Friday, April 13th, 6-8pm
Just this January, I was given a strange invitation: to travel to Liberia for six weeks with a friend and mentor to set up a Safe House for at risk young women. My good friend Maggie Muldoon, who I've known for almost a decade, was invited by the founder of the non-profit group More Than Me to get together a team of artists and educators to build an After School Arts program for the Safe House. Maggie personally invited me, knowing my experience with collaborative puppet making and my recent experience with educating young people.
More Than Me is a small non-profit that uses all of the money it raises to provide scholarships to young women in Monrovia, so that they can go to school and learn the skills necessary to challenge the endemic poverty, human trafficking, and sexual exploitation that threatens their neighborhood of West Point. Education for these women is about survival, it is about building self-worth and stoking the fire in their hearts. More Than Me has a Global Giving rating of five stars, which means they carefully use every dollar donated to make the most meaningful change they can.
During our short time in Monrovia, Liberia,
we will work with the young women who are provided scholarships by More
Than Me to design a program that is student directed and focused on
self-expression. The girls will give most of the direction to the
program, and we will train the long-term adult volunteers who live in
Monrovia to continue facilitating the artistic growth of these women.
I
feel incredibly honored to have the opportunity to volunteer on this
program, and I am raising $3500 to cover the cost of my travel and stay
in Monrovia, as well as money to invest in materials for the program. I
am also excited to use what I have learned about Art and Music Therapy
at my job at the Helping Hands Center for Special Needs Children in
Columbus, Ohio. I know that by growing the girls' storytelling and
self-expression through art and music, we will also see them grow in
their capacity to resist the intense poverty and threat of sexual
exploitation that is a result of nearly two decades of civil war in
their country.
I
am asking my friends now to help me throw benefit dinners so I can talk
more about this program and meet my fundraising goal, and ultimately so
I can help empower a new generation of strong, literate, and
earthshaking women in Liberia. - Rebecca
For more information, or to donate now online, please visit: http://www.indiegogo.
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