'Free Our Minds' Education Fund

Last month, we installed the clean water system you helped fund, and we now have sponsors for all 16 of the Kalehe Batwa kids. It feels great, but now our bank account is depleted... Operating on a shoestring budget is not easy! We didn't raise sponsorship fees this year (but we really need to), can you help us in this pinch by donating $20, $50 or $100 to our "Free Our Minds" Education Fund (That's from a line from Bob Marley's Redemption Song... "Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, only ourselves can free our minds"). We need to raise $6000 in a short time, and the funds will go towards: * Expanding the Educational Soup Kitchen to twice weekly. This helps the younger kids who attend the local school get better nutrition plus supplemental education. These kids are not performing as well as the boarders, so I really want to help give them a boost. * Supplementing our sponsorship program by allowing parents to visit their kids each term, having funds to buy shoes, clothes & supplies for the soup kitchen while kids are on break, and food for when the kids come to visit (which is often), money to fix the soccer balls which often get holes, and more. * Supporting our awesome all-female house staff who run our programs. Unlike most businesses or nonprofits in Uganda, we allow our staff to bring their young kids to work. We support two uneducated Batwa women as well as two who have finished high school but are not college-educated. They have been trained to support our efforts in amazing ways!

* Supplementing my small Director stipend. I get a modest $500/mo stipend when in Uganda (slightly more while traveling and fund-raising in the US). It is a burden on our small yearly budget, but with little other personal income, I do need this small amount. We did not come close to the goal on my Director fund. I'm trying to get back into writing, but there are only so many hours in a day!

CONTEST: If you donate $20 or more between now and March 15, you are entered in a contest to win a grab bag gift pack: a $32 basket, a paper bead necklace, and a lidded basket!