WOW! WE ARE CHANGING LIVES!!!!
The time has come around again for Domestic Violence Awareness month, as well as Giving Tuesday! As a tiny registered charity with a huge heart we are seeking to connect with your generosity this month!
So what have we been doing this year?
We have trained several hundred more people about Gender-Based Violence, in Malawi. The change that is happening there is mind boggling and so very exciting!! This week we will be awarding goats to the men, women, youth, pastors and chiefs who have made the most difference in their communities, following their training in Gender Based Violence! The excitement is palpable for me and for my partner in Malawi, Moses, as the participants do not know this is coming and they are going to be beyond overjoyed. A goat is nearly impossible for most people to afford, especially now with the economic crisis in Malawi.
In September I completed a curriculum which I will use to train community members to be Certified Gender Based Violence Trainers and Advocates. I will start with my first group via Zoom in the next week. I will be training 6 people in Kampala, Uganda. Once trained, we hope to be able to pay them a wage to go out and train more people in their communities. We hope you will be willing to channel your generosity to funding their wages. Employment is extraordinarily hard to find in Uganda and wages, if there is employment, are incredibly low. The people I work with live there day to day and many young girls are forced to sell themselves to have even one meal a day. It would be amazing to be able to educate them AND provide them SAFE employment.
I am currently in talks with the Elizabeth Fry society in the Central Okanagan to work with the DV victims they are working with. Spiritual abuse is a real issue that they have, as yet, been unable to work with. I hope that this is where I will be able to step in.
As of mid November, Shepherd My Sheep will be on the DonorSee platform!! This is extremely exciting!!
November 24, I will be speaking at my son's school, to the Grade 8-12 students about Gender Based Violence and Dating. While this won't raise funds immediately, I do hope that it opens some eyes and perhaps brings in some volunteers/ small sums from kids that want to be involved. November 24 I will also be participating in the International Red Chair event which aims to bring awareness to the shocking statistics of violence against women.
In January I will be speaking at the quarterly meeting of the international Christian Network to End Domestic Abuse,CNEDA, about the work that SMSDV Ministries is doing around the world.
https://women.worldea.org/cneda/
Our major fundraising needs for next year are:
$25,000 to fund the training of over 600 people in Malawi, to be Gender Based Violence Trainers and Advocates. We hope that we are able to raise these funds as soon as possible so that we are able to start putting together a team to go to Malawi in late August. Any funds we raise will go purely towards the needs we have to put these trainings on. ALL TRAINERS GOING TO MALAWI WILL BE VOLUNTEERS AND SELF-FUNDED. The desire of the Malawians to be trained is so great!
$66,000 to hire a part-time employee (25 hrs/week) at a wage that is commensurate with the importance of the job $55/hr). Non-profit work is among the MOST important work out there but is notoriously poorly paid. We, at Shepherd My Sheep, want to pay a wage that shows how valued non-profit work is.
Other expenses come up, clearly, but we try to keep those at the bare minimum, shouldering them personally, in order to get more help out to those who really need it.
So, what are our fundraising initiatives?
November 1 - 14, we will be running an online auction. This is the link:
https://app.galabid.com/dvawarenesstraining
November 29 is Giving Tuesday and we are hoping and praying for a spectacular display of generosity towards Shepherd My Sheep Domestic Violence Ministries via Facebook, our website and DonorSee.
So, that's a lot of information! Thanks for reading it all and for supporting us in any way that works for you!
Heather
Founder, Director and Chief Educator
Shepherd My Sheep Domestic Violence Ministries
P.S. Please feel free to forward this Newsletter to anyone who you think might be interested in our work :)