Helping Orphans in India: Change the World Kid Maya Robinson was in India for a year as an exchange student and passed an orphanage on her way her classes. As winter set in, she noticed that the children were shivering in thin clothing. Maya contacted the Change the World Kids and asked if we could help her get warm clothing for these orphans. We organized a community effort to collect the most needed items and sizes of new or nearly new warm clothes that were appropriate for the Indian culture. In early December we send boxes to Maya for the Kmsnamurti Balak Ashram Orphanage, Armavati, India. Maya was there when the clothing was distributed, and it made her     want to cry.

Home is a Slum in Columbia: Five years ago, a woman phoned with the hope that we could help children who lived in a slum called Moravia, a huge slum built on a huge trash dump in Medellin, Columbia. To fundraise, we hosted a Latin dance featuring hot salsa music. Very fun! Now, in partnership with a local business that sends a contribution each month we help support food (lunch for 300 children every weekend) and education programs (university fees and supplies) that are changing the lives and dreams of these children and youth. 

Heifer International: Hunger is serious. We undertook a whole community effort to help reduce world hunger to raise the $5,000 necessary to contribute an “ark” to HeiferInternational. This was big money, but would provide pairs and trios of many animals to families throughout the world, training in their care, and the promise that the first offspring of the pair will be given to a neighbor in the village or  town to start a new flock or herd. To keep the community informed of the progress, wecut an ark out of blueboard, painted “The Ark of Hope” in bold green letters, made a secure stand, and pined on a paper animal to represent each donation. We made stencils, and children at local elementary schools, traced, and cut out the animals. Purple and yellow striped llamas, pink cows, and polka dotted camels littered the tables. The copy store employee laughed when we brought them in to laminate as protection against the weather. By the time we reached our goal, the front of the ark was covered with animals, and dozens were on the back. It was truly a whole community effort – a quiet one, not a strenuous one, but a very, very important one.

Update Home is a Slum in Columbia: Five years ago, a woman phoned with the hope that we could help children who lived in a slum called Moravia, a huge slum built on a huge trash dump in Medellin, Columbia. To fundraise, we hosted a Latin dance featuring hot salsa music. Very fun! Now, in partnership with a local business that sends a contribution each month we help support food (lunch for 300 children every weekend) and education programs (university fees and supplies) that are changing the lives and dreams of these children and youth.  

A Year After the Tsunami in Southeast Asia: A friend in Thailand contacted us about the school in Chumphon Donthaphon School in the Nkaha District. Deep in the jungle, the children were isolated, and the school lacked sufficient funding. Thailand was struggling to rebuild after the devastating tsunami. We joined the effort to pay for a teacher’s salary and provide materials, so the children would have a good education.