Our guest speaker on Monday 21 March was Claire Pryce, Philanthropy Manager with So They Can.
 
SoTheyCan is our newest corporate member.
 
The organisation is based in Crows Nest.  It was started by two Northbridge women in 2007 following post-election violence/massacres in Kenya where 250,000 people were internally displaced, many of these people were young children.
 
So  They Can’s Goal is to educate and empower communities in Africa so they can break the poverty cycle and enable them to realise their own potential and meet their own needs.
 
They wanted to help in a positive manner, the Village Leader Moses requested education for their children.  That village is now known as New Canaan Village, a town of 20,000 people. This led to discussions and a MOU with the Kenyan Government to build schools.  Presently they educate 960 children and that number grows by 120 additional children per year. This is the Aberdare Ranges Primary School started in 2010.
 
Later the Northbridge Women were also taken to Nakuru Dump Site where children were collecting garbage for sale for their own survival.  So, in 2012, they built a home “Holding Hands Children ‘s Home” to care  for 120 children – Miti Mingi Childrens Village.   So far they have built 8 units with another 7 to be built.  The children are cared for by older women in the community.  This has lead to further ramifications – the need to deal with disease - so they have built a clinic to service 20,000 people, the need for nutrition – so children are given 2 meals a day.
 
They have started two month micro finance training courses for women, then they are allowed to put up a business plan and apply for a business loan, to run a local business. Similar initiatives have applied to local farms and farm produce to feed the school community and sell produce. Second hand bicycles have been imported from America to aid local transportation.
 
   
 
In Tanzania: So They Can identified that the quality of teaching in Schools was a problem.  They started A Teacher Training Course with 129 students, once teachers complete the course; they teach at rural schools – they are presently teach 2795 children. Again they have Bike shops for transport; Sunflower farms -> for oil /income.
 
Summary of what it costs for the above activities:  
 
  • $25,000 funds the running costs of a home for 8 children/ 1 mother/ for 12 months
  • $65,000 funds the construction costs of a home Plus the running costs of a home for 8 children etc
  • $100,000 funds the costs of 4 classrooms plus the running costs of a home for 8  children etc
View the video: