My non-profit is up and running!

I have mentioned a few times recently that I am starting a non-profit with a friend. It is called Turn the Page Uganda and our main goal is to deliver books to students and teachers in northern Uganda. The schools cannot afford textbooks so the work is all done orally. We plan to purchase Ugandan government approved textbooks (for secondary schools) and picture/chapter books (for elementary schools) within Uganda and deliver them one school at a time. We have already delivered books to one boys' high school and one girls' high school (both in the Lira area).

One of our other projects is that we're sponsoring a Ugandan student to come to Santa Barbara to pursue his college degree; he arrives on January 1. His hope is to return to Uganda when he is finished to help his community with his degree and skills that he learns here. He will also act as a spokesperson for his community and Turn the Page Uganda so that people here in the US can better understand life for northern Ugandans under the threat of the Josef Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army in addition to learning about their education system and why getting books is so important. Here is a picture of Davies and Vicky, my friend that I am working with on this adventure (they met in Uganda this past summer).

We really are in the early stages, but are officially a corporation with non-profit status in process. Hard to imagine that I am a Vice President and CFO of a corporation; it sounds so... grown up! Donations given before we obtain non-profit status can still be written off on people's taxes once we are a non-profit (probably at the end of February).

I know that the Holidays are a time when we all feel cash-strapped, but my hope is that if you are interested, you will donate, and if you cannot or choose not to that you will spread the word. Thank you!