Givology Spiders

I initially heard about Givology Spiders after interviewing for a internship/job at the Circle of Peace School with Joanita. I am an education minor at the University of Richmond and want to focus my attention post-graduation on underprivileged children and their educational needs. I spent the entire summer prior to my senior year researching programs and schools in the U.S. and abroad, when, at chance, in October I met Joanita and found out about the Circle of Peace School. Since then, through Givology and the Circle of Peace School website, I have dedicated my efforts to raising awareness and money to the students in Uganda and focusing my academic attention on various methods for teaching children of all learning types in order to better suit the students' need at the Circle of Peace School.

My desire to really help others have access to education really began last spring when I studied abroad in Tanzania, East Africa. This year more than 850,000 children in Tanzania should finish primary school, but the government has room for only 98,000 of them to start secondary school. There are children who will not have the opportunity to go to school although they have the desire to learn. The need for education, particularly in Tanzania, became very real to me as I visited different places. Children would come up to me, and instead of asking me for money, they would ask for pencils. While staying with a family my 7 year old home-stay sister wrote out words in Swahili and the English translation for the words. My homestay sister was so excited to share this with me and to help me learn Swahili. She was so happy that she knew these words in English that she had been taught in school.

While I was in Tanzania I read Greg Mortenson's book, Three Cups of Tea, which is the story about Greg’s adventures of building girl’s schools in Afghanitstan and Pakistan. Greg believes that the way to promote peace is through education. The transformation of a community and reconstruction of a nation starts and happens through education. I believe that education can truly change a society and that education empowers individuals. Everyone should be able to have access to education. Three cups of Tea really challenged me to take action and help others to have the opportunity to go to school. I became a Givology member because I saw the need for education in east Africa. I realized how privileged I am to have the opportunity to attend college. Givology has given me the chance to help children go to school, even though while still being far away in Richmond, Virginia. I am looking forward to what the Givology Spiders will accomplish in this New Year.

-Emily

Happy New Year Givology! I hope everyone had a great holiday.

At the University of Richmond, we finished the Fall semester with a fundraising dinner which was very successful. We raised a good deal of money that Joanita Senoga and Iria Jones were able to take with them to the Circle of Peace School. They are there now, working hard on the school's moving project. They were also able to take with them some in kind donations, such as hygiene products and school supplies, which were donated by a local 6th grade class. We are eagerly awaiting updates on their progress.
We have several fundraising events planned for the Spring semester, including a concert benefit and Valentine's Day surprise. We will keep you posted as we finalize the plans. We will also be working on recruiting new members and planning for next year.

We meet every Wednesday night at the library 2nd floor our usual time is 6:30pm. Want to join us come catch up on updates about our progress with the Bake sale. Keep you up to speed on what is going on with our next week's fundraiser dinner. We will be taking a few group pictures to post on the Givology website. I am looking forward seeing you tonight!
Cheers!
Joanita

Hello Givology,

I am so excited to be a part of the Givology Spiders and wider Givology network! This is an amazing and creative community that is making a real impact in education around the world.
At the University of Richmond, we are working on a couple of fundraisers, the first being a bake sale. We have an opening dinner coming up soon, which will be a lot of hard work but hopefully we will raise lots of money for the students at the Circle of Peace School. Joanita has done such a wonderful job of supporting the school from the United States and connecting UofR students to Uganda. I hope that the trip this December is a success.
I will let you all know how the fundraisers go!

Thanks,
Sarah

Hello Givology Support,

We’re very excited about our new chapter Givology Spiders getting started. I want to thank Joyce Meng for the advice, discussion and answering all our questions. Offering help to create campaign materials such as general flyers, and brochures to help promote the school and get the word out. Many thanks go to Yuqing Fan, Jenn Chen, Catherine Gao, and Coonoor Behal thanks guys for all your support in every way. We look forward working with you.

I’m very excited about going to Uganda trip this December with my colleague Iria, Joyce and Jia. We are going to Circle of Peace School to launch a project of expansion of the school. We hope to take more videos, pictures and blog throughout the trip. The Givology Spiders would like to run fundraisers and campaigns to raise enough money to help fund this project by then. We also hope to receive more funding through the Givology website and you can support us just by spreading the word about us!

I am looking forward to this trip so much and I am so thankful to everyone who is making this possible.

Our first fundraiser is November 9th selling baked goods. Stay tuned for the updates!

Cheers,
Joanita

Dear Givology Readers,

My name is Eunice Kim, and I am part of the recently created Givology Spiders at the University of Richmond.

I am uber-excited about creating this giving account. It makes a definite imprint in the field of work our team has been working and planning our fundraising for our first semester. We call ourselves the Givology Spiders, simply because that is our school's logo and we're proud of it! I can't wait to show the world what spider students can do to help the rest of the world in need.

We want to support, in particular, the Circle of Peace School, a secondary school in Uganda with lots of need for aid. Our friend Joanita Senoga, who works at the University of Richmond, founded this school over a decade ago, She was telling me about the wonderful school of children with so much passion to learn but with few resources, I had a brilliant but obvious idea: Why couldn't the students at the University of Richmond found an organization specifically to help this school?

We hope to recieve support from you in any way shape or form!

with much love,

Eunice Kim
Univ. Of Richmond '10