A Calendar Full of Good News
Hello from Beijing, where an all-too-brief spring is turning to summer.
The pages of our Half the Sky calendar are flipping way too fast!
MAY
During the last full week of May, an energetic crew of volunteers helped HTS to create a new Little Sisters Preschool and Baby Sisters Infant Nurture Center in Nanning, Guangxi. A big thanks to McDonald’s China who catered a great party to celebrate the launch!
At the same time, new Foster Village Projects and Big Sister Projects are underway in Nanning, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
JUNE
This week, June 1, we celebrate Children’s Day here in China – more about that below.Next week, our 27 nanny supervisors, 50 of our preschool teachers, our field staff and program directors will gather together for a conference in support of our ongoing efforts to improve program standards and professional development of all our 694(!) HTS staffers.
And in the USA, the Nunez family, undaunted by a damaged derailleur, continues happily pedaling across America raising funds for HTS. Last we heard they were somewhere in Missouri. They’ve already traveled over 2,000 miles and raised more than $5,500!
Speaking of fundraisers…I want to share some good news with those of you who live in Hong Kong. The charitable registration of Half the Sky Foundation (Asia) Ltd. is now complete. That means your donations in Hong Kong dollars are fully tax deductible!
And some members of our international email group of volunteers have similar plans for their countries. If you live outside the US or Canada and want to learn more about supporting the work of HTS in your country, contact Emily@halfthesky.org and she’ll tell you how. We’d particularly like those of you in Australia who’d like to get more active to drop us a line. We’re working right now on Australian registration for HTS and would love to build our support team as we do so.
On June 18 in many parts of the world we will celebrate Fathers Day. A gift to HTS’ Good Time Fund in Dad’s honor will pay for preschool outings, goldfish for the class aquarium, flower seeds for the garden. That special dad, granddad or dad-to-be will receive a beautiful certificate in tribute to him and the Good Times he brings to the children in his life.
Here’s another fun Father’s Day idea for all of you Rugby fans who will be in China in June: On June 21 at a banquet in Beijing and on June 23 at a Long Lunch in Shanghai you will have an opportunity to meet Rugby Legends Martin Johnson, Rory Underwood and Peter Wheeler at two events honoring the UK’s Leicester Tigers. Both events will benefit Half the Sky. And on the 24th, you can enjoy the ANZ Challenge Cup Match in Shanghai as well.
JULY
Our new and very special projects for children orphaned by AIDS in Henan Province are just beginning. This July we’ll be hosting a unique summer camp for the children in these innovative and important HTS programs.
AUGUST
In August, two young men from the UK, Joe Ryan and Nathan Taylor will bicycle China from north to south, raising money to support HTS programs at the Sanya orphanage. Their motto is “1 country, 1.2 billion people, 10 provinces, 23 cities, 2 friends, 2 bikes & 1 orphanage.”
SEPTEMBERIn September, we’ll be launching a new Infant Center, Preschool, Big Sisters Project and Foster Village in Nanjing, Jiangsu. For more information about the limited spaces on the Nanjing crew, please contact us at workcrew@halfthesky.org.
OCTOBER
Our annual HTS auction is coming up October 17-24. For the past two years we’ve earned enough at the auction to buy enough toys to equip a HTS preschool. Want to help us do it again? Do you have items you’d like to contribute? Just contact us at volunteer@halfthesky.org
And now…before the year runs out…let me talk to you about Children’s Day.
Some of you have received a letter from me about our annual Children’s Day Challenge. If you have, skip the next few paragraphs. But if you didn’t receive my letter or haven’t had a chance to read it yet, please read on….
Last month, while visiting one of our Half the Sky new sites in Guangdong Province I was very pleased to see dramatic changes in the dozens of infants and preschoolers I’d met only a few months before. And then, for the first time, the director took me to see rooms in other buildings…rooms I’d not been shown before. There I found over 190 more small children with blank faces, most with special needs. Not a single one was benefiting from the wonderful programs we’d created just a short walk away. It was a heartbreaking discovery. But I’m so grateful, because I know we can help. We really must.
Last year at this time, we took the HTS Children’s Day Challenge and raised enough money to build a new HTS center and to support its operation for six months! Now I am asking you to do the same for these little ones whom we somehow overlooked.
This June, please help Half the Sky provide more preschool rooms, an additional infant nurture room, 10 more nannies and 10 more teachers for this welfare institution in Guangdong Province. We need your help to renovate, train, equip and operate the expanded center through 2007. We need to raise $100,000 in the month of June! Won’t you help us make sure that no one gets left behind?
Just visit our website, click on “Donate Now” and make a direct contribution to HTS. In the box provided for ‘special instructions’ please write in “Children’s Day”. We will tally the results and report at the end of every week in June on our home page. We’re at $10,460 now. We have a long way to go!Every gift will count toward the Challenge, even $5 or $10. It can be a one-time donation or a new Child, Nanny or Big Sister sponsorship. Let’s work together to make the days that follow Children’s Day full of hope and promise for every child.
