World Teacher Aid

African Children’s Choir Is Coming..

Amy — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 02:03:18 +0000

WOW, can you believe it?

The African Children’s Choir will be coming to our annual Gala at the Greens At Renton Golf Course in October.

At this time, I am finailizing details, but I can assure you that they are AMAZING.

Just check out their site here for videos: http://africanchildrenschoir.com/

They have been featured on Ellen, Oprah, The Tonight Show, American Idol and much more..

Tickets will go on sale this July. Keep your eye’s open for further updates.

April 2012 Newsletter

Amy — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 01:57:15 +0000

World Teacher Aid – April Newsletter

Every month, I am so blown away by people’s generosity and willingness to help. Not only did we have surprise donations this past month but we have also had people go out of their way to help with our events.

I have gone back to work full time now (I teach Grade One at a small rural school outside of Brantford), so I really appreciate the extra support from family, friends and strangers.

It feels so good to make a difference as a team – thank you.

You will find below, quick updates regarding our programs.

Write To Give

Our Write To Give Program has an exciting month ahead. Not only will we deliver the second book printed by Scholastic Education Canada, to 100 excited children in Ancaster, Ontario, but we will also have our annual Write To Give Day where we hope to stream this event to hundreds more children around the world.

On May 9^th, 1,100 students will gather to celebrate helping others and becoming published authors at the Sanderson Centre for Performing Arts in Brantford.

This exciting event will be attended by Scholastic Education Staff from the head office in Markham, as well as other community members who will be presenting awards to students for selling the most books.

So excited to share with the students the difference they have made in Kenya.

World Teacher Aid Gala

Planning continues to take place for our annual World Teacher Aid Gala this coming fall, at the Greens at Renton Golf Course. This will be a magical event that will feature live entertainment form the African Children’s Choir. Tickets will go on sale this July. To find out more about the African Children’s Choir, please go here: http://africanchildrenschoir.com/

At this time we are looking for community sponsors for the event. If you’re interested, please let me know. We would love to have your support. Thank you.

Projects in Kenya

High school construction in Rongai continues to move forward. We have completed two classes and have dug the foundation for the next four classes that will be built together.

At this time, the project is on hold as there have been very heavy rains in the area that has caused lots of road closures, which has resulted in us not being able to get the materials to the school site.

We hope the rain lets up soon not only so we can continue the progress on the school, but also for the community.

Make sure to check back on our blog for the latest videos and updates from the ground in Kenya.

www.WorldTeacherAid.org www.WriteToGive.com

From Tourist to Teary-Eyed

Amy — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 06:01:23 +0000

There might not be an automatic connection between building a primary school in Africa and clinical psychology, but there is for Ellyn Bader. After spending a week in the Giwa Farms refugee camp in Kenya, Ellyn brought her touching experience back home with her. After seeing the hardships the group of displaced people had gone through, Ellyn felt a calling to use her practice to raise money to help build a high school on the same property.

After her first two trips to Africa, once as a tourist and once as a participant on a lion research project through Earthwatch, she wanted to return to the country she loved so much and give back in a large-scale, meaningful and sustainable way. No projects seemed to hum for her until a conversation with Stu McLaren, founder of World Teacher Aid, stirred something inside of her. They bonded over their love of Africa and the excitement between the two was contagious. Next thing she knew, she was signing up her husband and daughter, Peter and Molly, to go with her.

Her hopes for the trip were to make a lasting contribution, but it wasn’t until she was met with the hundreds of smiling faces of the children who would be attending the school that she was truly able to see and feel the change that would take place in a community that would now have access to the education they so desperately hoped for. She was particularly moved by the community’s desire to do a lot with their lives, given that they had so little. Also moving was the connection she was able to make with mothers and children (lots of whom spoke English).

“When you go into an area where you don’t know anyone, you don’t know if it’s going to be awkward or comfortable. You also don’t know if the feelings are genuine, or forced because you’re doing something for them. But it felt like we were able to build real genuine connections across vastly different lifestyles, experiences, ages, and culture. On one hand, Cynthia (a 15 year old girl) and I have nothing in common. But I felt very close to her, welcomed warmly by her and her family. We reached across all the differences, and I was inspired by the amount of emotionality and open connection the people of Giwa Farms were able to do with total strangers.”

Ellyn loved being able to work side by side with the people of the village, but also noted how it was special to experience this with her family. It’s not often an entire family can share a passion so deeply, but it was a very bonding to experience to experience such an emotional trip with her husband and daughter. She recommends that anyone who cares about making a difference in the world in a meaningful, far-reaching way, go on this trip. “Such little U.S. money can go so far. I feel lots of compassion for the kids who had their lives uprooted through no fault of their own and lost everything and had to start over. I know that can be emotionally and psychologically damaging, so anything that can help them feel stable, I want to help with.”

When asked what the biggest change she felt after coming home was, she laughed and replied “how to spot animals more easily in the hills near my home.” But really the most notable change was an inspiration to raise money so she could contribute to bettering the lives of the kids she came to love. She looks forward to returning again, seeing the next school built, and urges, “If there’s even a small part of you that wants to do it, then do it. You’ll never, ever regret it.”

Two Classrooms!

Amy — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 20:25:16 +0000

Wow – check out the latest pictures of two new classrooms that are almost finished for the new high school. David and Ellyn – these are your classrooms!!! Feel free to share this video with your donors. Thanks everyone, we look forward to showing more progress very soon!

Shalom Primary School on a Winning Streak!

Amy — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 20:11:28 +0000

Just this past summer, you may remember the generosity of hundreds of families who donated soccer jerseys and balls for World Teacher Aid’s first school, Shalom Primary School in Kenya.

These soccer balls and jerseys were delivered to Kenya in August.

Today, Irene our Coordinator in Kenya, just informed me of some wonderful news. Since the support if soccer balls, Shalom primary school at GIWA has been leading with football in the whole of Rongai District.

They are the Number One Team!

The boys and the community are thrilled!

Thank you to everyone who donated.

WTA Annual Gala – October 19th 2012

Amy — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 19:56:40 +0000

Make sure you save the date (Friday, October 19th, 2012) as World Teacher Aid will be hosting its third Gala at the Greens at Renton Golf Course in Simcoe, Ontario.

It is hard to believe that this will be our third event Each year that has gone by we have managed to raise a little more for our programs. The first year we raised a little over $10,000.00 and this past year we raised close to $16, 000.00!

Thank you to the generous support of our local community.

Last year was a sold out event, so be sure to check back to the site for ticket updates.

Tickets will go on sale August 2012.

Webcast Success

Amy — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 19:51:56 +0000

Our Write To Give Program is doing amazing things at the moment.

Not only has the program raised over $10, 000.00 to support WTA Projects, but Scholastic Education has become even more involved this past print.

Last week, St. Joachim Primary School had the chance to interact with Scholastic Education Canada, through a webcast. The students were lucky to learn from a lead editor from Scholastic, learning about her role and responsibilities within the company.

The students also had a chance for some Q and A before they began to write their school Write To Give Book.

You can see a picture below.

The event was a great success for all parties involved and we look forward to working with Scholastic again!

Thank you to our teachers and Scholastic staff who helped make this happen

February 2012 Newsletter

Amy — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 01:43:25 +0000

Dear Friends, Family and Donors,

Wow, does time ever fly and seem to get busier every year that goes by.

As we continue to grow and create systems to manage our programs, I wanted to thank you for continually supporting our work.

As you are aware, Stu and I volunteer our time to World Teacher Aid, outside of our everyday jobs (myself being a teacher and Stu having his own software company) and to make our life even busier and of course a lot sweeter, we had a baby girl in April of last year.

So things have been busy!

As our family grew this year, so did our charity. We had so many exciting things happen, that it reminded me that I need to share these accomplishments with those who follow us on a more regular basis.

Starting this month we will be delivering a newsletter once a month that will come at the end of each month, this will include updates about World Teacher Aid and our expanding Write To Give Program. At times this newsletter, may also be a video.

We hope you enjoy the updates and also continue to visit our blog where you will see live video from the ground in Kenya.

If you know someone who would like to receive our digital newsletter on a regular basis, please direct them to the site and get them to sign up, they just have to enter their name and email.

You can also follow us on Twitter!

I hope you enjoy the February Newsletter and I look forward to connecting with you again in March.

Thank you and all the best in 2012,

Amy McLaren

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World Teacher Aid Updates

As you may have read from our blog, we continue to work in the Rongai Community where we are helping bring education to over 600 children. These Families were forced to start over a few years ago, due to Political Violence within Kenya.

In the spring of last year we opened Shalom Primary School, which is now home to over 600 students. This school was fully funded by World Teacher Aid and consists of eight classrooms and an Administration Block.

The funds for this school was raised by our annual WTA Gala, Write to Give, general donations and several donors donated enough to build one complete classroom! Thank you to everyone!

Our next project for the community is the development of a high school. We began construction for the school earlier this year and hope to have it complete by this coming summer!

While we have several donors who have donated a classroom, we are still fundraising to meet our goal. We still need to raise $55, 000.00.

The community and Government are very excited to see the development and we are grateful for the Government who has partnered with us to help the community by providing the teachers and principals for both schools.

Make sure to check out blog for updates on the progress through emails and video clips.

Uganda Teacher Sponsorship

We continue to sponsor four teachers within the Springs of Hope Highschool, thank you to our sponsors who donate on a monthly basis to support our teachers.

Annual Donor Group Trip

Our annual group trip is now full. Twenty Four donors will be making their way to Kenya with us this coming summer. Each donor has contributed enough to build one classroom.

The trip went so well last year that every donor who came, has donated for the second time and will be returning this summer with a new guest to share the experience. Wow!

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Write To Give

Our Write To Give Program continues to move forward involving hundreds of children and teachers a year. We have now grown to publish almost 100 books!

We are also very excited to have Scholastic Education on board, where they have been happy to print a book for us a year as well as use a webinar to connect with students to teach about the importance of editing.

Mark your calendars for our annual Write To Give Day on May 9th. The Sanderson Centre will be overflowing with student authors as they see and learn about the difference they have made in Kenya. If you would like to attend, limited seating is available, so please contact me for a ticket. This will be on a first come first serve basis (for anyone that has not participated n W2G this academic year).

For more updates on Write To Give, be sure to check out the site at: www.WriteToGive.com

High School Construction So Far – March 2012

Amy — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:54:30 +0000

Wow, it is hard to believe that our high school construction for the Giwa Farms community has begun!

We are super excited to bring this high school to the community.

The high school will sit next to Shalom Primary School (the school that we just opened this past spring).

The community is very excited. Please check out the video below!

The opening of the school is scheduled for summer 2012.

This is the latest update -March 2012

$11, 092.48 Raised From W2G Jan. 2012

Amy — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:41:26 +0000

Well the grand total is in. This past print, we really knocked it out of the park for our Write To Give Campaign.

Our total raised was: $11, 092.48!

As you may already know, we have been working with a small community in Kenya. This past spring we opened our first Primary School. This school is now home to over 600 students! We are now working in the same area to construct a high school.

The money raised from this print of books will help build one of those classrooms. We are hoping to open this school this July 2012.

Thank you teachers and students.