Increasing self-sufficiency through educational and charitable projects for people nationally and internationally.
Expanding Opportunities is participating in the Global Giving
OPEN CHALLENGE
Global Giving helps organizations raise money to implement specific projects.
SEPTEMBER 1 – 30, 2010
THE CHALLENGE
Raise $4,000 from 50 unique donors for our project during the month of September.
Raise the most money or attract the most donors and earn up to $6,000 in Prize money.
SUCCESS MEANS
Expanding Opportunities will provide meals, education, and a home for children in Kenya Expanding Opportunities will be awarded an ongoing spot for our projects on GlobalGiving.org. Expanding Opportunities will be able to list specific projects for all seven of our programs Expanding Opportunities will touch additional donors we would never encounter.
(We will receive the donations raised for us even if we fail to meet the challenge.)
OUR REQUEST TO YOU
Pass along this CHALLENGE to at least 10 of your friends
Ask at least 10 of your friends to tell at least 10 others.
Post it on your Social Media Network at least 10 times during the month of September.
Expanding Opportunities and the Rabondo Community Project have joined hands to establish a Distance Learning Center in rural Rabondo, Kenya.
Join us to bring education access to Rabondo
When you upgrade your laptop, consider donating your old, still working, one. Call 1-888-760-7943 for shipping instruction.
Computers for Schools Kenya refurbishes donated computers and peripherals and sells them with one year maintenance for $130.00 Help us equip the Distance Learning Center by donating any amount toward technology.
For more information view our Distance Learning Center Page by clicking here
What We Do:
Expanding Opportunities (EO) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and a registered NGO in Kenya. The organization has several projects. The main focus is in Kenya, Africa. One of Expanding Opportunities' major projects in maintaining and expanding the Joseph Waweru Home School; an orphanage in the Nakuru district of Kenya. Our other programs include: an artisan support project with two ecommerce sites, Aina Moja,and 1st African Clothing, a micro-loan project called Success Through Education, Money and Support, or STEMS, a feeding program for street children in Kericho, Kenya, a Books and other supplies distribution project, and a volunteer service project.
Expanding Opportunities also has a project in the United States. Camp Forest brings indiginous wilderness and survival skills from around the world to enrich the lives of children and engender an appreciation for the natural world around us.
To learn more about a specific project, use the links on the top of the page.
Where We Are:
Expanding Opportunities' North American headquarters is in Brooks, Maine, USA. In Kenya, we're based in Menengai West; a small town just outside the city of Nakuru. This is where our orphanage, the Joseph Waweru Home School, is located.
Get Involved:
Donating money is the quickest way to help out Expanding Opportunities, but man-power is also invaluable. Expanding Opportunities facilitates Service Journeys to its Kenyan orphanage, the Joseph Waweru Home School. Come and volunteer for several weeks or several months while you learn about East African culture! Volunteers are also needed in Brooks, Maine, USA, where EO's North American headquarters are. To get involved, contact us!
A Brief History:
Expanding Opportunities' executive director, Beverly Stone, grew up in a small, safe Massachusetts suburb. Even in elementary school, Beverly dreamed of leaving her quintessential American life to be a missionary doctor in Africa. Although she entered college as a pre-med student, still expecting to fulfill her dream, Beverly's plans changed and she became a teacher. Her eventual geographical destination remained, however, and in 1996, Beverly, accompanied by her eleven-year-old son, joined a project called Teachers for Africa, and spent a year teaching at Tengecha High School in Kericho, Kenya.
Beverly's students were, like most Kenyans, impoverished. They lacked even simple school supplies like erasers and pencil sharpeners. She wrote about her impressions during her first year in Kenya in a short story, Five Shillings, describing the street children she encountered and their heartbreaking situations. Beverly decided she had to help. And so, in 1997, Beverly started a feeding program to give twenty of Kericho's street kids one meal a day, thus helping the poorest of Kenya's poor.
Since 1997, Beverly has started several other support programs, including the STEMS microloan and education project in 1998, and the Friends Across the Ocean cultural exchange program in 2000. The feeding program that originally supported Kericho's street kids has now inspired a small orphanage called the Joseph Waweru Home School, which currently houses twelve boys. It's here that Expanding Opportunities brings North American interns and volunteers, who live and work at the orphanage during trips called Service Journeys.
Expanding Opportunities qualified for non-profit status in the United States on June 1, 1999, and for NGO status in Kenya shortly after. The organization is run by a board of directors, which meets regularly in the midcoast-Maine, USA region where the organization has its North American headquarters and with distance members through the internet.
