Dear Family & Friends,
First, I want to thank you all, supremely for your continuous support and well wishes during my service here in Namibia! Time has flown by and I have grown so much from my experiences in ways that I never expected.
One of my main projects this year has been organizing youth camps for learners (students) from all around the country. Myself and several other Volunteers are finalizing preparations for the national camp, which will be held in the capital during this August holiday (August 25- September 2). Previously, this program has been funded by UNICEF and the U.S. Embassy in Namibia; however, this year they were unable to support us due to budget constraints. Therefore I am kindly requesting funding to make this event happen!
For the past 12 years, Peace Corps Volunteers have helped organize Camp Girls and Guys Leading Our World (GLOW), a leadership camp for exceptional students from communities throughout Namibia. This year, Camp GLOW is being sponsored by KAYEC, a local NGO dedicated to empowering young people in Namibia and helping them reach their full potential. The camp is a potentially life-changing experience for these young people: many of them have never travelled outside their village, and this will be their first experience seeing the capital of their country and interacting with peers from other cultures.
Camp GLOW’s activities are designed to help our campers explore their potential as leaders and make plans for their future. On Future Day, campers visit Parliament, a college campus, and hear about different career opportunities; for many kids, this opens up a world of new possibilities that they’d never considered possible for themselves before. A large portion of camp is also spent discussing healthy relationships, communication skills, and risks that Namibian youth face such as peer pressure and HIV/AIDS. By the end of Camp, all of our kids will be able to set goals for their future and discuss their plans for achieving them, as well as ways to take the lessons of Camp back to their villages and start local clubs to help solve the problems in their communities, assisted by their local Peace Corps volunteer. All campers have been nominated by a Peace Corps volunteer or KAYEC staff, so they are kids that we have close relationships with and really want to give the encouragement they need to shine.
80 students aged 12-18 from across Namibia have been invited to participate in this 8 day camp at the end of August 2011. Most of them come from poor rural villages, and many are orphans and vulnerable children who have been directly affected by or infected with HIV/AIDS. Camp is free to these participants – all costs related to transportation, accommodations, food and activities are paid for through generous donations.
This is where you come in! Unfortunately, funding for programs such as Camp GLOW has been on the decline in recent years, and we don’t currently have the money to cover the operating expenses of camp. Money Matters! We now have a PayPal account where you, your family, friends, or other fans back home can make donations. (PayPal, for those who haven't used it before, is a secure way to send money without revealing banking details to the other party. If someone wishes to make a donation, they simply need to sign up on the website (paypal.com) with their email and credit card information (it's free), and then they can send money to our account.) The email address associated with our PayPal account is my colleague’s e-mail address (l.a.jenkins@live.com), and you can choose to send it as "Personal - Gift."
Donations of any amount can make a huge difference to these kids:
$10 buys one child a Camp t-shirt, a cherished keepsake of this unforgettable experience.
$50 covers 3 meals per day for the entire camp for one child.
$150 pays for the entire Camp experience for one child.
$500 will allow us to rent the buses that we need to transport the children for Future Day.
Donations can be made to our PayPal account: L.A.JENKINS@LIVE.COM
Disclaimer: All funds go to our local partners, KAYEC Trust- not the U.S. Peace Corps or our volunteers- solely for the use of Camp GLOW!
Don’t delay- donate today! (We are very time sensitive, so all donations must be made by August 15, 2011!)
Everyone can afford $5 or $10 and it all makes a difference here!
Please consider contributing to our Camp GLOW fund, and passing this message on to any other individuals that you think might support the mission of Camp GLOW! With your help, we can make this experience possible for a group of truly amazing kids.
Thank you so much!
Liz Wise
U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer & GAIN Committee Chairperson
First, I want to thank you all, supremely for your continuous support and well wishes during my service here in Namibia! Time has flown by and I have grown so much from my experiences in ways that I never expected.
One of my main projects this year has been organizing youth camps for learners (students) from all around the country. Myself and several other Volunteers are finalizing preparations for the national camp, which will be held in the capital during this August holiday (August 25- September 2). Previously, this program has been funded by UNICEF and the U.S. Embassy in Namibia; however, this year they were unable to support us due to budget constraints. Therefore I am kindly requesting funding to make this event happen!
For the past 12 years, Peace Corps Volunteers have helped organize Camp Girls and Guys Leading Our World (GLOW), a leadership camp for exceptional students from communities throughout Namibia. This year, Camp GLOW is being sponsored by KAYEC, a local NGO dedicated to empowering young people in Namibia and helping them reach their full potential. The camp is a potentially life-changing experience for these young people: many of them have never travelled outside their village, and this will be their first experience seeing the capital of their country and interacting with peers from other cultures.
Camp GLOW’s activities are designed to help our campers explore their potential as leaders and make plans for their future. On Future Day, campers visit Parliament, a college campus, and hear about different career opportunities; for many kids, this opens up a world of new possibilities that they’d never considered possible for themselves before. A large portion of camp is also spent discussing healthy relationships, communication skills, and risks that Namibian youth face such as peer pressure and HIV/AIDS. By the end of Camp, all of our kids will be able to set goals for their future and discuss their plans for achieving them, as well as ways to take the lessons of Camp back to their villages and start local clubs to help solve the problems in their communities, assisted by their local Peace Corps volunteer. All campers have been nominated by a Peace Corps volunteer or KAYEC staff, so they are kids that we have close relationships with and really want to give the encouragement they need to shine.
80 students aged 12-18 from across Namibia have been invited to participate in this 8 day camp at the end of August 2011. Most of them come from poor rural villages, and many are orphans and vulnerable children who have been directly affected by or infected with HIV/AIDS. Camp is free to these participants – all costs related to transportation, accommodations, food and activities are paid for through generous donations.
This is where you come in! Unfortunately, funding for programs such as Camp GLOW has been on the decline in recent years, and we don’t currently have the money to cover the operating expenses of camp. Money Matters! We now have a PayPal account where you, your family, friends, or other fans back home can make donations. (PayPal, for those who haven't used it before, is a secure way to send money without revealing banking details to the other party. If someone wishes to make a donation, they simply need to sign up on the website (paypal.com) with their email and credit card information (it's free), and then they can send money to our account.) The email address associated with our PayPal account is my colleague’s e-mail address (l.a.jenkins@live.com), and you can choose to send it as "Personal - Gift."
Donations of any amount can make a huge difference to these kids:
$10 buys one child a Camp t-shirt, a cherished keepsake of this unforgettable experience.
$50 covers 3 meals per day for the entire camp for one child.
$150 pays for the entire Camp experience for one child.
$500 will allow us to rent the buses that we need to transport the children for Future Day.
Donations can be made to our PayPal account: L.A.JENKINS@LIVE.COM
Disclaimer: All funds go to our local partners, KAYEC Trust- not the U.S. Peace Corps or our volunteers- solely for the use of Camp GLOW!
Don’t delay- donate today! (We are very time sensitive, so all donations must be made by August 15, 2011!)
Everyone can afford $5 or $10 and it all makes a difference here!
Please consider contributing to our Camp GLOW fund, and passing this message on to any other individuals that you think might support the mission of Camp GLOW! With your help, we can make this experience possible for a group of truly amazing kids.
Thank you so much!
Liz Wise
U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer & GAIN Committee Chairperson
L.A.JENKINS@LIVE.COM all funds go to our local partner, KAYEC Trust- not the Peace Corps or volunteers- solely for Camp GLOW
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