Thanks to your support, Marshall Direct Fund (MDF) received $18,640 in donations and an additional $9,060 from the Safer World Matching Fund Drive for a total of $27,700! The Safer World Matching Fund continues with $12,270 remaining to match 50% of donations. Your donations have brought the Vocational Training program closer than ever to achieving our goals. MDF is partnering with the Foundation for Social Change, a non-profit organization that shares the values and objectives of MDF, to implement their eLife curriculum to train other trainers and provide job and business skills for 200 women in 2012, with the intention to reach 1,000 women by 2013! MDF is committed to empowering and enabling the women who participate. To ensure that our programs are meeting the needs of the community, we recently conducted surveys to ensure the training directly relates to their specific needs.
Marshall Direct Fund would sincerely like to thank all of our donors and supporters. MDF encourages your involvement and welcomes any ideas that would enable us to attract wider support. The project that you are supporting provides a safe place for mothers and their families to learn and develop skills that help make the world a safer and more secure place for all of us. Please help us generate awareness – become a fan of our Facebook page, join us on Twitter, and share with your networks. If you would like to start a MDF Allies in Action group in your community there are various one-time or re-occurring ideas and activities that we would be pleased to share. You can reach us at info@marshalldirectfund.org or +01 (970) 963-3150. Learn more about our activities by visiting our website at www.marshalldirectfund.org.
Marshall Direct Fund is thrilled to announce that we have been chosen as one of eight organizations to participate in the Safer World Matching Campaign through Globalgiving! The drive begins on September 11, 2011, to commemorate the tragedy in which over 3,000 people from 90 different countries lost their lives. The Safer World fund has recognized MDF as an organization whose program is committed to building a safer world, and they are prepared to match donations to the Marshall Direct Fund at 50% up to $15,000. Our goal is to raise $20,000. We have already raised $11,350 and with your help we can make it all the way.
Our strategy is to open the door to economic development and security by providing vocational training for 100 women in Pakistan. The goal of our project is to offer women the skills they need to support their families. To achieve this we are partnering with the Foundation for Social Change to provide further business training and financial literacy skills to the women in the centers. Through the vocational training program, women have already seen success. Tunics made by the women were showcased at our recent fundraiser and they are working on adding footwear products to their repertoire. We are looking to develop further market links for the product as soon as the prototype footwear is completed. The women who have participated are very excited about the their prospects and will surely find further economic opportunities once they complete the program.
MDF would sincerely like to thank all of our donors and supporters. MDF encourages your involvement and welcomes any ideas that would enable us to attract wider support. The project that you are supporting provides a safe place for mothers and their families to learn and develop skills that help make the world a safer and more secure place for all of us. Please help us generate awareness – Become a fan of our Facebook page, join us on Twitter, and share with your networks. If you would like to start a MDF Circle group in your community there are various one-time or re-occurring ideas and activities that we would be pleased to share. You can reach us at info@marshalldirectfund.org or +01 (970) 963-3150. Learn more about our activities by visiting our website at www.marshalldirectfund.org.
We are excited to announce that we are in the midst of piloting our first products from the female entrepreneurs working in vocational centers in Pakistan. In partnership with IKI Foundation, we are working with several talented young women who are producing tunics, sandals, yoga mat bags, and embellished goods.
These products will be sold in the US marketplace at a handful of retail outlets and depending on how they are received and successive demand, we will be scaling the project to get more women involved. Once we have confirmed adequate demand for these products, the more experienced sewers and manufacturers in the IKI Foundation vocational centers located in Pakistan administered Kashmir will train women in the communities that MDF has schools in so that we can launch vocational centers in more locations. This will enable more women to gain economic opportunities and fair wages that will help alleviate conditions of poverty for them and their families.
See picture of one of the fashion designers at The Gallerie in Aspen, selecting fabric from Pakistan and designs that she would like to sell at her store.
MDF invites your input and involvement and would love any ideas that would enable us to attract wider support. We would sincerely like to thank all of our donors and supporters. Please know this project is helping mothers and their families to obtain credible education, critical thinking skills, and a safe place to learn and grow so that we may all have a more secure and rich future. Please help us generate awareness – Become a fan of our Facebook page, join us on Twitter, and share with your networks. If you would like to start a MDF Circle group in your community there are various one-time or re-occurring ideas and activities that we would be pleased to share. You can reach us at info@marshalldirectfund.org or +01 (970) 963-3150. Learn more about our activities by visiting our website at www.marshalldirectfund.org.
Fostering dignity, not dependence…Providing choice, not charity…
If you received our past project update, you know that this past summer was one of the toughest in Pakistan history. Schools, homes and crops were washed away, a fifth of the country was under water, and more than a million people were displaced due to the flooding which has been estimated to be worse than hurricane Katrina, the Haiti earthquake, and the Indian Ocean tsunami combined.
Although the floods have delayed some of our operations and increased our costs, we are committed to continue to provide access to education and skill building. We have utilized funding to purchase generators necessary to enable women to utilize electricity and any machinery throughout the frequent power outages. We plan to pilot the program with one or two different types of products. The last few months we have collected prototypes of embellished fabric and clothing and have been busy securing end market linkages and strategic relationships that will aid in the success of this vocational program.
The Executive Director, Silbi Stainton, and I visited our field office team in October and are pleased to announce a formal partnership with local organization, IKI Foundation. They are currently operating in Pakistan Administered Kashmir and have several successful vocational centers. We plan to work with them to strengthen existing programs and expand best practices for new vocational centers in the Punjab.
MDF would sincerely like to thank all of our donors and supporters. Please know this project is helping youth and their families to obtain credible education, critical thinking skills, and a safe place to learn and grow so that we may all have a more secure and rich future. Please help us generate awareness – Become a fan of our Facebook page, join us on Twitter, and share with your networks. If you would like to start a MDF Circle group in your community there are various one-time or re-occurring ideas and activities that we would be pleased to share. You can reach us at info@marshalldirectfund.org or +01 (970) 963-3150. Learn more about our activities by visiting our website at www.marshalldirectfund.org.
Fostering dignity, not dependence…Providing choice, not charity…
This past summer has been one of the toughest in Pakistan history, in large part due to the disastrous floods that have affected the entire country. Schools, homes and crops have washed away and more than a million people have been displaced. Extremist organizations are capitalizing on slow international response to gain appreciation and loyalty of communities. Marshall Direct Fund (MDF) is assisting in the long term reconstruction efforts and will continue to provide primary education and expand operations to include vocational education to decrease vulnerability, contribute to economic opportunity, and alleviate poverty.
Generally, MDF schools are closed from mid-June to mid-August. However, this year the continuous rains caused a nearby stream to overflow and flood one of the schools and its basement. This and the regional declaration by the government to close schools required that we delay opening MDF schools until mid-September. There was also an electric failure and damage caused to several computers - this resulted in a setback for both teachers and students, and has delayed our ability to launch the vocational education program. We are fortunate that the damage was not worse. We are pleased to announce however, that schools re-opened mid September! Unfortunately, due to inflation, we need to do additional fundraising to ensure that we are able to offer youth healthy meals, purchase new uniforms, shoes, stationary, text books, notebooks, and kitchen supplies. We continue to build upon the infrastructure and develop relevant partnership so that we can launch the vocational education program this year.
More and more families in the communities that we operate want to send their children to our schools and many families are excited at the prospect of the vocational program. Unfortunately in our primary education program there is more demand and applications submitted than we can currently accommodate. Despite the challenges associated with the flood and additional funding to grow, one of our schools expanded to admit a class of 25 students for nursery aged students (3 to 5 yrs.). At another school we expanded to include more incoming students for grade 4 and 5. New and returning students are happy to be in school. Executive Director and Project Director are looking forward to seeing them and re-connecting with teachers and staff in a few weeks. We will be collecting prototypes of the embellished fabric and clothing for the vocational program so that we can create additional market linkages to launch the program.
MDF would sincerely like to thank all of our donors and supporters. Please know this project is helping youth and their families to obtain credible education, critical thinking skills, and a safe place to learn and grow so that we may all have a more secure and rich future. Please help us generate awareness – Become a fan of our Facebook page, join us on Twitter, and share with your networks. If you would like to start a MDF Circle group in your community there are various one-time or re-occurring ideas and activities that we would be pleased to share. You can reach us at info@marshalldirectfund.org or +01 (970) 963-3150.
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