Today is the day! Giving Tuesday often described as a "Global Day of Giving" is held each year on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving. This year it falls on November 29th, today!
Every year, Redemption Song Foundation (RSF)’s coincides our annual fundraising campaign with Giving Tuesday, and we try to raise our goal amount to accomplish a main focus for the coming year. Earlier this month, we announced our “Passport to Education” campaign to raise funds to provide holistic education for all the Batwa children in Kalehe village and support their families at home.
We need to raise at least $10,000 to support our Education programs, on top of the child sponsors needed for individual children. This money supports several aspects of RSF's work with the children of Kalehe village and a few other children we sponsor in school.
The funds go to:
* General support for our After School Tutoring and Educational Soup Kitchen programs.
* Improvements to the RSF Community House, a safe space for the Kalehe village Batwa to play, and to get food, emotional support, health advice, advocacy, and mentoring. The floor is damaged and our landlord is requiring us to fix it.
* Smartphones and tablets for older kids to learn and gain access to external news, get tutoring from RSF's Director, communicate with their sponsors, write and photograph aspects of their lives for a new Voices of the Batwa publication we wish to create. Also, we need internet and phone costs to support these programs.
* Start-up funds for our Voices of the Batwa publication that will help the Batwa speak to the world and gain valuable experience for secondary school and college, which is not far off.
* Program costs to pay our amazing Ugandan staff salaries, without whom we could not do what we do.
* Rent for the RSF Community House, which is $1,250 a year. We also need to pay water, electricity, and other household expenses for our staff and the two Batwa children we care for and who live in the house part or all of the year.
OR Become a Child Sponsor!! This is one of the most rewarding things you may ever do in your life. You ca watch one of these children grow up, communicate with them as often as you like by email or handwritten letter that you email us (and they will write you at least 3 times/year), and you can have a positive, encouraging influence on their life. What a true blessing for both of you! For this, you donate at least $500/year or a $45/mo recurring payment set up through Paypal (go to our Donate page, and you will see a drop-down menu for this, click it and it will take you to a Paypal sign in page).
Due to inflation, each child needs two sponsors to fully fund their education (secondary students may need additional funds) and because we don't want any kids to not attend school, this is where our funds go to, but that keeps money from other important programs like Sustainable Agriculture and Community Development. The most in-need children right now are listed below. P stands for Primary, and P4, for example, is the equivalent of 4th grade in American schools.
1 Confidence (P7, going into secondary school, age 17)
2 Andrew (P7, going into secondary school, age 16)
3 Evidence (P5, age 14)
4 Macklin (P5, age 13)
5 Daisy (P3, age 10)
6 Nazil (P3, age 12)
7 Friday (P4, age 15)
8 Bosco (P3, age 11)
9 Shivan (P3, age 11)
10 Limia (P1, age 11)
11 Zane (Middle class, age 4)
12 Thomas (Baby class, age 3)
13 Sasha (Top class, age 7)
14 Miriam (Top class, age 8)
15 Edgar (P4, age 16)
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