Receiving, and applying for $$$$ dolla dolla bills for small sustainable development projects. That’s what I have been up to these last 2 weeks. There is nothing like cold hard cash to get you out of a slump. I had been feeling a little lethargic the last month or so, until I found out on the same day that I just received 2 grants (one after 9 months of waiting). The long awaited grant is to help fund activities for my sex-ed/HIV course for pre-teen and teenagers. I started the class with out the funds and am not about to graduate my second course… I had almost given up hope when I found a large lump sum in my bank account. I quickly made a new account for the new funds, as to not by accidentally spend them on empanadas.
My second grant is for a kid’s art class for the summer. Since children here do not get many formal outlets for creativity, I figured this would be a fun activity that I could join with our new community library, to promote education in the summer. Furthermore, I got news that a package of educational toys from my mom’s employer Discovery Toys, are now on their way! These kids should have a great time this summer in the library! My scheme is to try to just jam pack the library with kids to pump up interest before I leave, so the project continues forward!
One exciting step towards sustainability for the library is a new literacy program started by one of my former students, Emmanuel. Emmanuel is a stellar 14 year old in my community. He came to me with the idea, to start a reading club to help teach small children to read in the morning. The library is usually only open in the afternoons, when the younger grades are in school, so this gives them an opportunity to enjoy the library. I said it sounded great to me, just come to the library meeting and present it to the committee. With the go ahead of the committee, I passed him a copy of the library key, and his face lit up like a flood lamp. His class now meets 3 mornings a week, and he has about 13-20 kids per class. I obviously, had to check this class out… see pictures above!
Continuing, on my pathway of fundraising, I applied for two new grants this week. One is to hold an awareness event against violence against women. This idea came up after I gave a presentation on the subject to the 2 women’s groups, and the women loved the idea but wanted to take the message farther. They brought up the idea to have all the community groups involved, giving dramas, and doing a march. I saw an opportunity for a women’s empowerment grant called Mothers to Mothers, and decided to try to see if I can get some money for the event. Either way, we hope to have the event in the summer.
Lastly, I just turned in an application for a small grant for my artisan association called the Peace Corps Partnership Program (PCPP). This grant will be funding the creation of a small office for the artisans to better organize their business and finances, improvements on the artisan building to create a central store, and funds to create promotional materials for the association. If approved you will be hearing more about this project later… because this grant is funded by my family and friends back at home! The artisans will be covering 40% of project costs, but I will need to raise US $2,600 as fast as possible. The faster I raise the money means the faster we can implement the project, and the faster I can go home. Meaning… if you want me to return, when the time comes, please help out my cause with donations and/or passing on the link to everyone you can. I have a feeling, the project won’t be approved for a month, but just a heads up!
In other news, I just started getting involved with a new movement of volunteers to share and talk about world and political issues and how they relate to development work. We spent the other weekend at my friend’s cabin, where we had debates, presentations, and watched a few documentaries. It was a really fun time to get together with volunteers but also educate each other about world issues, which we can sometimes forget about in our villages, where we our cut off from world news. The group just started a small publication (not sponsored by Peace Corps), if anyone is interested in reading. The first edition in PDF can still be found at this link https://drop.io/progressivecircle/login (password: firstamendment). You will not find anything from me here, but hopefully I will put something together for the second issue.
Last but not least…. I just need to say, I PLACED 3RD, in the hitch hiking race last weekend (also not Peace Corps sponsored)! Just think the amazing race with costumes. This is a pretty big honor- which was recognized by a sweet DR hat, I received from the organizers.
That’s it for now. But a look ahead…. I will be leaving for Honduras Tuesday the 27th for 11 days! Be ready for some Latin American adventure tales for sure!
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