Dear Friends and Family,

I am so excited to tell you about my plans to volunteer in Latin America this summer with Amigos de las Americas!

I will be volunteering with the Valles y Veraguas in Panama for 4 NUMBER weeks. The overall project will focus on conserving plants and wildlife in Panama.  

Since its founding in 1965, AMIGOS has inspired more than 30,000 high school and college students to live a life of purpose as critically engaged citizens and leaders. Today, AMIGOS creates opportunities for young people to collaborate, design, and lead development projects based on the needs and desires of their host communities. To prepare, I am enrolled in an extensive AMIGOS training program with a group of other students from high schools up and down the South Bay and Peninsula. We are learning important skills in areas such as cultural sensitivity, community development practices, youth leadership, teaching young children, and how to protect my own health & safety. 

This summer I have chosen to participate in the Valle y Veraguas project. In this project we help the local communities conserve the plants and wildlife that are in Panama. We spend a week in Valle de Anton, we help the reforestation effort and we work at an orchid conservation center. After that we go to a town that's on the pacific coast. There we live with a host family and help with the sea turtle protection program. We are doing all of this in order to protect Panama's Wildlife and conserve endangered species and on top of that we are able to get to know the country on a more personal level :) and enjoy different cultures within Panama. We are also doing this to help the people there conserve their countries land and animals. 

As a non-profit organization, AMIGOS relies on its participants to help raise funds each year to meet the costs of its programs. Your support will directly affect the work AMIGOS does and the community-based project that I will be working on this Summer. With your help, AMIGOS can transform us participants and our Latin American communities and have impact on both a local and a global level.

I would be very grateful for any level of support you can give. Just click on the Donate button above to donate online. Or, you can send a check made out to "Amigos de las Americas" and return it to me directly. 

Thank you so much for your support!

Sincerely,

Stephanie Morales

P.S. As a 501(c)3 charity, your donation to Amigos de las Américas is tax-deductible. Many companies also offer matching funds for donations to nonprofits. Please consider matching your donation through your employer if that option is available to you