A diary of an experiment in social entrepreneurship

Archive for February, 2008

Happy Valentine’s Day!

valentine.jpg
HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!
Pius, Max and Egifred are three incredible kids who attend the school with which Epic Change is partnered in Arusha, Tanzania. Just like in this picture, at this amazing learning facility, you’d never be able to tell which of these beautiful faces belongs to a child who has lost his father to HIV, and lives with his mother who survives with the disease. You’d never be able to tell that one of these kids attends tuition-free, and that the other two are fortunate enough, though they live in a country where most people live on $2 a day, to have healthy parents who work hard to afford the nominal tuition charged at the school. At their unique school, these children, and 170 of their friends, laugh and play together on the same playground and are given equal access to an amazing education.

Help us spread the love to Pius, Max & Egifred this Valentine’s Day by spreading this e-card to your family and friends, and by spreading your support for Epic Change throughout the year; commit just $10 a month by clicking the “Subscribe” button below.


PS: You can’t imagine what fun we had with the kids taking these pics; they’d never seen footed pajamas before, and were enamoured with the fluffy pillows my mom had made for the photo shoot. Congrats to our own amateur photographer Sanjay for catching this amazing shot of their personalities in full effect; wait ’til you see what we have in store for next year!

Posted: February 14th, 2008 under The Foundry.
Comments: none

Nothing is Impossible

Mama Lucy provided this update today as well as some new pictures of the classrooms. Needless to say, we’re ecstatic at the incredible progress she has made. In her own words:

By this end of January, at least we have seen a real picture of the building of what will be an amazing Shepherds Junior School. Although we do still have miles to go, everyone at our school is so excited! This is incredible!mj 2.JPG

Things are moving simultaneously, just to make sure that, at least by the end of February, we are able to move into our very own beautiful buildings at a very cool place! What I believe is that, with support from different people, our dream is coming to reality.

So far, we have been able to do the following, concerning the construction of the school:

  • Finish up the roofing woodwork, and 2 classrooms have just completed the work of iron sheets! The other 2 classes are still on roofing work i.e (putting iron sheets).

  • Nearly finished with the septic tanks (A round one and a rectangle one).CIMG0037e1.JPG

  • We’ve started to build the toilets, the first 3 stalls for girls and 3 stalls for boys plus urinal section.

  • Nearly finished with the plaster work inside and outside.

  • The windows are ready, just waiting to be fitted.

Some of the building materials have been given to us on credit, but at least things have moved so far. I’m very thankful to people who have given us things on credit (since credit is very rarely available in our country) and also to Epic Change, of course, for providing the loan.

Thank you so much for your support!
Lucy

Posted: February 4th, 2008 under Updates from Mama.
Comments: none

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