Fourth-quarter child welfare beneficiary Camfed USA gave us this report about how they will use the funds contributed by members of Foundation Beyond Belief. Foundation members donated $2,590 to Camfed last quarter.

In sub-Saharan Africa, 24 million girls can't afford to go to school. A girl may marry as young as 13 and has a one in 22 chance of dying in childbirth. But research shows that if you educate a girl, her life will change dramatically. She’ll earn up to 25 percent more and reinvest 90 percent in her family; be three times less likely to become HIV-positive; and have healthier, better educated children.
 
Since 1993, Camfed has fought poverty and AIDS in rural Africa by educating girls and empowering young women. A gift of $2,590 from Foundation Beyond Belief is helping educate the next generation of girls in Africa, giving them the tools they need to escape poverty.
 
Your gift will provide eight girls who would otherwise be forced to drop out of school because of poverty with comprehensive high school scholarships for a year. Camfed’s four-year scholarship program provides a girl with all the school supplies, books, clothing, and mentoring she needs to stay in school and succeed.

One girl in our program is Febby from Samfya, Zambia, pictured here. Following her father’s death, Febby had to drop out of school for two years to assist her mother with household chores. A local teacher learned of Febby’s plight and nominated her to receive a Camfed scholarship.
 
Febby is now working hard in high school and says, “If I hadn’t been supported by Camfed, I wouldn’t have even learned to read. Knowing that Camfed is there for me gives me courage.”
 
By making a donation to educate girls like Febby in rural Africa, you are transforming their lives, and those of their families and future generations. We look forward to continued partnership with you in this important work. Thank you!
 
Warm regards,

Kristin Harrison, Strategic Communications Manager
Camfed USA

Fourth-quarter poverty beneficiary Trenton Area Soup Kitchen gave us this report about how they will use the funds contributed by members of Foundation Beyond Belief. Foundation members donated $2,370 to TASK last quarter.

The Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK) is very grateful for the support of the Foundation Beyond Belief. TASK has a three-fold mission: The first is meal service. The second is to help our patrons achieve lives of self-sufficiency, and the third is to make the greater community aware of our mission and our needs.

We serve a hot, nutritious lunch Monday through Friday and an evening meal Monday through Thursday at our Escher Street location. We also serve dinner Monday through Thursday at satellite locations in South Trenton and West Trenton. We have an open door, no-questions-asked policy and we are currently serving 3,300 meals per week.

Our Adult Education Program provides tutoring in literacy, basic math, GED preparation, and computer skills. We also provide the services of a full-time, on-site social worker. Those who come to TASK include the elderly, the addicted, the mentally ill, the physically challenged, veterans, recent immigrants, families with children, the working poor, and the newly unemployed.

The money donated from the Foundation Beyond Belief will be used to directly support our meal service, specifically to purchase food. With your generous donation, we will be able to provide healthy meals to individuals and families in need. Thank you very much.

Dennis Micai, TASK Executive Director

Fourth-quarter education beneficiary Vidnyanvahini gave us this report about how they will use the funds contributed by members of Foundation Beyond Belief. Foundation members donated $3,735 to Vidnyanvahini last quarter.

We are very grateful for the most generous donation from all the members of FBB that gives us additional stimulus for striving to improve on our own past performance. We have been visiting rural high schools in Maharashtra in India to give students a chance to learn science through experiments and video presentations. These schools usually lack basic infrastructure such as libraries and laboratories. Some of them don't have a regular school building, and often there is no qualified teacher. We help dispel exploitative superstitions prevalent in villages. 

Over the past 16 years, we have served more than 200,000 boys and girls in about 2,000 school visits to 900 different schools. Our Mobile Science Lab has traveled more than 160,000 kilometers, an equivalent of four trips around the Earth! We make about 140 school trips per year. Our average expense per trip is $80, which includes the salary of the driver, fuel and maintenance for the vehicle, and an honorarium for the instructors. 

We expect to use the donation from FBB to cover 35 such trips until June 2011. We will use the remainder of the money for a student workshop and a few teachers' workshops. We will also organize theme exhibits at our office, the first of which is almost ready on the theme of chemical bonding and valency. 

Madhukar Deshpande
Coordinator, Vidnyanvahini