Begging for money

Happy Chanukah, Christmas, or Kwanza (which only exists in America and Africans think is hysterical)!! I hope the holiday season is treating everyone as well as it has been treating me thus far. I had amazing thanksgiving with lots of friends, little kids, food, and drumming. All the essentials.
Well, you knew it was coming. I’m sure you did. Once you heard I was joining Peace Corps and coming to Africa on some misguided attempt to save the world, you knew the inevitable plea for money would shortly follow. And you weren’t wrong, here it is. I don’t like doing it, no one likes asking for money, and I’ll only do it once I promise, so this is it. I know it’s the holiday season and everyone is already spending money. And I know the economy is bad, really bad, but I’m asking anyway because the kids here need it bad, really bad.
I the kids that I am requesting money for are orphans from the village, Lwang’a, I live in. They all have passed the test to go to secondary school but can’t scrape up the money to afford it. They are all bright kids but have had to struggle thus far with loosing one or both parents to HIV and depending on an impoverished village to support them. Here are the numbers:

School fees for the year: $16.00USD
Uniform Set (skirt/pants, blouse, sweater): $20.00 USD
Shoes: $12.00 USD
Math set (required): $2.50 USD
7 Notebooks (one for each subject): $23.00 USD
Paper: $2.50 USD
Misc (Id card, bookbag, pens): $8.00 USD total
Total :$ 84.00 USD to send a kid to secondary school for a year

Since I’m asking for money and I said I’d only do it once, there is also another project I’m working on. The primary school has over 800 kids attending and only two toilets. Once for boys one for girls. It is a health and sanitation problem. The school committee and I are working on a plan to build at least 6 more toilets. They have asked for donations from the community in the form of money, materials, or labor and we have a had a great response. Everyone understands that this is really important. BUT, we’re still short on the cash. Here’s how much it costs:
1 bag of cement: $12.50USD
1 sheet of tin for roofing: $13.00 USD
1 kg of nails: $2.00 USD
1 rolls of fencing: $11.50 USD

What we need is 13 bags of cement, 15 sheets of tin, 5kg of nails, and 12 rolls of fence. Lumber, paint, and labor is being donated by teachers and village members.

So here is my plea: if you have some extra money, donate it. Please. You can donate however much you want to go to whatever you want, this is just the breakdown so you can see how far your money is going here. It goes a long way and actually changes lives here. If you donate you’ll get a letter in the mail from a student, his or her picture and your name painted on the outside of finished bathrooms. (I know just what you always wanted, your name on a toilet)
Here is the weird part, getting the money to me. I’ve set up a separate savings account for this village but it is under my name with Washington Mutual. That means you have to write the checks to me. I feel weird about this but it seems to be the simplest and fastest way to get money actually working for these people. You can write the checks to me, Kimberly Heller (if you didn’t know who was writing this), and on the memo line include whether you want the money to go to secondary school sponsorship or you want it to go the primary school bathrooms. If you don’t care you can just say “Lwang’a schools”. Send it to my home address in the states and my dad will put it in my account. As soon as I get it, I’ll send you an email verifying.

What do you think?
Can you help? I’d think you’re a rockstar and kids here will owe their future to you…. no exaggeration. And just all those people you can’t figure out what to get for Christmas, you can donate a bag of cement in their name…. perfect. Just an idea. If you can’t right now cause things are just too tight, I totally get it. Don’t worry I’ll take donations all year!!! I’m asking now because the new school term starts in January so I’d like to get some of these guys started but its never too late to donate and there are always kids here to help. Ok that’s it. That’s the best I could do. If you have questions or ideas let me know. Email me, write me or even call!! Oh and feel free to forward this to someone you think might want to help
Happy Holidays and much, much love,
Kim

Send checks to:
425 Churchill Rd.
Sierra Madre, CA 91024

My email: kheller@ucla.edu
My address here: Kim Heller PCV
S.L.P.469
Makambako, Iringa
Tanzania
My phone number here: +255787404897

p.s. all my pictures saved on my jump drive got deleted when i actually used a computer with an antivirus....hugggggge bummer. ugh TIA right? and sorry if you already got this in an email or facebook message. just covering all my bases :)