International Women's Day is a global celebration of the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The #IWD2022 theme is #BreakTheBias to "Celebrate women's achievement. Raise awareness against bias. Take action for equality." By supporting A2Empowerment, you have helped to #BreakTheBias in so many ways!
A2Empowerment scholarship recipients posing with crossed arms to signify the #BreakTheBias #IWD2022 theme. Photos courtesy of mentors Aissatou & Guillaume.
This year A2Empowerment is celebrating several milestones stemming from women's achievements. We've reached a milestone of awarding more than 2,000 scholarships to young women in Cameroon who have dropped out of school or are at high risk of dropping out! Over the years our scholarships have helped girls as young as age 14 get out of arranged marriages and brought young mothers back to school after getting kicked out for becoming pregnant, which is the policy in Cameroon. Some scholarship recipients, like Marinite, are the first in their family to attend high school. She recently shared a note to thank you for helping her realize her dream.
Thank you note and photo provided by scholarship recipient Marinite.
The deep roots we formed throughout our tenure allow us to overcome operational challenges, caused in part to the pandemic, to support alumni in forming an entity to assume leadership in Cameroon. We are overjoyed to announce that our alumni leader, Grace, and the Cameroonian General Assembly are one signature away from gaining official approval for our sister organization, A2Empowerment Cameroon! Once the Cameroonian organization is operational, the US organization will thoughtfully and strategically shift responsibilities to the Cameroonian side, gradually taking on a supporting role.
A2Empowerment has always raised awareness against bias towards women. Our model allows communities to observe a scholarship selection process that highlights the importance and potential of young women. On top of our current mission, there is another bias we'd like to target. If our all-volunteer model was a consideration in your decision to donate to A2Empowerment, possibly due to bias against nonprofit overhead, we invite you to challenge this view by considering this TED Talk by Dan Pallotta, a nonprofit leader who explains the unhealthy organizational effects of our previous model. We apologize for any contribution we made toward the negative view of nonprofit overhead, as it holds all nonprofits back.
It is necessary for A2Empowerment to change its operating model related to overhead expenses to support our exciting leadership transition that will provide salaries for women. Up until now, all overhead costs were covered by the company co-founders and grant money so that the full amount of all individual donations was put toward girls' scholarships. That money remains in a separate account earmarked only for girls' scholarships. Moving forward, a percentage of donations may be put toward operating expenses, such as mentor training, supplies, and stipends. Our new operating model opposes bias against nonprofit overhead and uplifts the Cameroonian women working with us by allowing them to thrive, to provide for themselves and their families while accomplishing the important work of supporting girls' education.
Photos of scholarship recipients with Peace Corps Volunteer Claire (left) and alumni Grace and Olive (right) courtesy of Anne C. and Grace, respectively.
A2Empowerment is deeply grateful to Boston University 180 Degrees Consulting President, Dhruv Patel, project manager, Rhea Bandaru, and her team, Miran Shah, Ayush Shah, and Roshni Tandon, for their input and guidance last semester related to this fundraising transition. This semester, we are continuing to work with a new project team, led by Ben Holahan, to understand donor considerations in supporting A2Empowerment so that we might increase our outreach. We invite you to help us by completing this brief survey developed by Ben's team. This survey will be open until March 20th, 2022.
A2Empowerment takes action for equality in every aspect of our organization. In Cameroon, our main program that provides high school and university scholarships aims to help women gain confidence, independence, and respect that will result in a more equitable future. Our transition to an alumni-led organization helps create jobs and opportunities for women in a male-dominated workforce. On the US side, A2Empowerment volunteers raise awareness and support for these efforts in Cameroon. Simultaneously, volunteers become more empowered themselves. Here are two recent examples:
We hope you feel proud to celebrate this #IWD2022 for the many ways you've contributed to #BreakTheBias by supporting A2Empowerment!
We are thrilled to announce that we have awarded 105 high school scholarships, and two university scholarships, to young women in Cameroon this school year, bringing our grand total to over 2,000 scholarships! All previous scholarship recipients who met our expectations last school year, but did not yet reach graduation, are continuing in our program! We try to capture the immeasurable ripple effects of our program through evaluations. Here are some quotes directly from these students about their scholarships, as described in the narrative put together by our outstanding volunteer Ryan Mitchell:
My A2E scholarship...
Changes with Peace Corps, including the evacuation of all Peace Corps Volunteers due to the pandemic, resulted in an opportunity to become a more sustainable organization by forming deeper relationships with our stakeholders in Cameroon. Specifically, program alumni have come forward with a willingness to lead the program and they are working with a team of our mentors, students, and alumni to form an entity in Cameroon. This will allow us to strengthen and grow our program.
Alumni Grace and Olive visiting with groups of scholarship recipients and their mentors. Photos courtesy of A2Empowerment Cameroonian Partner mentors and Alumni Grace and Olive.
Alumni leaders have already contributed by providing oversight. Last year they participated in monthly calls to speak with mentors individually or groups of students during monthly meetings. This year an outstanding alumnus, Grace, worked with us to plan and facilitate site visits to all ten groups of mentors and scholarship recipients. Grace and another awesome alumnus, Olive, traveled to give presentations to all ten groups about menstrual health and nutrition, and to distribute sanitary pads to all scholarship recipients. We hope you will learn more about the exciting trip and like us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok!
When resources and education are lacking, it is common for young women to miss school when they have their period. To help our scholarship recipients avoid absences due to menstruation, we focused on menstrual health and provided sanitary pads during site visits. We formed a partnership with PridePads Africa to purchase a two-month supply of their disposable sanitary pads made by women in Cameroon for each scholarship recipient. PridePads' mission is to produce biodegradable, earth-friendly and affordable sanitary pads for girls and women in rural Cameroon as well as provide menstrual health education, sensitization and de-stigmatization campaigns surrounding menstruation. Both their pads and packaging biodegrade in just 90 days, compared to 800 years for most conventional disposable menstrual products that contain plastic! Grace received PridePads' Menstrual Health Education training at their headquarters in Ngaoundéré that was applied to her presentation to students.
Grace visiting PridePads headquarters to receive training and pick up menstrual pads. She also presented her Master's work on nutrition to PridePads personnel. Photos courtesy of PridePads.
We would like to thank lawyer Daniel Dykes at K&L Gates LLP for his pro bono assistance in conducting the partnership, and Lawyers Clearinghouse for searching for a pro bono lawyer on our behalf. For product comparison, we also provided each student with a Days for Girls Kit, containing underwear and reusable, washable sanitary pads made by women in Ghana. Days for Girls is an international organization that increases access to menstrual care and education by developing global partnerships, cultivating Social Entrepreneurs, mobilizing volunteers, and innovating sustainable solutions that shatter the stigma and limitations for women and girls. Both Grace and Olive trained as Ambassadors of Women's Health prior to site visits to better inform scholarship recipients and to teach them how to care for the reusable pads.
While waiting to establish the entity in Cameroon, we worked toward partnerships to grow and strengthen our program. ONETrack International is an organization working around the world to promote proper orphan-care solutions by encouraging their Transition to Home approach to family reunification. They work to uphold, introduce and train globally-recognized international laws and standards that protect an orphan child's rights to be raised by biological relatives, or other suitable providers, within their communities of birth in situations where it is practical and appropriate. They started their work in Cameroon, as CameroonONE, and because of their deep community ties we are now supporting the education of 25 of their female students in the Northwest region of Cameroon.
Several A2Empowerment scholarship recipients chosen by ONETrack International. Photos courtesy of ONETrack International.
Please join in "a movement that unleashes the power of radical generosity around the world" by considering a donation of money or time to A2Empowerment and your other favorite causes!
Happy International Women's Day!
International Women's Day, or IWD, is a global day for celebrating women's achievements and raising awareness about women's equality.
The #IWD2021 theme is #ChooseToChallenge. The organizers ask, "How will you help forge a gender equal world?" and suggest we "Celebrate women's achievement. Raise awareness against bias. Take action for equality." You've contributed in these ways! Please read below to see the ways in which your support of A2Empowerment helps achieve these goals.
Photo courtesy of Cameroonian Partner Aissatou.
Celebrate women's achievement: A2Empowerment Scholarships
A2Empowerment is excited to introduce you to some of the 102 current scholarship recipients!
As scholarship recipient Claudia writes, "We thank you for all you have done for us. A2Empowerment has helped us develop many skills and it's going to help us grow." (edited for clarity)
Claudia's mother conveys her excitement and gratitude for your support in this video sent to us by Cameroonian Partner Theodore.
The gratitude we feel for your support is beautifully conveyed by A2Empowerment Scholarship Recipient Mbiatchou Florinda Gilles in this video sent to us by Cameroonian Partner Aissatou.
This year we awarded $80 per scholarship to cover tuition, fees, uniform and supplies for each young woman we support in secondary school in Cameroon.
Scholarship recipients are identified, enrolled and mentored by Cameroonian Partners, trusted mentors we've identified through their previous work with Peace Corps Volunteers. Cameroonian Partners meet at least once a month with their group of students. They monitor student progress, cover our curriculum and support the development of a community project.
Student progress and program quality are monitored and evaluated through surveys administered by Cameroonian Partners. Surveys are taken by students and mentors mid-year and at the close of school to monitor student progress and identify areas for project improvement. Board member Graham Button led data collection efforts and produced a narrative describing our impact in our blog.
Data from last year shows the positive effect of A2Empowerment scholarships through helping scholarship recipients continue or return to school, improve their study habits and work fewer hours outside of school.
Curriculum developments continue this year with the assistance of A2Empowerment Alumni Grace and Angèle. Alumni place monthly calls to Cameroonian Partners, either individually or during group meetings with students, to supplement our monitoring and evaluation. This year we have focused calls on curriculum development and will adopt changes, like including a session on the menstrual cycle, as a result.
Community projects are a program requirement to allow scholarship recipients the opportunity to give back. Projects are intended to be student-led so they may gain planning and budgeting skills. We recently released an application for a pilot Community Project for student groups who want to develop a more significant project to give back to their community. We will choose up to three of these proposals to move forward during the next school year.
Community project planning and implementation will take the place of our standard curriculum for scholarship recipients within these groups. We will collect feedback on these pilot project(s) to assess what students learned. We hope these projects will be in the spirit of Star Feminine Band, a music group out of Benin! Here's a link to their inspiring music video and an article in The Guardian.
Raise awareness against bias: Update on Cameroon
School closures due to the ongoing Anglophone crisis, Boko Haram activity in the Far North and the pandemic, have had dire consequences in Cameroon, including increases in sexual exploitation, gender-based violence, teenage pregnancies and child labor (ACAPS report). A2Empowement is currently evaluating partnerships with non-governmental organizations to increase the number of girls' scholarships to help reduce the negative consequences of school closures. We plan to re-enroll current scholarship recipients and grow significantly through new partnerships this fall.
Take action for equality: Fundraising update
Through your donations, you take action for equality. We are grateful for absolutely every gift of support. We highlight some of the many extraordinary efforts A2Empowerment has benefited from to give you creative and heartwarming ideas for giving to us and any organization close to your heart.
The Whiting family serves as an inspiring example of selflessness. Our recent interview with them conveys their motivation for supporting A2Emowerment and the creative ways they've contributed. They also describe easy ways to give, like AmazonSmile, company matching gifts and stock donations, which have a double tax benefit and are now possible thanks to prompting from this generous family.
If this article inspires you to make a gift of service, we would love your help! Please reach out to us at info@a2empowerment.com to develop a rewarding project aligned with your skills and talents. Legal assistance, to evaluate upcoming partnership contracts, and student interns, to aid social media marketing and project evaluation efforts, are currently needed.
A2Empowerment received a photo of this letter written by Emery, a fourth grader in Kansas, to her grandparents:
On #IWD2021 we celebrate what we've achieved together, thanks to you, and we remain committed to empowering women through education. Thank you for contributing to gender equality through your support of A2Empowerment!
Update on Cameroon
Since 2016 there has been civil-unrest in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon that has not diminished in the face of COVID-19. As of October 2019, nearly 270,000 people had been displaced to other parts of the country and about 60,000 people had moved to Nigeria to get away from the fighting (ACAPS).
In March, schools across Cameroon were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since much of the country does not have reliable internet, children were encouraged to access classes on the public radio and television, and final exams were given between July and September. The 2020/2021 academic year is scheduled to begin in early October of this year. As of late June, Cameroon was the fourth-most COVID-19 impacted country in Africa (ReliefWeb).
A2Empowerment Scholarships
A large component of A2Empowerment relies on the dedication of Peace Corps Volunteers in Cameroon. Due to the pandemic, Peace Corps Volunteers worldwide were repatriated to the United States so we are unable to work with them this school year. A few years ago, A2Empowerment began working on a sustainability plan for our scholarship program whereby we began working more closely with select Cameroonian Partners (CP). A2Empowerment is happy to announce that for the 2020/2021 academic year we will be working with nine of our Cameroonian Partners to support 102 young women with school fees and life-skills development .
We're excited to highlight two of our outstanding scholarship recipients, Nasuate and Kah, with information directly from their applications:
Photo courtesy of CP Patience Yah. 
Photo courtesy of CP Theodore Nchotu Bermo.Based on mentor feedback, the A2Empowerment Board of Directors recently approved an increase in scholarship funding for the 2020/2021 school year to award $80 USD per student. This amount covers a year of high school in Cameroon, including tuition, fees, uniform and supplies.
A2Empowerment had been offered an extremely generous 2020 scholarship from CyberMath Academy for a student to attend their summer math camp held at Harvard University. We chose to split the scholarship from CyberMath Academy, with A2Empowerment funding the remaining costs, to allow the chance for two students to attend camp together. Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, we have put these plans on hold and hope to assist the students next summer. In the meantime, please enjoy these video applications from our outstanding recipients, Faridatou and Patience.
Patience's application video, filmed by Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) Maya Gershtenson.
Faridatou's application video, filmed by RPCV Hannah Reifer.
COVID-19 Response
In May, A2Empowerment worked with the Cameroonian development organization Association for the Promotion of Endogenous Rural Actions (APADER) and Cameroonian Partner Florence Yousseu in the West Region to raise awareness about COVID-19, the importance of using masks, and cleaning hands to prevent spreading the infection. Eleven A2Empowerment scholarship recipients learned how to make hand sanitizer and masks from local materials. Socially-distanced awareness sessions were then held with the recipients' immediate neighbors. Hand washing kits, sanitizer and masks were provided to participants after explaining how to use them.
Photos courtesy of CP Florence Yousseu.Inspiring Donations
Even though the Cause+Event 5k was cancelled in May, most of our pre-registered runners chose to donate their registration fees to A2Empowerment, resulting in a $680 donation!
Gloria LaSota pledged to send 40 girls to school in honor of Anne Rapin's 40th birthday, donating $750 a year for the past four years!
Hongliang and Zhan Shi recently donated an astounding $2,000 to support special projects, which will be put toward university scholarships for young women in Cameroon, and this donation will be matched by Zhan's employer!
Claire and Christoph Kofler recently donated during a double-match period from Christoph's employer, Netflix, turning a $500 donation to $1,500!
Thank you to everyone who supports girls' education in Cameroon in so many ways!
Scholarship Recipient Mayamou Soureya is grateful for you. She writes, "I should thank you for helping me and that you helped me during the previous year. I promise you that I will be an intelligent student and [I will] swim in my studies. Dear A2Empowerment, I thank you and massively thank you. I am very happy and even my parents thank you very much."
Photo courtesy of Peace Corps Volunteer Sidney Jasper and the letter was translated by Ryan Mitchell.So many people dedicated to women's empowerment contributed to make this letter possible. Mayamou worked hard to receive the scholarship for a second year and took the time to create this beautiful letter. Mentors, like Peace Corps Volunteers Sidney Jasper and Kyria Louis-Charles, guided scholarship recipients on a monthly basis during the school year and relayed information, like this letter, to us. Project Coordinator Buba Dicko Sulle served as a resource to guide A2Empowerment decision making, Peace Corps Volunteers and Cameroonian Partners. Outstanding Volunteers, like Ryan Mitchell, translated these many letters of thanks. Hundreds of donors have supported us financially from their hard-earned salaries to fund the $75 for Mayamou to attend school. These individuals, and so many others, believe in the transformative power of girls' education to empower women, their families, their communities, their country and the world. Thank you to everyone for supporting A2Empowerment for over 11 years!
For more inspiration from our students, please visit About the Girls (https://a2empowerment.org/TheStudents.shtml) on our website.
Ongoing projects
This year we are piloting several initiatives in response to changes imposed by Peace Corps Headquarters. Our plan is to assess what works to move forward in the future with a quality program that mentors, supports and ensures the safety of our beneficiaries, while reducing risk so that funds are used as intended.
Photo courtesy of Chantal.
Photo courtesy of Kenneth, who works for an NGO in Kadey.
Photo courtesy of Karina Casillas.
Photo courtesy of Cameroonian Partner Habibatou Hamidou and Peace Corps Volunteer Hannah Reifer.Expect updates on these programs as we evaluate their success with the help of our board members, A2Empowerment Alumni and other Cameroonian volunteers!
Opportunities to grow our network and improve
This project was developed to help empower women in Cameroon, but it has the unintended outcome of empowering our volunteers.
We are so excited to celebrate International Women's Day by introducing you to some of our 493 scholarship recipients for this year!
Photos courtesy of our Cameroonian Partners Calvin (top) and Yacouba (bottom).
To learn more about the students you've helped us support this year, please visit our website Thank you for supporting our mission to provide educational scholarships to girls and women so that they may increase their knowledge and empower themselves to lead healthier, more productive lives!
We'd love to celebrate with you at our upcoming events!
We will participate in the Cause + Event 5k 5k on May 12th! This race can be run in person, in Arlington, MA, or virtually around the world, and at least half of all registration fees go toward the nonprofit team of your choice! This is a great family race that will sell out early, so please register soon!
The A2Empowerment Family BBQ and Pool Party will be held on June 15th at 3pm in Arlington, MA! Our generous hosts, the Whiting family, provide amazing amenities so that all of the $40 family entry fee goes toward girls' education in Cameroon! A raffle and cash bar raise further funds for A2Empowerment! To get added to the evite, volunteer and/or provide prizes for our raffle please contact us at info@a2empowerment.org
Scholarship Update
We had a record year in 2018, supporting over 490 scholarship recipients to bring our grand total to more than 1,700 scholarships in 10 years! We would like to inform you that we anticipate awarding fewer scholarships next year in order to maintain a quality program as we transition to a different model. This transition was prompted at the request of Peace Corps Headquarters to align with their guidelines. This change
affects A2Empowerment and other nonprofits working around the world in a similar style. The major change will be that we are no longer permitted direct communication with Peace Corps Volunteers and all decisions, including scholarship selection, will be decided on by Peace Corps Volunteers and their communities. We will receive final reports on projects and, as before, all funding will be strictly monitored by Peace Corps.To supplement our program, we are working to increase and strengthen our work with trusted Cameroonian Partners to offer high school scholarships. Cameroonian Partners will operate as they have done in the past by sending student applications to A2Empowerment for evaluation and providing direct feedback.
Last summer A2Empowerment was honored to receive a $10,000 grant from The Minneapolis Foundation. To aid communication, oversight, monitoring and evaluation during this time of transition, we are putting part of this funding toward the part time salary of our first hire, Mr. Buba Dicko Sulle. Buba is an educator who is a strong advocate for girls' education and has served as a mentor for A2Empowerment for several years.
We are grateful for your patience as we work through this transition. Reserve funding and any donations contributed during this transition will be put into a high yield savings account, so funding will grow until we go back to awarding higher numbers of scholarships.
Outstanding Volunteers
One way that several Friends of A2Empowerment have supported us is through the presentation of networking opportunities. We will start highlighting these invaluable contributions.
Mariana Nacht has gone out of her way to support A2Empowerment, including by introducing co-founder Anne Cheung to Penelope Riseborough. Penelope is the Director of Communications, Marketing and Fundraising at World Education, a $42 million nonprofit working to improve education in 24 countries around the world. Penelope applied her outstanding communications experience to advise us on our website and ways of increasing our outreach. One thing Penelope pointed out on our website is the lack of information on us, the A2Empowerment Co-Founders. We were actively trying to minimize this information because we want the focus to be mainly on the scholarship students, but Penelope feels that it may be inspiring to hear how we started A2Empowerment. If you'd like to learn more, please click on our pictures below. Thank you to Mariana and Penelope for inspiring all of us!
Anne R. (left) and Anne C. (right)
We are grateful for your support and trust. Wishing you an amazing International Women's Day!
Warm wishes,
Anne Cheung and Anne Rapin
A2Empowerment Co-Founders
We are grateful and excited to announce that we will be awarding 493 scholarships across Cameroon in 2018! This upcoming school year we are working with 27 Peace Corps Volunteers and 3 Cameroonian Partners to mentor motivated young women at high risk of dropping out of school.
Photo of 2018 scholarship recipients from Bambalang, in the North West Region of Cameroon, courtesy of our Cameroonian Partner Roland Nchonda Nkwagoh.
As illustrated in the About the Girls section of our website, these scholarships offer opportunity and hope to students. As Mbahfuh Yuscaline, a 2017 scholarship recipient, wrote,
"My heart is indeed full of joy and gladness for what you people have done to me. That is assisting me to see that I achieve my goal.
More so, this great thing that you people have done is not just to make a change in my life but also in the life of my family, my future family, my village, and my community as a whole because, if I finally by grace achieve this goal, I will not only bring a change in my family but also in my community.
In addition, what you have done for me has started making a change in my life and I believe it is going to change my life completely."
In May, 40 runners helped us raise $1,240 through participation in the Cause + Event 5K! Runners participated here in Massachusetts, and virtually in other parts of the country, to support girls' education! Congratulations to A2Empowerment runners Matthew Campbell and Brian Steinberg, who placed first and second place, respectively, raising even more money for our team! We are so grateful for every participant and volunteer! Special thanks to Mia Rushe, our expo volunteer, Man Ching Cheung, for volunteering his time to photograph the event, Emmett Cook, our youngest runner, and the Cause + Event team, especially Robin Olinsky and Julie Vakoc!
In June, Lori and Pete Whiting graciously opened their home to hold the 4 th Annual A2Empowerment BBQ & Pool Party! We raised a total of $5,700 to support girls' education in Cameroon, through donations, our raffle and company matching gifts! Thank you to all friends of A2Empowerment for their support, especially the Whiting family, Katie Abo, Man Ching Cheung, Christa Houlahan, Deborah Kokinos, Anne Rapin, Lynne Rapin, Mia Rushe, Hongliang Shi, the Wood family, Gail Zichittella, Ink Out Loud Studio, Albertine Press, ADJewelry, Thalia Tringo & Associates Real Estate, Olivia's Bistro Newton, Eug�nie Olson, Black Crow Yoga, Wonder Yoga, Not Your Average Joe's!
A2Empowerment is officially a Registered Trademark! Anne Rapin and Anne Cheung used their personal funds to support this effort to protect the name of the nonprofit they've worked hard to build over the past 10 years. Thank you to Jacob Weintraub, Esq. for his guidance, kindness and excellent work!
Ruby and Emery sold lemonade in their hometown in Kansas to raise money for girls' education. What could be sweeter than that?!?
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Happy International Women's Day from A2Empowerment! Nous sommes Ensemble! We are together!
We are so pleased to announce we have awarded more than 263 scholarships this school year through 22 mentors in Cameroon! These students and mentors inspire us! As PCV Robert Hartwell writes, "Every day I work with people who inspire me, but not many people can compete with this girl here. Adama is ready to crush it in her first year in high school and further pursue her dream of becoming a nurse!"
Our second Bra Project was a success! Maeve and Mia Rushe coordinated and funded the shipment of over 200 bras to PCV Gina Dettmer in Cameroon. In February and March, Gina coordinated the discounted sale of bras in her village to raise money to support A2Empowerment student projects, the Widows Empowerment Project in her community and local farmers! Thank you to Mia and Maeve Rushe, Gina Dettmer, Lynne Rapin, Gloria LaSota, Parika Petaipimol and colleagues at Biogen for their efforts!
In May, Over 40 runners helped us raise $1,130 through participation in the Cause + Event 5K ! Runners participated here in Massachusetts, and virtually around the world!
Following the race, Lori and Pete Whiting graciously opened their home to hold the A2Empowerment BBQ & Pool Party! We raised a total of $5,500 to support girls' education in Cameroon, through donations, our raffle and company matching gifts! Thank you to all friends of A2Empowerment for their support, especially Lori and Pete Whiting, Mia Rushe, Maeve Rushe, Johanna and Nate Wood, Deborah and Steve Kokinos, Hongliang Shi, Gail Zichittella, Man Ching Cheung, Katie Abo, Hannah Whiting, Eug�nie Olson, Jan Whiting, Black Crow Yoga, Cookie Time Bakery, Dave's Fresh Pasta, Not Your Average Joe's, J.P. Licks, Back Bay Fit, Flatbread Pizza, and Zhen Ren Chuan!
Our best wishes to Kalene Resler and Barrett Browne, both Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who served in Cameroon! In June, they celebrated their wedding by donating $750 to A2Empowerment as their wedding favor to guests, including many Returned Peace Corps Volunteers pictured below with the happy couple! As a result, they're supporting 10 students in the Extreme North of Cameroon through mentor Nsangou Yacouba!
To celebrate Anne Rapin's 40th birthday, in addition to all she already does to support our program, Gloria LaSota pledged to fund 40 scholarships over 4 years!
Erica Campbell wanted to do more to help women, so she volunteered to help A2Empowerment! She will begin by writing several blog posts highlighting our mentors and scholarship recipients. If you'd like to volunteer to help with fundraising and publicity, please let us know!
You can support A2Empowerment scholarships with every Amazon purchase through AmazonSmile! Please consider choosing A2Empowerment as your AmazonSmile nonprofit to give twice with every holiday purchase, at no extra cost!
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2016 Scholarship Recipients: We are pleased to introduce you to some of the over 230 scholarship recipients, including 2 university students in Maroua!
We are all grateful for your support, as PCV Rebecca Castor noted, when she sent us this beautiful photo of thanks, "I have attached a few images of the A2E girls in my community who received the scholarship this school year and the banner they painted to say thank you! We met nearly every week during the school year and talked about the importance of girl's education, barriers they face to continuing school, what their long term goals are, women and HIV/aids, as well as sexual and menstrual health. They even did a monologue for woman's day on the importance of educating girls. I am very proud of the work they put in this year and they are very thankful for this opportunity that you have given them!"
Katie! Photo courtesy of Man Ching Cheung. Big Sur Marathon Fundraiser: On April 30th, the awe-inspiring Katie Abo will run the tough course of the Big Sur Marathon to raise money for A2Empowerment!
Please show Katie we support her empowering girls' education in Cameroon with a donation!
Cause + Event Race: On May 21st, over 40 runners will participate in the Cause + Event Race in Arlington, MA, on the A2Empowerment Team! The race is full, but volunteers are still needed for the race to direct runners! Please contact us if you're interested.
Family BBQ and Pool Party: Lori and Pete Whiting are graciously opening up their home for our 3rd Annual A2E BBQ! If you are interested in attending and/or volunteering*, please contact us for further details! We'd love to see you there!!!
*Even if you can't attend, please consider donating cool prizes for our raffle! Examples from last year include gift cards, legal services, Red Sox tickets, a vacation home weekend in VT, a photo session, and craft items!
Scholarship and bag recipient, Inna; Not Your Average Joe's; and Martine, at ADC; Intern Maeve mailing bras; bras received!; Anne, Gloria and Lynne at the Twentieth Century Club in Buffalo, NY, USA
As always, thank you for your generosity, kindness and support. We are grateful for all that everyone does to support A2Empowerment.
Happy International Women's Day from A2Empowerment! Nous sommes Ensemble! We are together!
We are thrilled to report that we have awarded 234 scholarships, in 7 regions, for the 2016-2017 school year! One of the recipients, Fadima Adamou, who lives with her mother and four siblings and would like to be a university professor one day, noted on her application that the scholarship would help her "pay her school fees so that she doesn't have to get married right now." During the 2016/2017 school year, we will have 20 Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) and 4 Cameroonian mentors engaged in the A2Empowerment program, supporting scholarship recipients with monthly life skills-building meetings, academic counseling and community projects.
The A2Empowerment Board of Directors feels it is important to involve Cameroonian mentors so that the program can continue at schools even after PCVs complete their service, or in cases where PCV posts have closed for security reasons. As such, we are continuing to strengthen this program by doubling involvement, from 2 to 4 mentors this school year. All Cameroonian mentors are passionate about girls' education and have been screened by previous involvement in the program. We look forward to strengthening this aspect of our program in order to improve consistency, support and sustainability.
This brings our grand total of scholarships to over 980 scholarships since our founding in 2008! We are proud to introduce the students on our website, and we are grateful to the Peace Corps Volunteers and Cameroonian partners who reported back to us with these touching photos and letters of thanks. Scholarship recipients from the Leading Ladies of GBHS Mbankuong, a girls' club mentored by PCV Nkili, wrote,
We are writing to express our sincere gratitude towards your organization. Many of us are orphaned by at least one parent and finding school fees is a challenge, especially this year in the face of poor yields on our farms and at our fisheries. Through the A2Empowerment scholarship we feel proud that we have made it at least a bit easier on our parents and relatives at the start of the school year... As scholarship recipients we have worked hard to become role models in our school community in order to encourage our friends and classmates to work hard and get involved with school, too.Please visit our blog to read more about the exceptional students and mentors involved in our project.
An anonymous donor provided A2Empowerment with an extremely generous gift of $10,000 through the Minneapolis Foundation! We are excited and grateful to receive this special donation, as it will make a huge difference in the lives of the girls we support in Cameroon!
Anne Cheung was honored to receive a Women in the Enterprise of Science and Technology, or WEST, Giving Back Award in January for her volunteer contributions! Anne spoke at the event about her motivation to be a role model for her children and her passion for supporting education.
We are so proud of our superstar high school intern and future MIT freshman, Cindy, who asked for donations to A2Empowerment in lieu of high school graduation gifts, "because she believes all girls should have the opportunity to go to school." She raised more than $500 for girls' education in Cameroon!
This summer we are proud to welcome back our outstanding high school intern, and future George Washington University freshman, Lilly! Her invaluable contributions to our social media platforms have substantially increased our visibility and outreach. We are so grateful for her help, as well as the assistance of all of our volunteers!
The A2Empowerment co-founders are funding the trademarking of the company name for protection and security. We thank Jacob Weintraub, of JWIP & PATENT SERVICES, LLC, (http://www.jwpatents.com/ ) for graciously providing his services.
On May 22nd, more than 40 A2Empowerment runners and volunteers participated in the 2nd annual Cause + Event 5K in Arlington, MA, which raises money for local nonprofit teams! This incredible race and its organizers did so well that two-thirds of all registration fees were applied to our cause, raising approximately $800 for A2Empowerment! Special thanks to the race organizers, Julie and Robin, and all volunteers, including Christa and Man Ching!
Following the Cause + Event race, Lori and Pete Whiting graciously organized an A2Empowerment BBQ and Pool Party at their home! This event raised over $5,000 for girls' education in Cameroon! We are deeply indebted to the Whiting, Kokinos, Wood, Rushe, Abo, and Cheung families for their generous contributions. Special thanks to our volunteers, Lori, Pete, Deborah, Johanna, Katie, Mia, Maeve, Lilly, Jackie, Melissa, Eug�nie, Nate, Maureen, Ben, Gail and Man Ching for their time and incredible generosity! Thank you to the local businesses who donated raffle items, including Quad Cycles, Alton Street Boxing & Fitness, Back Bay Fit, Blue Ribbon BBQ, Arlington Recreation, Not Your Average Joe's, Attorney Jan Whiting, Black Crow Yoga, Great Harvest and Zhen Ren Chuan!
As always, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your support. We hope we always make you proud.
Happy International Women's Day from A2Empowerment! Nous sommes Ensemble! We are together!
The 2015/2016 School year is off to a great start! This year we are supporting 218 scholars, 10 of which became part of the A2Empowerment program through our adoption of the Opportunity Africa program mentioned below. In addition we have paired two long time donors with two students who are beginning university level studies!
Here is some news on scholarship recipients from PCV Kathleen Kirsch:
My A2Empowerment girls are all Upper Sixth students, toughing it out through the last year of high schools and national exams. A2Empowerment has been a great experience, and recently we discussed volunteering and the importance of giving back to the community. The girls were optimistic enough to sign on to helping me with the World Map Project! A few long weekends later, it came together and we all signed it with our painted hand prints. One of the girls joked that, "after this, they better pass their next geography exam!"
Through the efforts of Kali Cheung and Graham Button, A2Empowerment was able to release a new version of our toolkit for the volunteers to use when they host scholarship recipients in monthly gatherings. The toolkit should help build life skills like goal setting, budgeting and critical thinking. Volunteers are reporting that the girls are excited to participate in monthly meetings, and some of them have even started setting aside a few francs each week for future needs, such as school supplies!
You may have heard of the Millennium Development Goals; a set of eight goals that the UN decided developing countries should reach for through the end of 2015. Already we know that some goals were met, others showed significant progress and a few proved more challenging. As a follow up, the United Nations has now decided on 17 global goals called the Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, to work toward for the next 15 years.
A2Empowerment's mission aligns with several of the SDGs but most closely with two specific goals: #4 - Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, and #5 - Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. We look forward to doing our small part in accomplishing these goals!
In the past few months a few special people have gone above and beyond to support A2Empowerment's activities. During this season of giving thanks we are especially grateful for the support of:
A2Empowerment is also very thankful to have been awarded a $5,000 grant from the Minneapolis Foundation! These funds will help support general operating costs, including money transfer fees and transport expenses to our Cameroonian coordinator, Alim, who has been doing a fantastic job of coordinating scholarships in the Extreme North and North regions following PCV post closures due to Boko Haram activity, to continue to ensure that 100% of all donations are put toward scholarships.
In September of this year, Opportunity Africa handed its scholarship program over to A2Empowerment. We are transitioning students and a volunteer coordinator from the Opportunity Africa program to the A2Empowerment scholarship cycle. By joining these programs we were also able to expand our capacity to support university students with full and partial scholarships. Through our A2Empowerment model we connect a university student to an individual donor who supports the student's studies through university. Through the Opportunity Africa model we have one donor, Daniele Fogel, who decided to split the money she raised to provide partial scholarships to six university students.
A2Empowerment is a charity organization listed on AmazonSmile. Please consider supporting our organization when shopping on Amazon using A2Empowerment's page on AmazonSmile. You'll log into Amazon, shop like normal, and Amazon will donate 0.5% of what you spend to A2Empowerment!
Please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and please subscribe to our blog! We love to hear from you and stay in touch!
We are so grateful for your support! We wish you very happy holidays!!
Please visit our website to read about the 2014 scholarship recipients. As scholarship recipient Abbe Leonce writes in her thank you letter, "The scholarship not only helps me to still be in school, but, also, helps my family to not be worried about me getting back to school. I am not worried to be sent into a pre-arranged wedding anymore, which would be the case if I didn't get this scholarship. Now I can dream big and help back someday."
Anne Cheung was recently named to the 2015 Heroes of the 500 list by Fortune magazine! Anne was nominated for her work on the A2Empowerment program by her employer, Biogen.
More than 15 runners and volunteers participated in the first Cause + Event 5K on May 17th, a unique race benefiting many nonprofits! A2Empowerment raised over $250 through participation in the race and post-race BBQ, graciously hosted by the Wood family. A2Empowerment racers joined in Arlington, MA, as well as virtually, in Buffalo and New York City. A special thank you to race volunteers, Sally Dupere , Man Ching Cheung, Simon Cheung, Eug�nie Olson and Lilly Skerlj! Congratulations to all of our racers, including our top finishers: Katie Abo 3rd/74 (22nd overall); Eric Mellyn 2nd/15 (34th overall); Cindy Shi, in her first 5K ever(!), 8th/244 (39th overall); Johanna Wood 2nd/118 (50th overall)!
Have you noticed more A2E social media presence this spring? That's all thanks to high school volunteer intern, Hana�Robin-�Caplan! Hana did research on increasing our social media skills, and applied her research directly by creating the accounts we were missing and updating them frequently. We look forward to working with our new interns, Lilly Skerlj and Jesse Hammond this summer!
Peace Corps Volunteer, Sean Gray, sent these amazing photos of the pencil donation in GS Sangwa. A big thank you to Maggie and Anthony Leone for sending 1,200 pencils to Cameroon!
We welcome the newest member of our Board of Directors, Chantal Kassa! Chantal is a busy mother, teacher and student who holds a Master of Arts degree in International Development and Social Change from Clark University in Worcester. She is a skilled Education Specialist with over 10 years work experience as a teacher, instructional technologist and research associate at public/private schools, community college and non-profit organizations. Chantal offers constant guidance, and currently heads our intern program. We are so excited to have her join our team!
We are overjoyed to join with Opportunity Africa to award scholarships beginning in 2015! Our collaborators, Heather Buesseler and Martine Tchitchihe, have made outstanding contributions toward education in Cameroon, and we are so glad to work with them to have even greater impact! Martine supported A2Empowerment in Cameroon and was recently recognized by Nobel Peace Prize awardee Malala Yousafzai as her #GirlHero.
The Cameroonian Social Club of New England will hold it's annual celebration on July 25th in Watertown, MA. If you are an RPCV interested in attending, please check out their website for information. The food and dancing are bound to be AWESOME!
Happy International Women's Day from A2Empowerment! Nous sommes ensemble! We are together!
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/nov/8/cameroon-woman-finds-refuge-in-minnesota/
https://girltalkhq.com/girl-escaped-boko-haram-lived-tell-story/
http://www.mprnews.org/story/2014/11/05/martine-tchitchihe
We overcame challenges, like changes in the Peace Corps Partnership Program Grant process and several Peace Corps Volunteer post closures in response to Boko Haram activity, to award a final total of 217 scholarships in 2014, the largest number in our 7 year history!
We'd like to thank the accommodating Peace Corps Volunteers who either submitted the grant or found trustworthy counterparts for us to work with, the outstanding counterparts going above and beyond for the program, and the Peace Corps Cameroon Staff for their outstanding support, patience and assistance!
Initially we thought we'd be unable to continue funding scholarships in the Extreme North, along with certain parts of the North and Adamaoua regions no longer holding posts for Peace Corps Volunteers for security reasons, but working with RPCV Kalene Resler and our main Cameroonian contact, Alim Ousmanou, we are funding 23 scholarships in those regions! We'd like to thank all of the PCVs and RPCVs who have made this possible, especially Kalene, Sarah Mae Jennings, Claire Kelly and Katie Ouimet, who ranked the applications under aggressive time constraints!
Peace Corps Cameroon graciously appointed Graham Button, a third year PCV, as our main point person, spending 25% of his time devoted to working with A2Empowerment. Unfortunately for us, Graham recently announced that he will be leaving Cameroon this month, but he has already helped immensely throughout the grant process and with streamlining communication between Peace Corps,
Upon hearing one of Anne Rapin's stories from Cameroon of siblings of her students interrupting her class to borrow pencils because the family didn't have enough money to purchase one for every child, A2Empowerment supporters Maggie and Anthony Leone generously arranged to purchase, collect and ship 1,200 pencils to PCVs to distribute in Cameroon, at shipping costs close to $200! The pencils have yet to arrive, but we know the girls will be forever grateful!
On December 4th, A2Empowerment will be exhibiting at the Massachusetts Conference for Women, in Boston, MA! If you plan to attend the conference, please visit us at booth 337! We will be raising awareness about A2Empowerment and girls' education, and we will be accepting donations. We'll offer gift boxes containing a card that says "a donation was made in your honor" for donors to give to loved ones. If you are interested in giving an A2Empowerment gift box, but you are unable to attend the conference, please email us by December 1st at a2empowerment@gmail.com for information.
On Cyber Monday, please consider supporting A2Empowerment through AmazonSmile! It's the same Amazon products, prices and service, AND they will donate 0.5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to our organization. To find out more and start shopping, please visit the AmazonSmile website.
Please follow us on Twitter (@a2empowerment) and Facebook to receive updates! And please email us at a2empowerment@gmail.com if you'd like to volunteer to help us support girls' education through fundraising, grant writing, and/or scholarship application review.
A2Empowerment gives thanks for your support, and we wish you a happy and healthy Thanksgiving!
Our March 8, 2014 International Women's Day celebration, featuring The Mood Swings Orchestra and dance instruction from Liz Nania of OUT to Dance, was a huge success, raising over $8,700 for girls' education!
The mission of A2Empowerment is aided by the generosity of its founders, their families, friends and the community they share. We'd like to thank the individuals who made the evening possible:
We'd like to thank the organizations who made the evening possible:
Funds for tuition, books and fees have been distributed by Peace Corps Volunteers, or PCVs, to enroll the 99 young women awarded scholarships in seven regions of Cameroon for the 2013-2014 school year. Over the summer, PCV Katie Ouimet, based in the village of Bansoa, sent this picture to us of the seven scholarship recipients she enrolled in the West Region of Cameroon.
Enrollment in the North and Extreme North Regions of Cameroon was complicated this year. Just as we finished selecting the scholarship recipients, Peace Corps made the decision to close posts in the North and Extreme North Regions of Cameroon for security reasons. This was in response to the kidnapping of a French family by Boko Haram in February. The posts were closed indefinitely; PCVs were evacuated from their posts, meaning that 29 girls would not be able to receive their scholarships. The PCVs who still had ties to those regions assisted us by contacting their trusted Cameroonian counterparts to enlist their help and become our A2Empowerment Community Point Persons, or CPPs.
PCV Amy Boyd organized a mural painting project with A2Empowerment Scholarship recipients and area children in the North West Region of Cameroon.
The extremely generous and kindhearted newlyweds, Christa Houlahan and Matt Drake, invited their wedding guests to make a donation to A2Empowerment in lieu of a standard wedding gift registry! They raised an astounding $3,440!
Upon recommendation from her niece, PCV Kalene Resler, Lisa Richards read "Half the Sky" and decided to choose it as the book for her group's book club. The club members were so inspired by the book that they wanted to do more for women's empowerment by collecting money within the group for A2Empowerment! They collected enough to send two girls to school!
In honor of International Women's Day, on Saturday, March 8th, A2Empowerment will hold a fabulous fundraiser in the Boston area featuring Boston's only all-women swing band, The Mood Swings! Whether near or far, if you would like to volunteer your time to help organize this event, please contact us at a2empowerment@gmail.com.
We are currently preparing information on the current scholarship recipients to share with you this spring, and we've begun the application cycle for the 2014-2015 school year. We are thrilled to continue with this project and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your generous support!
Happy International Women's Day from A2Empowerment! On this day, to honor women and promote gender equality, we remind you of the young women you have empowered in Cameroon. It is our honor to have your support and we thank you, on behalf of the girls, for your incredible generosity.
In addition to Women's Day, we celebrate the life of Louise Sola Mbole Deng, a scholarship recipient from Meiganga in both 2011 and 2012, who passed away this week due to illness. We are told she was laid to rest with her most prized possessions, which included her school uniform and pictures from A2Empowerment gatherings. Claire Hutchinson, RPCV, wrote in 2011 about Louise,
"Louise is the youngest of 14 children and a student at one of the Meiganga women's centers. She lives with her mom and several of her older siblings. She's very outgoing and always smiling. She's a leader among her classmates at the center and is never afraid to speak her opinion during class. She loves dancing and sewing and wants to open up her own tailor shop one day."
We will continue to honor Louise's life through our charitable work.
It is our pleasure to introduce you to several of the 60 girls awarded scholarships in 2012.
We hope these notes of gratitude illustrate to you how deeply your support matters to the scholarship recipients and how you have inspired them. As scholarship recipient Sylvie Forkwa writes, "With this support given to me, I promise that I will work harder so that at the end, I will turn to help others who do not have."
We are thrilled to announce that we plan to award 99 scholarships in the 2013-2014 academic year! With the help of incredibly amazing Peace Corps Volunteers from 7 of the 10 regions of Cameroon, we will be supporting insightful young women, like Nadium Yvette Kuma (17 years old) who writes, "I am an orphan and many of my relatives prefer to support the boys' education because they believe that girls are meant to get married. I want to continue my studies because the society in which I come from, women are not considered important. They are simply good as housewife. I do not want to end my life as a victim of marginalization. I want to be an educated mother and wife so I can help my children in an educated and civilized way. I would want to have a good paying job. For example, I want to be a teacher. In my society one can only have a job if he or she have been to school."
We are so pleased and honored to announce that Returned Peace Corps Volunteers Emily Strauss and Claire Hutchinson have joined the A2Empowerment Board of Directors! Both women have proven their dedication to our organization over the years and we are delighted to have their help! Emily was the very first Peace Corps Volunteer to design and work on the project as a volunteer in Belel, in the Adamoua Region of Cameroon. Claire Hutchinson was a volunteer in Meiganga, in the Adamoua Region, who supported 14 girls and bravely hosted a visit from Anne Cheung.
In 2012, we fundraised over $12,000, through our marathon effort and with the help of others, like Jeff Stoffel. Jeff's employers held a pull-up challenge, with the winner receiving $1000 to donate to the charity of his or her choice. Jeff beat his boss and selected A2Empowerment to receive the donation! We are now planning our bi-annual fundraising event, which will not involve any pull-ups, for this fall. Please stay tuned...
As always, we are honored to have your support and thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
The marathon was a success! Both Annes finished the Chicago Marathon and we exceeded our fundraising goal, raising over $7,160 to fund scholarships for girls in Cameroon! We send a HUGE thank you to all of our donors!! In addition, Kali Cheung, and returned volunteers Melanie Emmen, Ali Starling and Claire Hutchinson, held fundraisers to aid us in funding this cycle's scholarships.
We have been hearing about the impact and importance of our program from the Peace Corps Volunteers working with us in Cameroon. We'd like to share what they say so that you have a better understanding of why we appreciate your donations and how they are used. These are the stories that kept us going during the marathon...
In the Adamaoua Region, PCV's Danielle Nicolai and Emma Jehle sent us a photo from the ceremony they held to give out the scholarships and certificates. A guardian for each girl was invited as well as the principals from each school and other important community figures. Speeches were made by both Emma and Danielle as well as the principals in attendance. Everyone, especially the girls' mothers(!), was proud of the recipients and they celebrated with cakes and soda. At the first meeting with the recipients Danielle and Emma will be helping the girls set goals for the school year.
In the Littoral Region, Tess Marstaller, posted in Nkongsamba, wrote about her experience with our program on her blog (http://tessincameroon.blogspot.com/2012/04/meet-my-scholarship-girls-and-english.html). She also sent us the following testimonial:
As a Peace Corps Volunteer, taking part in the A2 Empowerment program has given me an invaluable chance to connect with young women and form the kind of one-on-one mentoring relationships that I find the most satisfying aspect of my service in Cameroon. The timeline of the program has let my four girls and I get to know each other over many months, and in that time I've seen them open up, develop more confidence and trust in sharing their opinions, and become proud of their scholarship and what it represents. One of my recipients had twin girls a couple of years ago, had to drop out of school to care for them, and then stayed out due to family financial stress. This year she is returning to school enthusiastic and dedicated to passing her major year-end exams. She has found an aunt willing to take care of her daughters for the year, and says she wants to show her parents and me that we did not make a mistake in choosing her, that she will make the most of this opportunity.
The family of each recipient was thrilled that their daughter would be receiving financial aid - the modest scholarship is making a major difference in helping them cover other important family needs. But even more special to me was being present in each household as I announced that Christelle, Kevine, Dolgeline or Viviane had been specialed out for her hard work, ambition and promise. It's an honor for the whole family, and also a great reminder for the male head of the household especially that educating young women is a hugely important and valuable investment. When those across the world express that view through supporting this kind of program, it helps parents and community members here get on board and take more pride and ownership in young women's futures. A2 Empowerment therefore helps girls, families and the community not only by keeping recipients in school but by helping them see education for females differently. Add to that the intimate conversations, life skills education and personal growth that occurs during the additional programming that Peace Corps Volunteers provide, and what started out as a scholarship turns into a unique and special support system.
In the North, PCV Sterling Thomason contacted us about a former scholarship recipient, Monique, who finished high school and wanted to study law or education at the local university. We were able to add this new dimension to our program thanks to a very generous donor who offered to support Monique, who has just begun her first year at the University of Ngaoundere! If you are interested in supporting a university student please let us know!
As you can see, your donations touch a lot of lives. They bring smiles to faces and induce a sense of pride and empowerment in the recipients, their families, the volunteers who work with the recipients - and US! THANK YOU!
We have recently begun the scholarship application cycle for the 2013/2014 school year. Several Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, who worked with us during their service in Cameroon, have offered to help us translate applications. This cycle, Andrea Drager, posted in the South Region of Cameroon, inquired to find out when we'll be expanding to the South and indicated that the need for the program had even made it into the local music. She provided us with the lyrics to new a Bikutsi song (a Southern/Center musical genre): "Donne moi la mathematique et non le cours de 'tics'..." In English "Give me math class, not a class on getting laid". We hope to expand to the South, as well as the East, regions in the 2013/2014 school year. We look forward to continued success and we thank you for your amazing support!
Have you ever thought about running a marathon? Have you run several and want another one under your belt? If you've answered yes to either of these questions, then please consider joining the A2Empowerment Marathon Challenge 2012!
This year A2Empowerment challenges you to run a fall marathon with us! Here's the deal:
Your incentive to join our challenge:
Proposed timeline:
We've attached related links below. If you have questions after reading over the links, please feel free to email us. If you have never run a marathon, we can send you information on how to build up to the official marathon training.
If you will be joining us for the A2Empowerment Marathon Challenge 2012, please respond to this email to be put on our marathon email list.
*Registration for the Chicago Marathon opens on February 1, 2012 and it will fill up quickly, so you should plan to sign up that day.*
Thank you for your time and consideration. We hope to see you on October 7, 2012!
Sincerely,
Anne Cheung & Anne Rapin
Related links:
Bank of America Chicago Marathon official site, including registration information:
www.chicagomarathon.com/cms400min/chicago_marathon/
Hal Higdon's Marathon Training Guide, including novice to advanced training programs:
www.halhigdon.com/marathon/Mar00index.htm
Marathon Guide, including calendar listing other fall races:
Our June 18, 2011 benefit, featuring The Mood Swings, was a huge success! We raised over $6500 -- at the current rate, that's 100+ scholarships!
A special thank you to The Mood Swings, Boston's only all women swing orchestra, for donating their performance.
Thank you to Liz Nania, director of Out to Dance for donating her time to teach us swing dancin'!
Co-founders Anne Rapin and Anne Cheung thank the A2Empowerment supporters.
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Emily Strauss describes the circumstances of the scholarship recipients.
Many local businesses generously sponsored our event by donating food...
... and raffle prizes.
We thank the following sponsors:
Our gratitude goes out to our awesome organizing committee:
Judy George
Deborah Kokinos
Christa Houlahan
Mia Rushe
Emily Strauss
Johanna Wood
Lori Whiting
Jo Sadler
Lauren Zichittella
We want to thank Christa Houlahan for designing and printing posters and fliers for the event. Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Allison Sanders did amazing work, putting together a slide show presentation about the scholarship recipients. We also thank Shelly Martin for donating a Game On gift certificate and Lois Contreras and Shelby Hunter for helping throughout the night.
And most of all, thank you for supporting the women of Cameroon!
Poster designed by Christa Houlahan
Website designed by Man Ching Cheung. Logo designed by Jeff Biesinger and Man Ching Cheung. All rights reserved (2010).
