From Diane MacKenzie:Most charities just receive cheques from their supporters, and that’s about as close as the relationship gets. That’s okay. After all, it’s the money that fuels the fires, that builds the bridges, that buys the mulberry bushes, and funds the micro-financing bank so that the good work can take place overseas.
But there’s something different about Partners, something that draws in the supporters, making them want to be part of the core, to see the projects, to spread the word, to be creative. Maybe it’s the philosophy that every penny raised is used for development and not a penny for administration. Maybe it’s because each project in Ethiopia has 20% support from its countrymen in the form of cash or labour or materials.
Or maybe it’s because our projects are so simple and so life impacting. Like wells with clean water and bridges allowing villagers to travel to market or school in rainy seasons and schools and AIDS orphanages.
It was micro-financing that interested donor
Alison Moscrop when she traveled to Ethiopia with her dad three years ago. She wanted to see this concept at work, to learn how a loan as small as $70 could help an impoverished woman trade in bananas or spices or farm produce. Such a tiny sum by our standards, yet enough to help a single mum with 6 or 7 kids feed and clothe her offspring plus send them to school. Just seventy dollars to change peoples’ lives. Alison attended Co-op meetings and traveled 18 hours by bus to remote rural regions of the country. She talked to the women and viewed their projects. She liked what she saw and committed to fundraise back home in Canada. Thus was born the Great Big Run for Africa. Knowing that Ethiopians were the best marathoners in the world, a runner herself, Alison created an event for women in the Okanagan to support impoverished woman in Ethiopia. The rest is history. In 2005 Stephanie Moore and Crystal Flaman ran the 100 km route through the Okanagan valley from Westbank to Enderby. Their pledges brought in $7,000 for micro-financing. In 2006 12 runners and power walkers signed up and the run became a relay. Each participant was asked to sign up $500 in pledges. They did better than that – at the end of the day they had collected $35,000 from individual and corporate donors.
There’s more to the story. In 2003 a
financial planner named Nicole Rustad met Ethiopian Mekonen Bayssie at a trade fair in Kelowna. A Partners' director, Mekonen told Nicole about the development work overseas and encouraged her to become involved. Nicole was hooked. She too became a volunteer, taking on information sharing with power point presentations and becoming Chair of the 2007 Great Big Run for Africa. She knew 2 things were important for the success of the run – media backing and finding people to pledge. She also knew public education was crucial, and every radio announcement , press release and brochure spelled out the concept of micro-financing and its success in giving Ethiopian women a hand up not a hand out.
Just $70 to change a life!
October 13th was a lovely clear day in the Okanagan. For the third year Kelowna Truck and Rental provided an RV for Alison’s husband Barry Moscrop to chauffeur along the route. This year there were 16 participants . Relay lengths varied, depending on the training and strength of each woman. Some ran (or power walked) 5 km; others went farther, up to 25 km. It was a long day, a 7am start time in Westbank, and it was after 6pm when the Enderby firefighters accompanied the team to the Partners office on whatever street.
Was there any money raised? You bet, $45,000 in pledges and Nicole expects to see over $50,000 in the final tally.Nicole says this kind of event would be easy to duplicate in another community, and she’s available to assist. It doesn’t have to be a relay on a highway says she; instead the run could take place on a community walkway or track field. Call her at (250) 212-0774 or email her at rnrustad@shaw.ca.
Now, what about that other volunteer work Nicole was doing, those power point presentations? Yet again, one thing led to another.. A nursing prof from UBC attended one of Nicole’s talks and asked her to speak not once but twice to classes at UBC. Now Nicole is planning a group visit to Ethiopia in February, hoping to see some of the work she has helped fund. The nursing prof is going too, planning to meet folks at the university in Addis Ababa about setting up a nursing exchange.
Just one more thing. Nicole is very organized, no surprise, and the pledge and entry forms for the next Big Run are ready, for October 26, 2008. Would you like her to send you one?
(Diane MacKenzie is a retired Public Administrator and ongoing supporter of Partners.)
