My belated birthday wish for a new Life in Africa
My birthday was yesterday, so today I am celebrating the successful launch of my 48th year on this planet, and the re-launch of a crowdfunding campaign for my dear sisters at Life in Africa.
Please know that your support to this campaign at any level will feel like an invaluable gift to me personally. If I could just give these ladies $15,000 myself, I would. I have known them for 15 years, and they are like sisters to me. They are soon to be homeless and really need the power of their networks to pull through for them now - not to mention that they are a wonderful group and their plan is a good on. This all means I'll be appealing more directly to everyone I know on this one than I normally do. You're invited to a facebook event page where we can follow and nurture the campaign's progress together thru the campaign's 23 June deadline.
After a recently unsuccessful attempt at raising almost $9,000 toward the Family Transition Center last month, community leaders Grace Ayaa and Peter Ndelo have really rallied this past week to get the campaign back up and running with a lower tipping point of $4000. That lowered amount will at least enable them to buy land. Even if that's all they raise of their total $15,000 goal, they can start out camping together on the land - my Life in Africa sisters and their families will not be completely homeless when the bulldozers come.
If you think about it, $4,000 is such a ridiculously low amount of money, and yet a whole community of lives are at stake. Even the $15,000 total goal they are seeking is small compared to how they can leverage it to serve the enormous need for resources in starting over again after a devastating war. In truth, the LiA ladies always knew they would have to go home someday, and have been preparing for it for years in ways that will help them sustain life in the north once they get started. But now the stone quarry land that this war-displaced group has been living on for 20 years has been sold, and there is unrest among the affected Baganda (Kampala's local tribe) that's becoming increasingly targeted at the war-displaced Acholi families. The question to ask yourself about the Family Transition Center plan is not "is this a good idea?" but "can they hold on until they find the money?"
I am so pleased with and grateful to Peter and Grace, for pulling themselves up to relaunch this campaign right away; to Patty Simonton from startsomegood.com for amazing support to the re-launch during her vacation; to my friends who have already contributed in the past 24 hours...
and to YOU for considering this belated but heartfelt birthday wish.
Make whatever pledge you can afford, large or small
(your pledge only becomes a contribution once the $4000 tipping point goal has been reached)
Help share stuff & cheer the campaign on thru June 23
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| These are some LiA Members who recently learned to grow mushrooms together. They're part of a group of 35 war-affected women who are now urgently seeking funds to help deal with another forced family displacement. |
After a recently unsuccessful attempt at raising almost $9,000 toward the Family Transition Center last month, community leaders Grace Ayaa and Peter Ndelo have really rallied this past week to get the campaign back up and running with a lower tipping point of $4000. That lowered amount will at least enable them to buy land. Even if that's all they raise of their total $15,000 goal, they can start out camping together on the land - my Life in Africa sisters and their families will not be completely homeless when the bulldozers come.
If you think about it, $4,000 is such a ridiculously low amount of money, and yet a whole community of lives are at stake. Even the $15,000 total goal they are seeking is small compared to how they can leverage it to serve the enormous need for resources in starting over again after a devastating war. In truth, the LiA ladies always knew they would have to go home someday, and have been preparing for it for years in ways that will help them sustain life in the north once they get started. But now the stone quarry land that this war-displaced group has been living on for 20 years has been sold, and there is unrest among the affected Baganda (Kampala's local tribe) that's becoming increasingly targeted at the war-displaced Acholi families. The question to ask yourself about the Family Transition Center plan is not "is this a good idea?" but "can they hold on until they find the money?"
I am so pleased with and grateful to Peter and Grace, for pulling themselves up to relaunch this campaign right away; to Patty Simonton from startsomegood.com for amazing support to the re-launch during her vacation; to my friends who have already contributed in the past 24 hours...
and to YOU for considering this belated but heartfelt birthday wish.
Make whatever pledge you can afford, large or small
(your pledge only becomes a contribution once the $4000 tipping point goal has been reached)
Help share stuff & cheer the campaign on thru June 23