Dear Editor:
I am a founder member of the Summerland organization called The One Person Project and have recently returned from visiting our target area in Kahama, Tanzania.
Summerland has been extremely supportive of One Person’s aims and goals and I am delighted to report that our combined efforts are truly impacting families and organizations in Kahama.
You may be familiar with the 40-foot shipping container in the Penticton Wal-Mart parking lot.
We collect medical, educational and other resources and ship them to Tanzania. In this way One Person acts as a conduit, making it easy for one community to help another at all levels.
We make regular self-funded visits to monitor our programs and bring back photographs and progress reports.
By raising $20,000 each year we are able to send hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of resources that will help the community to become self-sustaining.
This year’s team were educational volunteers. We ran an inspiring and successful week-long work shop for 30 primary teachers, who were each sponsored by teachers or families from the Okanagan.
We have a medical team heading out to Tanzania in February 2013, headed by Dr. Glen Burgoyne from Penticton.
On behalf of The One Person project and the people of Kahama, I sincerely thank everyone involved for their support.
I was a little nervous that I might be overwhelmed by the extreme poverty I witnessed on the trip and would perhaps feel that in spite of all our efforts, we would not be able to make a long-term difference. In fact, I saw that it is ridiculously easy to change a life for the better, so very easy to build a hopeful future for children.
Tickets are available for our Nov. 3 banquet and silent auction (with a brief presentation on the 2012 trip). You can also purchase a Maple Leaf for the Kahama Tree of Friendship, which is on the side of the shipping container (courtesy of Benjamin Moore, Wal-Mart, Speed Pro Signs, the Penticton Dental Centre and Dr. Glen Burgoyne.)
For more information, or to make a donation go to theonepersonproject.org, e-mail info@theonepersonproject.org or contact Brenda Lowe at 250-809-9639.
Denise Whittaker
Director, The One Person Project
Summerland