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After discovering one NGO education project in my neighboring town of Sonoma, I found another! We go from Central America to East Africa with the Butterfly Project. Find out how you can help African girls go to college by making a small donation.
I'm sure we've all thought about the power of one – how one person can
make a huge difference in the world. For me, the work done by Carole Peccorini
in East Africa symbolizes beyond measure the power of one.
Carole, a nurse, counselor and writer, traveled in 2005 to 14 orphanages in Uganda to bring children health-giving glyconutrients and vitamins. There, she met Evaline at an orphanage in the north, and was completely taken by this bright and shining girl of ten. Carole asked the orphanage director if Evaline could go to college. "Intellectually, yes," he said, "but it would be a question of money. Who would pay the $6000 for three years of college?" Carole knew it was doable and immediately committed from a place deep within to become a partner in funding higher education for Evaline if she wanted to go to college.
She created the Butterfly Project based on the 1200 Blue Morpho Butterflies, iridescent blue mylar butterflies, she had tucked in her suitcase for gifts. Before she left Uganda, she vowed to raise $60,000 to send ten orphan girls to college.
But Carole does not sit still. The Butterfly Project is now in Kenya and Tanzania with 9 promising young women currently in college. Five are studying to be teachers and four are training to be nurses. There is still an open promise to Evaline awaiting her graduation from high school. The program is administered by Village Volunteers through three local, African program directors who select the girls and administer the funds. Shana Greene, Director of Village Volunteers, notes, "We do not have staff in country and I never go there because they want to treat me as a hero. Village Volunteers does not believe in simply giving aid but in partnering with stakeholders.”
For Carole, the butterflies symbolize transformation and she uses them to attract donations. She shares her dream with anyone who will listen and has received donations from over 400 individuals. As Carole tells her contributors, "Girls are the change agents for their culture when they have the opportunity for higher education. Educated girls lower the birth rate and the incidence of HIV/AIDS. They change communities, villages, countries." The gift for contributing partners is knowing they have made a real difference that changes a young woman's life and ripples out to touch many, many more. It gives everyone wings. Butterflies are beautiful; butterflies glide through the air. And so do the girls whose lives take flight from the Butterfly Project. And all this is happening from the power of one.
Please visit the Butterfly Project website to find out how you, yourself, can tap into the power of one.
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