Because the need is critical, International Service Agencies' 50 members are committed to long-term positive changes to reduce mortality, create self-sufficiency and build infrastructure for prosperity.

Your support of ISA through the Illinois SECA campaign will have a long-lasting positive impact on the lives of individuals in all corners of the world. The following are a few examples of how little can do so much:

• $7 a week will buy two llamas in Ecuador providing two families with a source of income, fertilizer and light transport

• $5 a week will stock a medical chest at a rural health clinic in Peru

• $1 a week will immunize 400 children against six deadly childhood diseases

• Less than $1 a week will provide loans to 10 poor African women so they may be able to start small businesses

Stories of Real Success and Real People

From Black-Market Salesperson to College Student

Sanjin was a teenager when war broke out in Bosnia-Herzegovina and life became a daily struggle for survival. Still fresh in his memory, is the day Sanjin witnessed the deaths of some of his best friends right before his eyes. His life, turned upside down by the war, consisted of selling goods on the black market to support his family and working in a hospital treating those wounded in the war.

Sanjin's need to do more, lead him to an International Service Agencies (ISA) member charity where he became a staff member in 1996. Through this ISA charity, Sanjin helped provide medical assistance and longer-term opportunities to those in need affected by the long war. Because ISA member charities can only succeed when they provide a structure for indigenous people to help themselves, Sanjin's experience is similar to others who have worked for an ISA member charity in their homeland.

Today, Sanjin is a college honor student at DePaul University in Chicago. His dedication to his studies and his homeland will eventually allow him to give back even more to his home country of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

A Champion Against the Odds

Imagine that you are 14 years old and living in Quito, Ecuador. Your mother is in prison and your father has abandoned you. You live with your grandmother, but she is dying of cancer and you will have nowhere to go when she dies.

Yet, you are a champion. You are the biking champion of Ecuador because of a program supported by a member of International Service Agencies (ISA) that helps at-risk youth. Originally, you were attracted to the program because of the opportunity to play competitive sports, but the real opportunity is the chance to earn an education and learn a trade.

Through the generous contributions of donors who give to International Service Agencies, this community program in Ecuador has given a future to children who would not have a chance to prosper otherwise. Join ISA and its member agencies in making a world of difference.

Administrative and fund-raising costs for 2001 were 6.3%. For more information, call (800) 638-8079 or look up ISA's Website at: www.charity.org.