GlobalGiving kickoff helps wheelchair users become entrepreneurs

By Tish Scolnik - Project Coordinator, September 10, 2008 05:00 PM

First and foremost, we want to thank everybody who has generously donated to our project. We know that you have many choices about which causes to engage in, and we are extremely grateful that you have supported our project on GlobalGiving.

June, July, and August were busy months at KASI as we prepared to spend the funds that you have helped us raise. After somebody in Tanzania receives a spinal injury his/her life expectancy drops to two years. Because of that, one of our top priorities is making sure that disabled people are educated on how to care for their health and wellness. With your help we are currently translating a WHO book on how to care for a spinally injured person into Swahili and making it accessible to disabled people and their caretakers.

Additionally, we teamed up with the MIT Mobility Lab to provide five of our members with specially outfitted small-business wheelchairs, business skills training, and access to microfinance loans. Through this project, we are helping disabled people who used to depend completely on others for support into successful entrepreneurs.

Thanks to your help, we have already received over $9,000 in funding, but additional funds are needed to help us reach our long-term goal of bringing our quality training programs and services across Tanzania. Our current programs benefit over 1000 people, and additional funding means we can expand our outreach across the country. As part of this goal we are planning a central facility that will house our major programs, and we really need your support to make it a reality.

We also wanted to let you know about GlobalGiving’s new recurring donation feature which makes supporting this project even easier. With just one click of your mouse, you can give every month until our goals are reached, helping to improve the lives of so many disabled people in Tanzania.

Be sure to check out the project website to see the progress you have already helped to make and to see some photos of our recent work.

From everybody here at the Kilimanjaro Association of the Spinally Injured, we say “asante sana.” [Asante sana means thank you very much in Swahili].

Attachments:

• Scolnik, Project Coordinator, poses with Hllda Shoo, a KASI memb

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