Giving Tuesday 2020!

Hello Echoers!

I'm writing to let you all know that Esther's Echo is once again a partner for Giving Tuesday Canada this year - part of the wider global Giving Tuesday holiday fundraising campaign.

Here's a description about the campaign from the Giving Tuesday website:

"Giving Tuesday is a global movement for giving and volunteering, taking place each year after Black Friday. The “Opening day of the giving season,” it’s a time when charities, companies and individuals join together and rally for favourite causes. In the same way that retailers take part in Black Friday, the giving community comes together for Giving Tuesday.

Giving Tuesday harnesses the potential of social media and the generosity of people around the world to bring about real change in their communities; it provides a platform for them to encourage the donation of time, resources and talents to address local challenges. It also brings together the collective power of a unique blend of partners - nonprofits, civic organizations, businesses and corporations, as well as families and individuals - to encourage and amplify small acts of kindness. Across Canada and around the world, Giving Tuesday unites communities by sharing our capacity to care for and empower one another."

For Giving Tuesday, and into the Holiday Season, we'll be fundraising for Esther Kanu and the Women in Action Development Project - our community partner in Sierra Leone. Our goal is to raise $3,000 which will cover the remainder of the rent on the two Women in Action school locations until September 2021. Our sincerest thanks to all who contributed to the first half of the year's rent AND the supplementary fundraiser we did to cover staff wages. WiA fell behind due to COVID-19 restrictions meaning the schools could not take on clothing, and catering contracts. Without your help, the schools likely would have closed. I know it's a big ask this year to come to you again looking for donations. Please know that the students, Esther and her staff, and of course myself are all so grateful for the additional support you've shown in a difficult time. You've now helped over 400 young women graduate in Sierra Leone. I'll be providing updates on the fundraising process through to the end of the year.

Also be sure to check out our Giving Tuesday profile here.

-Matthew

April Graduation, Giving Tuesday, COVID-19, and The Roddenberry Foundation

Dear Echoers,

I’m cramming a bunch of updates into one e-mail as I know you’re likely all receiving so much traffic from everybody right now and I didn’t want to contribute (more than necessary) to the flood of your inboxes.

First off, a big thank you to those who contributed to our fundraiser this past February and March. Great News! With your support, we saw the Women in Action Development Project through another academic year resulting in a new graduating class of 41 students! That puts the total graduates from Women in Action that we’ve been able to directly contribute to since our founding at nearly 500! Again, this wouldn’t be possible without your support. These graduates go on to beat national averages for unemployment, homelessness, and in light of Earth Day this week, are also contributing to environmental sustainability. As we spoke about during the Climate March, the education of women and girls is one of the top ten ways of decreasing global carbon emissions.

Project Drawdown CO2 Reduction Solutions by Rank

Unfortunately, a few COVID-19 cases have been reported in Sierra Leone so formal graduation ceremony will not be happening this year. Thankfully, classes were open long enough for students to complete course work before quarantining began and had a small celebration on the last day of classes. I was sent a video that’s below. This is the last day of classes from the NEW LOCATION in Port Loko that was opened last year. However, a quarantine will impact the school’s other income generating activities. As in other parts of the world, businesses are closed or restricted meaning that the school will not be able to take on catering or tailoring contracts as it normally does. Considering the impact by COVID-19 to non-profit organizations, a new global Giving Tuesday has been set for May 5th, in addition to the traditional November Giving Tuesday, and we are asking for contributions. You can check out our Giving Tuesday Partner Profile page here https://givingtuesday.ca/partners/esthers-echo

That said, I know SO MANY organizations and causes are poking at you right now and many of us (myself included) have been laid off or had their income security impacted by the virus. However, I can say that despite the pandemic, none of this funding is going to overhead costs or self-maintenance. As always, all our donations go directly to Esther, her staff, and the students of the Women in Action Development Project. There is currently a coalition of large Canadian non-profits asking for funding to maintain their headquarters of operation. Part of the advantage of being a smaller grass-roots initiative is that Esther’s Echo itself can weather these kinds of challenges more easily because of our very low overhead costs. Women in Action cannot and so that’s why we ensure 100% of your funds go overseas. Any costs to our own operation I cover personally.

Lastly, an exciting initiative we recently undertook was to apply again to this year’s Roddenberry Foundation Prize. The Roddenberry Foundation is the vision of Rod Roddenberry – son of Gene Roddenberry who created the sci-fi show Star Trek. The Foundation funds organizations whose work helps to usher in the future depicted in Star Trek. Future Earth in Star Trek has eradicated poverty, hunger, disease, homelessness; an idyllic world where people are free to be their best selves. As a young person with their head in the stars, I’d always hoped to explore space one day. When I realized that wasn’t possible, I thought if perhaps I couldn’t explore UP then maybe I could explore OUT, which is how I ended up in Africa to begin with. And, like the crew of the starship Enterprise in Star Trek, I wanted to leave the places I explored better than I found them. That is how Esther’s Echo came to be. The Roddenberry prize is an epic $250,000. Most organizations that qualify have budgets in excess of a million dollars – far beyond where we are at. So, our odds are not stellar, however I believe the process helps to put us on the Foundation’s radar and gives me an opportunity to clarify our purpose and intent each time. The application for the Roddenberry Prize asks a series of questions about your organization. I have posted our answers online so you can read them. They are in a subsequent blog post here.

Thank you all again for your donations through the Esther’s Echo website, to me in person, and to our fundraisers on Facebook. Remember Giving Tuesday is May 5th!

Sincerely

Matthew

A Video From Matthew on Giving Tuesday 2019

It's Giving Tuesday! Thank you all for your support so far! Between our donations through the website and on Facebook, we've raised about 800 dollars. We're aiming for $2000 for the giving season to shore up the rest of what we need this year. Anything above that will go toward 2020!

As always, thank you for any consideration of Esther's Echo and Esther's school, the Women in Action Development Project...which is now Projects plural!