marnie
07-25-2004, 09:39 PM
Some of you know that Marco and I volunteer for an organization that has projects worldwide. We're holding a raffle to support projects in Africa.
A bit of background: our organization does things differently from other major charitible organizations. First of all, we don't do "charity" in the traditional sense. Let me give you the example of a project that was completed a few years ago and it wroking smoothly now.
A village in Mali: the women spend about 5 hours a day making corn meal by pouning corn with rocks. That meal feeds their families for a day. So they must do this every day. A hand operated mill can churn out enough corn meal in 5 hours to feel the village for a week.
We raise the funds to buy the mill (approx $2000). But I said this isn't charity. It's not. The people of the village must participate in the project because they benfit from the mill. So everyone joins in. Some people operate the mill, take the extra grain to market, to sell for more corn or for money which is used to fund the construction of a medical clinic. Money is also spent on supplying this clinic with medicines, bandages, etc. A doctor is hired to come once a week, and paid with the money from the mill. Some women go to nursing school, paid for with this money, and then work in the clinic, providing free care to everyone.
With their newfound free time, some women who can read and write open a school to teach others literacy. Those who learn open a school to teach children - so now there are two schools, for adults and for children.
Some women who can sew teach others to sew. Money is used to buy materials, sewing machines, etc. Products are then also traded at market.
This is one example. You can see, in three years time, how the donation of a mechanical mill has changed an entire village. All of this was done while allowing the people of the village to maintain their dignity, autonomy, and control of their lives. the projects were chosen by the people of the village, not by an outside organization.
Our group is generally contacted in the "western" world by immigrants who want to bring changes to their villages at home. We do not go into any town or village without someone from that place going with us. All the volunteers of our organziation bring is energy and success stories to encourage people to organize themselves and change their lives and the world around them. When needed, those of us who volunteer but do not travel try to raise some funds, which is what I'm doing right now :)
So we're having a raffle. the prize is your choice of an Apple iBook laptop computer or a Acer PC laptop. Since we can't see each other face to face, the best way for this to work is for you to paypal paypal@humanism.org the funds and I will email you your ticket number. So you have to trust me a little bit. I can mail you your ticket if you want, as well, or scan it and email you a photo of it :) The tickets cost $5 each.
The winning number will be the last 3 digits of the payout of the Italian lotto on July 31. Tickets will be sold until July 30.
if you have questions or want to know how you can help (aside from buying LOTS of tickets!) email me!
the flyer: http://maya.makeko.com/drawing.jpg
A bit of background: our organization does things differently from other major charitible organizations. First of all, we don't do "charity" in the traditional sense. Let me give you the example of a project that was completed a few years ago and it wroking smoothly now.
A village in Mali: the women spend about 5 hours a day making corn meal by pouning corn with rocks. That meal feeds their families for a day. So they must do this every day. A hand operated mill can churn out enough corn meal in 5 hours to feel the village for a week.
We raise the funds to buy the mill (approx $2000). But I said this isn't charity. It's not. The people of the village must participate in the project because they benfit from the mill. So everyone joins in. Some people operate the mill, take the extra grain to market, to sell for more corn or for money which is used to fund the construction of a medical clinic. Money is also spent on supplying this clinic with medicines, bandages, etc. A doctor is hired to come once a week, and paid with the money from the mill. Some women go to nursing school, paid for with this money, and then work in the clinic, providing free care to everyone.
With their newfound free time, some women who can read and write open a school to teach others literacy. Those who learn open a school to teach children - so now there are two schools, for adults and for children.
Some women who can sew teach others to sew. Money is used to buy materials, sewing machines, etc. Products are then also traded at market.
This is one example. You can see, in three years time, how the donation of a mechanical mill has changed an entire village. All of this was done while allowing the people of the village to maintain their dignity, autonomy, and control of their lives. the projects were chosen by the people of the village, not by an outside organization.
Our group is generally contacted in the "western" world by immigrants who want to bring changes to their villages at home. We do not go into any town or village without someone from that place going with us. All the volunteers of our organziation bring is energy and success stories to encourage people to organize themselves and change their lives and the world around them. When needed, those of us who volunteer but do not travel try to raise some funds, which is what I'm doing right now :)
So we're having a raffle. the prize is your choice of an Apple iBook laptop computer or a Acer PC laptop. Since we can't see each other face to face, the best way for this to work is for you to paypal paypal@humanism.org the funds and I will email you your ticket number. So you have to trust me a little bit. I can mail you your ticket if you want, as well, or scan it and email you a photo of it :) The tickets cost $5 each.
The winning number will be the last 3 digits of the payout of the Italian lotto on July 31. Tickets will be sold until July 30.
if you have questions or want to know how you can help (aside from buying LOTS of tickets!) email me!
the flyer: http://maya.makeko.com/drawing.jpg