Hello everyone, we hope you've all had a great week! This week our blog features some birthdays, a guest post by three amazing girls telling you about their candy-gram fundraiser, and a little bit about some of The Small Things' committees who are looking for people to join them!
Birthdays!
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| Saimoni (5 years old) |
Today is Saimoni's 5th Birthday! He is such an amazing boy who has done so well to overcome the rickets he suffered from when he was younger (especially not easy when living in an orphanage full of more mobile kids) to become the happy, laughing and extremely imaginative little boy that he is today!
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| Left to right: Faraja (8 years old), Baracka (4 years old) and Neema ndogo (1 year old) |
It's been a busy week birthday-wise! Last Friday, we celebrated two other Birthdays: Faraja - who was at Nkoaranga Orphanage until the age of 6, when she left to live at a nearby SOS children's village - turned 8, and it was also Baracka's 4th Birthday! And last but definitely not least, just yesterday Neema ndogo turned 1! We are so happy that they are all growing up safe and happy, although it is very scary how fast it is happening!!
PS. Just in case we are confusing you, 'ndogo' means 'little'!
Candy-grams
by Carly Charlebois, Amanda Roberts and Ashley Pollari
"We are students at Camosun
College in Victoria, BC and our team consists of Carly Charlebois, Amanda
Roberts and Ashley Pollari. We are
currently taking a Sociology course: Introduction to Africa Studies. One of the
main components of our class is to come up with a service-learning project,
which positively impacts an African country in a sustainable way.
"All three of us have been to Africa at some point in the
past few years. Carly and Ashley have
been to Kenya and Amanda was in Burkina Faso.
Together we have developed a passion for this incredible continent and
the amazing people who live there. Having that personal connection and the
experience of being to Africa are important and provide us with a strong basis
for this project. We all connected to The
Small Things organization through Kristina Alexander; who we know either
through the African Awareness Committee at school, or work. Having Kristina here at Camosun has been a
huge help in developing our project plan. Since connecting with Kristina and learning
more about what The Small Things is doing for the orphanage, we have taken a
huge interest in their future projects.
"Two members of our group, Carly and Ashley, are preparing
to start the nursing programs in the fall.
Therefore, we are quite interested in how we could create a sustainable
project for medical development on the ground in Tanzania. Our hope is for these funds from our service-learning
project to help build the HIV health care facility for the new children’s
village, as well as aid in the employment of a full-time nurse. In addition, Ashley and Amanda plan to make it
to Tanzania next year to see the impact of our efforts, which makes the
connection much more real.
"Our first fundraiser for this project was a Valentine’s
Day candy-gram service that raised awareness and funds for the Nkoaranga orphanage.
For three days, we sold handmade cards,
and Fair Trade chocolates on campus for two dollars. Then they were delivered on Valentine’s Day.
"We had a positive and optimistic outlook from the
beginning about our candy-gram
fundraiser. Despite it being a last
minute decision to do this fundraiser, we feel as though we reached out to many
people and fostered awareness about The Small Things and their mission. In the end, we raised approximately $150.
"In the coming weeks, we hope to build on this success
through a penny drive and bottle drive.
As we learn more in our Sociology class, we will continue to work with
Kristina and The Small Things to support Nkoaranga Orphanage.
"Our reward will come when can visit next year and meet
the children that we have grown to love though photos and stories."
Committees
We are looking for passionate and dedicated people to join The Small Things's committees! Below is an outline of the different committees and the sort of people who we'd love to join us working on them.
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| Stevie, Andrea and David drinking the filtered water provided by Project Maji |
Strategic planning
- What it involves: discussing in what direction to develop the charity for the future and considering factors which influence this; planning how to implement these decisions
- Looking for: Individuals who have experience starting or building a successful company or non-profit
- Commitment: 1hr per week + 1 meeting per month
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| 'The Mosaic Ladies' - a beautiful quilt made by Sandra to auction off to raise money to rewire the orphanage |
- What it involves: Working with volunteers to support their own fundraising projects, organising events to raise money and awareness and developing products such as calendars etc to sell
- Looking for: People who have experience organising events, connections to companies or experience with general fundraising
- Commitment: 1hr per week + 1 meeting per month
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| The kids looking delighted in beautiful clothes donated by 'Fred's World' |
- What it involves:Consideration of how best to support the mental and physical health of the children in our care, developing advice for volunteers in the form of manuals and development charts, coordinating in-kind donations such as vitamins and clothing
- Looking for: People with medical, psychological, or child development expertise
- Commitment: 1hr per week + 1 meeting per month
If you are interested in working on any of the above, please get in touch with us at info@thesmallthings.org - thank you!
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| Vicky (2 years old), loving her new nappy donated by 'Baba and Boo' |
Thanks for reading!
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