Working to Empower

Hello all,

Back to the blog after a long break, sorry for the silence. WTE is still moving along. Our peer educators are working hard in Nyragusu refugee camp, entering into their 3rd year of work since the WTE partnership began. Time has flown by. Our students are doing extremely well and, with some excitment, 4 of our boarding students from the IDP camps in northern Uganda will graduate in 2010. It has been a long struggle and we are really glad to have seen this project and their dreams come to life. Speaking of which, it is about the time of year WTE has to ask for your generous support to help these kids. We have many children in refugee camps in Tanzania only needing $10 per year! We have the girls in northern Uganda (in addition to those entering into their final year), some in Kampala (Uganda) and another new group of children in Harar, Ethiopia. We’d love your support as partial sponsors, full sponsors or contributors. You can make an online donation on the WTE site. You can contact us for specific information about children, locations, countries, the programs and WTE in general any time either via our website or by contacting me directly.

Looking forward to seeing another great year of work and the graduation of some of these children’s education - made possible by you! From us at WTE and the kids themselves, thank you!

Logan

Last week I got great news, WTE received a donation to keep our HIV education program running in Nyragusu refugee camp, Tanzania. This program has been running for 2 years and has had positive impacts in the community, such as an increased use of VCT and knowledge. Last month WTE didn’t have funds to keep it operating but with this recent donation the program will get another 5-month funding.

With the global climate the way it is, WTE is struggling to keep all our programs running this year.

Got an email this morning, after having WTE placed on the Oprah’s Angel Network (see below) and they might want to set up an interview with me for Oprah radio (available on XFM and other satiliate radio receptions). I’ll let you know if it develops into something concrete!

Working to Empower is a non-profit and non-governmental organization working to empower sustainable, community-based change. Focused mainly upon HIV/AIDS education, WTE works in additional areas so as to counter-act the negative effects felt within society. Other approaches include providing school fees for orphans and income generating projects for the most vulnerable of society. Key to Working To Empower’s success is the prominent role of local partners. Local needs are matched with locally based proposals by members of the community. Working To Empower aims to make proposals a reality so as to facilitate the implementation of locally demanded projects. We fundamentally assert the equality of all peoples and are rooted in the three core values of Responsibility, Respect, and Sustainability. It is our view that inequal distribution of goods, rights, education, and other resources produce inequal opportunity for certain peoples. It is our motivation to equalize these resources in order to empower people so that needed social changes can occur. Working to Empower is actively engaged in community-based empowerment within refugee camps in Tanzania and Benin, repatriation areas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and IDP camps in Northern Uganda.

Last year a filmer and I went around to 5 countries where WTE has projects and filmed. Now, we need the help of editing people, maybe some students? If you have ideas do let message me.

We are posted on Oprah’s Angel Network:
http://oprahsangelnetwork.org/stories/517-translating-change

WTE sent the school fees for the girls in northern uganda (attending boarding school) this week. I am sending them money to buy school supplies today. We are short, if anyone feels the urge to help find donors to get these girls the school supplies they need - we’d love the help. The girls live in IDP camps so we’ve paid for them to get into boarding schools. This year the exchange rate and the increase in school fees left us with less money for buying all their books, clothes, pens, and all that jazz. You can see video of these girls on the www.YouTube.com/workingte if you like. It is Ugandan EEP.

I just posted the 2008 budget. That’s how we used our donations, no administrative costs at all. Just bank fees to keep our account open, everything else direct to the local projects:

ACDA (Jan.): Emebet Education Program Uganda school fees 6,922,782 UGX

ArtHum (April): Dieudonne in Eastern DR Congo

WTE (June): $270 CAN for visas

ACDA (June): Emebet Education Program Uganda school fees 2,000,000 UGX

ACDA (June Trip): Necklace sales for Ugandan women $1300 USD

SOC (July 15/2008): $220 project evaluation EEP

NECH (July 18/2008): $227 visas

NECH (Aug.1/2008): $1650 Micro-credit program, 3-month peer educators - Nyragusu Refugee Camp

GPER (Aug.1/2008): $700 Drama education - Benin

Worknot (Aug.8/2008): $480 Beads payment - South Africa

NECH (Aug.23/2008): $166 Emebet Education Program Tanzania school fees 35 students

NECH (Oct.24/2008): $360 peer educators 3-month term - Tanzania

NECH (Nov.11/2008): $215 video shows Nyragusu refugee camp

NECH (Dec.12/2008): $400 for students uniforms and video shows - Tanzania refugee camp (Nyragusu)

Sorry for my long delay. Nothing overly exciting has been happening in the last couple months. More or less the same programs are continuing as usual. The financial crisis has not been overly kind to the charity business, but we hope to keep all our students in school this year. And, school fees have increased. Some people are wondering about the children’s home in Ethiopia. We did an amazing job raising funds for this project and we’ve run into a challenge: the free land is too far from needed medical services. There is the option of moving away and buying a couple vans, but these additional costs along with the commute required by the staff made that choice unlikely. So, we are left wondering how to use these funds at this point in time. However, rest assured your funds will be used properly and we’ve left every penny donated as it was and we intend to use it as we intended or else WTE will contact you regarding any changes.

The Emebet Education Program is growing strongly, with a demand for sponsorships that we cannot keep up with. We have had requests from new countries (Liberia most recently) and requests to expand all the current programs (Tanzania, Congo, Uganda). The amazing thing is that we have been able to put all these orphaned children into school, overcoming all the barriers that existed, be it boarding schools or uniform costs. We have ensured participation on the part of the guardians and I am proud to say that this program is running really well – cost effective and very needed.

The beading project, with women in northern Uganda making them and mothers and students selling them in Canada, has expanded in leaps and bounds in the last few months. The women in Uganda continue to make beads and somehow the Canadian mothers continue to sell them and support these widowed and single mothers. WTE thanks all those involved as they’ve done an amazing job. As usual, it is totally run by volunteers with no overhead or administrative costs, 100% of sales are going to the women. This is how aid projects ought to work, and I am proud that WTE has been able to play a role in what these students and mothers have been doing.

All the best,
Logan

Greetings all:

I’ve made it safely back to Toronto, Canada. The trip went well - it was a lot of travel in a short time but it was nice to see all those places, projects, and people again. For those involved with the sponsorship program, I am going to put together a package as soon as I can (video, photos, report) and for others who are just interested to see a copy, do let me know. Also, WTE is getting a large load of Uganda necklaces, made by the women’s group in northern Uganda, so if you would like to help sell them, please do contact us. 100% of the sales goes back to the women. Thanks for reading along, I probably won’t post as regularly since things are happening as quickly as they do while I am away. But, in the short-term future, we have some volunteers doing work in a couple places and some really interesting new projects. I’ll post about those when I have more to say. As for me - I got off the plane 2 hours ago from a two-day journey from Uganda to Canada safe and sound.