Being Fully Present

This week’s Sunday Service is an opportunity to once again support the work of 12for12k.  The organization has teamed up with Epic Change to make this year’s Tweetsgiving the best ever!  Funds raised during this celebration of gratitude will support a remarkable school in Tanzania.

Throughout Tweetsgiving (Nov. 24-26), I will be posting stories about the actual children who are directly impacted at the school, so come back often for inspiration!

What is Epic Change? 

Inspired by a volunteer trip to Tanzania, founders Stacey Monk & Sanjay Patel created Epic Change in 2007. They realized the power of the local stories they heard during their journey, and believed that they might be a potential means to raise funds to support the impoverished communities they visited and others like them across the globe.

 Their Mission

“We help people in need share their stories to acquire resources that will improve their lives.”

Epic change believes that people’s stories are assets that can be used as resources to improve their lives.  They help people in need share their “epic” true stories in innovative, creative and profitable ways to help them acquire the financial resources they need to create positive “change” in their communities.

Their approach

Epic Change uses donations to provide interest-free loans to local partners to finance their community improvement efforts.  They facilitate loan repayment by collaborating with their partners to share their stories through projects that generate income.  Finally, they “pay it forward” by recycling repaid loans to help fund Epic Change in other communities.

Shepherds Junior Primary School in Arusha, Tanzania

The Epic Change proof-of-concept project seeks to rebuild and expand Shepherds Junior, a small primary school in Arusha, Tanzania at which Monk and Patel volunteered in during their 2007 trip to Africa. 

->Mama Lucy Kamptoni, a savvy and passionate local woman, founded the school in 2003 on land she rented next door to her home using the income from her poultry business.  The school nearly closed in 2007 when a developer bought the rented land, and Kamptoni had no access to the capital required to relocate.

-> The school has grown from 6 students beginning in 2003 to 335 children in 2009; all between the ages of 3-13.

-> The school is entirely in English medium, but includes courses in Swahili, the country’s primary language, and has clubs that celebrate the vibrant culture and history of Tanzania.  In addition, the school focuses lessons on local social and cultural issues, including poverty, HIV/AIDS, gender equality, child labor and more.

-> The school charges tuition to most students, and uses its income to subsidize the costs of orphans and lower income children who attend the school.

-> It’s estimated that the new school will cost $175,000 to build and will take 3-5 years for construction and loan payback.

->In November, 2008, Shepherds Junior participated in national exams for the first time.  The school ranked #1 out of 117 participating schools in the Arusha District.

The information above is from a press kit provided by Epic Change.  To read it in its entirety, click here.

How you can help

To support 12for12k and Tweetsgiving for Epic Change, click here.  Scroll down to the secure donations link.  I put my money where my blog is, so to speak.  I hope you’ll join me.  Give whatever you can.  Every dollar makes a difference by opening up possibilities through education.

Don’t forget – come back during Tweetsgiving to read about the amazing children we are helping!

Explore posts in the same categories: Leadership, Possibility, Service

This entry was posted on November 22, 2009 at 1:08 pm and is filed under Leadership, Possibility, Service. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Charity, Community, Compassion, Possibilities, Social Media, Tweetsgiving

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