Juan Diego school and ATOS Origin Group are the focus of our news this month. Following almost a year of communication, on 15th January 23 employees of ATOS Origin arrived in Granada. Laden with bags of educational toys, school supplies, children's clothing, first aid items, and many other things there first question was 'When can we start work?'.

And work they did, camping out at the school in Tepeyac, and rising early each day, they achieved a tremendous amount during their two weeks here. The school now has a comple new building, housing two classrooms and a storage room, a stone path/watercourse, to prevent further erosion as well as a muddy hill climb for the children all through the wet season. They also installed electricity, lights and fans in every classroom, and freshly painted classrooms, inside and out.

The group not only worked while they were here, they had obviously worked in the Netherlands too doing lots of fundraising. In addition to paying for all the improvements to the school, including fencing the school which was done prior to their arrival, we were presented with a 'check' for the rest of the school's needs, including the salary of an extra teacher, 80 new desks, 2 teachers desks, 4 whiteboards, 5 netbook computers for tutoring, 100 uniforms for the poorest families children, retaining walls for erosion, repair and replace the window grates in existing classrooms, and a new roof for existing classrooms.

What a wonderful group of people, Roel Van der Steen, Gonnie Van de Mooskijk, Thea Oskam, Peter Hartevelt, Marja Vos, Leo de Waard, Errol Nasierkhan, Veko Liem, Gijs Celie, Ingrid Arends, Sabine Giizen, Helena Veselska, Everhard Van Eimeren, Victor Tijjsen, Tom and Marieke Bakker, Sef Hermans, Lieke Hermans, Dick Imberg, Reijer Klopman, Roel Holtland, and Jos and Heleen Waelepoel. Jos and Heleen unfortunately had to leave early, Heleen injured her foot falling from a ladder, but their contribution had been tremendous, especially through their contact with the Rotary Club of Weesp who made a very large donation to the fundraising.

Then following all their help at Tepeyac, last night before their departure, we were presented with another 'check' with further funds, this one for $10,200 to be used for an extra teacher, 10 netbook computers, a new classroom at Elba Zamora school, and replacing the exisiting roof at Elba Zamora.