaragua in 2013 and added a new playground to the Los Zoros School in 2014.

Kitchen during building process 2013

Finished Kitchen 2014

New Playground takes at Los Zorros School 2014

We made major home improvements in this paint project to Jenny’s house in the Dominican Republic.

We built a playground and latrines at two schools in Nicaragua in 2014.

We repainted a kindergarten and houses in the neighborhood in Costa Rica in 2014.

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These volunteers got to work to make it happen! Take a Look!

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Brotherly love in abundance was extended by 13 local residents that visited Central America as a part of a 29-person group that recently undertook a goodwill tour to rural Nicaragua. Twelve were from Bedford. One was from Amherst.

The tour, from Aug. 5-12, was presented by Color My World, a Bedford nonprofit with the mission of “leading a global effort to relieve human suffering by providing emergency response relief items and humanitarian services to those in need.” The CMW foundation was formed in 2000 by the Hughes family, of Bedford. It’s aim is to help young people experience service related activities.

The locals who went on the Nicaragua trip included Ella Garvey, 17, of Amherst, and Bedford residents McKenzie Willis, 15, Mattie Soghikian, 17, Lauren Grocott, 15, Maddie Grocott, 17, Griffin Lyons, 15, Will Toon, 17, and members of the Hughes family – Chase, 16, Elizabeth, 9, Noah, 13, and Hillary, 19, participants whose mom, Angela Hughes, and dad, Brian Hughes, led the group.

Those who signed up with Color My World through ColorMyWorldKids.org, visited places in Nicaragua where poverty is the norm. They accomplished a lot, including the removal of 32 bags of fish carcasses, plastic trash, rain-soaked scrap, rotten wood and other detritus from a town beach.

They tended a community garden. They went to the Los Zorros elementary school and served free lunches; meals prepared in advance and sponsored by Color My World. The school had no cooking facility, so the volunteers built a concrete-block kitchen. Then, they painted the building blue and white, the colors of the Nicaraguan flag.

There followed a giveaway of 50 donated solar cookers to local families. The volunteers, sustained on fish, rice, beans, chicken and fruit, also led workshops on how to use solar cooking to make healthy meals. Inhaled smoke from cook fires is of no concern when cooking with the pure heat from the tropical sun.

A stop at Casa Hogar orphanage, home to more than 20 children, led to a festive sing-a-long. Later, an emotional visit to the garbage dump at Chinandega jolted the volunteers. The visitors from New Hampshire observed people of all ages, elders to babies, living in and around the dump. In 1988, families were relocated there after Hurricane Mitch ravaged Central America. Two million homes were destroyed. Reports of 11,000 deaths – 9,000 of them in Nicaragua – were broadcast. The volunteers fed the people living at the dump. They played with children whose toys too often are filthy discards scavenged from the trash.

Chase Hughes, 16, a sophomore at Bishop Guertin High School in Nashua, said the deprivations are not met with anger but with gratitude for life. He said he was proud of the assistance the group provided. An additional conservation project entailed the release of newly hatched baby turtles into the sea. Every kid around watched, delighted, as the tiny turtles loped toward the churning foam.

“I felt the people were humble,” Chase said. “They were grateful for what they have and not upset about what they don’t have. They were happy for every day.”

Chase, who intends to be a dentist, said some people were ashamed to smile at photo time. Few earn more than $5 a day and funds rarely go toward toothpaste. The volunteers eventually gave away nearly 100 pounds of hygiene kits, each comprised of four toothbrushes, two bars of soap, two combs and two hand towels.

Chase noted that visiting the tropics offers many challenges. Mosquitoes are relentless. Bats fly everywhere. He said that, daily, hundreds of crabs the size of his hand hunted morsels on the beach. Seeing the crabs was “cool,” Chase admitted. A sand dollar washed ashore is one of his cherished souvenirs.

“The ocean was very warm like bath water but everyone went into the ocean to cool off,” Chase said. “That was a big thing – to go to the ocean. The trip was a life-changing experience with all the service you do and the joy you find.”

Angela Hughes, Chase’s mother, said that a CMW group is returning to Nicaragua, and also to Guatemala, in 2014. In the past 10 years, Color My World has brought solace to the victims of many U.S. disasters, including Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy. It has sent relief kits to Chile, Haiti and Indonesia after earthquakes there. Hygiene kits by the score went to communities scoured by a tsunami in the Indian Ocean. Two years ago, participants extended their range. They took solar cookers and hygiene kits to Costa Rica.

“The perception that people in Central America are lazy is not the case,” Angela said. “They leave at night to go fishing and if you see them during the day, taking naps on their hammocks, it’s because they’ve been working all night. It’s 24 hours to eat and live.”

She said the group’s immersion into a third world environment where there was no clean water for bathing, only salt-water showers, no technology, no social media and no convenience store less than an hour away was “an eye-opening experience.” The volunteers witnessed people living their lives in shacks. Hammocks were beds. The bathroom? Go in the woods.

“The kids who went on this trip were forced to interact with people,” Angela said. “It’s poverty at the lowest level you can ever reach. The kids were nervous there. They pushed through it. It went from, ‘Can I do this?’ to ‘Can I come back, next time?’ I just saw confidence grow every day.”

For more information, visit www.colormyworldkids.org. The Color My World motto is “Search inward, Look upward, Reach outward.”

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We introduced solar cooking to the village of Jiquillo, Nicaragua and donated 100 cookers to the community.

Here are some photos of our workshop in the community. This is such a new idea to them and so very valuable!

Solar cooking is the simplest, safest, most convenient way to cook food without consuming fuels or heating up the kitchen. Many people choose to solar cook for these reasons. But for hundreds of millions of people around the world who cook over fires fueled by wood or dung, and who walk for miles to collect wood or spend much of their meager incomes on fuel, solar cooking is more than awomen carrying wood choice — it is a blessing. For millions of people who lack access to safe drinking water and become sick or die each year from preventable waterborne illnesses, solar water pasteurization is a life-saving skill. There are numerous reasons to cook the natural way — with the sun.

Benefits to:

households
health professionals
businesses
governments
humanitarian, development and relief organizations
environmental programs

Benefits to households

HEALTH AND NUTRITION
Moderate cooking temperatures in simple solar cookers help preserve nutrients.
Those who otherwise could not afford the fuel to do so can cook nutritious foods — such as legumes and many whole grains — that require hours of cooking.
At times many families must trade scarce food for cooking fuel. Solar cooking helps them to keep more food and improve their nutrition.smoky cooking fire
Smoky cooking fires irritate lungs and eyes and can cause diseases. Solar cookers are smoke-free.
Cooking fires are dangerous, especially for children, and can readily get out of control — causing damage to buildings, gardens, etc. Solar cookers are fire-free.
Millions of women routinely walk for miles to collect fuel wood for cooking. Burdensome fuel-gathering trips can cause injuries, and expose women to danger from animals and criminals. Solar cooking reduces these risks and burdens, and frees time for other activities.
With good sunlight, solar cookers can be used to cook food or pasteurize water during emergencies when other fuels and power sources may not be available.

ECONOMICS
Many poverty-stricken families worldwide spend 25% or more of their income on cooking fuel. Sunlight — solar cooker “fuel” — is free and abundant. Money saved can be used for food, education, health care, etc.
Solar cooker businesses can provide extra income. Opportunities include cooker manufacturing, sales and repair, as well as solar food businesses like restaurants and bakeries.

CONVENIENCE
At moderate solar cooking temperatures food doesn’t need to be stirred and won’t burn — food can simply be placed in a solar cooker and left to cook, unattended, for several hours while other activities are pursued. In the right circumstances it is possible to put a solar cooker out in the morning and return home in the late afternoon to a hot meal ready to eat.
Pots used for solar cooking are easy to clean — a fact especially valuable for women who must walk many kilometers to collect water.
Many solar cookers are portable, allowing for solar cooking at work sites or while pursuing outdoor activities like picnics, trekking or camping.

OTHER HOUSEHOLD USES FOR SOLAR COOKERS
solar canning
Heat water for household chores.
Preserve (“can”) tomatoes and fruits.
Sanitize dishes and utensils.
Kill insects in grains and other dry food staples.
… and many more!

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Benefits to health professionals

Many solar cookers can be used to disinfect dry medical supplies such as medical instruments, bandages and other cloth materials, as well as to heat compresses.
Indoor smoke from cooking fires leads to childhood pneumonia, responsible for over four million deaths per year. Solar cookers are smoke-free.
Preventable waterborne diseases are responsible for 80% of all illnesses and deaths in the developing world. Solar cookers can be used at the household level to pasteurize water and milk, making them safe to drink. A Water Pasteurization Indicator (WAPI) can be used with a solar cooker (or traditional cooking apparatus) to determine whether water has been sufficiently heated to be safe to drink.

Solar Cooking Info :http://www.solarcookers.org/basics/why.html

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