In the final week of February, 2008, we had a very smal group visiting for a few days with a very specific focus -- capital fundraising for the development of our training farm. The Moses Project focus has always been to develop rural leaders and the "rural" component is as important as the "leaders" component. We emphasize local solutions for the boys in terms of using local staff and programs and now we need to proceed to minimizing the "urban" exposure of the education experience to reduce their propensity to gravitate to towns and cities rather than helping to lead their rural communities in the development process.
To that end, we are building a residence for the 24 youth on our farm along with a small home for the farm caretakers (that is strategically relocated to improve security) as well as the shop / storage shed for the program. The total of the residence component alone has climbed to right around $300,000 using today's cost of materials and labor and the food processing shop / storage shed is likely to be another $50,000 +/- depending on the size that we are able to fund.
Two of our existing supporters were joined by the 
in a challenge to launch a fundraising campaign. In agreement with the 3 funders, we decided to break the investment into 10 shares of $30,000 each. Each of them will commit to one share. Additionally, we have a commitment to match up to three more shares provided we can find three more investors. If the $30,000 price tag is too large, create a pool of friends, co-workers or relatives to "buy" one share. Your return on investment, of course, is the knowledge and sacrifice of helping develop a program that generates sustainable impact on the development of rural Honduras -- the second poorest society in the western hemisphere. As always, with projects sponsored by 3CM, you are more than welcome to join a group coming down and investigate the progress of the program for yourself.
Please understand, any donation is welcome and adds up with all of the other smaller donations to have a large impact on the budget. So please, don't consider your ability to support this project insignificant simply because you are unable to "buy a share" as described above.
The above part focusses on the capital funding needs for the project. Please don't take this as a sign that we are not continuing to seek smaller investment partners in the operations. We are extremely happy to announce that The Alberta Wildrose Foundation provided $25,000 in 2008 via their International Development Program. This is the same fund that assisted in the creation of La Roca -- the youth center that we starting building in 2000 and continue to operate in Santa Rosa de Copan. For information on the programs or a copy of the sponsorship brochure, please contact us as soon as possible so that we provide you with what you are seeking as soon as possible.
