Success!

Our group of supporters from around the world have a lot to be proud of: with your help we have exceeded our goal! We have raised over R61,000 ($8,660/£5,300) since our launch in February, which will feed more than 102 children for the year. Thank you for all the continued support in making this possible.

Write Our Future will be spending some time in the upcoming months establishing ourselves as a non-profit organization (NPO) and organizing a new outreach program for 2012. Additionally, members of our team will be making a trip to the Eastern Cape to visit Bulungula and the No'ofisi school later in 2011. Pictures will be posted on the Write Our Future website. In the mean time your continued support of the Bulungula Incubator and the children of No'ofisi school is welcomed and encouraged.

Nearly there!

Thanks to the donations of so many generous and enthusiastic supports we are nearly at our goal of feeding 100 children for a year! Let's raise this last $170, feed the remaining two children, and make a difference in the Eastern Cape.

Dessert benefit recap

Saturday's dessert benefit was a fiscal and gastronomical success!

Everyone feasted upon pumpkin pie, apple galette, guava swirl cheesecake, lemon coconut tart, and many other delectable treats. Thanks to the phenomenal generosity of our donor-guests we raised R1500...enough to feed two and a half more children for a full year. We're nearly 75% of the way to our goal- time for the final push!

Dessert benefit in Cape Town- May 21

 

Help us to reach our goal of feeding 100 children at the No-Ofisi Primary School in the Eastern Cape and enjoy some delicious baked goods at the same time. Brendan and Becky are hosting a benefit dessert party at their home in Wynberg on Saturday May 21 from 4pm featuring an assortment of Becky's finest creations.  

The suggested donation is R50 per person and all proceeds will go to supporting the WOF feeding initiative.

Please RSVP by Thursday May 19th to rebecca.maughanbrown@gmail.com.

WOF benefit treasure hunt in London- May 22

Join us for an afternoon of mayhem searching for clues that lead you on a winding path through the streets of Soho and Chinatown. Sign up in teams of two or as a family and race to complete as many challenges and questions as you can.

There will be bonus points along the way so make sure you keep your eyes peeled for hidden clues and mysterious drinking holes.

The hunt has been organized by Leigh, WOF's UK branch head, and all proceeds will support WOF's school feeding initiative. Help us move from supporting 68 children to 100!

The entry fee will be £10 per person (children go free) with 100% going to the charity. We will have exciting prizes on the day for overall winners, the losers and the best team name. There will also be additional raffles so everyone stands a chance of winning. Please aim to arrive between 1:30 and 2PM. Teams will be sent off in 2 min intervals. It starts at Tottenham court road but the exact meeting point will be revealed closer to the time.

Please forward on to anyone who may be interested and don't forget to RSVP (lrogers78@gmail.com) so we can sort out details. For more information check out the event page on Facebook by clicking here.

Look forward to seeing you all there!

Fundraising period extended

Here are a few quick updates from WOF:

1. Many thanks to Michelle McDonald and everyone who contributed to the online WOF benefit auction. Your donations have helped to improve the lives of the children at No-ofisi Primary School and you got some awesome loot as well!

2. Two more benefit events are coming up later this month, one in London and one in Cape Town. Details to follow in the upcoming days.

3. Because of these scheduled events we have decided to extend our fundraising period for one more month to May 31. Currently we have raised funds to feed 68 children for a year. Let's work together to make that 100 children by the end of the month.

WOF benefit auction online

People have been showing their support for Write Our Future and the children of No-ofisi Primary School in wonderful ways. Lots of emails have circulated through family, friend, colleague, church, and social networks. A few businesses are discussing corporate pledges. Fund raising cocktail and dessert parties are being planned. It is very exciting to see the many varied ways people choose to help.

One of these innovative mechanisms is the online auction organized by WOF supporter Michelle McDonald. Michelle oversaw the donation of new and gently used items and is hosting this benefit auction on Facebook from now through April 24th. To peruse the goods and make a bid, visit the site by clicking here. There are also links through the WOF Facebook page.

We have now raised funds to feed 64 children for a year, but there is still work to do. What cool fund raising plan can you come up with? Put that idea into motion and let us know how it goes!

Spreading the word

With just under 2 months left until the end of our fundraising period, Write Our Future has seen some real success. With your help, we have raised funds to feed over 58 children for a year. Thank you for your incredible generosity which has made this possible!

We have also seen a number of donors email their friends to garner more support for WOF. The emails have varied but the message is the same: I support this cause and I think you should too. Write Our Future would like to ask all those who support our mission to do the same. Spend a few minutes sending the email below to friends and family members you think would be interested in what WOF is doing. Edit it as you see fit to make it a personal note, as we have found that it is this personal connection to a cause that elicits the most support. The greater the net of support we can cast, the more we can help the children of No-ofisi Primary School.

Dear (insert friend’s name here),

Here’s a way you can help a great cause in South Africa.

There’s a primary school in a very poor area of the country that is in desperate need of money to support their schoolchildren. They are without funds to continue their school feeding program, and the classrooms are in a bleak state of disrepair. Three rand ($0.43) per day will feed a schoolchild. This is sometimes the only hot meal this child will receive in a day. Each new chair for a child in grades 1, 2 & 3 costs less than $11, and a desk is only $34. Write Our Future is raising money to support these children, with the goal of raising $8500 by April 30^th to provide meals and improve classroom infrastructure. That is enough money to feed 100 children for a year, give more than 700 children a place to sit, or provide 250 students a desk to write on.

This is a great opportunity to support a worthy cause. Please consider making a contribution on their website or by bank transfer. Also, you can help to spread the word by coping this note and sending it to your friends and family.

To learn more about Write Our Future and their school support initiative, visit their website: www.writeourfuture.org.

I support Write Our Future, and I hope you will too.

Best wishes,

(your name)

Developments and transition

We just heard from Bulungula that the Eastern Cape government has committed to reinstating funds for school feeding programs. This is great news for the children of No-ofisi Primary School. However, it remains uncertain when schools will actually receive any money.

We will continue with our school feeding initiative at No-ofisi to help ensure all children are fed everyday until their government assistance returns. To date we have collected R31, 231.68 ($4,294.50) and are halfway to our goal. We thank you and, moreover, the children of No-ofisi thank you.

Once government assistance returns, we will transition our focus for the remainder of our BI initiative (until April 30 with the goal of raising $8,500). Having just read BI’s 2011 education project proposal, we know at least three additional classrooms are desperately needed to ensure that each grade has its own classroom space and overcrowding is minimized. Infrastructure remains only one of the challenges however. Inside the buildings, the classrooms are bleak and ill equipped. To date, the government has never provided school desks, chairs or blackboards. In these barebones classrooms, children are using cinder blocks for chairs and their laps as desks.

Having full stomachs clearly is only going to go so far for these children. We have the opportunity to improve the quality of their learning environment by creating stimulating, exciting spaces conducive to the delivery of quality education. BI has calculated that it will cost about $7,600 (R55,500) fully outfit all classrooms, and we can help. A new chair for grades 1,2&3 costs R80 (less than $11). A table is R250 ($34). Every bit counts, and every bit helps.

What does this change mean for your donations? It doesn’t. All previously donated funds have supported No-ofisi’s school feeding program. Going forward, funds will support both feeding and school infrastructure support, fully transitioning to supporting infrastructure once the government money is received. The donation process will remain the same, except we ask that you choose “Id like to support education activities” on BI’s website. As always, please remember to email writeourfuture@gmail.com after making a donation. This is the only way Write Our Future is informed of your donation, and enables us to track our progress.

As a group we can expand the possibilities for these little learners. Let’s see what we can do together! Click here to donate now.

Week one update

It has been an incredibly exciting week. Since our launch one week ago, and the start of our first initiative in collaboration with the Bulungula Incubator, we have made tremendous progress toward our goal with your help. We set out to raise the funds necessary to feed 100 schoolchildren at the No-ofisi Primary School for one year, approximately $8500 USD. Our cry for help reached many corners of the globe and thanks to donors in Australia, Canada, Great Britain, South Africa, and the USA we are more than a third of the way there with funds raised to support 35 children! We've added a donations thermometer to the website so you can continue to track our progress.

Let's keep up this fantastic pace as we must still raise over $5000 to achieve our goal. For information on donations click here. Please remember to email the WOF team at writeourfuture@gmail.com after completing any donations, including your name and the amount given. These emails are essential in helping us know who has given and track our progress.

We will continue to post news and updates, as well as tips on involvement and spreading the word, as time goes by. Sign up for email updates or follow us on Facebook to stay informed.

Update on donations

Thanks for bearing with us while the donation button has been down. Going forward, Paypal won't work for fundraising in South Africa. Our solution is to have donors pay their contributions directly to the Bulungula Incubator. This is, in fact, better as it reduces transaction fees.

So here's how to donate by credit card:

1. Click here to make a contribution via the Bulungula Incubator website. Donations are accepted in South African Rands (ZAR). To calculate into rands from other currencies, click here.
2. When prompted, choose "I'd like to support education activities" and complete your donation.
3. Email WOF at writeourfuture@gmail.com to confirm your donation. Please include your name and amount donated. This final step is the only way the WOF team knows that your donation has gone through.
   

We recognize that this involves several steps for you, but it is important to us that we are able to track our donors and donations.

Donations are still accepted by bank transfer, and details are listed on our "What can you do?" page. We ask that you still please send us a confirmation email.

Many thanks for your patience and support. We look forward to hearing from you soon!

technical difficulties

Thank you to everyone for the fantastic support during the first four days of our Bulungula School Feeding Initiative. To date we have raised the funds to feed 12 children for a year! We hope you will continue to spread the word and help our success grow.

Also, we are currently having some technical difficulties with our donation button. Please bear with us as we sort this out. We will let everyone know via the blog and Facebook once it has been reactivated. Many thanks in advance for your patience!

Write Our Future's launch

We are excited to launch WOF's first outreach project: the Bulungula Incubator's school feeding program.

In 2007 the Bulungula Incubator took action to rebuild the No-ofisi Primary School, a dilapidated mud structure on the Eastern Cape’s Wild Coast. In 2008, they started a school feeding scheme and set up a permaculture garden for vegetables for the lunches. No-ofisi is, however, a government school and in 2009 the government started funding their school feeding scheme. Now, at the start of 2011, the Eastern Cape Education Department has cut all funding for school feeding schemes due to a lack of resources. This is a devastating blow to impoverished families whose children depend on this one meal every day.

A word on BI

Both the Bulungula eco-lodge and the Bulungula Incubator (their sister organization) are deeply embedded in their local community and have been a source of job creation, community upliftment, and environmental stewardship. Read more about BI and their mission here or visit their website at www.bulungulaincubator.org.

A word on school feeding

School feeding schemes are powerful tools for change. Read more about why we support school feeding programs here.

The details

• It costs R3 per day to feed a child at No-ofisi. That is less than $0.43.
• R60, or roughly $8.50, will feed a school child for a month.
• R600, or roughly $85, will feed this child for the school year.

Our goal

To feed 100 children for a year at the No-ofisi Primary. To do this we need to raise $8500.

This is a time-sensitive issue and these children need our support now. WOF will transfer all donated money raised within the first two weeks of this initiative to BI on February 14^th. All subsequent funds in support of their school feeding program will be donated on a monthly basis.

To donate now, click here.

To learn more about how you can support WOF, click here.

Humble Beginnings

Welcome!

Write Our Future was conceptualized in June 2010 and is based on our belief and understanding that educational opportunities for youth, especially for girls and young women, are key in breaking cycles of poverty, inequality, and disease. Our fledgling organization was started in Cape Town, South Africa with the goal of establishing programs that promote education and literacy. Achieving this end requires a thorough needs assessment that will take some time. While this remains our long-term goal, there is no shortage of fantastic organizations that currently work to these ends that are continually in need of support. So for now, we want to act as a connector while our own needs assessment marches forward. The greater the net of support we can cast, the better it is for all of us.

Write Our Future is not yet a registered 501c-3 in the United States or Non-Profit Organization (NPO) in South Africa. Right now it is the homegrown organization with a passion for providing educational opportunities for children in need, a willingness to help, and a quest to connect others with this same desire to organizations in need of support. We do plan, however, to gain tax-exempt status in time.

Write Our Future has vetted all organizations it supports. We known the management staff, we have confirmed that all funds will go to the specified purpose, and see that they are achieving real results. Because this level of thorough back checking requires a lot of work, we are starting small. For now, we will serve as a funding stream to a few established projects. With time, we hope to expand to include more organizations, serve more children, and establish novel programs of our own.

Please take some time to explore our site and become more familiar with who we are, why education is our focus, and learn about our partner organizations. Most importantly, we ask for your support. We all have the power to make a difference in another’s life, to give someone the tools for change, and to transform our world. So take this opportunity, and let’s right the future together!