We recently heard from Mama Lucy that her school has placed #1 out of 117 schools in their district on their national exams. #1. Ahead of an internationally-led school with millions in funding.

These results were beyond our wildest dreams.  In truth, though, I expected no less.  Just after the exam, I received a text from Leah, a student in the fourth grade, who proudly wrote “I promise we will win the exam.”  Her teacher, Nancy, wrote:

“Having the first class at our school to sit for the national examination, made me struggle and surrender all my energies together with my colleagues to see our students succeed. When I reached in the room [to deliver the exams] I looked on my beloved students and I felt tears rolling from my eyes. Not that I was sad, but because I had faith and trust that they will make it.”

Just over a year ago, this school nearly closed its doors.  Children like Leah who may not have been in school this year, or who may have been transferred to some of the poorest schools in their district, are now the best students in Arusha.  The best.

You did that. Your hope for their futures.  Your belief in their potential.  Your investment.  Whatever you gave, whatever you did, whomever you told, whatever little seed of hope you carried in your heart – it’s working, in concert with the incredible dedication of Mama Lucy and her committed teachers and students, to make miracles possible.

In the current economic climate, this year is likely to be tough for small nonprofits like Epic Change.  Undoubtedly, though, this school, which now has only the capacity to serve through the 5th grade, deserves our continued support to ensure that some of the brightest students in the country have a great place to continue to learn and grow.

So I’m asking you to make a commitment for 2009. At Shepherds Junior, tuition is about $60 USD per term.  While these costs are sustainably funded through fees paid by the hard-working parents and siblings of many students, I’m asking you to consider making a commitment matching that amount next year – $20 a month – to be invested in new classrooms, the school’s first library, kitchen and cafeteria and, if we’re really successful, a boarding facility for the school’s orphans and other students.

As you know, our goal for this school is to create new funding streams to ensure their continued self-sufficiency.  Therefore, instead of asking for a donation, I’m asking you to join the new Epic Change gift club.  For your monthly payment of $20, you’ll receive a beautiful, newly-designed gift each quarter that shares a hopeful story from Shepherds Junior.  Your gift may be stationery, apparel, a gift item or some other surprise that you may keep or share with a friend. Because you’re purchasing products, your payment will not be tax-deductible, but I hope you’ll participate in this unique opportunity to build a marketplace for hope.

Show your support for the incredible outcomes Mama Lucy and her teachers are creating for these promising kids by making your commitment today of just $20/month to support their efforts to build a market for their products and stories.

If you have any questions, feedback or suggestions for me or Epic Change, I hope you’ll email or call my cell at 415.630.0631.

As always, I am so grateful,

Stacey

PS:  We recently also received our first (albeit tiny) retail order from a small gift shop in Sonoma Valley, and already, in just a year since our first loan was disbursed in Tanzania, over 10% has been repaid.  It’s really working…and I can’t wait to see what’s possible in 2009 with your continued support!

PPS: Congratulations, Mama Lucy, Teacher Nancy, Leah and all the teachers and students at Shepherds Junior from all of us at Epic Change!!!  It’s truly an honor to be able to support the incredible work you’re doing.  We are so proud.  Kudos on yet another amazing accomplishment!!

Posted: January 30th, 2009 under The Foundry.
Comments: 14

When I visited in Africa the first time, I remember telling Timothy, a Masai safari guide we met in Kenya, the story of Santa Claus.  Timothy didn’t know much about Christmas, and he’d never heard of Santa Claus.  He laughed when I told him that we put live trees in our house so that a magical old man can leave presents beneath it while we sleep.

I believed in Santa Claus until I was in the 10th grade.  Call me naive, but I’ve always had a profound faith in the power of good – even of the magical sort.  After all, I had little else to explain why, like clockwork, the same little girl that ate government cheese and free school lunches the rest of the year, somehow found a pile of perfect presents beneath our Christmas tree each December.  Like most kids, I’d had my doubts, and as a sophomore in high school, I found gifts stashed inside the family van and learned that Santa wasn’t magic at all, but more real than I imagined. He was just pure generosity, hope, faith and good, that lives in the hearts of my parents and so many others this time of year.

Just as I can’t see Santa, I can’t see those things, but their invisibility makes them no less real.  As The Sun responded to 8-year-old Virginia’s famous letter asking if there was a Santa Claus:

“Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy…

Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see…Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world…

There is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernatural beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.”

I’ve experienced so much unseeable beauty this holiday season.  Just before the holidays, you helped us make our second loan in Tanzania, for $30,000, enough for a new classroom, which will accommodate the fourth graders who will move to Class 5 in 2009, and a school bus to replace the rickety old van into which more than 40 children and teachers would cram for multiple trips each day.   Construction of the new classroom has just begun and on Christmas Day, I received a text message from Mama Lucy that a refurbished school bus had been purchased.

When I was in Tanzania last summer, I asked the mother of 2-year-old Rehema about the importance of the school bus to the parents of Shepherds Junior. She said that she sometimes felt like she had to risk her child’s safety by putting her in the van to ensure that she gets the best possible education. With the purchase of the new bus, that’s a sad tradeoff she’ll no longer have to make.

I also received the best possible gift from Mama Lucy and the fourth graders at Sheperds Junior School.  Stay tuned for my next post for more about this very special present.

Whether you still believe in Santa Claus or, like Timothy, have never heard of him, whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or just the universal spirit of giving that’s present throughout the holiday season, I hope the good that you have created for 242 amazing children, and their entire community, throughout 2008, is a reminder of what is possible when we work together to make the world a little better place.

Just like Santa Claus, good exists – if we simply create it.

Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa and, to everyone, an incredibly Happy New Year.

I hope the invisible spirit of generosity and giving that has made miracles possible in 2008 continues for many, many years to come.

Posted: January 2nd, 2009 under The Foundry.
Comments: 1