We celebrate the great work of our friends in America who have creatively brought Lwala’s story into their lives and their communities. They are affecting their peers and raising vital funds for Lwala. Find their stories here. Share your story with us!
Grad students eat pancakes for Lwala
Nicolle Hamilton, a graduate student in Immunology at the University of Washington got her friends together to enjoy a delicious breakfast on behalf of Lwala.
Children Helping Children
Students at Richmond Middle School in Hanover, NH raised money with “penny wars” and a “Pie in your face” activity to raise money for the clinic’s solar system and the protection of a freshwater spring in Lwala. They are global citizens in the making.
An 11th Birthday Party
For Jared Friedland’s 11th birthday on May 5th, he requested that his friends donate money to the Lwala clinic instead of buying him presents. Jared, his brother Ethan, and other kids in the Upper Valley in New Hampshire raised over $3,000 for Lwala! Jared’s efforts made the TV news all the way down in Nashville!
A summer survey
David Kim spent the summer before his senior year at Duke University in Lwala helping conduct a baseline health survey. He returned to help raise money at Duke. Now he’s working on international health research at Harvard.
A long term commitment
Just after graduating from Vanderbilt University, Abbie Foust traveled to Lwala to help conduct a baseline health survey. She made fast friends with a number of women in Lwala, and helped them begin an income-generating basket making project. Since that summer, she coordinated a relationship with Siena Commerce to enable friends to make purchases on their website and have 25% of the proceeds from their purchases go to Lwala. Check it out at www.sienacommerce.com/lwala. In the summer of 2007 Abbie led a group of three students from the Vanderbilt Office of Active Citizenship, Katherine Mueller, Ben Murphy and Natalie Roebuck, on a trip to Lwala to help protect a freshwater spring. Abbie now leads a volunteer organization in Nicaragua, and will being medical school in fall 2008. See Abbie’s blog at lwaladiaries.blogspot.com.
Cody’s gift to Lwala’s kids
Cody is only 10 years old. But for her 10th birthday she decided to donate money to Lwala instead of getting any presents, and asked that it be used to help kids in Lwala.
Partnership Building
Ian Swan spent six weeks in Lwala getting to know the work of the clinic and the on-the-ground needs of the LCA on behalf of the Real Medicine Foundation. Thanks to his work, the Real Medicine Foundation funds the salary of our Clinical Officer and advocates for the LCA with other foundations.
New York City meets Lwala
Danielle Snyder and Alexa Von Tobel visited Lwala in summer 2006. The experience changed them and energized them to make a difference. Upon returning home, they put their talents to work to organize a fundraiser at the Asia Society under the aegis of 85 Broads, a women’s mentoring organization. Since then, Danielle founded the Vanderbilt Students for Kenya organization, and threw another major fundraiser at Vanderbilt headlined by Senator Bill Frist. Then Danielle and Alexa formed a group in New York City that they call Living With a Lifelong Ambition (LWALA). Through this group they threw a black tie fundraiser for the LCA at Battery Gardens in Manhattan. They continue to mobilize a vibrant group of young artists and professionals in New York for Lwala.
Give me your poop, bwana!
Johanna Reisel spent two months in Lwala in 2007 running a study on parasites in school kids, much of which was spent analyzing stool samples under a microscope. Check our her blog at lwalasummer.blogspot.com.
High school students make it happen
Stan Sonu, a graduate of Vanderbilt class of 2006, took our fundraising efforts on the road. Now students of Rabun Gap - Nacoochee School are organizing fundraisers for Lwala Clinic. So far they have had three bake sales, a casual day and have received donations from the school honor society to support the LCA. They have already raised over $1000, enough money to pay the salary of a nurse at the clinic for over three months!
