Greetings, dear friends and supporters.

This is Alicia Duran-Ballen, Founder and Director of Foundation Casa Victoria.

I am writing to you with a different appeal.  We have a good friend who is in a desperate situation.

Carlos has stomach cancer.  

Carlos, our trusted computer tech guy, has always maintained our Casa Victoria kids´ computers for almost free and with a joyful heart.

Carlos is always on call for us!  Even though it takes him two hours by bus from northern Quito, all the way to Old Town, where Casa Victoria is located, he is always available to give maintenance to our nine (donated) computers,: he cleans them, resets them, gets rid of stuff that makes them slower... In short, he lovingly makes them work smoothly and ready for the kids to use.

(As most of you know, the children who use these computers come from very poor homes. Only a handful of the 50 children that come to Casa Victoria every afternoon, have any kind of computer at home. So having these computers up and running and available for them is, to say the least, an indispensable tool.)

The thing is that Carlos has been doing all this, while going through debilitating chemos and medical treatments for a cancer he has been battling with for the last 7 years. He has had good seasons of remision. But it has resurfaced, and chemos have had to be done three times already. However, doctors have given him hope with an alternative treatment that he seems to be responding well. BUT it is expensive.

This is where we come in: Although he has raised some funds from different sources—local family and friends, as well as selling practically everything he owns, he is short $8,500 to complete the sequence of treatments that give him the hope he needs to be around and well for his wife, and his 2 children, Adeo, 11, and Nadezhda, 14, with whom he has a wonderful relationship.

                         Please keep this young father in your prayers, and please consider making a donation to help our sweet friend, Carlos, complete his treatment.

                        We pray the Lord hears our cry and that Carlos will, once again, lead a normal life with his precious family.

 We thank you so much for whatever contribution you can make.

May the Lord keep blessing each of you greatly.

With much gratitude and love,

Alicia, Dan, and the Casa Victoria Children