Post: Children helping children - heed The Cries of a Child
Monica Riederer
Posted on 8/31/09
If you are looking for a community service-type activity
for your classroom, school or school district, we would
love to talk to you about our organization, The Cries of a
Child. Co-founded by a young woman originally from
Winneconne, Wisconsin, The Cries of a Child is a non-
profit, 501(c)(3) organization created to provide food,
shelter and nurturing love to orphaned children in Burundi,
Africa. The Cries of a Child seeks to build orphan homes,
schools, a healthcare clinic and a trade school for the
adults in Burundi, a country devastated by war, disease and
poverty. While often overshadowed by its larger neighbor,
Rwanda, Burundi has over 300,000 orphans, some from
conflict, others from HIV-AIDS. Our mission is to help
these children who have nothing and nowhere else to turn.
We are developing programs to get American children
involved in our mission, including fundraising programs and
unique learning opportunities. For example, we are
developing a "Count Your Blessings" fundraiser in which
school children donate (or raise) small amounts of money
for each of the many "blessings" they have in their life,
like $1.00 for parents; $0.50 for each tv, iPod, Gameboy;
$1.00 for their own bedroom; etc. We are also developing
the idea of a "sleep out" in which kids raise money and get
to experience what it's like to be one of the many homeless
kids in Burundi - if only for a night.
We are also uniquely-situated to provide wonderful learning
opportunities as two of the organization's co-founders are
currently in Burundi and will be there for the school
year. They are blogging about their experience on the
internet, including photos and narratives of "life in
Burundi." They are also learning the local language,
culture and agriculture methods, which they post on the
blog as well. Your students could also be learning
the "word of the day" and unique facts about Burundi life
and culture.
As we are a relatively new organization, the opportunities
for working with us are endless. Please contact me if you
would like to discuss. Monica Riederer -
fundthecriesofachild@yahoo.com.
Thank you for taking the time to review this posting.
Won't you heed The Cries of a Child?
The Cries of a Child
Posts on this thread, including this one
- Children helping children - heed The Cries of a Child, 8/31/09, by Monica Riederer.
