Making a Difference
"He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and He will reward him for what he has done."
Proverbs 19:17
About Us
Every year during the Christmas season, with the help of our generous donors and good friends in Colombia, the Villarreal-Butler family delivers groceries and necessities to families and elders in need in some of the poorest neighborhoods in Chia and Bogota, Colombia. We try to focus on disabled children and elders in need as they are often the most effected and least able to help themselves.
As in the past eight years, our family will continue this project during the holidays and assist the families that we support every year. However, our project has grown over the last few years. In 2012, we decided to partner with some other organizations to support helping even more people in need. The first is an organization named FUNDEHI (Fundacion para el Desarrollo Humano Integral). Sister Beatriz is the President of FUNDEHI and she runs an amazing project in Altos de Cazuca (one of the poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods in Soacha, Colombia). One of her projects is to run a soup kitchen in Colombia that feeds close 150 children and 40 elders in need daily. This is the only real meal these children and elders receive each day. Unfortunately, in 2012, she had to close the soup kitchen that she runs due to a lack of funding. Thanks to contributions from many of you, our church, and our family, we were able to provide funds so that she could reopen the soup kitchen. Since the year 2012, we are one of the organizations that provides funds to help support the soup kitchen and keep it running. The food that she provides is the only meal these children and elders receive.
We also partnered with our church, Covenant City Church in Arizona. The church is helping in two major ways. First, they are contributing funds to FUNDEHI every month to help support keeping the soup kitchen open. We have also been able to use the Church’s status as a recognized charitable organization to allow for all contributions to the project go forward to be tax deductible. Therefore, any contribution you can provide is officially tax-deductible and we will send you tax receipts.
Our most intimate engagement is with some special needs children, or extremely hard cases, involving children in the Chia area. Based on some new individual sponsorships, we have been able to add a number of new children to our monthly group who we help with basic necessities. We called this part of the project the "Purple Angels" in honor of our dear Heather Papayoti and Orlando Villarreal (Diana’s father), who are a great inspiration and help us from heaven. We hope you like it!
The woman you see in many of the pics/videos is Rocio Polanco. Rocio has become our right hand in Colombia for the Chia project along with Sister Beatriz Charria, who is in charge of the FUNDEHI project in Altos de Cazuca. After my father passed, most of the Villarreal family moved to the US and Canada and we thought our project was going to end. However, God intervened and we were able to partner with our church Covenant City Church, FUNDEHI, and Rocio and our project has grown tremendously and we have been able to help even more people in need. Rocio has taken on the responsibility to help manage the local activity in Chia. She is a good friend of the family and is helping us in so many ways. Rocio grew up in extreme poverty, so she knows better than anyone what it is to be in need and she helps us find the families that need the most help. She organizes all the Christmas activity, she delivers the groceries to our kids every month, she finds the best bargains on the food and toys, and she is constantly supporting the group we help including holding Bible study sessions with the families. She is an amazing woman and we are truly blessed to have her as a partner in this project.
In case you are concerned about how the funds are used given the inclusion of the new organizations, Sister Beatriz, my family and I are in charge of the project and we keep receipts of everything. Our job is to collect the funds in the US and make sure they go where they are needed most - To the children and elders in need. I also check the receipts and make sure the money is well spent. The good news is that your donations are now tax deductible and we are feeding very hungry children and elders in need. As previously mentioned, we will also continue to provide groceries to our normal group of families in need in Chia, Colombia during the Christmas season.
You can also see videos and more information at http://www.fundehi.org. Sister Beatriz is an amazing lady and is an old friend of my aunt, who is also a nun in Colombia. My sister Adriana and niece Alejandra visited Altos de Cazuca before we started assisting Sister Beatriz and were very impressed. They took pictures and learned a lot about the project. That's how God works sometimes... Sister Beatriz found us when she needed us the most!
Diana also visited Altos de Cazuca and met with Beatriz in December of 2014 and learned more about the FUNDEHI project and was very impressed and moved. FUNDEHI is an amazing project! You can learn more about it at http://fundehi.org. We support their soup kitchen on a monthly basis. You can also see pictures and videos of our trip to Altos de Cazuca and FUNDEHI and my meeting with Sister Beatriz under the FUNDEHI tab. She has been able to accomplish so much and is such a wonderful lady!
These children and elders live in extreme poverty. Take a look at the pictures below and under the FUNDEHI tab to see the conditions they live in. They can really use the help. Again, all donations are now tax deductible.
