I seem to have dropped the ball with Eat to Feed Liberians recently- I suppose the thrill of having something new and exciting always wears off and is replaced with frustration and repetition. I had a pretty quiet January, which was nice after a December packed full of baking, and February just seemed to happen and pass. That being said, I’m back up and going now that March is here and I’m in the home stretch for school, so here is what is in the works…
Cookies, as always, will be made. I’m hoping to take a few people up on some baking offers so that I can start spitting out crazy amounts of cookies again. For March, I’m making at the following kinds (half dozen for $5, dozen for $10 again, baked or frozen). Order up (see below) and pass the site on to any cookie loving friends-
I’m also looking into making t-shirts. I made a few a couple weeks ago and didn’t plan to sell them but they worked out really well so I’m going to expand that. I need to work out details of buying in bulk (any ideas out there?) and then I’ll try and come up with some kind of ordering system. The ones in circulation right now are dark grey with a bright blue logo. Thank you Eric and Brock for making those happen-
I’m working out the details of putting a few events together to raise money. With absolutely nothing to do come April, I think it would be a fun way to spread the word, raise a bit of money, and have fun… I’m just beginning to shape ideas there so, if anybody has tips/experience, its more than welcome.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I need to send out a massive thank you to Andy’s Ego (and the Ego Heads). This band recently participated in Laurier’s Battle of the Bands and let me use their performance as a launching point to ‘shamelessly promote a charity’. I’m not sure why that promotion was reviewed with what I read as a negative spin to it… I’d say it shows pretty solid character in the guys, but go figure. Check out their myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/andysego. Anyway, I’ve never sat through a concert with such an uncontrollable smile on my face or been so inspired afterwards. It meant more to me than I can find words to describe (I’ve spent the most amount of time on this paragraph).
So. That’s about it for now. I need help right now from anybody that is willing to buy a few cookies or make a small donation this way (direct deposit, online through pay pal or directly to me in Kingston). The littlest bits go a long way, cliché as that might sound.
Thank you to everyone that has helped out so far… You’ve helped me come a long way but there is still a huge distance to go.
"had it been another day, i might have looked the other way, and i´d have never been aware..."
Monday, March 2, 2009
Saturday, January 3, 2009
more than 2400 cookies later...
First off, I have at least a couple thank yous to throw out there. After two months of baking, I am excited to say I’ve raised more than $6000 for the students at the school in the Buduburam Liberian Refugee Settlement, roughly $3000 of which has already been disbursed . Over $2000 came through cookie sales, and the rest from very generous donations. On behalf of the students and teachers in the camp – and from me too – a huge thank you to everyone who contributed. I especially need to thank my December bakers. While I have learned that bake and boozing, and baking with a hung over group of people might not be the most effective way of working, the support and laughter made it completely worthwhile.
Of course, it is not even close to over. The children go back to school after their Christmas break on Monday, and while the money raised so far will buy bread, oranges and water well into this term, this school will stay open indefinitely. The hunger doesn’t end, and neither do the benefits that come from the smallest donations. $40, while perhaps a lot for four dozen cookies, takes care of one more day of feeding that wouldn’t happen otherwise. Jonah, my Liberian food coordinator, tells me it has been a somewhat tense time in ‘Little Liberia’… Ghanaian elections and run-off elections have been underway for the past few weeks which make many Liberians nervous. Repercussions from the financial crisis continue to be felt on camp, making everybody nervous, just as we are here. However, Christmas was a pretty happy time on camp and the New Year holds optimism for Buduburam and Liberia.
I have come up with a winter menu of Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip, Mrs. Davison’s chocolate chip, snowflake sugar cookies, gingersnaps, chocolate dipped espresso cookies and Chocolate and Vanilla Marble cookies (a new order form is up further down on the blog). They continue to all be made with fair trade chocolate and sugar. I’ll be back in Kingston on Monday and will be selling cookies only from there… If there is anybody interested in attempting to do a small scale version of this cookie thing in Kitchener-Waterloo (or anywhere for that matter) let me know with an email - I’d love the help!
All in all, let’s keep this going... Order and re-order cookies, tell your friends, and keep me and the Liberians in mind. I can always use new ideas for expanding, so if you have them please don’t hesitate.
Thank you all again, this has been unbelievable so far.
Of course, it is not even close to over. The children go back to school after their Christmas break on Monday, and while the money raised so far will buy bread, oranges and water well into this term, this school will stay open indefinitely. The hunger doesn’t end, and neither do the benefits that come from the smallest donations. $40, while perhaps a lot for four dozen cookies, takes care of one more day of feeding that wouldn’t happen otherwise. Jonah, my Liberian food coordinator, tells me it has been a somewhat tense time in ‘Little Liberia’… Ghanaian elections and run-off elections have been underway for the past few weeks which make many Liberians nervous. Repercussions from the financial crisis continue to be felt on camp, making everybody nervous, just as we are here. However, Christmas was a pretty happy time on camp and the New Year holds optimism for Buduburam and Liberia.
I have come up with a winter menu of Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip, Mrs. Davison’s chocolate chip, snowflake sugar cookies, gingersnaps, chocolate dipped espresso cookies and Chocolate and Vanilla Marble cookies (a new order form is up further down on the blog). They continue to all be made with fair trade chocolate and sugar. I’ll be back in Kingston on Monday and will be selling cookies only from there… If there is anybody interested in attempting to do a small scale version of this cookie thing in Kitchener-Waterloo (or anywhere for that matter) let me know with an email - I’d love the help!
All in all, let’s keep this going... Order and re-order cookies, tell your friends, and keep me and the Liberians in mind. I can always use new ideas for expanding, so if you have them please don’t hesitate.
Thank you all again, this has been unbelievable so far.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
donations!
Alright so. I'm finally set up to take donations either over the internet (with user fees) or at any TD branch (no user fees).
To do it on the internet I'm using PayPal and all you have to do is click on the button on the top right hand page of the blog and you're off to the races. If you haven't got an account its really easy to set one up. As far as fees go, 30 cents of every transaction goes to Pay Pal, as well as between 1.5-2.5% of the transaction. Its not bad, but if you want to make sure 100% of your donation reaches the kids, youre going to have to go for a quick walk.
To do it through TD, where there are no user fees you just have to go to ANY branch in the entire world (or well, Canada and Northern US where branches exist) and give them the Eat to Feed Libeirans Trust Account information.
Bank transit Number: 27522
Account Number: 03556298965
Institution Number: 004
I know the walk is a bit annoying but (to be quite frank), if you think about it in perspective to what these kids go through, it hardly seems like anything. I'm not sure if thats a rude thing to say to possible donors or something but, it is the truth so.. there you have it. I suppose the entire idea of this organization is built on us realizing how good we have it even on the worst of days so, there is one more thing to think about. I find the idea particularly haunting at Christmas time...
To do it on the internet I'm using PayPal and all you have to do is click on the button on the top right hand page of the blog and you're off to the races. If you haven't got an account its really easy to set one up. As far as fees go, 30 cents of every transaction goes to Pay Pal, as well as between 1.5-2.5% of the transaction. Its not bad, but if you want to make sure 100% of your donation reaches the kids, youre going to have to go for a quick walk.
To do it through TD, where there are no user fees you just have to go to ANY branch in the entire world (or well, Canada and Northern US where branches exist) and give them the Eat to Feed Libeirans Trust Account information.
Bank transit Number: 27522
Account Number: 03556298965
Institution Number: 004
I know the walk is a bit annoying but (to be quite frank), if you think about it in perspective to what these kids go through, it hardly seems like anything. I'm not sure if thats a rude thing to say to possible donors or something but, it is the truth so.. there you have it. I suppose the entire idea of this organization is built on us realizing how good we have it even on the worst of days so, there is one more thing to think about. I find the idea particularly haunting at Christmas time...
Monday, December 1, 2008
world AIDS day
I'm sure at this point everybody has heard about how devastating HIV/AIDS is not only in Africa, but around the entire world. New crises are springing up throughout SE Asia in a fairly direct relationship to prostitution levels. The former Health Minister of South Africa was convinced that the relationship between HIV (the virus) and AIDS (a series of rare symptoms that become common to people with immune systems reduced by the virus) was a result of the forces of poverty more than the virus itself.
Point of this is that the disease has a pretty clear relationship with poverty and lack of choice.. People die off so quickly because they can't access ARVs, and while we know relatively little about the long term effects, they do prevent Africa's the crippling of Africa's most viable workforce (the disease hits men between 18-45 most commonly). The most frustrating thing, for me, is that we have the technology and knowledge to fight the spread of this disease.. Its just that Western financial interests seem to be a bit to caught up in preserving the disease (and the market for drugs) that it creates. Twisted, but that seems to be the nature of development.
As it stands, GlaxoSmithKline (major ARV producer) is able to price the drugs as they wish, regardless of whether or not the reflect manufacturing prices. To be fair, they do provide a lot of free drugs to various countries around the world, but I maintain they can do more. How is that a CEO of a drug producing company can have benefits that exceed the health budget of a developing country? How is it that while we know the promotion of condoms along with abstinence works to curb the transmission, the Bush government continues to officially promote abstinence only programs that are not allowed to touch on issues of prostitution? (check out PEPFAR in depth for another reason to be thankful Bush is gone)
What is missed all too frequently in this pandemic is that is not the seropositive person's fault. The structural conditions that have exacerbated this crisis are rooted, in large part, in Western structures... Of course issues of multiple partners will always be a factor, but are they all that more monogamous than we are here? I study African sexuality (or the myth of) and how it relates to people's conception of the disease on the continent. There is an infinite amount research here, but the point is that its not a whole lot different than it is here, just less concealed. One person remarked while I was on the camp that marriage doesn't seem to mean anything to 'Africans' (she seemed to think she was some kind of expert on a continent's worth of marriages. who knew!). She heard of husbands who cheated on their wives and assumed that everybody was like that on the contienent. What she apparently failed to realize was the reasons they cheat (one of the most relevant to the camp being that their wives being in another country because women are granted refugee status far easier than men). She also didn't recognize that some Westerners have just as little respect for monogamy as we do.. we're just a whole lot more secretive about it. A little self reflection might have done her some good...
HIV/AIDS on the camp is not documented.. at all. It does however, exist quite prominently. There is an incredible stigma against seropositive people, particularly when their immune systems are weak and they're sick. One girl was floored to hear that something I did in the afternoon was go hang out with a man diagnosed with AIDS. The HIV/AIDS department at CBW (organization I worked with) attempts to combat the stigma through blatant education and the promotion of condoms, and they are.. small small.
Anyway. Its world AIDS day today and while you can, and probably should, go buy a Starbucks coffee to send 0.000001% of the proceeds to some vague AIDS foundation, i'd encourage you to do a bit of research into what exactly is going on. Below are a few places to get started...
- Basic HIV/AIDS information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDS (on a side note to this, I do not remember being taught about HIV/AIDS in public school... Maybe I just didn't pay attention to health class but I learned more about the disease while in Uganda than anywhere else. I imagine I'm not the only one here, so if you do nothing else figure out what exactly is involved with this virus, which has become trendy in so many ways..)
- 28 Stories of AIDS in Africa by Stephanie Nolen (book that puts a very human face to the disease by taking personal testaments from 28 people to represent the 28 million infeceted
- MSF campaign: http://www.msf.ca/themes/world-aids-day-2007-angry-faces/
-Articles that were written across Africa today on World AIDS day: http://allafrica.com/aids/
- Facebook World's AIDS day group (change your display picture!!): http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=91713010306&ref=mf
Point of this is that the disease has a pretty clear relationship with poverty and lack of choice.. People die off so quickly because they can't access ARVs, and while we know relatively little about the long term effects, they do prevent Africa's the crippling of Africa's most viable workforce (the disease hits men between 18-45 most commonly). The most frustrating thing, for me, is that we have the technology and knowledge to fight the spread of this disease.. Its just that Western financial interests seem to be a bit to caught up in preserving the disease (and the market for drugs) that it creates. Twisted, but that seems to be the nature of development.
As it stands, GlaxoSmithKline (major ARV producer) is able to price the drugs as they wish, regardless of whether or not the reflect manufacturing prices. To be fair, they do provide a lot of free drugs to various countries around the world, but I maintain they can do more. How is that a CEO of a drug producing company can have benefits that exceed the health budget of a developing country? How is it that while we know the promotion of condoms along with abstinence works to curb the transmission, the Bush government continues to officially promote abstinence only programs that are not allowed to touch on issues of prostitution? (check out PEPFAR in depth for another reason to be thankful Bush is gone)
What is missed all too frequently in this pandemic is that is not the seropositive person's fault. The structural conditions that have exacerbated this crisis are rooted, in large part, in Western structures... Of course issues of multiple partners will always be a factor, but are they all that more monogamous than we are here? I study African sexuality (or the myth of) and how it relates to people's conception of the disease on the continent. There is an infinite amount research here, but the point is that its not a whole lot different than it is here, just less concealed. One person remarked while I was on the camp that marriage doesn't seem to mean anything to 'Africans' (she seemed to think she was some kind of expert on a continent's worth of marriages. who knew!). She heard of husbands who cheated on their wives and assumed that everybody was like that on the contienent. What she apparently failed to realize was the reasons they cheat (one of the most relevant to the camp being that their wives being in another country because women are granted refugee status far easier than men). She also didn't recognize that some Westerners have just as little respect for monogamy as we do.. we're just a whole lot more secretive about it. A little self reflection might have done her some good...
HIV/AIDS on the camp is not documented.. at all. It does however, exist quite prominently. There is an incredible stigma against seropositive people, particularly when their immune systems are weak and they're sick. One girl was floored to hear that something I did in the afternoon was go hang out with a man diagnosed with AIDS. The HIV/AIDS department at CBW (organization I worked with) attempts to combat the stigma through blatant education and the promotion of condoms, and they are.. small small.
Anyway. Its world AIDS day today and while you can, and probably should, go buy a Starbucks coffee to send 0.000001% of the proceeds to some vague AIDS foundation, i'd encourage you to do a bit of research into what exactly is going on. Below are a few places to get started...
- Basic HIV/AIDS information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDS (on a side note to this, I do not remember being taught about HIV/AIDS in public school... Maybe I just didn't pay attention to health class but I learned more about the disease while in Uganda than anywhere else. I imagine I'm not the only one here, so if you do nothing else figure out what exactly is involved with this virus, which has become trendy in so many ways..)
- 28 Stories of AIDS in Africa by Stephanie Nolen (book that puts a very human face to the disease by taking personal testaments from 28 people to represent the 28 million infeceted
- MSF campaign: http://www.msf.ca/themes/world-aids-day-2007-angry-faces/
-Articles that were written across Africa today on World AIDS day: http://allafrica.com/aids/
- Facebook World's AIDS day group (change your display picture!!): http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=91713010306&ref=mf
Saturday, November 22, 2008
holiday cookies!
Check out the order form (scroll down a bit) for new holiday cookies! I am selling them as of now (for older orders I'm happy to make the old kinds).
If you want to place a big order, I'm happy to make different kinds of cookies.
Also, keep checking for information on an actual website and a way to donate money. Next week it should be as easy as going to a TD Canada Trust Bank and depositing into a specific account. I looked into doing online donations, but it makes operating costs too high and I would have to begin taking money away from the feeding and putting it towards administrative costs... doesn't seem right to me just yet.
If you want to place a big order, I'm happy to make different kinds of cookies.
Also, keep checking for information on an actual website and a way to donate money. Next week it should be as easy as going to a TD Canada Trust Bank and depositing into a specific account. I looked into doing online donations, but it makes operating costs too high and I would have to begin taking money away from the feeding and putting it towards administrative costs... doesn't seem right to me just yet.
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