Hello Echoers!
I wanted to write and catch everybody up on a number of exciting things happening with Esther's Echo and the Women in Action Development Program.
1) This past Spring saw another graduating class at the Women in Action Development Program - our community partner in Sierra Leone founded by my friend Esther Kanu, a Sierra Leone local. This graduating class is from a new location where Women in Action relocated to this year. We are still assisting with the rent of this new location until we can find funding to build a permanent school for the staff and students of the Women in Action Development Program – our long term goal. But without your donations we wouldn't have been able to cover this past year's rent nor have funds to help relocate. Below is a photo of the 2024 class!
2024 Graduation Class of the Women in Action Development Project
2) We've launched a new GoFundMe fundraiser for the Holiday Season! The funds raised cover school building rent, teacher's pay, and teaching materials and equipment needed by the school. 100% of your donations go directly to the Women in Action Development Project. In addition, donations from these fundraisers have helped open a rural satellite location, purchase an income-generating plot of farmland, and now also help to build a drug rehabilitation centre. You can find the fundraiser by clicking here or the image below.
3) A new synthetic drug called Kush has swept Sierra Leone. A number of government and community level responses have started addressing growing rates of addiction. The drug is cheap to buy and has become widespread. Women in Action has begun its own rehabilitation program in concert with other local efforts. Continued support for the school also means continued response to the drug outbreak.
4) On the science fiction community engagement side, I have become co-host of a new podcast called the TREKtivism Podcast. I work as a science educator at a planetarium in Vancouver, Canada. This space science life often intersects with members of science fiction fandom. One of those science fiction fandoms is of a television show called Star Trek which depicts a future Earth free of disease, poverty, hunger, and war. Animating this community for real-world social change seemed logical (TREKtivism = Star Trek Activism) given the inspired view of a bright future. And so our podcast highlights members of the space and science fiction community ranging from human rights lawyers, researchers, organization founders, or celebrities running fundraisers for various causes. 2 years ago, this same community helped raise over 10,000 dollars for Esther's Echo.
Thank you all. We can't do this without your help. Because of your donations since founding Esther's Echo in 2013, over 600 women have graduated from Women in Action – improving lives in one of the most difficult places in the world to live. More updates to come! Thank you all so much again.
-Matthew
