Just imagine for a moment life without electricity... no lights, no heat, no air conditioning. No way to charge your phone even if you had one. No lights in the community that lit your way for safety. Sheer darkness.
Even if you grew up poor in America, you almost certainly had electricity. - you had lights. With no running water, no electricity, no traditional education, and no access to their traditional source of food in the forest, the Batwa are facing extreme poverty the likes of which most people in the U.S. can't really imagine. It is even considered shocking to some Ugandans who grew up in a village to see some of these living conditions.
Slowly by slowly (as they say in Uganda) we are working with the Batwa to develop their community — and we are all excited by the positive changes. First we built a bridge at their request. Then a home for a single mama. Then we got kids who'd dropped out back in school. Then we got clean water which was huge (and the system is broken at the moment, but we are - somewhat impatiently - waiting for our partner org to fix it - just keeping it real). Then we built more homes. We bought baskets from the Batwa to bring income. We started a school.
And now, with great excitement to our original mission related to sustainable ecosystems and communities - we will get the Batwa sustainable solar power for their homes.
Developing Africa in a way that does not harm the environment is incredibly important in the era of climate change. And solar power helps bring light to the Batwa's homes at night so they do not have to scrounge around looking for things with 500 shilling flashlights that break and barely work. The kids can do homework and read books. THIS IS HUGE!
Since we started raising money a month ago, we have already built one house for single mama Allen but need more - can you donate $100? $1000? $20? $5?
There's just TWO MORE DAYS until Giving Tuesday - we have raised $2,290 of our $15,400 goal. We're 15% of our goal. Let's get to $5000 by Tuesday!
There are several ways to donate:
1. At our Power to the People Deposit a Gift site, we have broken down the budget of our solar project but there are higher fees.
2. Mail a check to RSF, PO Box 876, Frisco TX 75034
3. Paypal's Giving Fund page- give with no fees. This is especially helpful for larger donations because... no fees! But you have to email us to notify us (so we can add it to the tally) because they delay delivery by about 1 month and we aren't notified who it's from!
4. Donate via my Facebook fundraiser, where I have a fundraiser going on. These funds go through Network for Good, so we also do not get notified of your donation until they deposit a lump sum to us (so please, inform me so I can add to our tally!) BUT they MATCH any donations through Nov 27!
5. Donate any time at our RSF website RedemptionSongFoundation.org/donate
All these funds get to us one way or another and all are welcome