Archive for the ‘African School’ Category

Today is the day! Educate a child, Educate a Nation! Help us educate a child by donating to Phase 1 of our school building project in Egbe, Nigeria on this day of generosity.

Click below to donate any amount so we can build our school for our kids at C.A.R.E. Africa.

10.5 million children in Nigeria are not in school per Unicef statistics. This is the highest population of out of school children in the world. Help us build a school in Egbe, Nigeria so our 78 vulnerable children can go to school in a safe and secure environment.

We currently rent a space and have outgrown it. 152 children attend our school and 78 of these children are on scholarships. We want each child to receive a quality education and in order to do that, we feel the child to teacher ratio needs to be low. We pride ourselves in the fact that our teacher to child ratio is 15 pupils per class. This means we cannot take as many children as we would like and so we have a waiting list of children begging to get an education. With the new school we will have more classrooms and can take more children.

We have the land we just need the buildings. The total building project cost is $250,000 of which Phase 1 is $25,000. This will allow us to start clearing the land, building the wall and digging the footers. Donate any amount to help us educate more children in Egbe, Nigeria! Click DONATE

Unleash your generosity in 1 week on #GivingTuesday.

Consider donating to the C.A.R.E. Africa school project. Pay Proudly has committed to match the first $2,000 given to the project so please pass this email along to everyone you know!

Help us build a school in Nigeria for our kids!

#GivingTuesday is only 2 weeks away!

There is Black Friday , Cyber Monday and #GivingTuesday!

Unleash generosity and build a school in Egbe, Nigeria for vulnerable children this year for #GivingTuesday

10.5 million children in Nigeria are not in school per Unicef statistics. This is the highest population of out of school children in the world.

Help us build a school in Egbe, Nigeria so our 78 vulnerable children can go to school in a safe and secure environment. We currently rent a space and have outgrown it. 152 children attend our school and 78 of these children are on scholarships. We want each child to receive a quality education and in order to do that, we feel the child to teacher ratio needs to be low. We pride ourselves in the fact that our teacher to child ratio is 15 pupils per class. This means we cannot take as many children as we would like and so we have a waiting list of children begging to get an education. With the new school we will have more classrooms and can take more children. Educate a child, Educate a Nation!

Help us educate a child by donating to Phase 1 of our building project. We have the land we just need the buildings. The total building project cost is $250,000 of which Phase 1 is $25,000. This will allow us to start clearing the land, building the wall and digging the footers. Donate any amount to help us educate more children in Egbe, Nigeria! Click EDUCATE to donate!

Check our my latest trip to Nigeria. I was so blessed to be able to spend time with my staff encouraging them through leadership training. We re-visited our vision, mission and core values while evaluating our programs and processes. We analyzed our office culture and came up with ways to show Christ’s love better in the lives of those he has entrusted us with. We celebrated our children and continued to work towards progress on our building project for the school. God continues to give us all the strength to be his hands and feet in Egbe, Nigeria.

P.S. My birthday fundraiser for Pastor Alabi was fully funded!! Thank you everyone for helping make my birthday wish come true!

From Canada to the U.S. to Egbe…..here a some beautiful pictures to illustrate what has been going on at C.A.R.E. Africa! Enjoy!

At C.A.R.E. Africa we try to reach out to the community monthly to support other ministries to encourage them. We recently visited a ministry in Jos, Nigeria and fell in love with the work they are doing. Meet Bibi, a teacher that was tired of seeing the children in Jebu sitting around with nothing to do. They had no money for school fees so she brought the school to them. The children come everyday now to learn to read and write but have to sit outside in the hot sun. Recently there has been attacks on their village and the need for a shelter is even more important.

Bibi needs a building for these children and has been raising funds all by herself. Help her buy the block, wood and roofing materials needed to finish her building for the children of Jebu Miango in Nigeria. Any amount will help towards the $500 needed. You can donate at https://donorsee.com/project/10366

Check out the progress of their library an educational center along with information on the recent attacks on their village at https://www.facebook.com/kangyangg1.

Four years ago I met with the benefactors of Foundations Academy in Jos, Nigeria in order to create a sister school in Egbe. I also toured Foundations Academy’s prestigious school called Park Ridge. Park Ridge started in 2012 and runs much like an American School. They use mainly Nigerian curriculum to prepare students for Nigerian exams, but they infuse curriculum from around the world to help the students have a broader worldview. I knew one day we would have exceptionally bright children at our school in Egbe and wondered if this could be an option for them. Park Ridge’s reputation opens doors at Universities all across Nigeria and provides a better chance for study abroad.

 

Over the past two years we have had three of our middle school students with exceptional scores on their testing and marks in class. Gloria, Idowu and Segun. Recently they went to Jos for their JS2 excursion (similar to trips American students take to Washington DC). It was decided they should take the entrance exams and interview for the Park Ridge school in Jos. Two of them tested well and would be allowed to attend. This was a huge opportunity for these two students. After some prayer we decided that Idowu and Segun were ready for this opportunity and Gloria would wait another year.

We reached out to their sponsors praying that they would help but knowing we would need to raise a lot of funds to transport them to Jos and to cover the higher school fees, boarding and meals. Segun’s and Idowu’s sponsor immediately said yes. It was such an answer to prayer, but I was a little worried about Idowu’s sponsor when she said yes so quickly. The increase in fees was significant. I talked to her and offered to try to find someone to partner with her in sponsoring Idowu. Her response brought tears to my eyes. She said she had been saving money to have landscaping done on her home. She said the money targeted for landscaping plus increasing her monthly sponsorship from $35 to $50 a month and talking to family and friends, she would raise the money. Idowu’s education was more important to her than landscaping her home!

She has never personally met Idowu or spent time with him or his family, but she would take her savings and go to her family and friends and raise the money so this little boy could have this amazing opportunity. 

Stories like this encourage me and keep me going as Executive Director at C.A.R.E. Africa. When I see someone sacrifice for one of God’s children it gives me goose bumps and warms my heart. I can see how our children at C.A.R.E. Africa are changing lives just as much as our sponsors are. If we could all sacrifice our landscaping, agendas, finances, comfort and time for God’s people all over the world, the world would be such a better place!

We are so grateful for all our sponsors and know that everyone sacrifices every month to make it possible for these 78 kids to have an education, learn about Christ’s love and more. God bless you as you choose to be His hands and feet to the world. 

We are excited to have the opportunity to send some needed items to Nigeria for our kids and our school. Can you help? Check out our Amazon Gift List at https://www.amazon.com/registries/custom/36KCX0BCJG62W/guest-view and donate in any way you can.

We always do our best to buy in country and support the Nigerian economy. Sometimes there are items that we either cannot buy there or the quality isn’t the same so we prefer to purchase in the U.S. Thank you for helping us in anyway you can to get these needed items to Nigeria. If you are local to Louisville and want to donate items, email me at patrice@icareafrica.org and I will be happy to pick up.

We also would love to send letters from our sponsors. If you are a sponsor you should have received an email from me already about sending your child a letter and picture. If you didn’t receive it please message me at patrice@icareafrica.org.

We are also seeking donations for the $400 in luggage fees we will need to pay. Those donations can be made to our general fund at give.icareafrica.org.

Over a year ago our C.A.R.E. Africa leadership team decided we needed to start saving and fundraising for a bus. We had almost 70 children in our program and driving multiple trips in a minivan to pick up as many kids as we could was no longer an option.

I had no clue how much it would cost to buy a bus in Nigeria. Emma researched and started sending me pictures of used ones that were around $30,000…. I almost threw up. We had never raised that much money before. I feel like all I do is ask for support for C.A.R.E. Africa and now I had to ask for $30,000!   Oh my goodness, can I just go hide some place. This was just too big an ask.  It would take years to raise that amount of money. I was overwhelmed.

Emma, our spiritual warrior, reminded me that God would provide and encouraged me to not put God in a box or limit what God could do. We started praying for the bus project every Tuesday at our prayer meeting. We began putting aside $500 a month for the Bus project. Then we put the word out letting people know we needed a bus. I am telling you – it was amazing how God opened doors.  Here are just a few of the stories.

We had a donor reach out to tell us they had a car they were going to sell and donate all the proceeds to the Bus project. He sold the car and mailed us the check.  When it arrived, I was thinking a few thousand dollars, but no, it was $14,000!

My home church chose to use our Bus Project for one of their missions offering in their Children’s Church Ministry. We would receive all offerings collected from the Children’s Church Ministry over a two month period. Then COVID hit and church was closed. I thought for sure the funds would never happen but even with COVID they raised $2,400 in offerings from the children for our Bus project!

We were close to our goal when I received a text from a friend asking what needs C.A.R.E. Africa had and I said “We need a bus!” A few minutes later a $1,350 donation came through. We were now only $1,002 shy of the $30,000 needed for the bus. I put a post on Facebook with our Donor See site and in just 2 hours the bus project was fully funded!  WE BOUGHT A BUS!!

To those of you out there that feel like something is overwhelming or just too big for you – you are right! It is too big for you…. but not for God. Trust that when God puts something on your heart He will provide!

 

Birthdays at C.A.R.E. Africa are the latest rave! Thanks to our new volunteer Birthday Advocate, Hilary Wang, our children have their very own special day.

In the U.S. childrens’ birthdays are celebrated in many different ways. From full blown theme parties, to petting zoos and bouncy houses – every child has their special day. Even families who live on a smaller scale in the US generally celebrate with a cake, gifts and the singing of happy birthday to their child.

In Nigeria, that is not the case. Most of our kids in C.A.R.E. Africa don’t even know their birth date. Not until we get birth certificates do they know when they were born. Some don’t have birth certificates, so we choose a birth date for them. Normally, only the wealthy in Nigeria can splurge on a cake and a gift for their child. Well not anymore!!

Check out some of the pictures of children at C.A.R.E. experiencing Christ’s love on their birthdays! Our sponsors are responding to this need and allowing us to make certain each birthday child gets to celebrate their special day of the year!! Thanks you sponsors!