Hello 2012!

It is no understatement to say that 2011 was a tremendously successful inaugural year for Write Our Future. Our deepest thanks go to our many donors who helped us to raise the funds to feed more than 106 children at the No-ofisi Primary School and Jujurha Education Centre in the Eastern Cape.

In November 2011, WOF team members Brendan and Rebecca took a trip to the Eastern Cape to meet with the Bulungula Incubator (BI) staff and visit the school feeding program. It was incredibly special to see the faces of these happy, nourished children and our meetings with BI planted the seed for our 2012 initiative.

Jujurha Education Centre

To see more pictures from our visit to the Eastern Cape, visit our Facebook page by clicking here. While you're there, become a fan of WOF so you can stay up to date on our latest news.

The 2011 year-end report has been sent to our donors. If you would like to receive a copy please email writeourfuture@gmail.com. We would be happy to send one to you!

Lastly, we'd like to introduce you to Asali Zintoyinto.

The Bulungula Incubator has created a scholarship program that will be supporting seven children from the Jujurha Education Centre from 1st grade through the completion of 12th grade. WOF has committed to raising the funds to see one of these scholars, Asali, through graduation. Full details will follow in a separate blog post. In the meantime, if you would like to donate to Asali's scholarship fund:

1. Visit the Bulungula Incubator's donation page here, and select that you would like to support education/ the scholarship fund. Donations can be made with any major credit card.
2. Email WOF at writeourfuture@gmail.com to let us know your donation amount for our records.

That's it! Two easy steps to help send Asali on her way.

With all that we accomplished together in 2011, who knows what we can achieve in 2012!

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!

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.