Connecther's 2014 Giving Guide, Make the Most of "Giving Tuesday" - Your Support is Our Success!

Make your holidays more meaningful by creating positive
changes in women’s lives. Use this Connecther gift guide to shop for an
inspiring project to support as a gift for yourself, family, or friends. Browse
Connecther Projects or support
one of the featured projects below.
It takes just 25 seconds to make your donation that could positively
impact a girl's life forever!
Education for Girls
1. Educate-a-school for Three Years!
The Citizens Foundation, described above, is creating
opportunities for Pakistani schoolchildren. Our new project will help
support the ongoing needs of students for their entire schooling. This will
allow families to send their children into TCF schools worry free rather than
wondering if there will still be an opportunity from one year to the next.
We strongly believe that quality education is the only way to provide a
better future for the people of Pakistan.s.
For just $120, you can provide a year of schooling for a child and change his
or her life forever. All donations to Educate-a-school for 3 years are being matched by the Stahl Family Foundation up to $2500! Donate to this project here.
In Kibera, a
slum that lies in the shadow of bustling Nairobi, residents have no electricity
or running water, and they face rampant crime, including high rates of sexual
violence against girls. Shining Hope for Communities shines a ray of light with
its Kibera School for Girls. The school provides a tuition-free education to
180 of the community’s brightest girls. Your donation will help the school
educate more girls—as well as fulfill its larger goal: “to produce new leaders
and to lift the spirits of all of Kibera.” Donate to this project here.

3. The
Afghan Institute of Learning needs help to support children at an orphanage
in Afghanistan. The institute, founded by Nobel Peace Prize nominee Sakena
Yacoobi, provides eight teachers for an after-school program at the orphanage
that offers tutoring in English and computers. They also provide medical
assistance, immunizations, and special assistance for children with
disabilities. Girls are taught sewing and boys are taught farming so that all
children will have a marketable skill when they go out into the world. With
your help, the Afghan Institute of Learning can offer educational support to
the residents for six months! Donate to this project here.
“My
father is a laborer and my mother does washing and cleaning for our
neighbors,” says Fabia, age 13, one scholarship recipient. “I was not
able to pay to go to school. I am so thankful for this scholarship. This
opportunity has changed my life. After I graduate, I am going to help
my family and my community."

4. Hope for Senegal
Senegal has made great strides in increasing access to
education in recent years. Enrollment rates in primary school rose to an
impressive 92.5 percent by 2009. However, the quality of education still lags
in some areas due to a shortage of trained teachers, books, and equipment.

Hope
for Senegal’s 2015 Goals provides support for one school: Lycee Malick
Sy High School. With your support, we will:
- Build bathroom facilities for the 4,000+ students at
Lycée Malick Sy High School. Preferably, sustainable or compostable
toilets.
- Continue to support the campus sustainable teaching
garden. The students run the garden with support from a Peace Corps
volunteer. The goal is to use the garden as a teaching tool & eventually
have it sustain itself.
- Provide ongoing training to improve student understanding
of web design and technology. These projects are completed in
collaboration with local experts and volunteers. Donate to this project here.
Can't decide on a project to fund? Please give to the Connecther General Fund so we can continue our important work!
Women's Empowerment
$30 Buys Embroidery Materials for One Month!
1. Sughar, Women with Wings
Sughar brings women to village centers in Pakistan, where
they learn how to do traditional embroidery for the fashion industry. In the
process, the women learn how to read and write and speak out against oppression
and violence. Just $10 buys books for a basic education course for one woman,
and $30 buys embroidery materials for a month. Donate to this project here.
As
a young girl growing up in Kabul, Afghanistan, Benafsha Tasmim loved
school. “I would put on my school uniform at night so I wouldn't be late
for school,” she says. “Everyone would laugh at me.” But her school
days were cut short when the Taliban came to power and shut down girls’
schools.
Staying
home each day was a hard adjustment for the enthusiastic nine-year-old.
“You couldn't go out, or laugh, or talk out loud,” she recalls.
That
could have been Benafsha’s fate, like that of so many Afghan girls. But
instead, her parents supported her dream of going to school. First they
sent her to a school held secretly in her teacher’s home. When that
became too dangerous, they moved the family to Pakistan so she could
continue.

Benafsha at a Fashion Show Wearing a Beautiful Afghan Dress
Thanks
to an organization called Strongheart, today the vibrant 24-year-old is
training to become a future leader in her country. She is working on
her master’s degree at the School for International Training in
Bratteleboro, Vermont thanks to the support of Connecther and Camps to Campus
which provides exceptional young women from conflict and post-conflict zones with
support while they pursue world-class educational opportunities. These
Strongheart Fellows are able to make the life-changing leap from the
challenging circumstances in their home countries to become leaders and
outspoken advocates. Strongheart has been featured on Oprah, BBC, CNN, NPR, and
ABC World News. Help create visionary female leaders of tomorrow. Donate to this project here.
Maternal Health
Train 1,000 Midwives
 Train 1,000 Midwives is one of our ongoing projects to help the Edna Adan Maternity Hospital (described in story below) reduce maternal
and infant mortality rates in Somaliland. The 1,000 Midwives project trains nurse-midwives to provide lifesaving health services. In a
country where the prevalence of female genital mutilation increases the risk of
obstructed labor, access to a trained health care worker can mean the
difference between life and death. Donate to this project here.
You Funded It!
A Midwife at the Edna Adan University Hospital
In
Somaliland, a woman has a 1 in 12 chance of dying in childbirth. But those
dangerous odds are getting better thanks to Edna Adan and the generosity of
Connect her donors. Adan, whom New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff called
“a force of nature” in her native Somaliland, used her own money to build the
fledgling country’s first maternity hospital, which is saving lives of women
and infants. Last year Connecther presented Adan with a check for $10,000 to
train nurse-midwives, who will provide critical support for women
across the country who currently have no access to health care.
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Girls at The Citizen's Foundation in Pakistan
Connecther donors are also helping improve the odds for
women and girls in other countries. In Pakistan, a bright young woman named Aquila
Qasim could easily have been one of the 20 million school-age children who are
at home or in the streets or fields instead of in school. But at age 7, she
became the first person in her family to get an education when she got the
opportunity to attend a school run by The Citizens Foundation.
Today she is a teacher in one of the poorest neighborhoods
in Karachi—one of 250 former TCF students, all female, who teach at the
foundation’s 1,000 schools. A member of the Clinton Global Initiative and
winner of the 2013 Skoll Award for Social Entreprenuership, the Citizens
Foundation runs widely praised schools that are open to all children regardless
of faith, ethnicity, or the family's ability to pay.
Now more children like Qasim will have the hope of a bright future thanks to
the generosity of Connecther donors. We recently funded $5,000 to help support TCF schools and scholarships. It’s a no-brainer that education is key to
developing a stable and peaceful society, so supporting TCF’s award-winning
work—and improving the odds for children—is a smart move indeed.
We count on your support to continue our work to help advance women and girls globally. Please support us by donating to our Connecther General Fund!
Now YOU Can Fundraise for your Favorite Connecther Project!

Help Fund Your Favorite Connecther Project By Creating Your
Own Online Fundraising Party Web Page! Your online fund raising party page can
include asking people to donate in place of gifts for your birthday, wedding,
anniversary, marathon, dinner celebration or even just a personal occasion that
you'd like to create. Start here and start NOW!
What Makes Us Happy?

’Tis the season to be jolly, but how many of us know what really makes us happy? Exercise and chocolate boost endorphins, but new research points to an even more enduring source: giving.
In the new book Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending, Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Morton report on recent research that finds shows that, although we like spending money on ourselves, giving to others makes us even happier.
Dunn and her colleagues gave study participants $5 or $20 dollars bills and asked them to spend the money on themselves or on other people. That evening, the participants who spent their bills on someone else reported a significant mood boost. Other studies show that even young children feel happy when given the opportunity to give away something of theirs. We seem to be hardwired to find giving to others rewarding.
One great way to enjoy that happiness dividend this holiday season is to make a donation to Connecther. You’ll feel good knowing that you are helping to empower women to advance their lives and communities. Then sit back and reap the benefits of your happiness harvest.
Can't decide on a project to fund? Please give to the Connecther General Fund
so we can continue our important work!
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