We made it through the first part of the fundraising process on Give Meaning! We achieved 100 votes of support in record time. I am waiting to hear from the Give Meaning staff about how to go about the next step so that we can start fundraising.

Thank you to everyone who took time to vote. I'll post additional information as soon as I get it.

Jennifer

Hi all-

Just a quick update on where things stand with the fundraising effort. Once we achieved 100 votes, the Give Meaning staff sent me a 5 page project query to complete. I completed most of it, and sent it on to Angelika to get some additional information on the Yoshinkhel village to include. I also needed more information from Sabina, which she sent me today. I went ahead and completed the rest and submitted the project query this evening. So now we're waiting to hear back from the Give Meaning staff about next steps in the process. Hopefully soon we can start the fundraising. Last I checked, there were 154 votes of support cast for our project! I hope just as many are willing to help us achieve our fundraising goal.

Warm Regards-

Jennifer

Hi everyone-

I haven't heard back from Give Meaning yet since submitting the project query form. I'm hoping maybe I will hear something tomorrow. I will let you know as soon as I do. Just wanted to give another quick update since it's been a few days.

Jennifer

Hi Jennifer,

Keep poking them. They took very long with Koliyonkulam's follow up (some of our questions are still unanswered months later).

--
-Tanja

I heard back from GiveMeaning tonight with confirmation that they received the answers to the questions I sent back. They had a couple of additional questions, so I got back to them with that information. Still waiting on a response. Maybe tomorrow.

Jennifer

I ended up speaking with the guys at GiveMeaning tonight on the phone. They have posted our proposal as a project and we can now begin the fundraising process. The project is located here:

http://www.givemeaning.com/project/gamauli

Please consider making a donation and help us reach our fundraising goal!

Jennifer

This is fantastic! In 4 days we've achieved 50% of our fundraising goal! We're halfway there! Keep those donations coming. I know we can achieve this. Remember, your money goes 100% to both projects-110 students at Krishna Primary School benefit by getting a nice new winter hat, gloves, sweater and muffler and the women in the Yoshikhel village will be paid a wage for the work they put into the project.

We need your support-every little bit gets us one step closer to achieving our goal.

You can help not only by donating, but by telling other people about our project, posting it to your Facebook page, Twitter, or anywhere else people will see it.

Jennifer

Hi everyone-

I am so happy to report that things continue to go very well with our fundraising at GiveMeaning.com. We received several more donations today and are now $295 USD from reaching our goal of $800. At our current rate, it is possible for us to make goal by the end of the week. Our project has been posted for just a week, so we have made amazing progress!

You can help us by emailing friends, family members, and posting links to the project on your Facebook and other networking sites. Your efforts to help get the word out about what we're trying to do is what has brought us this far. Keep up the good work!

The project is located here: http://www.givemeaning.com/project/gamauli

Dear Jennifer

Thank you for this great job. Right now I am in Gamauli and in contact with these people. Now the average temperature is about 4/5 degree in night. It's very cold in the morning and evening. It is quite warm in sunny days. I imagine that day when these people get warm cloths and feel change.

Sincerely your's
min

Hi everyone-

I wanted to let you know that I heard from Min briefly when he was in Gamauli. He said the meetings went very well and that the students were so excited to receive their new caps. He said the parents were also very happy.

He added that they had a productive meeting about water for the school, but his laptop battery was running low, so we didn't get to finish our discussion. Min is currently en route back to Kathmandu, so we will update again soon.

We still would like very much to raise the remaining $295 to purchase the sweaters, gloves and mufflers for the students as well. Please continue to help us direct people to our fundraising site:

http://www.givemeaning.com/project/gamauli

You can also post links on your blog, Facebook page, send out emails to your friends and family...all of these things help! We're almost to our goal. Help us get the rest of the way!

Jennifer

I wanted to share a brief update on our fundraising project. Time is quickly passing by and we still have $295 to raise to reach our fundraising goal. I still believe this is an achievable goal, but we really need your help to get the word out about what we are trying to do and why. Min and I decided this morning to establish a deadline of 1/31/09. The women in Yoshinkel still need time to craft the remaining items and taking that into consideration, the weather will also begin to get warmer as Spring nears, so we cannot afford to wait.

What can you do?

1. Tell your friends and family about our project. Email them the link and ask them if they would consider making a small donation.

2. Post information on your FACEBOOK or MYSPACE page to tell people about our project and request that they donate.

3. Talk to groups that you think may be willing to make a donation and direct them to the fundraising page.

4. Post messages to TWITTER with links to the fundraising page-make sure you use keywords in your tweet so that anyone searching for information on Nepal, Education, or Children will see your message.

We really need everyone's help and cooperation in making this push for the last $295. Remember, this will help the students at the school stay in school this winter during days when it otherwise may be too cold for their parents to send them to school. There is no heat other than the sun at the school and children walk to get there. The women of the Yoshinkhel village will also earn wages for their crafting.

Min told me this morning that one of the children called him yesterday to tell him how much they appreciated their new hat and how warm it is. They also told him they planned to keep it safe so that they can use it for next year as well.

Please consider making a donation and if you are unable to, please share our project with others. Help us achieve the last $295. I know we can do this together.

Visit the project here: http://www.givemeaning.com/project/gamauli

Merry Christmas!

Jennifer

Hopefully you've all seen the news story by now that our fundraising goal was met early Saturday morning. I have contacted support at GiveMeaning.com to find out what the next step is so that we can transfer the funds and get the remainder of the items to the students. As of today, I haven't heard back from them, but I fully expect I will hear something this week.

Thank you so much to everyone who took time to vote and donate. We couldn't have done it without you.

Warm Regards-

Jennifer

Hi Jennifer, Min and Sabina,

Congratulations... you finally made it!
Jen, it's great to see all the effort you put in to make this a success!

Pelle

Awesome news! I know how much effort was put into the fundraising drive so this achievement is well worth celebrating! Outstanding work, everyone! :)

Hi everyone-

Just wanted to provide a quick update with regard to the fundraising project. As you know, we achieved our fundraising goal. We had orginally planned to transfer all of the funds directly to Sabina so that the women of Yoshinkhel could begin working on the project right away. We have not been able to reach her. When Min was unable to reach her on the phone, he went to her office and was able to talk with her today. Unfortunately, Sabina has lost her cell phone and also reported that it would not be possible to transfer the money directly to them.

Now that we know this, I have sent Min the paperwork for the money transfer to complete. As soon as I have it back from him, we will get this to the GiveMeaning staff. Sabina explained to Min that it will take some time to get the remaining items completed due to other work that they have, but hopefully we will be able to get the transfer of funds done this week and they can start very soon.

Best wishes-

Jennifer