Monday 27 February 2012

What we do











Most non-profit organizations focus on one or two areas of need; One Person has chosen to develop five distinct projects:

Children & Families 

Education

School Sports

Medical

Small Business/Cooperatives

This fits in with our unique community-to-community concept of utilising the diverse interests and specialities of one community to help provide sustainable support for a specific community in need.


We regularly ship equipment and resources to support these projects. We also recruit professional and non-professional volunteers to ensure that we are on track, to identify needs, distribute items and provide training in our sponsor communities.

Brenda and various One Person Teams visited our target communities in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 201l.  The 2012 and 2013 trips are being planned. Volunteers welcomed!

Each One Person project is focussed on providing a more hopeful future for children and families in our target communities. We provide support for the present, which does not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, but instead provides a foundation for self-sustainability.

(Donate - to make a difference! Asante - thank you!)



Mother and Child


Isn’t our title photo amazing? It was taken by 
Joanna Robertson on the 2006 trip to Rwanda and Tanzania. We use it on the home page of our website because it is so uplifting.
     

The people of Kahama and Muhanga live on less than a dollar a day so we could have used a picture of a child in rags, but this mother posing proudly with her child reminds us that these families are not victims, they are everyday people struggling with the effects of extreme poverty.  The image also symbolises the way we can touch and enhance the lives of these children and families.

When giving assistance to the villagers and organizations, we take care not to cause harm; our projects are designed to help the people in this area become self-sustaining. In fact if we were just giving handouts the Tanzanian and Rwandan governments wouldn’t allow us to operate there!


Thank you to everyone who has walked alongside us on our journey which started way back in 2006. We still have a long way to go but we will take it one step at a time!


(Donate - to make a difference! Asante - thank you!)

Can you really make a difference?


 Welcome to The One Person Project (Friends of Kahama Society)

If you live in the Okanagan B.C., Canada, you may be familiar with this dynamic organization, if not, visit http://www.theonepersonproject.org

The society grew out of one woman's passion to make a difference in a third-world country. Brenda Lowe, from Summerland, B.C. sponsored a World Vision child and decided to become a volunteer in order to be able to answer the (constant) question - can we really make a difference in Africa?

Brenda and other Canadian volunteers spent 3 (self-funded) weeks in Rwanda and Tanzania in 2006. On Brenda's return a small group of friends created The One Person Project and with the help of the people of B.C. we have already made a considerable difference to the lives of children and families in Kahama, Tanzania and Muhanga, Rwanda. (We are not associated with World Vision.)

My blog will describe One Person's journey so far and explain what we are doing and why.

And can you really make a difference? Yes you can! One person, one community at a time!