Whole Child International’s Founding Executive Director, Karen Gordon, has been invited to speak on a panel with the Dalai Lama and other luminaries in child development.

Called “From Knowledge to Compassion Action: What We All Can Do,” the panel is part of Seeds of Compassion, a five-day event taking place in Seattle April 11-15, 2008.

The program will include a 10-minute video about Whole Child, along with a 20-minute discussion that will put our work into the larger context of the other panelists’ work and beyond. Karen will be in auspicious company: aside from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, her copanelists are Mary Gordon, John Gottman, Roger Weissberg, and Bob Marvin.

Seeds of Compassion, which has emerged as a collaboration between the Kirlin Foundation and the Venerable Tenzin Dhonden, will be an “unprecedented gathering to engage the hearts and minds of our community by highlighting the vision, science, and programs of early social, emotional, and cognitive learning.”

Today in San Salvador, Founding Executive Director Karen Gordon signed a formal agreement with the government of El Salvador. The agreement is years in the making, and clears the way for us to begin work in that country’s 33 children’s institutions.

A formal signing ceremony will be held in April with the First Lady of El Salvador, and we expect to begin work immediately thereafter in three orphanages in San Salvador. Prospective Caregiver Trainers are encouraged to visit our employment page, and donors wishing to specifically support our work in El Salvador can contact us through the giving page. Donors based in El Salvador may wish to contact the San Salvador office directly.

A feature on Whole Child International has appeared in this month’s Canadian edition of Reader’s Digest. Welcome to all our new Canadian readers — we hope you’ll explore the above links and that all readers will consider supporting our work. We are beginning full implementation this month and new countries of service are right around the corner, so new sources of income have never been more crucial.

Please continue to check this page for up-to-the-minute news on progress. There will be much to discuss, both in Nicaragua and beyond.

Update: this article is a “digest” of the Forbes Magazine article on our work last year. Please see our Press page for further information. We’ll put a direct link to the Reader’s Digest website should a copy become available.

A Utah philanthropist has raised the bar for Whole Child International with a charitable gift of $250,000. This funding comes at a conspicuous moment for Whole Child, coinciding with our expansion into four new orphanages in Nicaragua and on the eve of our formal entry into El Salvador.

This generous philanthropy has literally opened new doors for Whole Child, and we are glad to have a new partner as we expand to new regions and new levels of service across the world.