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.