Amybeth Hale - Research Goddess

UPDATE: I have come to my first fund-raising milestone, and was able to raise $950! Thank you to all who have supported me. My next milestone will be on September 1st, when I must have my 2nd $1000 raised. Please stay tuned for fund-raising events that will be announced here, and via Twitter!

In November of this year, I will be going on an aid trip to Mamelodi, South Africa with Crossroads Community Church, a Cincinnati-based non-denominational Christian church, to build homes, teach kids and transfer sustainable skills. The church has made this journey for the past 2 years to aid the people of Mamelodi, which is an urban area outside of the capital city of Pretoria. There are close to 1 million people living in Mamelodi, and it’s been estimated that between 30-50% of the people suffer from HIV/AIDS. There is extreme poverty as well, and these are some of the reasons that Crossroads has established a partnership with the local Charity & Faith Mission Church. Below is a video from the first trip in 2006, and also some local Cincinnati news coverage on the efforts.

Our main projects will be building homes, planting vegetable gardens for the people to be able to have good nutrition, teaching and loving on the local children, and transferring sustainable skills. In the past they have set up libraries with books for the children to read, built and stocked an AIDS hospice, and just brought love and hope for a better life to the community. I’m excited because it looks like we’ll also be doing some additional technology work this year. Last year, a technology center was established with computers and wired connections to facilitate communication and learning, so more work will be done to get this center running smoothly. There’s a good chance that I’ll be able to help out with this endeavor.

I can’t begin to describe how excited about about this trip, and for a number of reasons:

1. I participated in two other aid trips when I was in high school - one to Jamaica when I was 15, and another to Mexico City when I was 17. Both experiences changed my perspective of the world and helped me to appreciate even more the opportunities with which I have been blessed.
2. I’ve been looking for an opportunity to participate in a cause like this again lately, and after reviewing some of the videos and getting some further information, I knew this was what I was seeking.
3. A lot of good things will be accomplished in Mamelodi, as mentioned above, and so many lives will be positively touched (including those of us who are going there!)

I will be making this journey from November 20th - 29th this year, over the Thanksgiving holiday. I could not think of a better way to celebrate the holiday than by doing this!

In thinking about how I could personally encourage support of this effort, it hit me - use your love of networking to get people involved in this project! After all, it’s our networks that provide us with so many of the things WE need and want every day, so why not see if the network will rally to support a good cause and help provide things that OTHERS need?

HOW CAN I HELP?

Several of you, having read through this information and watched the videos, are now inspired by this project and are thinking to yourselves, ‘What a wonderful endeavor! I wonder if there’s anything I can do to help?’ I will respond to that with “Of COURSE!!”

If you’d like to help, there are a couple of ways to contribute:

1. Financial donation: you can help me with my fundraising efforts by clicking on the donate button. Type ‘Hale’ in to the donate field, or you can use my participant ID number, which is 1-39874. Then just follow the instructions to make a donation (and you can be anonymous if you want). Keep in mind that any contributions for this project are completely tax deductible. I will also be doing some online events over the summer to raise some money so let me know if you’d like to be kept informed about them and I’ll include you.
2. Donation of computer supplies: we could definitely use technology supplies this time around. Specs for computers that will be acceptable for donation:

• Processor Speed:  800 MHz (megahertz) minimum (1 GHz preferred)
• Memory:  256 MB (megabytes) minimum (512 MB preferred)
• Hard Drive:  20 GB (gigabytes) or more
• CD-ROM (or DVD-ROM drive)
• Video adapter with Super VGA [1024 x 768] or higher resolution

Nice to have but not required:

• Network Interface Card – NIC (typically already installed
• Sound Card

Additional Items:

• 17” or larger computer monitors
• Extra computer mice (PS2 or USB connection)
• Extra keyboards (PS2 or USB connection)
• Printers
• Switches or Routers (”Home” quality or better e.g 4 port, wireless (not required))
• Wireless cards (Desktop NIC wireless cards, PCMCIA laptop wireless cards, or USB wireless cards - anything within the 802.11 standard)
• Extra RAM memory cards (DDR or SDRAM)
• Working Hard Drives (IDE) 20 GB (gigabytes) or more
• Print Toner cartridges
• Computer Speakers
• Education Software (we could at least take it and put in the library for potential use)

Businesses as well can provide sponsorship, and I’ll gladly accept assistance from businesses who want to support this effort. In fact, I am more than willing to publicly thank supporters here on my blog by displaying a logo for your company. And this doesn’t have to just be financial! If your company would care to donate any technology - computers, printers, networking hardware, software, telecommunications equipment, etc., I’ll find a way to make sure we can get any aid donated shipped over!

I am planning to blog during my trip there and share some of my experiences. Thank you for your interest in this wonderful cause!

“Small things, done in great love, bring joy and peace.” ~Mother Teresa