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More Than Me 2006
Project Results
African/Caribbean Heritage Camp
The kids decorated white baseball caps, donated by our t-shirt company, Image West Apparel, and then “sold” them to their parents and friends for $20 each.
They made $620 for The Song of Jesus Orphanage in Kenya, which is an orphanage for the children of AIDS victims. Many of the children themselves are also HIV positive and this one, dynamo woman, keeps about 25 kids alive, literally. Her brother, Francis Kamau lives in Alabama and was able to directly get the funds to his sister in Africa for us.
Sorry, no website available for the Song of Jesus Orphanage.
Cambodian Heritage Camp
With the help of Tina Thuch, one of our Cambodian community members who came all the way from California to attend camp, the kids learned a Cambodian dance that is traditionally used to collect donations in Cambodia for various reasons.
They passed the baskets at our Saturday night party and collected $1,146 for two organizations helping children in Cambodia, Maryknoll Seedling of Hope Little Folks and Little Sprouts, which is working to assist children and families coping with HIV/AIDS, and CCPCR (Cambodian Center for the Protection of Children's Rights), which is a NGO whose purpose is to shelter, care for & educate children in who are victims of sexual exploitation, domestic violence and other physical abuse.
Maryknoll Seedlings of Hope:
http://www.parish-without-borders.net/mmm/cambodia/ministries/3m-kh-seedlingproject.htm
CCPCR http://www.familycare.org/network/a08c.htm
Chinese Heritage Camp
The kids brought yard sale items from home, and conducted a yard sale outside the Schlessman Commons Dining Hall at Snow Mountain Ranch during camp.
They collected $315 for Half the Sky Foundation, which has established early childhood education, personalized learning and infant nurture programs in Chinese welfare institutions to provide the children stimulation, individual attention, and an active learning environment.
Half the Sky http://www.halfthesky.org/
Chinese Heritage Camp Too
The kids created a video of themselves, talking about who they are, what they like to do, etc. which was sent to a middle school in Beijing, China (Middle School #1). They also sent autographed (in Chinese) camp t-shirts to the kids at the school. This was true gift of themselves to kids who are their same age in China.
Sorry, no website available for Middle School #I in Beijing.
Filipino Heritage Camp
The kids brought in new crayons, coloring books, markers, etc. from home, then stuffed over 100 fleece bags and made “get well” cards for children having cleft palate surgery in the Philippines through a great organization called Uplift Internationale, based here in Colorado and supported by our Filipino community members. Doctors and medical personnel from Uplift Internationale took the colorful bags with them when they made their next trip to the Philippines, and they were a big hit with the kids!
Uplift Internationale www.upliftinternationale.org
Indian/Nepalese Heritage Camp
We had Ferooza Eswaran form the Indian community and Narayan Shrestha from the Nepali community, come and talk to the kids about schools in their respective countries that needed our assistance. The kids were amazed that just $25 a day feeds one child breakfast and lunch at school for an entire year!
The kids also decorated white baseball caps (this time only discounted, not donated) and “sold” them to their parents and friends Saturday night.
They collected $2,046, which was divided between two schools, one in Bangolore, India, sponsored by the India Round Table Trust, of which Ferooza is a member, and the Helping Hands school in Nepal, started by Narayan and his wife. We have since found out that the school in India used our donation to purchase a water pump for underground water storage, so the school now has running water 24/7, which previously they did not have! In Nepal, the funds were used to purchase sports equipment that school had very little of, as well as other much needed supplies.
Round Table School, Bangalore India
www.roundtable44.org
Helping Hands Nepal http://helpinghandsusa.org/hhhe_Npl.htm
Korean Heritage Camp
At the suggestion of Kim Matsunaga, the kids made sachets for the Rehabilitation Center (orphanage for disabled children) at Eastern Child Welfare Society in Korea. They made over 100 sachets, which Kim took to Korea when she went the next time. They were very well received and made the Rehabilitation Center smell delightful!
The camp kids also decorated extra camp t-shirts, which were donated by Korean
adoptee and KHC parent, Lindy Curry. Many of our Korean community members were
there to help the kids right their names, plus words and phrases in hangul
on the t-shirts. Kyungmin Lee, the Director of the Jinhae Hope Home orphanage
in Korea, was at camp this year and able to talk to the kids directly and show
a video of the Hope Home during the More Than Me session. He brought an extra
suitcase just for the t-shirts and was able to hand deliver one shirt for each
child in the orphanage.
The kids at Hope Home in Korea, loving their KHC t-shirts!
Sorry, no websites available for Eastern Child Welfare Society or Hope Home.
Latin American Heritage Camp
We put out a request via e-mail to registered camp families, and they delivered with a massive amount of toiletries and medical supplies that the kids put into 100 zip lock bags that had been decorated with permanent markers. These bags were then hand delivered by one of our camp parents, Mary Sebastian, to Common Hope in Guatemala, which is an organization that works to improve health care, education, housing, and human development across Guatemala. An adult adoptee, Renato Westby, who works for Common Hope, was at camp last year and spoke about the organization, so most of the kids remembered who he was and what it was all about. That made it a very real experience for them.
Common Hope www.commonhope.org
Russian/CIS Heritage Camp
The kids learned some Russian writing, and wrote letters to kids at Krapivna Special School in Krapivna, Russia that Yuri Brown, one of our middle school kids, attended before he was adopted. Yuri’s Mom, Marilyn, also took pictures of the kids to send with the letters, and the kids also brought in playing cards from their state, or something else that represented something they wanted to share with the kids in Russia, and sent them to the kids, who have very few, if any, games to play with. This was a very good way for the kids to feel somewhat connected with kids of their own age and younger in Russia.
Sorry, no website available for Kaprivna Special School
Vietnamese Heritage Camp
The kids each wrote stories or poems that were translated into Vietnamese, and made into a booklet by Connie Lewis, one of our camp parents, then sent to Save the Children International’s Vietnamese program to be used in their reading project. Caroline Miles who is a VP at Save the Children and also one of our camp parents, spoke to the kids about the organization and showed a video. The kids all signed their names and wrote some personal information about themselves, like their hobbies, sports they play, music they like, etc. for the kids back in Vietnam. Another “hands on” way for the kids to connect to children their age in Vietnam.
Save the Children International www.savethechildren.org
