(ENG) Dear friends and members of Design for the World, Firstly, we would like to thank you for the trust you have placed in DW and we apologize for our silence during the last months. We are writing to inform you about the current situation and to share the projects and initiatives we are developing in this new phase. We needed some time to elaborate a basic message which enables us to explain to people not directly linked to the world of design - who sometimes consider us as quite elitist and lacking commitment to situations of dramatic needs – what is our contribution to providing helpful solutions for real humanitarian problems. Our task continues in bringing together a collective of designers focusing on humanitarian causes by creating communication items, and tools of any kind to help catering for basic sheltering needs, bearing in mind social and ecologically sustainable criteria thereby improving the life of people in need. In a number of meetings with humanitarian organizations directly involved in situations of crisis or material difficulty, they have suggested endless needs which we can respond-to and which give sense to the existence of an organization like ours. The list of humanitarian projects is very large but the locations where these projects must be improved are in regions with important follow-up difficulties (economical, bureaucratic, war conflicts, etc.). To be able to address these difficulties, we have set up a technological tool powerful enough for the management, broadcasting and exchange of ideas and solutions for these projects. A large interactive file using internet for sharing and spreading experiences, skills, and creativity will be an important part to enable our professional collective to help. Taylor made consultation and a free access catalogue of different solutions are available in order for everybody to benefit. Simultaneously to setting up this new resource - in its conceptual, technical and financial aspects – we are working on several projects that we believe are exemplary and therefore transmit the character and the nature of the help we can offer as DW. Some of these are linked to very basic needs and are therefore easily to understand: - Personalized beds for Orphanages - Latrines - Backpacks for water transportation - Windows without glass - Immovable child desks (antitheft) - Structural walls of clay presses without cooking - Push&Pull (Pictogram) - Love Paper / Save Paper We hope this explanation has been helpful for you and enables you to share our heartfelt enthusiasm for living up to the challenge that lies before us to find real solutions for real problems pf people in need. On behalf of our team I wish you a Happy New Year and we look forward to sending you news about our projects soon. Victoria Garriga President LETTER FROM DW