Dear Echoers

Happy New Year!!

Between Giving Tuesday on November 29th and Christmas, you helped us fundraise $1,507 US. This funding marked the most successful giving season we’ve had to date. More importantly, the donations put us 7 dollars over the target we needed to clear the deficit in Esther’s rent on her new building in Freetown. We have already wired the donations and are now waiting on confirmation that they were received at the bank in Freetown.

We have an exciting start to 2017. First, Mulgrave Secondary moved its Action for Esther fundraiser to early this year on a result of a snow storm in December. I haven’t seen this much snow on the West Coast in the six years I’ve lived here. The snow was beautiful but also caused a number of school closures. However, the delay means that we can get 2017 off to a great fundraising start thanks to the efforts of students and staff at Mulgrave. Secondly, I am eager to hear the results of the Roddenberry Foundation Prize which I’ve been told by the foundation should be made available in February. Esther’s Echo was one of over 600 applications submitted so there is certainly competition. I am proud of our application and have hope! If successful, we could receive between 150K to 400K US in funding. If you didn’t catch the video entry we made for the Roddenberry Prize, you can find it here.

Thank you all for your generosity in 2016! You have my sincerest gratitude. Here's to an even grander 2017 as we continue to help Esther and the staff and students of the Women in Action Development Project.

Sincerely,

Matthew