Carolina's Micro-enterprise

Project Details:
- Raise enough money to purchase 600 books
- Ship the books to Roatan Honduras
- Leave the books at the local church where Carolina will purchase copies for $1 (this will serve as her tithe)
- Help her open a bank account
- Teach her to save $3 per copy sold
- She will make a $6 profit on each book sold
- She will then be prepared to order a new shipment when these run out.

Short Summary:  

My wife and I helped a native woman in Honduras named Carolina write a book about her life  on a Carribean Island.  She lives in poverty amidst beautiful beaches and wealthy tourist.  She has overcome many obstacles such as polio, having no education, being abandoned by parents, losing a child and raising five boys with everything stacked against them.   She is a woman full of faith, integrity and drive.  Carolina has sold close to 500 books in the past 3 years to provide for her family and we are now at a point where we need to make her venture more sustainable.  We have been buying and sending small orders of books to her through friends that were traveling to the island for the past 3 years.  In order to make this a sustainable micro-enterprise, we need to buy a Large order of books, take them to her, open a bank account for her and teach her to save so she will have money for her next order in the future.  Please help us accomplish this goal and read further to have a more detailed understanding of what we are doing.  You can also purchase her book by using the link below.  All proceeds go to support her and her family.  

The Darker Side of Paradise: The Real Life of Carolina Brooks


Photo from behind Carolina's house

The caribbean waters surrounding Roatan, Honduras

How Carolina's Book came about: Durring my 2.5 years living in Honduras, My wife and I met Carolina who told us that she had two dreams for her life.  One was to write her life story and the other was to be a missionary.  I casually said that my wife and I would love to help her write her life story but, I did not think anything would come of it.  A few weeks later when I returned to her house, she met me with a stack of notebook paper that would eventually become the book that we are raising this money for.  We met with and interviewed Carolina many times over a year and finally compliled her life story as she tells it.  I published the book through a do-it-yourself publiser on line and have been sending her books through the mail for the past three years, which she sells to provide food and shelter for her and her five boys.  To date, she has sold close to 500 books on the island for $10/copy.  If she had a steady supply, I would bet that she would have sold three times as many.  The problem lies in the transfer of books from the united states to Honduras and a lack of finances.  Because she lives on an island, there is no easy and fast way to ship things.  The best way to get the books to her is to find someone who is flying there from the US, ship them books, and they take them to her on the island.  I am only able to get her aboud 40 books every 4 months. 


Breakdown of expenses:
$1623 - for 600 books shipped to me
$300 - Car rental
$750 - One Flight (I plan to pay the way for my wife and son)

My wife and I will need to go to the island this summer to set up things with the church, teach Carolina about saving and help her open a bank account.  Durring our time there we will also be spending some time at the orphanage where Kendall served and worked for a year.