Emily Sandall Foundation

The Foundation is proud to again support The Garden’s Edge/Qachuu Aloom/Mother Earth Association in Guatemala.
A strong desire to work towards creating a more sustainable future led founding members Sarah Montgomery and Aaron Lemmon to Guatemala in 2003 where they started a project to help indigenous farmers preserve their traditional seeds and agricultural practices.
After addressing the need for better food security, They helped local villagers organize their own independently run farmer and women’s association, called (Qachuu Aloom “Madre Tierra”) The Mother Earth Association. The Association works to improve soils, combat erosion, reforest the area, gather, store and sell native seeds, teach families how to run small businesses, and many other community initiated projects.
The Garden’s Edge has expanded into New Mexico and is working with sustainable agriculture, and environmental education.
The Emily Sandall Foundation has donated this year towards the micro-lending and scholarship projects to help Guatemalan women improve their futures for themselves and their families.
The scholarships are offered to female members of the Association, or daughters of the members, who would otherwise not have the opportunity to attend school. In exchange for their scholarship, the girls volunteer once a week at the Association, work in their garden, and teach literacy skills to a group of a 10 illiterate women in their communities. Their fields of study include: education, nursing, management, and accounting.

Micro-Lending Program- Using much of the philosophy of Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus’ successful micro lending program in Bangladesh, they offer small loans to their members to jumpstart small-scale enterprises, or improve the infrastructure of their home or gardens.

Success story: Qachuu Aloom loaned $20.00 to a woman to start making shampoo. She is a single mother, and now sells her shampoo in 2 municipalities. She has developed her own mixtures, and says she has been able to buy meat for her children for the first time in their lives. Having a small amount of start up capital can be instrumental in helping a person out of poverty.

Scholarship program for women – Traditionally, women in Guatemala have not received the same educational opportunities as men. Almost 80% of rural Maya women are illiterate. To address this problem, Qachuu Aloom started in 2007 a scholarship program for women to access junior and senior high school.

Wouldn’t Emily love this organization that combines her love of farming with empowering women and their families through education, training and micro-loans?
We wish Sarah Montgomery and the Garden’s Edge much success with their wonderful projects.

The Sandall Family is very proud to award the first Emily Sandall Campership to a wonderful and deserving young woman. Through her essay and her lifestyle she embodies Emily’s love of the wilderness with a passion for community service. We thank her for her application and wish her a wonderful summer and a successful life.

The Sandall family was proud to award the Emily Sandall Memorial Scholarship at Eldorado High School on May 13, 2009. Emily’s dad ,Paul, awarded it to a very deserving young man who has been passionate about community service.

Update on the Migraciones project that the Emily Sandall Foundation has funded with immigrant children in Santa Fe. It’s been spectacular! Even better than we had expected.

A dozen kids who live in the Triangle district of Santa Fe, one of the city’s poorest, immigrant neighborhoods, have come together to use film to tell the stories that matter to them. At 5-10 years old, the story elements that matter to them involve lost boys and orcs and talking ducks and beavers, but the movie shows their worries about migration and social displacement. The plot begins with a boy walking through the woods; he is fascinated by a hole in the ground, which suddenly swallows him up and takes him into another world, where he faces terrible creature who want to kill him, but also finds unexpected friends. It’s the story of migration, told by the fantasy-loving eyes of a ten year old.

The film will premiere in the Triangle District Resource Center in Santa Fe in Late May.

The Sandall Family and the Emily Sandall Foundation have established YMCA Camp Menogyn camperships in Emily’s name in an effort to keep alive her spirit of giving and her love for Menogyn. The scholarship is designed to help a deserving young person experience a Menogyn wilderness trip. The recipient should show passion for helping others through some community service work. Emily in her short and remarkable life always tried to combine wilderness adventure with helping others. Her family hopes to foster that in others through this scholarship.

The recipient of this special campership will be chosen by the Sandall family after their review of the applicants. The winner will be contacted the second week of May, 2009.
It is the Sandall family’s hope that this scholarship stimulates interest in community service and wilderness exploration in derserving teens for many years.

The essay question is:
Emily would love to know that her scholarship helps a teen experience the wilderness.She would also love to spread the message of the importance of volunteer service-helping those less fortunate by giving them a voice.
Emily’s life work combined her love for the wilderness and humanitarian service with passion and joy.Please tell us how these values are demonstrated in your life.

http://www.campmenogyn.org/pages/page_19_94.htm