At the Model United Nations and Best Giving Tuesday Yet!

Hello Echoers!

This past November had two highlights that we wanted to share! First, Matthew was chosen as keynote speaker for the Connect Model United Nations conference in Vancouver this year. Past speakers have included names like Green Party Leader Elizabeth May. Matthew's talk brought together our work with Esther's Echo seen through the lens of Matthew's passion for space and space exploration; an orbital perspective where the world is seen from above and where we share common hopes and challenges. In Matthew's words "from space, and I use the word 'astronomical' literally here, our differences become astronomically tiny and our similarities astronomically large." The work of Esther's Echo was shared with over 300 high school delegates and teachers in attendance at the Model United Nations conference where Matthew encouraged them to think cooperatively rather than competitively about the challenges facing our world. 

Matthew presenting at the Connect MUN Conference at the Hyatt Regency in Vancouver

We also wanted to celebrate Giving Tuesday. Giving Tuesday, on November 28th, marked the start of the Holiday Giving Season. This year, we tallied a record $2700! All in ONE day! Thank you all so very much for your generosity! This is the most successful Giving Tuesday campaign we've ever had. Esther is not quite in the clear yet, however. We've helped raise about half of what she needs to clear rent on the building that houses the Women in Action Development Project. Without the rest, Esther could be forced to take out expensive loans, reduce teachers pay, or increase school fees. We want to help avoid all that so are calling on you to help by donating or sharing our story with others. To those of you who have already supported Esther's work, our sincerest thanks! You are helping to keep over two hundred young women and children in school and daycare programs. We will continue to update you all as we head into the Holidays! All the best on Holiday preparations!

It's Giving Tuesday!

Hey Echoers!

Today is Giving Tuesday! Giving Tuesday is a movement around the world that promotes both donations and volunteering. It is considered the "Opening Day of the Giving Season" to rally for favourite causes. 

Many participating organizations, including Esther's Echo, are featured on the Giving Tuesday webpage to help rally support and share their goals. Ours is to help support Esther on her closing rent due date. Rent on Esther's building is about 10,000 dollars a year. Any amount we can shave off of that helps to put funding back into the development of their school, lowering student fees, raising teacher salaries, and preventing the school from going into debt. 

We are asking for your support. If everybody receiving this e-mail donated even just $50, we could help cover half of Esther's rent costs and take a great deal of pressure off her as we head toward the end of the year.  For those of you who have already donated, thank you so very much! You're helping keep hundreds of enrolled women and girls in school at Esther's Women in Action Development Project

You can find our profile page at the Giving Tuesday website by clicking this link

And you can donate using the button below!

Donate Today!

Giving Tuesday: Women in Action Reopens for 2017 School Season!

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!

Donate to Women in Action!

Also, as a treat, here are some of the latest photos from Women in Action and the daycare centre since the reopening! 

Heavy Flooding in Sierra Leone

Dear Echoers, 

Unfortunately I have sad news from Sierra Leone. Due to incredibly high rainfall, Freetown, the capital city of Sierra Leone, has experienced severe flooding and resulting land slides. BBC reported that hundreds had been killed in one such landslide as houses were buried on the outskirts of the capital. The Red Cross estimates that nearly 3000 people have been left without homes as a result of the rain.

Thankfully, Esther is currently visiting family out of the country and is safe from the floods. However, she shared tragic stories from home where friends had sent images of those killed by the mud slides. I will not share those images with you. Needless to say, the damage to the city is devastating as seen in other images of the flooding and landslide below.

Esther is receiving spotty information from Freetown. So far, we don't have reports that staff or students of Esther's school, the Women in Action Development Project, have been injured. However, we have learned that much of Women in Action's supplies were damaged by flooding and that the first crops planted in the new farm field we purchased last month have been washed away. 

School season begins soon at Women in Action, and this is not the start we want. Women in Action will definitely need support to get its footing again in the wake of this crisis. I'm asking for your help to literally weather this storm and see Women in Action through to the best start possible for this Fall school season. We made a huge leap forward in July with the farmland. Let's ensure this tragedy doesn't undo the progress we've made!

-Matthew

Donote to Flood Relief

Cr. BBC

Cr. BBC

You Did It! You Bought Farmland!

Echoers!

I am very excited to announce that, with Esther's guidance, we have all successfully bought a plot of farmland for the Women in Action Development Project!

I can't thank you all enough for the support that you've shown. When we put out the call for help, you answered and that means a great deal to me, Esther, and the staff and students of the Women in Action Development Project. Special thanks to Capilano University's Global Stewardship program and Mulgrave Secondary for their fundraising efforts, donations, and hosting me to speak about Esther's Echo at Justice High and Action for Esther. 

Esther sent a few pictures of the land which I've included below. Esther is currently thinking of leaving some room on the land to construct the first of their rural school locations bringing us to our next set of goals.

Our support to Esther has, so far, been for the general operation of the Women in Action Development Project. However we want to go beyond that and facilitate growth and expansion as well. Purchase of the farmland was a first step in that direction as crop yields will serve to generate income to help pay expenses we've already been funding like rent on Esther's school building. Having the farm therefore means all your future donations are that much more effective as we can start investing some of that funding into long-term growth. The longer-term goals are to help with the expansion of the primary Women in Action location in Freetown and also expand to a rural location; likely on the land we just secured. These are big plans, but I think we can make it happen. We will need all your support and your help to spread the word to others you think would be willing to contribute as well.

We will keep you posted on the farmland developments. Once again, my sincerest thanks to you all. 

-Matthew

Donate Today!