From Survival to Prosperity
The Prosperity Mindset
The shift from survival .. to abundance
“I am getting stronger and stronger, and I am believing more and more in my ability to be self reliant. My dreams for this project are growing and growing. My mindset has changed and I am planning big — planning for my own sustainability.” - Alice Mathew, Founder of Glorious Orphan Care
I can't think of any more exciting feedback than that. Her response is WHY we do this work.
In the last year, we've really seen a shift in our efforts. Not just on our end, but with our Tanzania team as well. Alice and her team have a fierce commitment to their financial independence. But maybe not for the reasons you would think.
Alice recently shared with us that she wants to be self-sufficient so that she can "pay it forward" to others in her community. To have her own foundation to help other women who just like her want to make a difference in their communities but lack the resources to do so.
She is extending on the ripple effect of kindness and generosity that so many of you have showed to her, for believing in her vision and supporting her along the way.
In just one year ... Glorious jumped from generating 10% to 50% of their income locally. That means that our investment in operational costs (food, salaries etc) has remained flat - and yet they have been able to grow exponentially.
They have added 100 children, more than doubled the amount of jobs for people in the community, and created an affordable community housing project that will soon serve 200 families.
And they're paying for it on their own!
How has this all happened? It's the way our organization has shifted our own investment and the allocation of your donations. Previously to cover the growth in Alice's center, we would seek out new sponsorship which caused a huge burden on our team and the local team to collect information on all the kids and track down new sponsors while maintaining previous ones. In the past year we have invested in a number of projects that are now helping Alice to sustainably fund her own growth:
School Bus:
The school bus picks up paying and non-paying students around the city and takes them to Glorious School. It acts both as a marketing tool for Glorious School, attracting new paying students to join the school, and it also serves as a revenue generator as students who can afford it pay to ride the bus.
Below is a short video of the kids taking a ride on their new bus to the Arusha National Park for a field-trip
Tuition Model:
In the past year Alice has shifted her tuition model for the school where students pay tuition based on ability. Many students come to Glorious School for free, while others pay on a sliding scale. The end goal is to have a 2:1 model where for every 2 paying students, one vulnerable child goes for free.
Dala Dala (a small commuter bus):
Last year you helped us raise $20,000 to purchase a new home for 15 orphans. (Thank you!)
The next step for us was to figure out how to sustainably support aily meal and caretakers for these children. The community came together n designe a solution that best met their needs - a small bus that would be rented out to people in the city. With the help of many supporters, we were able to purchase the bus which is now generating enough money to sustainably support the expenses (food, water, caretakers) of the 15 kids!
Check out a video of the kids singing the Glorious School song in the Dala Dala!
School Store:
We still have a huge number of vulnerable children at Glorious who are receiving free tuition to school. Alice found it difficult to pay for all of their uniforms, notebooks and other supplies. To offset these increasing costs, she opened up a small school store at Glorious which sells uniforms, school supplies, and snacks. Soon, she will be generating enough profit from the store to support all of vulnerable children studying at Glorious!
Chickens and Goats!
Alice now has more chickens than she can count .. she's selling the chickens and using them for meals at the school and the orphan's hostel. Glorious also has a family of goats that eventually we will sell for their meat. The baby is very small and likes to eat leftovers.
Two Worlds Collide
The highlights from this year's Sustainability Conference
This year, Alice from Tanzania and Ingrid from Guatemala met in Nairobi for Mama Hope's annual sustainability conference! These two power house women have committed their lives to bettering their communities - it was incredible to witness a shared passion, faith, and perseverance that transversed continents. This gathering of Mama Hope's partners from across the Globe was a remarkable convergence of individuals who had sacrificed so much for their communities - who despite all the hardships they have faced, have stood unwavering in their commitment to improve the lives and livelihoods of others. It is hard to articulate how deep of an honor it was just to be in the presence of such incredible people. We are so blessed to be able to work alongside them and to support them in achieving their dreams.
Beyond building camaraderie and sharing in community and best practices, each leader worked on their strategic plans to achieve sustainability, and received training in Monitoring and Evaluation of impact, and storytelling. Alice and Ingrid have each identified KPIs for their center, and will be reporting on their progress each month. Even more exciting, all Mama Hope's partners in Tanzania and Ghana traveled on the Glorious School bus all the way to Nairobi, Kenya for the conference.
Ingrid Villasenor from our Guatemala project, El Arbol del Nino also traveled over to Tanzania to attend the conference.
Ingrid had a beautiful testimony during the conference "
"I grew up during the time of armed conflict in my country; a time full of the unknown, of uneasiness, and a time of terror and horror. My father was kidnapped when I was only 10 years old. These were hard times because our lives were constantly threatened and terrorized, but we held onto the hope that we would find my father again. I am the fruit of a valiant woman who was a fighter and a man who was a leader. My father gave up his life for his ideals and his country. They may have killed my father, but they did not kill his seed.
Our countries are very similar the conditions and even the environment although maybe the language is different, we are connected - with all of our passions and our heart they are the same. Thank you for embracing me you will always be in my heart."
This is Alice dancing and accepting her certificate from completing the Sustainability Conference... get it girl!! :)
25 seconds of pure smiles!
What's Next?
The biggest priorities ahead
When I first met Alice, she told me that one day, she would run the best school in Tanzania. As crazy as that sounded at the time: there were 30 kids, no water, food, classrooms, bathrooms, or teachers, she believed whole-heartedly that this was possible.
In the past 7 years, Alice has made tremendous strides towards her vision. There are now 300 students at her school, over 40 jobs, 2 water wells providing water for the school and broader community, small businesses being started and run by women, adult education classes, food security programs, an orphan's home, a community housing project that will soon serve over 200 families .. it's remarkable that she has been able to achieve so much.
Alice hasn't just created one of the best schools in Arusha - she's running a center that has created prosperity for thousands.
In her mind - she's just getting started. In January of this year, she opened the doors to Glorious' second school campus. Currently our administrative building is acting as a temporary school for our older kids. However, the plan was always to build a multi-level school allow all students to complete their studies at Glorious School.
If we don't break ground this year, our Class 6 students will have to find another school to continue their studies next year.
The time to break ground on the foundation has arrived!
The school will allow us to take on 600 new children and provide a K-12 education for all of our children so that we can assure they complete their studies! This school is BIG .. but it's impact will be HUGE .. we'll be able to provide quality education todouble the amount of children, and double the amount of jobs in the community.
To complete the foundation, we'll need to raise $100,000.
Alice and Julius are committed to raising funding themselves to help with the foundation. And we have committed to help them find as much of the $100,000 we can before the end of the year.
Please consider making a donation of any size to help us reach our goal. We will be looking high and low for grants to cover $50,000 - but are looking to you, our incredible community who has already made so much happen, to help cover the remaining $50,000.
If you have any ideas for us for grants, or connections to someone you might know to help us out - Any and every donation counts.
Thank you! - and please feel free to contact me directly with any questions at hannah@beGlorious.org
Below marks the site of where the new buildings will go:)
Stay tuned!
The latest from Global Advocates Tessa and Katie
If you're interested to see what our advocates are up to, check out their most recent blog posts below:
Tessa Peoples: "From the Ground Up"
Katie Remy: "Why I Quit My Job to Fundraise"
*The pic below comes from Tessa's blog during a field trip to a farm with the kids in Guatemla and their parents
