Hi everyone!

Thanks for visiting my fundraising page (that I am sharing with my brother Ben)! I really hope you'll donate to Cherish our Children International (COCI)! It really is a wonderful organization and has helped so many people! Even the smallest donation means a great deal to the children you will be helping!

COCI's programs include:

In Romania-COCI helps orphaned, abandoned, and HIV/AIDS infected children by establishing shelters, medical care, public education programs, and rehabilitation services for Romanian children and parents through programs like Casa Sperenta, House of New Life, Keep Them Home, and St. John's Residential Center. Thanks to COCI's help, three HIV+ students from Pascani will attend college this fall.

In Kenya-COCI works together with Children First to provide day care and residential care to the impoverished children of Nyalenda. The program now houses 15 children, 70 local children attend the preschool program, and over 60 are housed 1 and 1/2 hours away. Recently, Jill Thomas, a member of COCI brought electricity to the school of Children First.

In Israel-COCI works to bridge the social gaps caused by religious and racial differences and promotes diversity with help from the Bridge to Peace program by creating soccer teams comprised of all types of students from different backgrounds. By playing together and working as a team while wearing the same uniforms and having their parents sit next to one another in the same bleachers to cheer for them, Jewish, Arab, Bedouin, Druze and Ethiopian children are paving the way to peace while learning important trust, leadership, teamwork, and confidence skills while still having fun.

In Mexico-COCI received a grant for its first project sponsorship in Mexico just 9 months ago. In the village of La Calichera, literally across the border from the United States, there is no running water, homes are built from scraps of wood, and educational facilities are primitive for the children who live there (approximately 300) The people of La Calichera have worked hard to establish education in their town, believing it is their only way to escape poverty and COCI has helped by developing and supplying middle and elementary school classrooms. They are also planting a garden to supply the children with healthy food choices.

In Houston, Texas-Along with LIFE Houston, COCI has been annually providing formula to over 6,000 infants with mothers who are unable to breast feed and cannot afford to buy their own formula. COCI also works with the program No More Victims to prevent addiction, abuse, violence and incarceration among economically disadvantaged teenagers, many with incarcerated parents, by providing a safe haven for them while encouraging and inspiring them to stop any harmful behavior and to improve their performance in school and other extracurricular activities, enabling them to create a brighter future for themselves.

COCI also has programs in Nigeria, Sudan, and Serbia (there wasn't enough room to include every program on the page).  For more information about these programs, the programs listed above, and general information about COCI, check out cherishourchildren.org!

During the last COCI benefit concert in Westchester, we were able to raise enough money to bring over Lianna Long, a student helped by No More Victims in COCI's Houston program. It was a privilege and an honor to meet such an outstanding young woman. For our next event, we are hoping to raise enough money to set up a video conversation at the concert with children from our Romania program.

If you are interested in attending our upcoming concert, a compilation of songs by the Beatles performed by the students and staff of Kilroy Productions Music Studios, the concert will be held on Sunday May 4th at the Westchester Conservatory of Music in White Plains, New York. It is sure to be an exciting and fun event for all!

My brother and I would like to thank everyone at our grandparents' passover seder who together donated 406 dollars to COCI! We hope to raise even more money and go above and beyond our 400 dollar goal!

Thank you once again for taking the time to visit our page, and we sincerely appreciate any and all donations.

-Rachel (and Ben) Tamarin

Donating through this website is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to support my fundraising efforts. Many thanks for your support -- and don't forget to forward this to anyone who you think might want to donate too!