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Quarterly eNewsletter
Fall 2007
Volume 4, Issue 3
Dear Friends,
Welcome to our 11th quarterly eNewsletter! As always, we have lots to report.
Two terrific people have joined the Worldfund team: Alessandra Holowesko, who heads our development efforts, and Lucía Pérez, our new office manager and all-round trouble-shooter.
Alessandra and I worked together at Goldman Sachs in the late 1990's and I feel incredibly fortunate to work with her again. Alessandra grew up in Latin America, owing to her father's diplomatic career, and is thrilled to be working in the region again. She is focusing her efforts on institutionalizing our development outreach as we grow our programs throughout Latin America.
Lucía was an indispensable part of our team this past spring and summer as a volunteer, and joined us full-time in August. Lucía was born and raised in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico.
Brazil has been an important focus of ours this past year. Erin Sawaya and Michelle Viegas conducted a due-diligence trip there in late August. Alessandra and I just came back from Brazil two weeks ago, after researching new program investments.
Over the past few months, three Worldfund benefactors (Romero Britto, Andres Mejia and Blake Sturcke) visited our partner programs in the region, and we include their impressions below.
Worldfund presented two education projects at the recent Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in New York City .  Thanks to a major multi-year grant from NII Holdings (Nextel) and the support of Fundación Televisa, we are in the process of expanding our Dartmouth Mexican teacher training program. Thanks to the generosity of Grupo Alfa, Homex and Carlos Bremer, Worldfund will finance the opening of five new Mano Amiga schools in Mexico over the next three years. (At right is a photo of NII Holdings Chairman & CEO Steven Shindler, myself, and Her Excellency Mary Robinson, Former President of Ireland, at the CGI).
We are incredibly grateful to Merrill Lynch for its generous support of Worldfund this fall and since our foundation nearly five years ago. As part of its celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month in September and October, Merrill Lynch organized a Better World Books book drive on behalf of Worldfund at numerous offices throughout the country. Thousands of books were collected and boxes are still arriving, so everyone who participated can be sure that their contributions made a difference! Merrill Lynch also launched its Employee Global Giving Campaign earlier this month and chose Worldfund as the recipient of donations targeted to Latin America. We are thrilled to be a part of the company's first global campaign and hope that employees in Latin America will have the opportunity to see firsthand the transformative impact that our education partners have on children's lives.
Warmest regards,
Luanne Zurlo
Executive Director
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Factlet of the Month
Mexico has reached the Millennium Development Goals, but 50% of youth are not minimally competent in math and 91% do not reach a global standard.
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