Meet this year’s graduates!
We have two new college graduates this year!
Continue reading “Meet this year’s graduates!”Winter Fun
This year, after hosting her yoga tour to the Sacred Valley, our dear friend Kristen Stuart returned to spend time with the Niños. She’s shared a wealth of photos so you can see how our Niños are growing into fine young people.
Continue reading “Winter Fun”Holiday Wishes & Matching Funds #givingtuesday

This year, we’re inviting you to send your holiday greetings to the kids (and/or staff) in Peru. We’ll share your messages directly with Viviana, Avishai, and the Niños to fill the casa with love and joy from our Global Family.
In addition, your Giving Tuesday donations will be matched up to $1,750, thanks to a pledge from two of our generous donors!
Your contribution is also part of a beautiful holiday of selfless giving, designed to balance the energy of Black Friday. Namasté.
An update from Viviana
Dear all,
All our children are thriving, growing, changing. The home in Urubamba with our teenagers is very peaceful and centered; I attribute this to the excellent work performed by Kellye, a young woman showing always love and respect to the children.
Continue reading “An update from Viviana”Good Morning, Niños!
This is what mornings look like in our Casa in Urubamba.
Continue reading “Good Morning, Niños!”Urgent Fundraiser
We are about $3,000 short this month of being able to send enough money to Peru to cover all the bills (salaries, rents, tuition, etc).
Continue reading “Urgent Fundraiser”Loveolution Fundraising
When I was living in Peru 14 years ago, I got to visit my dear friend Mama Kia, and her home that she created for the 25+ street children she adopted. I helped to work in the garden and received so much inspiration from witnessing her live in pure devotion, love and service.
Continue reading “Loveolution Fundraising”Impact & Outcomes
We frequently hear from potential donors that “Your cost per child is much higher than other children’s homes.”
Yes, we know.
How does our garden grow?
Many of you who have visited us in Peru donated your energy to help our garden grow. I thought you might like to see the fruits of your labor!
Continue reading “How does our garden grow?”We need you now.
We need just $2060 more each month to cover our expenses. Will you help?
Continue reading “We need you now.”The Casa That Love Built
We’ve been living & loving in our home in Urubamba for three years now, and it shows.
Recently I sent some photos that I took two years ago to Kiva, our volunteer, and she duplicated the shots as the house looks now. Take a look!
Continue reading “The Casa That Love Built”A Program Update from Viviana, our Executive Director
Recently Viviana sent a first-quarter update to our board members, and she gave me permission to share it with all of you as well. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as we did!
Continue reading “A Program Update from Viviana, our Executive Director”Women’s Day of Fun!
Our girls face even more social obstacles than the boys when it comes to education, and moving to the big city to go to college can be quite daunting.
Continue reading “Women’s Day of Fun!”Gratitude from the Niños: In Their Own Words
The Niños returned from their trip to Lima last night. They left at 1 in the morning, drove 16 hours over the mountains, and arrived home exhausted. But when we asked them if they would like to send thank-you notes to the donors who made their trip possible, they jumped at the chance.
Continue reading “Gratitude from the Niños: In Their Own Words”Board Updates & Staff Appreciation Dinner
Our organization is made up of two separate pieces: The Peruvian organization (headed by Viviana and Avishai) handles all aspects of programming, while the US organization (headed by our Board) handles fundraising and provides some financial oversight.
Continue reading “Board Updates & Staff Appreciation Dinner”New Apartment in Cusco
Our Cusco kids (aka “The College Kids”) have moved into a new apartment.
Continue reading “New Apartment in Cusco”Happy Birthday, Doris!
We celebrated Doris’s 18th birthday on February 6 with a surprise party in Avishai and Viviana’s home.
Continue reading “Happy Birthday, Doris!”Ajeet Kaur Benefit Concert for Niños Del Sol in Alberta Canada
Kristen Stuart, a powerful and loving leader in the yoga world who has been a dear friend to the Niños for years, is organizing a benefit concert for us in Alberta!
Continue reading “Ajeet Kaur Benefit Concert for Niños Del Sol in Alberta Canada”
How can I change my monthly donation?
I love hearing from members of our Global Family who started with a small donation and are ready to increase it! Of course, I’m also here for people who’ve had a change in their circumstances and need to suspend their monthly donations. Or maybe you just want your donation to be taken out on a different day of the month; I can help with that as well.
Joy of Cooking
Our kids love to cook. If you’ve watched our original video with Mama Kia, you might remember her saying that she never had to deal with a picky eater in this crowd — children who’ve known food scarcity in their youth know how to appreciate the joy of food abundance.
Continue reading “Joy of Cooking”Why don’t the kids get part-time jobs?
Now that our kids are teenagers, we’re often asked why they don’t get part-time jobs to help cover their expenses. For someone who lives in the United States or Europe, this seems like a really natural way for a teen to gain experience, learn responsibility, and help out a household that is struggling financially.
Continue reading “Why don’t the kids get part-time jobs?”The value of education
This quote describes so beautifully why we treasure education for our Niños.
“Because we are Quechua, because we speak our language and live according to our customs, and because we don’t know how to read and write, we live in the world of the night. We have no eyes, and we are invalids like the blind. In contrast, those who know how to read and write live in daylight. They have eyes. It is senseless to stay in the world of darkness because we must progress to be like those who go to school and have eyes. Going to school, we open our eyes, we awake.”
Peru: Inequality of Education for Indigenous Groups, the Neglected Class
Continue reading “The value of education”The most harmonious time ~ Avishai
This update is from Avishai, our Associate Director.
In our recent staff meeting, I found myself saying “In my view, this period of the last few months have been the most harmonious time we had at the Casa since Viviana and I started in 2013.”
Continue reading “The most harmonious time ~ Avishai”A Note From Our Volunteers
We’ve been so lucky to have Romy and Nitzan, a beautiful Israeli couple, working with for six months. They arrived on the day we were departing for summer vacation with the kids and jumped straight into the van with us. This beautiful couple has eased our workload tremendously while leaving their mark on both the kids and the Casa. We will be so sorry to see them go in September. ~ Lauren
Here is a note directly from our beautiful volunteers, Nitzan and Romy
Continue reading “A Note From Our Volunteers”Checking in with the Niños: Update from Viviana
Gratitude and Love to our Global Family for making possible that this garden of life blooms to the fullest! with your ongoing support, the children are able to continue nourishing their dreams and hopes for a good future, breaking the chain of abandonment, abuse, limitation, and poverty. Here’s what each of the kids is up to at the moment:
Continue reading “Checking in with the Niños: Update from Viviana”
Artist in the house!
Our Casa was recently graced with a very special presence. Rebecca Schisler, who is an artist, mindfulness educator, and youth mentor, brought a group of 30 energetic and talented teens from France into our space and they created magic.
Continue reading “Artist in the house!”The Niños Need You
Last year, we had our most effective campaign ever on a platform called “Rootfunding.” This platform allows our supporters to each set up their own fundraising page and commit to finding 10 friends who are willing to donate $25/month each.
Continue reading “The Niños Need You”Niños Del Sol has earned the Platinum Seal of Transparency from GuideStar
Great news!
Niños Del Sol has earned the Platinum Seal of Transparency from GuideStar. This is the highest level of recognition from the world’s largest source of nonprofit information.
We’ve been working very hard to make sure your donations are treated with the utmost respect and care. We’re doing it for you, but we’re very proud to have this recognition of our work from Guidestar.
To reach the Platinum level, we added extensive information to our Nonprofit Profile: basic contact and organizational information; in-depth financial information; quantitative information about goals, strategies, and progress toward our mission.
To learn more about GuideStar Platinum, visit guidestar.org/platinum.
Yes, we’re too expensive. Here’s why.
A few weeks ago, we were turned down for a large donation because our cost per child is too high.
We were disappointed, of course, and we looked into what the average cost per child is for orphanages in countries like Peru to see if we could move our program closer to that expectation.
What we learned made us commit even harder to our program exactly as it is, and here’s why.
Continue reading “Yes, we’re too expensive. Here’s why.”