Providing "Change" - Update*

Our Providing "Change" campaign continues but here's an update. To date, we have collected $489 in change, which is just $111 short of our $600-goal!!! I am sincerely amazed and excited at this progress! My mother asked me just before we counted our change just how much do I think I'm going to collect through this because it's just pennies and nickels and such. But then she was inspired by Megan (see one of the earlier posts on this campaign) and added some of her change to the campaign! We will be continuing our collection, so feel free to add what you can! Check back frequently for updates and for information on when and where we will be collecting again. THANKS!!! (And yes, the above picture is the change - minus the quarters, half dollars, dollar coins, and dollar bills - we collected so far. The large Coke bottle was courtesy of Megan; we will be returning the bottle to her so she can collect again if she desires.)

*Please note that this campaign has nothing to do with Senator Barack Obama's presidential campaign; nor did we take his idea for this campaign. Our "change" stems from the spare change that is being collected in order to "change" a harvested maize field into a soccer field at a high school in Africa. :)

PROPOSAL PASSED!!

THANKS to all of you who voted for our proposal on GiveMeaning.com!!!

The proposal has now passed stage 1 (the voting stage) and can now enter stage 2 (the actual fund-raising stage).

To see more go to the site here. There is more to come!!!! :)

Change Makers: Providing "Change" (One community at a time)

One of our fund-raising campaigns in the past several months has been collecting spare change--nickels and pennies mostly, but whatever that jangles in our pockets and coin-purses--and putting it in a jar (or ziplock for me) to contribute to our Providing "Change" campaign. This was what we put together and circulated for this campaign:

WHAT: Pennies and nickels (or all the change you can spare!)
WHO: Global Community Partners for Kings Victory High School
WHERE: Blantyre, Malawi (Africa)
WHY: To “change” a harvested maize field into a soccer field for the youth (many who are orphaned by the AIDS crisis)
HOW: By collecting as much change as possible to raise $600 – the cost for “changing” this field
WHEN: Deposit your change in jar/bag provided, or for collection information contact Eun-sil at: euneeq@gmail.com

So we have actually made our initial collection and I am amazed at the progress we have made towards our goal! There have been many change-makers who have contributed to this campaign; in no particular order, they are: Jeremy, Rana, Sylvia, Megan, Kay, Michelle, Yoon, Sung, Eunja, and a few other anonymous people. But in this entry, I just want to thank one particular change-maker: Megan, who is 9 years old. She collected $185.91 to contribute to this fund-raising campaign, and I am inspired by her! I know that I will not be the only one who is thankful for the change she has contributed, in more ways than one! And I will most certainly share this with the students at Kings Victory High School this August. We have collected a lot of change and will do a counting in a few days to see just how close we are to our goal. I am certain that we have at least $350 which is a bit over the halfway mark of our $600 goal. So if you are collecting, please continue! If you are not and you want to contribute, please begin!! You will always have an opportunity to be a change-maker, even if it's not with this particular goal!

And to share with you, this is our 9-year-old change-maker, Megan, who was happy to hear how much she had raised and also happy to see some pictures of the school where a soccer field will be created halfway around the world:

GCP Yard Sale in Los Angeles!

We are having a yard sale in the Los Angeles area to raise funds for my trip to and work in Malawi! If you would like to come and keep us company, or bring some stuff to donate to the sale, here's the pertinent info:


What: GCP Yard Sale
When: Saturday, June 21st, 2008
Time: 9 a.m. to mid-afternoon?
Where: Pyong Kang Church, 4949 York Blvd, Los Angeles, CA (located in Eagle Rock near Occidental College; nearest cross street is Avenue 50)

We will be at L.A. Ye-Bon Church on June 15th (1:30 p.m. service) so you can bring stuff then, or you can bring it to the yard sale yourself if you plan to join us. :)

Can't come? No problem! Just pray for us! :)

GCP Monthly Update: June Bloom

It is already time for our June update. It has been spring here on Long Island and my first real lived-in Spring experience. It's amazing how trees that once looked dead and brown all of a sudden all spring to life again! Tiny little buds protruding from brown branches and flowers budding all around! Truly one of the most fascinating things for me to see I think. And as the trees put on new coats of soft green and pretty themselves up with blossoms, I was excited to be shedding my winter layers and putting on light clothes, basking in the sun again! But those rainy days sure were hard to take!! And even now, when I look at the forecast, I get a bit disappointed when I see rain in it.

But can you imagine the earth with no rain? I think that's why it's so green here in the summer on Long Island. There's so much rain during the winter and spring that the ground has soaked it up as have the plants, and all summer long, they remain so lushly green! It reminds me of how life is a lot of times - not always sunshine and happiness; the rains do come, and clouds move in with thunder and lightning. Yet without the periods of rain, I wouldn't appreciate the sun so much, and without the periods of rain, I wouldn't grow so much. And I know that there will be plenty of periods of rain ahead, with July looming largely on the horizon. But I know that once July comes and goes, I will be rolling right into everything in August; and I'll probably experience a lot of growth. So instead of the traditional "June gloom", I think it's time for June bloom. Yes, a bit corny, but I can't help it. :)

So what's new with us in June?

1. The workshop outlines I sent to Kings Victory Academy looked acceptable, according to the principal and the missionary who is my contact there. So my task this month is to continue to prepare for the workshops with activities, literature, and things that I can leave with the teachers as well as ways that they can teach me. I will share more about the workshops in my next update. :)

2. Last month, the proposal that I was trying to get going on the Give Meaning website failed to reach the needed 100 votes to advance to the next level. So, I'm doing it again. My motto is very quickly becoming "Try, try, and try again!" The website is: http://www.givemeaning.com/proposal/communitymalawi (click here to access it) . Please visit it and vote. When you go and vote, please remember to rate our proposal (the orange, blue, and grey box on the left hand side). You can rate it by moving your cursor over the box; it should show you an empty row of stars - you can select however many stars you want to give it and then click. As of today, I need 86 more votes by June 28th! For those of you who already voted, thank you!!! Spread the word to all your friends.

3. June 1st was supposed to be our first collection day at Ye-Bon church in Los Angeles for our Provide Change campaign as well as any donations for a yard sale we will be holding in June (most likely June 21st) if we have enough stuff to do a yard sale. I wasn't able to send out the announcement with too much advanced notice, so I apologize. We will have another collection date on June 15th at Ye-Bon church for the yard sale. If you have things to donate and intend to donate them (and you live in the greater Los Angeles area) please let me know, reply to this email, or let Pastor Newman know as soon as possible. The time and place for the yard sale will be announced by next weekend (give or take a few days) if we have enough stuff to sell.

4. Some change-makers have contributed to our Provide Change for Malawi campaign, but we are still collecting. Our goal is to reach $600 or as much as we can towards that to provide a soccer field for the youth and community at Kings Victory High School. So if you have any spare change jangling in your pockets, or have a jar sitting somewhere filled with those pennies and nickels that you really don't know what to do with, take them to the nearest coin-counting machine, redeem the receipt at the grocery store, and send us the $. Or bring your change to Ye-Bon church on the 15th of June, and we'll take them off your hands.

5. I'm trying to post more often on our blog (http://gcpwork.blogspot.com), so visit it from time to time! When I'm traveling, I will be posting entries on the blog to keep you up-to-date, so keep visiting! :) I will try to post as much as I can about my trip to Africa.

Thank you for your continued support in voting for my proposal, praying for us, and participating in our fund-raising efforts! Thanks for your donations as well! We are still accepting donations on an ongoing basis; all your donations are tax-deductible. Checks can be made payable to: Global Community Partners, and sent to: 10329 Fernglen Avenue, Tujunga, CA 91042, USA.

For those of you who are in the greater Los Angeles area, I will be at L.A. Ye-Bon church in Atwater Village on June 15th to give a short presentation about what I will be doing in Africa this summer. If you are interested in attending and need directions, please feel free to email me for directions! :)

I'm getting increasingly excited!

Proposal for Kings Victory Academy is back up!

Our proposal on the Give Meaning website is back up! Please vote!! It takes only a few minutes but each vote is important to me and the school community we are raising funds for! I need 93 votes by June 28th in order to go to the next level of actually raising the funds for this project! You can click on the title of this blog and it will take you directly to the site.

A brief synopsis of the project: Raising funds ($2500 total) to contribute to the completion/renovation of buildings at Kings Victory High School in Blantyre, Malawi, as well as contributing about half ($1260) of that to school fees for the youth that attend the school but may become orphaned or are orphaned through the misfortune of losing a parent or both parents to HIV/AIDS.

Some people may wonder why there are school fees for secondary school (junior high and high school). In countries like the U.S. public education is free all the way through high school because it is something the government has established and tax dollars go towards funding these schools. They also receive funding from the state as well as the federal level, under different budgets/funds/revenues. But countries like the U.S. generate a lot of revenue. In a country such as Malawi, in Sub-Saharan Africa, only an elementary school education is compulsory and free. Beyond that, students have to pay a fee to continue their education. Perhaps it seems that these countries are not placing education as a priority, but in countries like Malawi, everything is a priority - all basic needs. When a country is impoverished, although it is tragic, education cannot be free when the budget is spread so thin. Of course there are many other factors influencing this budget but I'll not get into that here. So, you see? School fees are a reality and a necessity in these countries in order to operate the schools, pay the staff, and provide an education for the children. And that is why I propose that we raise funds for those orphans and impoverished youth that have difficulty paying for their education and are faced with no option but to drop-out....

So please go and vote!! And tell all your friends to vote!! Thanks. :)