Our Genesis
The forerunner of Niños Incapacitados was "Amigos de Salud" in Jocotepec, a small group of expatriates who helped the new Centro de Salud and Silvia Flores' family clinic in 1974. Amigos de Salud became Programa Pro Niños Incapacitados del Lago, A.C. in 1993, with Silvia Flores as its first president. Joan Frost and Lance Elstrom were also very actively involved in fundraising (creating the original Chili Cook Off event).
Programa Niños Incapacitados was originally comprised of 11 Mexicans and Americans, including Silvia Flores (now with El Centro de Desarrollo in Ajijic), Joan Frost (who worked tirelessly for 37 years helping local children), Margarita Maldonado, who coordinated much of the clinic work in Chapala in the early days,Tom and Berniece Donagan and Joe Schwartz. We have the support of the parents we help through their organization of “Kermés” events in Chapala. The families donate and prepare food for sale, organize entrance fees, etc.. Any funds raised are provided to Niños Incapacitados as a way of “giving back to us” some of the support we give them. We greatly value this effort and their thanks. We are pleased that the new public hospital is opened in Jocotepec. We hope that more families will use the birthing center. This might reduce some of the children affected by birth defects… until now families had to travel to Guadalajara to give birth in a hospital setting – and few did this due to cost. We hope to work closely with this new hospital and their staff. |
Administrative
2004: Niños moved to electronic data entry for all clinic expenses.
2008: Data entry was moved on-line, saving time for clinic directors. 2009: All accounting moved on-line, making the transition from one treasurer to another seamless and consistent and giving ready access to reports for our Mexican accountant. 2017: Niños entered into an agreement with Amistad Canada. Amistad Canada (AC) is a federally registered Canadian charity that distributes tax-deductible donations to seven charities based in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, and now in Lake Chapala, Jalisco for Niños Incapacitados. Amistad-supported projects include literacy, music and art education for children and young adults, school hot-meal services, dental care in poor communities, midwife training as well as high school and post-secondary scholarships. In addition to issuing Canada Revenue Agency tax receipts, Amistad conducts annual financial and performance audits of all its partner NGOs to ensure donations are being used for their intended purpose. Niños Incapacitados is Amistad’s first partnership outside of San Miguel. Canadian donors can use the Amistad Canada website to donate indicating that their donation will go to Niños Incapacitados. We continue to be able to give US donors US tax receipts which are funnelled through the Foundation of Lakeside Charities, a registered charity in the United States. For Mexican taxpayers, we can provide facturas. For those that do not require a tax receipt, we accept credit cards through website's online donation form. Please go to our Donation Page for these options. |
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