The Foundation For Tomorrow

Help support a great charity in Africa!

The Foundation For Tomorrow (TFFT): The Foundation For Tomorrow’s mission is to secure quality education and emotional support for orphaned and vulnerable children so that they may reach their full potential and thrive in their communities. The Foundation envisions a world where orphans and vulnerable children contribute to society as active and empowered citizens free of exclusion, disadvantage, and vulnerability. TFFT believes in the power of education. Our programs create a family for orphaned and vulnerable children in Tanzania and improve the quality of education in Tanzanian schools. To learn more about our programs and how you can be involved please visit www.thefoundationfortomorrow.org.

You can check out more photos and information at the official RIDETZ Facebook page!

Hmong Students in Laos

I support students in Laos by helping to provide scholarship opportunities at teacher’s training schools. Specifically, I help support a student, Mr. Talon, who is studying education at a school in Luang Nam Tha, in the northeast of the country.  I help support another student, Ms. Yengyang, who is studying at the national university in Vientiane.  To find out how you can help, please email Colin Cotterill at: colincot@gmail.com.

Mr. Talon loves to play soccer and is a very good player. The teacher’s training school staff had said that Mr. Talon has really knuckled down to study and should do well next year. He has one more year to go.

Ms. Yengyang is from a small farming family. Her father has passed away and she has eight siblings. Ms Yengyang wants to teach secondary school back in her home village (which is two days walk from the nearest road) and is studying political science. She’s a bit shy but is doing very well in her classes.

Caribbean Primate Research Center

The CPRC Laboratory of Primate Morphology, supported by NIH grant 2 P40 OD012217 and the UPR, is located in the CPRC Museum on the UPR Medical Sciences Campus. It is one of the largest and most valuable collections of nonhuman primate skeletons in the world. The collection contains over 3,600 complete skeletons of 14 species including 3,060 rhesus (830 directly from Cayo Santiago), 280 patas, 100 squirrel, 60 pigtail, 60 Caribbean vervet, 30 stumptail and 30 tufted capuchin monkeys. For most of the rhesus from the free-ranging colony on Cayo Santiago and those from Cayo Santiago housed at the Sabana Seca Field Station (SSFS); date of birth, sex, maternity, group affiliation, parity (for females), and date of death are known. Paternity and full pedigrees are known for many while medical records are available on skeletons from SSFS monkeys.

Research with the collection has focused on anthropomorphics, growth and development, genetics and inheritance of various traits, mathematical modeling, naturally-occurring pathologies (arthritis of the major joints, spondyloarthropathy, osteoporosis, fractures, hereditary defects), comparative skeletal anatomy and brain morphology (using endocasts), effects of parity on pelvic remodeling, and dentition. The LPMG also has a large collection of rhesus plaster dermatoglyphs. Forensic anthropologist, novelist and co-producer of the popular Fox television series Bones, Dr. Kathy Reichs, has used the collection for collaborative research on the effect of age and osteoarthritis on bone mineral density. She considers the CPRC’s Skeletal Collection an invaluable research resource and has mentioned the CPRC in at least two of her novels, Deja Dead and Bones to Ashes.

https://www.projectmonkeyisland.org/#video

For more information on the LPMG’s collections, please contact Ms. Terry Kensler, Curator, at terry.kensler@upr.edu or website http://cprc.rcm.upr.edu/

Helping a Hero

Supporting Veterans

Helping a Hero is a 501(c)(3) non profit, non-partisan organization providing support for military personnel, severely injured in the war on terror. Their principal activity is to provide specially adapted homes for qualifying service members as well as engaging the community to provide services and resources for our wounded heroes and their families. To find out how you can help, please visit their website at: http://www.helpingahero.org/.

Know My Bones

The goal of the Know My Bones program is to help women who have postmenopausal osteoporosis keep their bones strong.  Their mission is to support women in making bone health a priority in their lives.  Through Know My Bones, you can learn about advances in the understanding of bone health and discover ways to make your bones stronger.  The knowledge you gain through Know My Bones can also help you partner with your doctor to improve your bone health.  To get the most from Know My Bones, please visit their website at: http://www.knowmybones.com/.