Recently I visited three ICF grantees in the Los Cabos areas: Liga Mac from San Jose del Cabo; The Palapa Society from Todos Santos, and Los Niños del Capitan from Los Cabos. I was greeted warmly by all three groups, and all expressed appreciation for the role ICF and the staff has played in their projects. Each was different, but all three had one thing in common: strong local leaders who take pride in their work and plan to do more fundraising and help more people in their communities. Currently, all three groups have “friends of funds” at ICF, from which their projects have benefited tremendously.

In San Jose del Cabo, Liga Mac has developed a referral system to identify extremely needy families. Liga Mac volunteers evaluate the needs and provide food, clothing, medicine and counseling. I visited two of the families, all with many children, who without the help would be in desperate conditions.

In Todos Santos, the Palapa Society is led by a group of local business people. Their core project is built around a system of identifying at least 15 promising young women from poor families and funding the costs to enable them to stay in school through high school. The plan is give these girls the education and training they need to fill available jobs in the area. The Palapa Society also plans to repair and reopen a community swimming pool, which has been closed due to lack of funds Young people will have a place to learn to swim and a healthy and safe place to gather. I was also shown some wonderful old murals on the walls of the Todos Santos Cultural Center. These murals need to be restored and the Society is working with th state for funding and has identified a muralist to do the restoration.

In Los Cabos, I was taken to see the daycare center of Los Niños del Capitan. The group has recently completed building a facility that combines a daycare, preschool, nursery, health and dental center in a poor underserved colonia (neighborhood) several miles from downtown. The center is in full operation and is as modern, well designed an up to date as it can possibly be. The preschool children receive up to 3 meals a day and ongoing health care. The children are carefull selected from families whose parents have jobs. The care that the center provides enables the parents to work. The leaders in Los Niños del Capitan have many more ambitious plans to provide more service to the community and are implementing a number of very creative fundraising campaigns.

I strongly encourage other ICF contributors to engage in grantee site visits if you’re ever visiting Baja California. Experiencing the work that these groups are doing first hand, is inspiring and motivating.

Alan Rubin
February 2005

For more information on how you can visit or contribute to these or other ICF grantees please contact Amy Carstensen at amyc@icfdn.org, or at 858-677-2914, or visit www.icfdn.org