A Humble Request: FUNDRAISING

Every day, this journey becomes more real. Yesterday I learned more details about my placement. I WILL BE TEACHING 8TH AND 9TH GRADE ENGLISH AND HISTORY AT THE CHAWAMA COMMUNITY SCHOOL! I also found out the name of my host family!

As my life at the end of this tunnel becomes more clear, I still have to get on a plane to get myself halfway around the world. Then I have to find a way to live for year. And I want to live in such a way that is not a detriment to my new community, but a resource.

All of this, of course, practically takes just that: resources. I humbly ask for a gift from yours.  Each international YAV is asked to raise $4,000 personally. I need to raise $2,000 by July 1, 2014 and an additional $2,000 by January 1, 2015. Furthermore, as a team of four volunteers serving in Zambia we have an additional goal of raising $16,000 to support the YAV program. This makes my fundraising goal around $8,000. Seeing as the actual average cost to support a YAV per year is $24,000, I am extremely thankful to have this opportunity and I am indebted to the program and all those that support the Presbyterian Church USA.

Please consider investing in me, the Chawama Community School, and also all YAVs serving worldwide. Donating is a way to share this experience with me, and I promise stories and perspective through my blog, through letters, and certainly when I return.

  

Here is how to share in this journey:

Donate online: Go to this link to make a gift via credit card or bank account http://www.presbyterianmission.org/donate/E210252/. (Note: Press "Make a donation," enter your gift amount and follow the directions.)

Send checks to:

Presbyterian Church (USA)

Remittance Processing

P.O. Box 643700

Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700

(*Please write my name and ECO# on the checks: Hannah Weinberg-Kinsey #E210252).

All gifts are tax-deductible!

From the big gifts to the small gifts, I appreciate your support monetarily and in your hopes and prayers! 

So it begins...

Welcome to my record of my year in service with the Young Adult Volunteers in Zambia. After about two years of talking and talking and talking about doing this big, sacrificial act of serving abroad... IT IS FINALLY HAPPENING! After so much waiting, and even a period of considering throwing in the bag, it feels surreal to even write this first blog post because it is another reminder that this is real. Come August I will get on a plane and eventually find myself in Africa. FOR REAL!

Here is what I know about my year so far:

1) This is the first year YAV has sent volunteers to Zambia. I will be one of four women serving as volunteers. We have recently become facebook friends and they seem awesome! I believe they will all be 2014 graduates from college.

2) Our placement site coordinator has been serving in Zambia for a few years now with her family (husband and two boys). She seems to be a progressive and kind lady-pastor that I look forward to knowing better. In her time in Zambia, she has done much work to fight AIDS in Africa.

3) All four volunteers will be located in or around Lusaka, Zambia's capital city. We will be living in host families and most likely working at community schools. Community schools are run by Presbyterian churches and because they are tuition-free, cater mostly to orphans from AIDS and those who wouldn't be able to pay public or private school fees. We might teach or we might work on income-generating activities to make the schools more sustainable. Watch a video about the schools here.

4) I leave on August 18th, 2014. I will first spend a week in Stony Point, NY with all other domestic and international YAVs before the four of us fly to Zambia. I will return to the USA in August 2015.

Stay tuned for posts about the meaning of the title of this blog, my fundraising journey in the next few months (I will need your help!), and information about Zambia and my placement as I learn over the next few months.