School for Andy Benefit

Meaningful Volunteer and the School for Andy movement will be holding a benefit to support the construction of a solar-powered school in Buyaya, Uganda featuring Tani Diakite and the Drumer Djam Vivie and Ugandan dancer Alice Braskme.

Meaningful Volunteer and the School for Andy movement arebuilding a solar-powered computer literacy school in memory of Andy Manley. All proceeds for the event will be going directly to the school, which begins construction in June, 2011.

For those of you are unable to attend but would like to make a donation to the school- it would be very much apprecaited!

Where
High Noon Saloon, Madison
701 A E. Washington Ave., Madison, WI 53703 · Get directions

When
27th April 2011.  8pm - 11pm.

One-Legged Walk for Meaningful Volunteer

Ngaire Trevena - 64 of Auckland, New Zealand - recently had one of her legs amputated below the knee due to diabetic complications from an infected toe which she picked up while volunteering in the Philippines with Meaningful Volunteer.

Having one leg hasn't slowed her down though.

Both as a personal challenge and a fundraiser for Meaningful Volunteer, Ngaire decided to walk up Mangere Mountain.  It started with just Ngaire, but it ended up with twenty-five or so people walking up the mountain with her.

Ngaire and her companions conquered the mountain!

The walkers also bought several fair-trade items from the Meaningful Shop.

Ngaire's story has been picked up by several magazines as well, including That's Life magazine and various diabetes-focused and amputee-focused publications.  

Together with donations gathered on the day and magazine royalties, Ngaire has raised over $1,000 for Meaningful Volunteer.  

This money will be used to help build a solar-powered school in Uganda.  Max Trevena - Ngaire's 67 year old husband - will help build the school.

Check out all the photos from the walk below.


 

Meaningful Volunteer Report: SDM Uptake on Tablas Island

Meaningful Volunteer recently compiled a report on the uptake of the SDM method on the island of Tablas in the Philippines.

Meaningful Volunteer promotes the SDM as part of its Project Lifecycle initiative. 

The conclusions of the report are:
 

1. The uptake of SDM and CycleBeads on Tablas Island is low
    
2. The level of understanding ability to communicate their use is below that required
    
3. Interested and able healthcare workers and the midwives should be targeted for regular retraining
    
4. The availability of the CycleBeads should be better publicised
    
5. The use of condoms should be taught as an alternative to abstinence
    
6. Meaningful Volunteer should focus on the provision of sex education at school and consider potential cooperation with the Church
    
7. The provision of artificial forms of contraception to make up government shortfall is the simplest and most effective way to impact family planning on Tablas Island
    

The full report can be downloaded from here. 

11 Apr 2011 

Meaningful Volunteer Donates Contraceptives to Local Clinic

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Rachel Murphy - a resident of the United Kingdom - recently spent some of her time and money on helping the less fortunate by volunteering with Meaningful Volunteer's Project Lifecycle initiative. 

Project Lifecycle aims to provide resident of Tablas island in the Philippines reproductive options.  Most of Meaningful Volunteer's efforts to date have revolved around the use of Cyclebeads - a 100% natural family planning method that works within the religious norms on the island.

Workers at the local healthcare clinics along with the help of meaningful volunteers, saw Cyclebeads distributed to fifteen or so villages in the area.

Workers at the clinic expressed the many locals were requesting access to other types of modern contraceptives such as condoms and the pill.

As a result, a portion of Rachel's volutneer fees saw the purchase of $US250 worth of contraceptives for the local health care clinic.


 

Meaningful Volunteer Achieves Non-Profit status in the U.S.A. and Canada

Meaningful Volunteer is delighted to announce that is has achieved non-profit status in both the U.S.A. and Canada.  This is in addition to similar statuses in the Philippines, Uganda and New Zealand.

A big thanks to our awesome volunteer coordinator Meran Chang for making this happen.

Once we work through a little bit more paperwork, we will be able to offer our Canada and U.S. based volunteers charitable receipts with which they can receive tax breaks. 

 

Land Donated for Meaningful Volunteer's School

Malcolm signs the paperwork

Mrs and Mr.Wabudeya Stephen of Sironko have kindly agreed to donate some land for the construction of Meaningful Volunteer's solar-powered school in Eastern Uganda.  The land is very close to the Meaningful Volunteer's guest house in Buyaya.

Meaningful Volunteer identified a need for a school after it conducted a detail censusof the area.  It was discovered that practically no child under the age of nine could read a single letter, let alone read.  Practically no child under the age of twelve could read triplet words such as: cat, dog, man, and hen.

The school will teach English and computer literacy to both adults and children.

The school is also being built in partnership with the School for Andy movement.  Andy Manley died tragically in a house explosion in Madison on November 9th. Andy was a passionate teacher and the school is being built as a memorial to him. 

 

School For Andy Partnership

Meaningful Volunteer is happy to announce a partnership with the "School For Andy" project.

Andy Manley was resident of Madison Wisconsin and tragically died in a house explosion. Andy was a passionate educator and great all round guy.

The school the Meaningful Volunteer is building in Uganda will be built in his honour. 

Check out the School For Andy site to find out ways you can contribute.

Another Great Year for Grassroots Uganda

This news item comes from Lee Koelzer, the coordinator for Meaningful Volunteer's Grassroots Uganda fair trade initiative in Uganda.

Hello Everyone!

Thankfully, 2010 was another great year for Grassroots Uganda, and I want to thank you all for your support!

With your help we were able to bring 44,399,000ush ($22,199.50) to our women's groups, and a whopping 35,618,200ush ($17,809) to our newly created Artist Co-op!

We were also able to contribute 9,25,800ush ($4,627.90) to our small scale community developement work/ special projects. These include caring for the Jinja Orphans, the Flavia Benefit project,and Building a Latrine for Busy Bee Nursery School, amongst others.

Also, I'm happy to announce that we now have COIN EARRINGS available! We are featuring only a basic design at the moment, but we'll see how styles progress.

If you are interested in where to buy GRU products, or becoming a GRU vendor, please contact me!

peace, Lee

Mama Pamba Radio Interview

Malcolm Trevena - founder of Meaningful Volunteer - recently gave a radio interview about Mama Pamba - Meaningful Volunteer's upcoming fair trade fashion project.

Rubber Soul Global Event for World AIDS day

Meaningful Volunteer is delighted to announce a massive fundraiser across four countries and three continents to mark World AIDS Day on December 1st!

Funds from this event will go to a number of HIV charities including Meaningful Volunteer. Meaningful Volunteer will use the money to build a solar-powered school in the HIV ravaged village of Buyaya in Eastern Uganda.

Check out the home page for Rubber Soul here.

Events will be held in the following cities:
 

• Seoul, South Korea
  Sixteen bands will rock out at three different venues in the Hongdae area.

• Vancouver, Canada
  Ten bands will perform at the University of British Columbia

• Sydney, Australia
  Five bands will perform at the Lewisham Hotel followed by a DJ

• Madison, U.S.A.
  A dining event at Bradbury's will host 40 people with the proceeds going to Rubber Soul.

Merchandise from Grassroots Uganda and Little Travelers will be sold at all events.



21 Nov 2010