Hello all,

Since sending out the letter which informed our friends, family and supporters of our decision to resign from IDEAS, we have received many messages.  The message we originally sent out contained a few gaps and was missing some important information.  In particular many of our supporters inquired as to where they should now send their donations.  While we have sent in a letter to IDEAS informing them that we intend to resign, our working relationship will remain active until August 1st of 2009.  Since we are terminating our working relationship on good terms and with mutual understanding, our IDEAS account will remain open during this transition period.   

Amanda, Asher and I will be traveling to the USA on March 1st and returning to India on August 18th as a family.  During this stint in the USA we have many things planned.  In March we will enjoy the company of my family (in particular my sister’s family and her new baby) in Denver, CO.  In April I (Ryan) hope to attend a month long training with NOLS in Lander, WY to become a Wilderness EMT.  In May, we plan to travel back to the mid-west to attend our 10 year class reunion and visit Amanda’s family.  In June, God willing, we will have the safe and healthy birth of our child.  In July, we are planning to visit my Grandfather in Florida, attend our final IDEAS debriefing and begin our preparations to return to India.  This 5 1/2 month window will give us the opportunity to explore many options in regard to how we will continue to legally fund our work in the future.  As these options solidify we will communicate them to you all.

For now, if you wish to continue to support us financially, know that IDEAS is graciously helping us ease into a new phase of our lives.  We will of course continue to need donations to fund our activities, such as the WEMT training I will be attending, and will be very grateful for those who continue to up hold us in this period of transition.  Donations can continue through www.ideasworld.org and our personal website will remain www.smoothpath.org.

Many people have written us asking if they can support us logistically now that we are leaving the umbrella of an organization.  Right now we are very open and are considering many options.  If anyone feels prompted to offer this kind of help to us, please write and let us know.  Also many people have asked what materials they can gather for us.   After our return to India in August, we plan to stay overseas for 3 years without traveling to the USA.  We need to further simplify since our family is growing (and so the cost and hassle of traveling), and we expect that we may have a lower budget (due to the current financial situation and our decision to resign from IDEAS).  Reducing our number of trips to the States is one of the easiest ways we can do this.  So this means that we need to gather many supplies during this trip to North America.  The following is a list of the most essential materials we need…

Medical/Midwifery:

• Stethoscopes
• Cord Clamps
• 200 one gallon Zip Lock bags
• Fetascopes
• BP Cuffs
• Newborn clothes (most importantly warm hats, gloves, booties and receiving blankets: remember Nepali newborns are very small)
• Prenatal Vitamins
• Portable Hand held baby scales
• Easy to use urine and blood test strips
• Health Education posters, videos, and materials

Educational:

• Flash Cards with color pictures or “touch and feel” (colors, numbers, simple vocab, alphabet, concepts, etc.)
• Illustrated books for Nursery/Kindergarten age
• Montessori Materials, props, toys, games for the same age group
• Educational DVD”s such as Planet Earth, Blue Planet, Sesame St. etc
• Portable DVD player or new Laptop for showing these materials and storing materials.

Looking forward to seeing you all very soon.  More than donations and collected materials, dialogue and fellowship with you all gives us the most important support and continues to spur us on in what we do.

Sincerly,
Ryan, Amanda, Asher and “003″ Phillips