Since 2010, the vision of Takin Back has always been to bring Jesus and Justice to the country of El Salvador. This is done by providing spiritual and physical resources that will equip future and current leaders to strengthen their communities. Because of your partnership in 2015, we have continued to see our vision breathe life into the country of El Salvador.

One of our favorite stories this year was when two of our mentees, Dennis and Amellali, asked

to be baptized and make a public declaration of their faith. This decision was something that

came after being around our mentors and hearing more about Christ!

This is one of the many reasons why we believe the power of relationship building is one of

the main pillars in the process of breaking the cycle of the spiritual and physical struggle that

so often traps children and youth. We can’t wait to see what God has in store as we

continue to reach the youth in El Salvador. 

M E N T O R S H I PI N A C T I O N

This year our team has grown, adding 10 new members!

Tatiana de Almeida and Jason Stone (Treasurer) have joined our Advisory Board. Both have been such strong assets to furthering our vision in El Salvador.

Jordan Buckhalt (Graphic Designer) is an extremely gifted individual who will be helping us take our vision and bring it to life through graphics. He has such a passion to advance the kingdom of God through his work and we are excited to have him part of the team.

David Eduardo Santa Cruz (Director of Mentorship), Ernesto Rodríguez Márquez (Director of Agricultural Projects) and David Cruz (Director of Partnerships), Ronny Gomez (Coordinator of Communications and Programs) has helped in several ways from programming to translation. All four have joined our leadership team on the ground in El Salvador, and have been key strengths in helping develop and run our programs and projects in El Salvador. 

Last but not least: Michelle Argumedo, José Martínez and Luis Flamenco have joined our Mentorship Program as our volunteer Mentors. Our program’s success has come from their loyalty to go above and beyond in pouring in to all eight of the mentees that you have been supporting through daily prayer and financial assistance.

Your partnership has allowed us to take two major trips to El Salvador during the months of October and July. Both of these trips allowed us to develop our Mentorship Program, train our mentors and directors, hold our first mentee enrollment, and find our first community that we will assist in our Love Initiative project this summer (July 2016). In the month of August 2015 we launched our mentorship program in the community of Lourdes with in a church called Mision Cristiana Nuevo Pacto, Lourdes.

Since sponsoring our first students in 2010, we noticed that many of the students had nothing to do after school. They were hanging out with negative influences, causing many of them to drop out of school and join gangs. As a result, a program was created for these students to be mentored by local Christian men and women. The purpose of a mentor is to help and encourage the mentee to achieve their potential and discover their strengths.

Because of your partnership, our Mentorship Program has thrived since its launch in August! God has allowed our mentees to be a part of some amazing events, such as attending a revival concert (that was the start of our students opening up to their mentors), as well as attending a camping trip that brought a couple hundred youth together, spending a weekend going deeper in the Word of God. In December, we had the privilege of giving all of our mentees brand new Bibles and, for many of them, it was their very first Bible! To be able to equipment these young people with the Word of God was one of the biggest joys for us as a team this year.

2015

For the last five and half years, we have seen God move throughout El Salvador in

some amazing ways. The start of Takin Back began with a simple prayer “that God

would raise up strong leadership that would strengthen their communities spiritually

and physically.” My very first trip to El Salvador was with my youth group in 2003 at the

age of 16. I had no clue what I was really getting myself into; that very first trip changed

my life and led me to join several others but I never dreamed it would lead to the start

of a non profit!

I started Takin Back my junior year of college attending Liberty University. I had never

done anything like this before but began to walk by faith and create a team. Knowing

we had to start somewhere, after a great deal of prayer we decided to sponsor thirteen

students that attended Latin American Child Care (LACC) schools in El Salvador. I

remember how nervous I felt and started to think, “Paul, you are in over your head!

How in the world are we going to raise money for thirteen students a month?!?” What

is crazy is that we DID! We had some ups and downs, and at times we fell behind in

support, but we finished and our students graduated. All of this was only possible

because or your partnership.

How Takin Back Started

As I have said, I never seem to be able to keep up with God’s plan for my life. In

March of 2015, after a lot of prayer, Aaron and I decided it was time for us to go

after Takin Back as full time as possible.

It’s been twelve months and it has not been a dull twelve months either. In the time

we have had to focus on Takin Back, we have been able to take significant strides

from:

1. LAUNCHING OUR MENTORSHIP PROGRAM 2. REFINING OUR APPROACH OVERALL AS AN ORGANIZATION.

This year we have created a budget that is a major jump from years in the past.

This budget will allow us to sustain and add growth within Takin Back. As an

organization, it’s important that we have the ability to reach a wide range of

individuals to be able to share our vision, so we have added a fundraising cost to

our budget this year.

This will help us continue to spread the word about what we are doing in El Salvador

and hope to gain new partnerships. Aaron and I both work part-time job’s to sustain

ourselves and currently aren’t able to compensate our work through Takin Back.

This year I have added a small salary to allow us to continue focusing on Takin Back

and not have to increase our hours at our part-time jobs.

Our entire El Salvador team has put a great deal of time into our programs and,

to continue to grow, we would like to be able to compensate our directors and

coordinators in El Salvador.

“This budget will allow us to sustain and add growth within Takin Back”

A Y E A R I N R E V I E W

PAUL MORAN - Founder/CEO

AARON MALLET-PREVOST - Co-Founder/Chief Creative Officer

ALBERT MAVUNGA - Board of Directors

HEATHER MORETTI - Board of Directors

EDOUARD PITCHETTE - Secretary/Advisory Board Member

JASON STONE - Treasure/Advisory Board Member

TATI DE ALMEIDA - Advisory Board Member/PR Director

DAVE LEBEAU - Advisory Board Member/Operations Coordinator

SULLY PICHETTE - General Team Member

JORDAN BUCKHALT - Graphic Designer

DAVID EDUARDO SANTA CRUZ - Director of Mentorship

ERNESTO RODRÍGUEZ MÁRQUEZ - Director of Agricultural Projects

DAVID CRUZ - Director of Partnerships and Team Building

RONNY GOMEZ - Coordinator of Communications and Programs

A D M I N I S T R A T I O N

U . S . B A S E D

E L S A L V A D O R N A T I O N A L S

 Another exciting project that we are implementing this year is called the “Love Initiative,” which consists of projects that will support local grass-root movements that have been started and sustained by nationals. We wanted to create an organized way to help pour into current leaders who are already making a positive impact within their communities and help them scale their reach and sustainability. Our Love Initiative projects have a start and end date with a pay it forward expectation. Every project is meant to help them continue to sustain themselves and hopefully raise up other individuals around them to do the same within their communities.

Ernesto Rodríguez Márquez (Director of Agricultural Projects), David Cruz (Director of Partnerships and Team Building) both help organize and run our Love Initiative projects. Ernesto has several years of experience in agriculture projects and has been a huge help in organizing our very first Love Initiative project. David has a great deal of experience in leading team trips and bridging that gap between leaders and organizing projects. His main job is to assist Ernesto and help plan out Takin Back team trips. David and Ernesto have been and will continue to build relationships with each community we will assist in our projects. Both of these men have been such a great blessing and I’m grateful they are part of our team.

We fulfill Love Initiative projects in two main ways. First, during the month of May we spend the entire month fundraising. Our goal is to bring awareness to what our project is and why we decided to help. Then, in July, we bring a team to El Salvador to fulfill that Love Initiative. Our trip is designed around an agricultural project and a VBS program for the children in the communities we will be working with. Our July trip is a great opportunity for partners to see what their prayers and financial assistance has gone toward. El Salvador is a beautiful country and has some of the most loving individuals we have ever met. We are confident that those who attend our trips will be profoundly impacted.

T H E L O V E I N I T I A T I V E

Our goal this year is to continue to strengthen our Mentorship Program, adding an additional eight more

mentees and four new mentors to our Lourdes program.

This is a small summary to show why our budget has increased and what we will be going

after this year with all our hearts. We humbly ask for your prayer and financial support in

partnering with us to fulfill our budget for 2016. None of what has been done and what can

be done in the future can happen without partnerships. We pray you will seriously consider

joining us in pursuit of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ and equipping current and future

leaders in the country of El Salvador.

If you would like more information, contact Paul Moran - Paul@takinback.org

B U D G E T S U M M E R Y 2 0 1 6

www.TakinBack.orgP.O. Box 14609, East Providence, RI 02914