Empowerment International - December 2014 Electronic Newsletter 2

EMPOWERMENT INTERNATIONAL
December 2014 Newsletter

www.empowermentinternational.org

Above, Marluz at age 12 as a street
vendor. Left, 22-year-old Marluz
today after eight years with EI.

Most Likely to Succeed
By Kathy Adams

Empowerment International Founder

A

gentleman walked into our
office a few months back.
He was interested in sponsoring a few children, but wanted to
sponsor the “most likely to succeed” kids.
I told him this was impossible to know.
He countered, “Well you know, the most
‘chispa’ (meaning, with spark).” Again, I
said, “I am sorry, we can’t do that.” After
working with at-risk kids since 1998, we
have learned that we never know who
could come out on top and who might
not. Sometimes the seemingly most likely to succeed fall when we least expect
it and those who don’t seem to have a
chance in the world because all odds are
stacked against them are still standing
and moving forward.
Take Marluz. Eight years ago, our
program got Marluz off the streets and
back in school. “Chispa” she may have

been, but to all appearances, she had
quite a few strikes against her. She was
older than her classmates, she still had
to spend a lot of time as a street vendor
after school, her father had passed away,
her mother was not always supportive of
her educational efforts, she had siblings
who were drug addicts, and one was a
former prostitute. Then 6 years ago, her
mother also passed away suddenly, leaving her an orphan at 16. We supported
her in all the ways we could but for the
first year after her loss, living alone, she
was too distracted to study hard and did
not pass her year. During that period, we
thought there was a chance she might not
going to make it. But we did not give up
on her because we never do. After a tumultuous year, she became much more
focused. It’s been a rocky road for Marluz and not always easy for the EI team as
well. Yet this month, Marluz is graduating from secondary school and plans to
study finance in university in Managua.

From street vendor to orphan to high
school graduate to ... ? Who could have
predicted that for Marluz?
All we know is we can only offer
educational opportunities to all of the
kids we can, provide them with the best
personal support and work with their
parents. We are dedicated to running
the race with them as hard as we can,
but in the end we have to wait and see.
Our graduation and retention rates
are over 95 percent. Please give 100 percent of these kids that opportunity to
be the most likely to succeed. All donations will be matched, dollar for dollar
up to $15,756, by the SG Foundation. If
you have matching gifts at work as well
this means your gift can be tripled!

Our graduation and
retention rates are
over 95 percent.
Please give 100
percent of these kids
that opportunity to
be the most likely
to succeed.

Donate Now
Thank you for considering Empowerment International for your year-end
gift. It’s because of our generous donors
and sponsors that children and teens
like Marluz are given an extra chance at
success.

Phone: [phone] • Address: P.O. Box 1215 Lyons, CO 80540
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