As you may have read, Vision Africa is currently taking place in the GlobalGiving challenge to secure a permanent spot on its website. To do this, we have chosen to fundraise for our Seed of Hope training centres which cater for destitute teenage girls.
We are now halfway through what we are calling the “Global Giving Grand Prix” and feel it’s time to take a pit stop and see how far we’ve come as we prepare for the next lap.
As of today we have raised…
$1,815 through 31 donors
Which means we are on our way to reaching our target of
$4,000 through 50 unique donors.
A huge ASANTE SANA to each of you who has helped us get this far.
For those who are undecided and need some convincing, please allow me to share an experience I had last Thursday.
As I waited at Seed of Hope Nairobi for my colleague to arrive I was greeted by a number of second year students. One of the, Agatha, came and sat beside me for a chat. When I met Agatha at the beginning of her first year at Seed of Hope, she was a quiet girl who had to be persuaded to smile for a photograph. On this day she was beaming!
Coming from a remote area near Embu town (a rural part of Kenya), this girl is following in the footsteps of her cousin on the Seed of Hope programme. Leaving behind her mother and young brother, she came to Nairobi to be trained in dressmaking and business skills.
We started chatting about how this would be her final term at Seed of Hope and the outfit she has designed for the graduation ceremony in November. Agatha proudly told me that after attachment (work placement) she will join some of her fellow students in setting up their own business where she will build on her confidence, gain customers then go on to open a chain of her own dressmaking shops! As she put it herself “I am going to lift up my family”.
A remarkable change from the shy girl I met last January and a great indication of the affect that Seed of Hope can have.
As many of you receive your salaries this month end, please consider making a small donation which could provide destitute girls with the training and support they need to earn their own living in a life filled with dignity, opportunity and hope. You can do this by visiting Global Giving before the 18th September.
Thanks for your support!!