Bloggers Taking Action: Pencils of Promise

This Christmas, in the midst of our 12 Days of Christmas giveaway, I'd like to take a moment to remember that this season is about being giving of yourself and sharing the love. Seeing as the word 'love' is in my blog's title, I'd be remiss to not participate in a worthy cause I was recently contacted about.

Several bloggers are coming together today in a collaborative effort spearheaded by Paloma Contreras of La Dolce Vita, in order to make a difference for a very deserving charity. Pencils of Promise is a wonderful 501(c)(3) organization based in New York, that partners with local communities and organizations to build schools of early-stage education in developing nations for some of the world’s most impoverished and undereducated children. Sadly, there are more than 75 million children in this terrible situation worldwide.

Last December, the Pencils of Promise team visited a small village in Laos and by July 2009, they had built a new school for the village children who started attending classes on September 1^st. This month, Pencils of Promise will be opening their third school and they hope to open the doors to education for more children in 2010.

In the spirit of the holiday season, we are asking for your help today on behalf of these children. Just think of the enormous impact we could have if each person who reads this post donates just $1.00. If you are willing and able to give more (35.00 buys shelves for a classroom, $50 provides pencils for one year, $100 provides a teacher’s salary for three months and so on), it would be greatly appreciated. We are in the midst of the giving season and hope that you will find it in your heart to make a donation to this worthy cause today.

If you would like to stay informed about the difference Pencils of Promise is making, be sure to become a fan on their Facebook page.

Pencils of Promise's mission is to bring accessibility to education by building primary schools in some of the most impoverished nations abroad like Laos, the organization's current country of impact.

Pencils of Promise's founder, Adam Braun, is currently on ground to visit and oversee the new schools that we are building in the villages of Luang Prabang. These villiages are remote and poor beyond what you can imagine. Coordinator Mimi Nguyen says "I have had the blessing from God to go witness it first hand in order to passionately speak to others about what we can do to make differences in other people's lives. I hope [people] will see more and more each day the impact of [their] contributions. These villages have limited resources due to the lagging pace in development of the country. The cycle cannot be broken until we change the development of individuals first."

Recently, the organization was given news from its founder and photographer on ground that they went to visit Champet, a village that is home to the only high school in the area for surrounding villages. In order to attend this high school, the students must leave their families and homes to live in dormitories "boarding school style", only that the style is far from what comes to mind when we think of boarding conditions in the US dormitories. Girls are moving and living in these unsafe dormitories which consists of make shift bamboo huts. It is heartbreaking but so courageous at the same time.



To make clearer the goal for our Blog Campaign, money raised will specifically go towards a new dormitory and library for these girls. Together we can this goal a reality for the children in Laos. Currently, some parents are unwilling to send their kids to school because of the danger of these huts that you will see others living in. This dormitory size will fit about 200 young Laotian girls.

DONATE HERE http://bit.ly/7VXFmM