Time for fundraising again!

Oli otya (hello in Luganda)!

Do you remember the commercial from the 80s for Remington Steel where the man said: “I liked it so much, I bought the company!”? His experience with Remington Steel razors was so amazing that he wanted to be a part of it. While Niteo has nothing to do with razors, I could say: “I liked it so much, I joined the charity!”. My experience in Uganda with Niteo last year was so incredible and amazing and awe-inspiring and beautiful that I just had to become more involved. When Karine, the founder of Niteo, asked me if I would be interested in joining the board of directors, I jumped at the opportunity to be part of this amazing organization. Africa, education, books, children, teachers, helping – all things that I love rolled into one wonderful package. How could I say no?

And with my enthusiasm bubbling over, Corey has decided that he needs to see this for himself. So I get to share this experience that I love with the person that I love. I am truly a fortunate woman. This summer, Corey and I will be travelling with Niteo to Uganda for 3 weeks in August. I will be leading the teaching team at the Eva Ruf Resource Center where we will offer professional development for teachers and day camps for students who are off during exam time. There will be another team led by Karine who will work at the Sanyu Babies’ Home training the caregivers in infant care and disease control. Barbara at the orphanage is thrilled that nurses and caregivers are coming as she has always wanted to offer training to her staff but it is too costly for her to be able to pay someone to come. Niteo is coming for free so that these babies can have the healthiest start to their life.

“One has to water a plant before it can be coaxed to grow; children need to survive and be healthy before they can fully benefit from education.” – Syed Abbas, village elder in Pakistan

Corey will have a two part job. He will be our photographic journalist who will record our work and then his photos will be used for calendars and prints that will be sold to raise funds for Niteo in 2009 - 2010. He will also run web design classes for teachers so that they can develop websites for their school and then they can teach students how to do it as well. The resource center has 15 computers with internet that Corey will be able to set up for this program.

We are thrilled that Niteo has been accepted now as a charity for our School District so schools can fundraise for us. Our newest branch of Niteo, called Niteo Kids, is raising funds to buy a van to create a bookmobile to take books to teachers and students that can’t make it to the resource center themselves. Three schools are having talent shows to raise money to put towards the $20,000 goal. We are hoping to reach that goal before heading to Kampala this summer.

Now we are actively starting to fundraise for our trips. Corey and I are both hoping to raise about 50% of our travel costs which equals close to $5000.00. I am showing movies after school to raise money and Corey’s staff at Starbucks is sharing the weekly tips with him. If you would like to contribute towards our expenses, we would be very grateful. Donations in Canada over $20.00 are eligible for a tax receipt. In order to receive a tax receipt, you must write a cheque out to Hope for the Nations with Niteo on the memo line. Do not put our names on the memo line as we are not the charity. Then send the cheque to us and I will deposit it into our travel accounts at Hope for the Nations. You can also donate personally to us to cover vaccinations and other travel expenses. Any excess over the 50% that we want to raise will be donated directly toward Niteo projects. During these tough economic times, we realize that donations are harder to give. However, every little bit helps and we thank everyone who is able to donate. I've put a "donate" button at the top of this blog so that you can donate through PayPal if you prefer.

Niteo is in the process of becoming a charity on its own. Hope for that Nations is the umbrella organization that is acting as our agency while we go through the lengthy charitable organization application. We hope to have our own charitable number by the end of 2009 so that donations can be sent directly to Niteo and we will be able to issue tax receipts ourselves. Hope for the Nations is a faith based organization but not a faith spreading organization that will act as the agency for any organization that has the betterment of children around the world as its mandate. Niteo’s mandate is to dignify the heart and mind of the African child and provide support and programming to this end.

Thank you to everyone who contributed last year and thank you also for the kind words and encouragement I received from you. This is an incredible experience. Maybe you will join me one day in this amazing country? I intend on returning as often as I can!

Webale nyo, thank you.

Kiva

Have you heard about Kiva? It's an awesome organization. This is taken directly from the website:

What Is Kiva?
We Let You Loan to the Working Poor

Kiva's mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.

Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world.

The people you see on Kiva's site are real individuals in need of funding - not marketing material. When you browse entrepreneurs' profiles on the site, choose someone to lend to, and then make a loan, you are helping a real person make great strides towards economic independence and improve life for themselves, their family, and their community. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates and track repayments. Then, when you get your loan money back, you can relend to someone else in need.

Kiva partners with existing expert microfinance institutions. In doing so, we gain access to outstanding entrepreneurs from impoverished communities world-wide. Our partners are experts in choosing qualified entrepreneurs. That said, they are usually short on funds. Through Kiva, our partners upload their entrepreneur profiles directly to the site so you can lend to them. When you do, not only do you get a unique experience connecting to a specific entrepreneur on the other side of the planet, but our microfinance partners can do more of what they do, more efficiently.

Kiva provides a data-rich, transparent lending platform. We are constantly working to make the system more transparent to show how money flows throughout the entire cycle, and what effect it has on the people and institutions lending it, borrowing it, and managing it along the way. To do this, we are using the power of the internet to facilitate one-to-one connections that were previously prohibitively expensive. Child sponsorship has always been a high overhead business. Kiva creates a similar interpersonal connection at much lower costs due to the instant, inexpensive nature of internet delivery. The individuals featured on our website are real people who need a loan and are waiting for socially-minded individuals like you to lend them money.

Check it out at www.kiva.org or click on the link on the left of this page in my "important links" section. Happy lending!

Exciting Times Begin Again!

The team is selected and now we start to get ready for another amazing journey to the Pearl of Africa.

Corey, Karine and I have the pleasure of travelling with 7 new team members to work at the Eva Ruf Resource Center and at the Sanyu Babies' Home. We'll be in Kampala longer this year than last year: a full 2 weeks on the ground with extra days on the front and back for travel.

We hope to get to Jinja, the source of the Nile, to see another orphanage that Karine loves dearly. We will also have the opportunity to visit local markets, visit with Ugandans, eat amazing Chinese food (!) at Fang Fangs, and experience a wonderful wildlife safari with Denis at Dynamik Safaris.

Corey is going to be our photo journalist to take photos and record our adventure in the hopes of creating a calendar, prints and cards to raise money for Niteo upon our return. He also wants to teach teachers how to create websites to promote their schools and hopes this will be possible at the resource center.

So fundraising begins afresh too and again I can offer you a tax receipt for any donation over $20.00. Please make your cheques out to Hope for the Nations and put Niteo on the memo line before you send the cheque to me. Your tax receipt will be mailed to you in January 2010.

You can also donate directly to Corey and I if you want to contribute toward our vaccinations or if you want us to buy something specific for the kids we will be working with. Here are some things that we want to take:

1. LEGO! LEGO! LEGO! We want to take as much as we can; suitcases full if possible!
2. new cloth diapers
3. new clothes for newborns to 3 yr olds
4. toothbrushes and toothpaste (ask your dentist for a donation)
5. chalk brushes for the schools
6. current world maps
7. Science equipment (non-breakable things like magnets, springs, pulleys ...)
8. new games
9. craft supplies like paper, construction paper, pipe cleaners, glue sticks ...
10. books for kids and teachers (however, these may not travel until next year as we are filling another container for shipment in 2010)

Thanks again to those who donated last year. I really appreciate your generosity.

Keep checking back here for my (more frequent than last year!) updates and check out the Niteo website: www.niteoafrica.org to see the great updates that Corey is doing now.