donating the big bucks.

a couple people have e-mailed me with questoins about what is involved with sponsoring kids, so i thought i'd make a post outlining ohw i think it might work... its still kind of up in the air and would depend a lot on what works best for the people interested, but i'll throw this idea out there anyway.

there are 2 organizations on camp that i've come to know that work with sponsoring kids. the first is CBW... it asks for $10/primary and secondary school aged kids (and gives you a t-shirt in return, if youre interested). the other is called Hope and was started as a joint project between a canadian volunteer and a guy working with the UNHCR. it seems to work more with older people looking to get technical training (computer college is a big one) that will lead them to a decent paying job. it looks for 50 (although i have to double check that number because now that i htink about it, i could be getting it confused with well-building projects) per person, and will give you all the details about the person youre sponsorng (both do that actually). both will keep in touch with the sponsored people as they move back to liberia (CBW and Hope are both in the porcess of relocating iwth the now former-refugees). I know and trust the heads of both organizations, and have watched other volunteers sponsor people and be relaly happy with it. they're completey transparent (although since they're new and small, htye havent got much in the way of websites yet)and yeah... i've got total confidence in the two, its mostly just a matter of what you're interested in contributing and what age group youre more interested in i guess.

it is easier to get all this stuff set up while i'm still in the camp though, so that is where transferring money gets kind of tricky. i think what would work best is if we use my mom as the in canada contact (for those living in kitchener/waterloo at least) and have you give her money, and then have her either wire it or just put it on my visa so that i'll get it. i think doing it in mass transfers is a lot easier for both of us, so maybe at some point i'll pick a rough date - probably not for at least a month - to get things organized (so that i'll have numbers to give both organizations).

i hope tihs is a good starting point for people... e-mail me any specific questions though and i'll get that for you and either e-mail back or post it online. hope that sounds good!