Brittany’s hands on fundraiser

Queensland sixth grader, Brittany, has raised $400 for the School of St Jude by selling hand prints.


Her idea was to create a colourful flag for the School by asking students to donate $2 and make a multi-colour hand print on the large white sheet.

After a month of painting 100s hands and making prints, her flag was finished. Now her flag has been delivered to the School by her mother, Mandy, after she climbed Mt Kilimanjaro as part of the Rotary fundraising climb.



The flag has pride of place in the School library, where it forms a room divider. The kids enjoy matching their hands to the many hand prints on the flag. It gives the St Judes' kids a tangible reminder of another group of children on the other side of the world who care about them and want to help their School.





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Hey ho! Rentabook adds up.

Yes, it all adds up. Every last dollar. It's the end of the month and time to decide what we'll sponsor at the School of St Jude this month.

I don't really mind what I sponsor, 'cos I see that the money is well-used. Good planning goes a long way towards ensuring that things go smoothly, but there are always hiccoughs and glitches that mean that plans need to be adapted.

Earlier this year, the School commissioned an internet upgrade that involved a satellite dish and more. After several months of service failure, they have gone back to their previous supplier -- a more limited service, but more reliable! We have to expect these things to happen and to be flexible.



This month, I'd like to remind you about my brainwave – the Rentabook Scheme. This is so simple, it is silly. All you do is stick one of my St Jude's bookplates into the front of your books, then lend them or give them away as usual. The bookplate encourages the borrower (or recipient) to make a small donation to the School of St Jude – they rent the book for a small fee. The fees are paid here on my blog via the ChipIn tool at the top of the page.

Give it a go. Download the bookplates here. Stick them in. Get those books circulating!

Rent a Book Fundraiser

Here's my latest scheme! You can download this bookplate and stick it into any of your books. Then you lend the books, sell them, or give them away, and the books becomes a fundraiser for the School of St Jude.



Do you like this idea? Can you add these bookplates to your books? Go here to download the PDF file, then print it out and stick it into any of your books. [Right click the link and choose 'save as' to save the PDF file to your computer.]

Your borrowers can use the ChipIn widget on this blog to donate their book rental fees to the School of St Jude.

Get your books working for you! Better still – get them working to educate bright children from poor families in Tanzania.



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Round up

Well, we had a great time at the Kujenga! fundraiser for Foodwatershelter that I blogged about here. Foodwatershelter build eco-friendly children's villages with education, social and health facilities. Their first village for 40 orphans will be near Arusha in Tanzania.

I thought I would end this month with a reminder about the building projects at St Judes.

The Big Sleepover – weekday boarding school

It’s underway, and you’re invited! Work is starting on the weekday boarding facilities for the older kids who live a long way from the school. The boarding school will provide bunk bed dormitories, living/dining/study areas, bathrooms, and play areas.

Instead of sharing a mattress in a two room home,

the kids will have their own bed and mosquito net.

Instead of studying by candle or lamp in homes with no electricity,

the kids will have well-lit study areas with some computers.

Instead of walking an hour to the bus for the long ride to school, they will have a five minute walk to school.

And they will go home at weekends, so their loving families won’t lose contact with these bright children who are on the way to an amazing future with opportunities every parent dreams about.

How can you join The Big Sleepover? Well, the school has prepared a number of sponsorship packages shown in the following picture.



Last month, we opted to 'sponsor' an industrial cooker! I guess we won't get letters from it, but I'm sure we'll see photos. Maybe I can send it a Christmas card now and then!

Please email Gemma – schoolofstjude@habari.co.tz – if there is a package/s you are willing to support. She will make sure you get lots feedback and thanks.




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Tanzania comes to Sydney!

Have fun at this high-energy cocktail fundraiser in the Rocks on Thursday 27 June, 2007.

The folks at FoodWaterShelter are throwing a party and you're invited. This great group is starting an an eco-friendly children's village in Tanzania. It will be home for 40 orphans in the Arusha district. They know what is needed and how to do it cos they have volunteered at the School of St Jude.

The party on the 27th will be held at Dan's place,the Argyle, 12-18 Argyle Street, The Rocks, Sydney. Dan? Gemma's brother of course!

What's up on the night?

• A wild performance by Senegalese drumming sensation, Pape Mbaye!
• A live auction with a money-can't-buy item list, including a 15-day Serengeti safari for two!
• Exotic African art, exhibiting unique pieces from Africa's and Australia's most talented artists.
• Gourmet Traveller photographer, Luke Burgess will talk you through his "Tales From Tanzania" photo exhibition.
• Exceptional and substantial canapé cuisine plus an unlimited access to tantalizing alcoholic beverages.
• A renowned African artist will paint the entire evening onto canvas. This canvas will be auctioned on the night!

The dress is cocktail, and the price is $125. I think I'll be there!!

You can find out more about this FoodWaterShelter fundraiser on their website.

Climbing Kilimanjaro

On the 28/08/07 a group of energetic Rotarians, one Lion and Friends will be climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania in Africa.


The climbers will be raising money to assist AIDS orphans in Africa and to continue the good work being done by Rotary for the School of St. Jude. The organisers welcome anyone who is interested in climbing or who would like to sponsor the climb. Your assistance will help the three beneficiaries:

* The School of St Jude, Tanzania
* Operation Medical Hope, Hout Bay, Cape Town
* RFFA Rotarians For Fighting AIDS, Orphan Rescue South Africa & Kenya

The climb has an excellent web site and blog where you can keep up to date or leave a comment.

The Rotary Clubs of Coolamon and Forbes Ipomoea from the Riverina of New South Wales, Australia have combined to organise this event and you may contact the two following leaders of the event for further information.

Project Contacts

John Glassford, Rotary Coolamon
email: john (at) glassford.com.au
61 2 6927 6027

Sharon Daishe, Rotary Forbes Ipomoea
email: sharon.daishe (at) rlpb.org.au
61 2 6851 5085



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Guaranteed correspondence

When you write to 150 politicians, you can be sure that your letter box will host a regular sprinkling of replies for months. I mailed another 20 today. I’m into the M’s. And today I came home to find my first response in the letter box.

Sharon Bird has the honour of being my first reply.

Just what you’d expect from a young, attractive female MP. Perhaps it means that her office is not very busy right now. I suspect that she hasn’t seen the letter herself, despite the ‘signed’ response. Parliament is sitting now and I am sending the letters to electorate offices, not to Parliament House.

I don’t think it matters whether I send them to electorate offices or to Parliament. I am sure that the pollies don’t see the letters themselves. Well, maybe some do. Or maybe they see some of them. I am fairly confident that they get to hear what people have been writing about. And we keep hearing that a letter weighs for quite a bit in pollie-land. So I believe that these letters make a difference.

The following chart shows why I am writing to politicians. It shows the decline in Australia's Official Development Assistance from .34% GDP to .24% in 2004, compared with other OECD countries (Netherlands, Denmark, Norway) that consistently exceed the .7% target and Ireland that is improving. We're pathetic! And it shouldn't continue.

Source: OECD Factbook 2006

I was interested when my daughter, the one who gave me the Tanzanian coffee, recently asked me to print out the list of politician’s addresses for her (no internet at work and no printer at home). It warms me to know that she cares enough about something to make the effort to write to politicians about it.

What else is new? One thing I am following up is a suitable hall for the 5 May fundraiser for the School of St Jude in Sydney that I am coordinating. Option 1 didn’t pan out, so I’m pursuing options 2 and 3.

Oh, yes! There’s an exciting new widget for the blog that I’m working on. More later!

Have you checked out the YouTube link in the sidebar to see and hear St Jude’s kids singing songs? Very cute!

Three Peaks Challenge

While most of the us are preparing for the Christmas festive period of parties and holidays, 10 women from the USA and Australia will be preparing to become the first climbing party to summit three of Africa's highest mountains (Mt Kilimanjaro, Mt Kenya and Mt Meru) in less than 3 weeks.


The challenge is raising money and awareness for the three peak issues affecting Africa today; environment, education and HIV/AIDS.

Project Director Chloe Chick founded the 3 Peaks challenge after time spent at The School of St Jude in 2004.

3 Peaks aims to support and encourage the work of grassroots organisations in Africa who are having a positive and immediate impact on the local community. St Jude's is just that and has provided huge amounts of motivation to get this event established - this is our small way of saying, we truly believe in and support what St Jude's is achieving.

The women are dedicating every spare moment to fundraising, training and getting themselves prepared for the challenge ahead. To date the project has raised over $220,000, but organisers are hoping to crack half a million dollars! The money raised for St Judes will go directly to the construction of the secondary school on the new school block that many have helped to buy.

St Jude's is looking forward to hosting the team and supporters in January and celebrating with them on their return to base camp on Australia Day 2007.