FRIENDS OF THE ORPHANS AND KNEW GALLERY WILL HOST EXHIBIT TO RAISE AWARENESS OF ORPHANED AND ABANDONED CHILDREN IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Friends of the Orphans (www.friendsoftheorphans.org) is excited to announce their participation in “The Memory Project”, an international collaboration of youth art featuring portraits of orphaned children at Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos International homes in Latin America and the Caribbean, recreated by U.S. art students. “The Memory Project” will be on display at KNEW Gallery February 7 – 11, 2007. A reception will take place on Saturday, February 10, from 5:00 to 10:00 p.m. “The Memory Project” will be paired with an art exhibit and sale featuring artists from around the world. These emerging national and international artists will donate a portion of their proceeds to Friends of the Orphans.

Friends of the Orphans is the American fundraising organization for Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos International (NPH: Spanish for “Our Little Brothers & Sisters”). Together they have opened self-sustaining orphanages in nine developing countries, as well as a free-of-cost hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. Friends of the Orphans aims to get Americans involved in supporting the orphanages and to allow the children to grow up in their domestic culture and remain with any existing family, despite the family’s inability to provide financial support. Children of NPH homes are given free healthcare and a free education in exchange for a service commitment of one year, giving back to the home and program that raised them.

KNEW Gallery (www.knewgallery.com) is owned and operated by Fernando Batista, and is located in Georgetown at 1639 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. This exhibition and sale includes paintings, drawings and photographs by artists in California, Chile, Colorado, Guatemala, Peru, Sweden and Washington, D.C. Featured artists include Joan Belmar, John Fasano, Maria Florez, Izette Folger, Eve Hennessa, Anna Höglund, Patricia Kirk, Cat Manolis, Lionel Najera, Holly Parker, Raimundo Rubio, Sandra Wexler and Julie Wolfe. Additional works donated by Fernando Batista, Barbara Gordon and other private collectors and artists will also be on view and available for purchase. All artists will donate a portion of their proceeds to helping the children living in Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos homes, supported in part by Friends of the Orphans.

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About Friends of the Orphans – Friends of the Orphans is the American funding for Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos International. The first Friends of the Orphans office was established in 1965 to support the physical, spiritual and emotional needs of NPH children through fundraising and volunteer efforts. Today, the organization has expanded to six regional offices, with the national headquarters in Chicago. The non-profit’s mission is to improve the lives of orphaned, abandoned and disadvantaged children through the support of the NPH network of orphanages in Latin America and the Caribbean.

About Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos International (NPH) - NPH has been in existence for over 50 years, operating orphanages in Latin America and the Caribbean. With the help of their European, Canadian, and American funding, NPH is currently supporting 3,000 children in Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Peru. NPH provides children with an alternative to poverty and international adoption. In each of its nine countries, NPH works to provide a safe, secure loving home for children who have nowhere else to go. These children live healthy family lives, learning household chores, taking care of each other and receiving an education and learning a vocation, while remaining within their own culture.