Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Join the Race to $20K - One Home Many Hopes


Gradon Tripp, one of the leaders of Boston's social media community, is drivenl to use social media for social change--using the tools of social media to help people and non-profit organizations. You may have heard of the Social Media 4 Social Change event earlier this month which raised over $20,000 for Jane Doe Inc., an organization that is committed to ending domestic violence.

Not one to rest on his laurels, Gradon has brought to our attention, One Home Many Hopes, an organization that is working to improve the lives of orphaned girls in Mtwapa, Kenya. “Mudzini Kwetu” uses education and family support as ways to lift our children out of cyclical poverty. Today, there are 35 parentless girls living as one family. These girls who had spent their earliest years surviving on Mtwapa’s streets and trash piles now live as one family, attend school, and care for one another. Although their lives are so much better, there could be so much more. The vision of One Home Many Hopes is to build:

• A new three-story building with each floor serving as a distinct family unit headed by a “house mother.”
• A university education for the girls so they will be able to support themselves and be agents for ending poverty in their town, region, country and continent.
• An on-site kindergarten and school, free of the prohibitive private education fees that are common in Kenya.

In order to do this, One Home Many Hopes has started a campaign, Race to $20K which will get the building started. Vanessa Leong, an MBA student at George Washington University is spearheading the social media elements of the campaign. Vanessa is seeking to finish the race in 30 days! We are asking the Twitter community to donate towards their ambitious goal. If 1000 people (say each of my followers) gave just $20, they would get there. Please donate here. Be proud to tweet Vanessa that you support her using #ohmh. And please join me in getting the word out:
  • Tweet it
  • Blog it
  • Digg it
  • Stumble it
  • Show it in your status.
A BIG THANK YOU!





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