Hello Echoers!
Great news. Despite the heavy flooding over the Summer damaging the Women in Action Development Project's building and their farmland, Esther confirmed that the school has returned to normal operation. By the start of November, the school had opened with the daycare centre following just two weeks ago. While this has put the school season behind schedule, the school did survive! Over 200 students are registered this year alone!
Your donations all helped to make the school's reopening much easier on everybody overseas. I am so glad that I can give you this update.
Esther (centre) with Staff and Students of the Women in Action Development Project
In other exciting news, we are closing in on Giving Tuesday in one week on November 28th! Giving Tuesday follows Black Friday and Cyber Monday. For the last 2 years, we have had a profile page up on the Giving Tuesday website and we have done so again this year.
Giving Tuesday is combining with local initiatives this year to promote organizations by regions within Canada. We are reaching out to the #VanGives campaign within Giving Tuesday as Esther's Echo is currently based in Vancouver. #VanGives has been looking for the stories of organizations based out of the city so that they can help spread the word to the community. We are hoping to be one of those stories!
Now that the school is in operation again, we still need your support. Annually, we help cover the cost of the rent on Esther's building which is about 10,000 dollars. Esther has raised a portion of this already and we provide whatever we can through your donations. More donations means that Esther can pay her teachers more, student's fees are reduced, and more funding goes into expansion and development. Your support so far has helped bring Esther to Canada to speak to live audiences about her work, saw the school through an Ebola outbreak, allowed Esther to move into a larger building, bought a plot of farmland to raise funds for the school, and now helped us get the school back on its feet after flooding. So I am calling on you, our donor community, to make a contribution in light of Giving Tuesday, and also to spread the word about our work by sharing our Giving Tuesday profile page which you can find here: 100% of your donations go directly to the Women in Action Development Project. Thank you all so so much!
Also, as a treat, here are some of the latest photos from Women in Action and the daycare centre since the reopening!
