Giving Tuesday 2020: Unleash Your Generosity, Unleash a Child’s Potential
Nov 23, 2020
Asante Africa Foundation will be participating in Giving Tuesday this December 1 to bring education and opportunity to thousands of boys and girls in rural east Africa.
If ever there was a year to spread a little extra joy and inspire a little more hope, this is it. Giving Tuesday was born in 2012 from a simple idea: a day that encourages people to do good. Occurring on the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving (in the U.S.), this simple idea has since transformed into a global movement. People across the world unite on Giving Tuesday to donate time or money to causes they hold dear.
Asante Africa Foundation has been participating in #GivingTuesday since 2015. Last year, we raised more than $5,000 to support girls’ education in rural east Africa. This Giving Tuesday, we hope to surpass this number. Given the unique challenges that the world and especially children in rural Africa confront this year, we know that we must.
Why should you donate on Giving Tuesday?
Gifts made on Giving Tuesday will go to ensuring children in rural Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda continue to have access to educational opportunities and learning resources during these times of overwhelming uncertainty.
While children across the globe have struggled to adapt to this year’s new virtual learning environment, many young people in rural east Africa have found it nearly impossible to continue their education outside of the classroom.
With school doors closed, not only have nutrition rates decreased while rates of early pregnancy and violence against children have risen, but a lack of access to the internet and digital tools has hindered even the best efforts to continue schooling at home. Indeed, the United Nations has warned of a “lost generation” if children in east Africa are not able to keep up with their education.
A student in Kenya completes her lesson on a tablet provided by Asante Africa Foundation. Access to technology is critical if children in rural Africa are to continue their education during these uncertain times.
Charitable Giving on Tuesday after Thanksgiving
Like nonprofit and service organizations across the globe, Asante Africa Foundation had to pivot earlier this year to make sure students’ and their families’ most basic needs were still being fulfilled. When schools shuttered in the spring, we began providing family care packages containing food, water, and sanitary items to the most vulnerable students and their families.
Now, with these most pressing needs met, we are working to make sure all students have the learning resources and support they need to continue their education. Asante Africa Foundation knows that all children have the potential to be great but that they don’t all have the same opportunity. A gift to Asante Africa helps provide that opportunity.
#GivingTuesday donations support teachers like Yolanda
Yolanda, a teacher enrolled in Asante Africa’s Accelerated Learning in the Classroom Program in Tanzania, is certain that with the right support system and the right skills, “every child has the potential to create a future for himself [or herself].” She is grateful that Asante Africa is preparing her with skills and training that will ensure she and her students achieve their learning goals even if they can’t meet in the classroom.
Josephine is another student in the Accelerated Learning in the Classroom Program. From Kenya, she expresses appreciation for Asante Africa and the skills the Accelerated Learning Program has taught, especially as the world transitions to online learning. “Now I am training other teachers, using technology to teach my students.”
Yolanda, Tanzania Teacher
Gifts this Giving Tuesday will support teachers like Yolanda and Josephine and the many children that they reach every day. Gifts this #GivingTuesday will also support students more directly by providing them with learning resources and, most importantly, access to technology.
Forty dollars might catch you a deal on Black Friday or Cyber Monday but donated on Giving Tuesday, it buys a brighter future. For $40, you can gift a “digital learning package” and the opportunity for a child to continue his or her education even during the most trying of times.
2020 has brought unexpected challenges, some that have tested even the strongest among us. This #GivingTuesday, we all have an opportunity to do a little good. Join #AsanteAfrica and give the gift of education to thousands of girls and boys. When you unleash your generosity, you unleash the potential of Africa’s youth. And with your support, these future African leaders might just change the world.
To donate to Asante Africa Foundation on Giving Tuesday please click here.