New Graduation Class, New Fundraiser, New Podcast!

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

2023 Fundraising Campaign

Hello Echoers! We need your help!

We're launching our 2023 Fundraising Campaign for Esther's Echo and the Women in Action Development Program in Sierra Leone! Last year's campaign raised 10k dollars for the school - founded by our partner, Esther Kanu - and helped another 60 women graduate from school in one of the most difficult places in the world to live. Donation link is below! And be sure to check out the campaign because it has footage from this year's graduation ceremony made possible because of YOU!

EVERY dollar goes to the school. We keep nothing for overhead costs and any expenses that come as a result of the operation I cover personally.

Thank you so much to those who donated last year! Again, be sure to check out the campaign page which features videos of this year's graduation ceremony! You helped make that possible!

2023 GoFundMe Campaign for Esther's Echo

You can also donate, as always, through our website using the button below

Support the Women in Action!

Two New Homes for Women in Action!

Hello Echoers!

Lots of updates to share!

First off - through your donations this past Summer and into the early Fall, we managed to successfully relocate the Women in Action Development Project to their new home following their eviction from the previous building. We managed to raise nearly all the funding we needed to cover a year of rent at the new location. The new landlords agreed to let the school move in with the bit of funding we still need to raise with the understanding that we will continue to do so. We are just shy about 1000US dollars. Again, thank you all so very much. You are helping Esther’s work continue and once again a new class of young women has enrolled and begun this year’s school season.

Also! Women in Action has expanded to a SECOND location! Esther was talking about the possibility of doing this for a few years now. She was interested in ensuring access for rural women to the centre’s vocational studies. The second centre, which is located in the Port Loko region of Sierra Leone, opened this past Monday. It is in a building that Women in Action is renting in combination with Red Cross which operates the building. The advantage is that the equipment and supplies are already present - including a whole classroom of computers! - which saves a lot of money in comparison to opening a new location from scratch. An official opening event for the new school will happen on February 14th to coincide with the founding of the first Women in Action Development Project

Esther at the new Port Loko Location

Computers at the Port Loko Location

Freetown is where the first Women in Action Centre is located. Port Loko is shown here where the new location is located.

Also, you might recall our purchase of farmland two years ago. Well the crops were hard hit by flooding in the two years since, but Esther sent these images of crops growing on the land just recently which is great news! These crops are sold to help fund school operations.

Once again, all of this awesome news - the relocation, the expansion to a second location, and the farmland - wouldn’t have been possible without all your support. Also a big thanks to those of you have been donating on Facebook. We have run THREE successful Facebook fundraisers now including the most recent this past August for my birthday! So thank you to our growing community of Esther’s Echo supporters! Be sure to find us on Facebook as well!

I will continue to send updates as they come. Keep a look out for our Holiday fundraising campaign which will begin December 3rd with Giving Tuesday!

-Matthew

Join Our Board of Directors!

Hello Echoers!

I had mentioned in my post last month celebrating this year's graduating class that I had three other exciting announcements to make. Two of them are bundled together in this e-mail. First, we are moving forward with our plans to transition Esther's Echo from a registered non-profit to a registered charity in the coming months. Esther's Echo is currently an incorporated non-profit organization. But until we also register as a Canadian Charity, we cannot issue charitable tax receipts which, I believe, will give us access to a larger donor pool and larger donations culminating in the construction of a new building for Esther and the Women in Action Development Project. The second exciting thing is that, in order to transition, we are looking for a new individual to join our Board of Directors!

What does becoming a board member for Esther's Echo look like? 

We are looking for a social justice warrior who is passionate about women's rights, women's education, equity, and has experience related to international development, fundraising, working in the non-profit sector, and communication. If your skills, passion, and experience fall in this range, or you have other cool skills and experiences you feel would be helpful to our organization and are interested in being a more integral part of what we do, send me an e-mail. (Some of you have already reached out to me when we made a post through Facebook. Thank you for doing so. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you and you are still on our list of candidates.) In terms of time commitment, we would need somebody willing to connect by e-mail with the other board members and myself a few times each month, be available for board meetings once every quarter, and be willing to participate in and organize fundraisers for the organization at least once a year. You do not need to be a Canadian citizen to apply.

Thanks to all of you for your continued support of the organization. Once again, without all of you we wouldn't have pictures like these below! 

Keep an eye out for exciting announcement 3! 

-Matthew

Support Women's Education in Sierra Leone on International Women's Day

Hey Echoers!

It's International Women's Day! Today, across the globe, IWD celebrates the achievements of women in sciences, politics, and social justice while calling for gender equality. International Women's day has been observed since the early 1900's beginning with marches in New York. The reach of IWD has since crossed borders and boundaries. Esther herself writes me on IWD from Sierra Leone.

Women in Action also hosts a community of young children in their education program

In our support of Esther's school, the Women in Action Development Project, and in recognition of International Women's Day in March, we are extending our donor matching campaign until the end of the month. In February, I promised to personally match any donations that came in as February marked the 20th anniversary of Women in Action's founding. 

This month is particularly important for us. Since December, Esther has been working diligently to relocate Women in Action. The new building has been found and Esther is hoping to secure the space by the start of April. The down payment for year's rent on the loation is $5000USD. With your support and with Esther's own fundraising efforts, we are now up to $3000! We're almost there!

I'm calling on you all to help us secure Esther into her new space. The new building will help us provide her project with new stability as Esther continues to radically change the lives of vulnerable women and girls living in one of the most challenging places in the world to be. 

For more on International Women's Day see this great article by the Telegraph that also talks about today's Google Doodle. 

Support Women in Action Today!