Hi family & friends, Here are volunteer opportunities to help the orphans at New Dawn Communities in Kenya, Africa. Many can be done by a high school student and get credit for community service hours (and a reward in heaven!):
Sponsor-Student Correspondence Secretary (Ongoing, several hours per month):
Review letters from sponsors to the students they sponsor, making sure they are appropriate and comply with certain guidelines (such as don’t talk about your new car, etc.). Then, scan & put in Dropbox. Then, mail the letters monthly to New Dawn.
Review letters from students to sponsors, making sure they are appropriate and comply with certain guidelines (such as don’t ask for money, don’t ask for the sponsor’s direct contact info, etc.). Then scan & put in Dropbox. Then, mail each letter to the sponsor.
There will probably be about 5-15 letters per month. This is not a huge time commitment.
In January of your senior year, find and train your replacement.
Facebook & Social Media Specialist (Ongoing, 1 hour per week):Faithfully update our Facebook page about 3 to 10 times per week with photos, letters from orphans and other information. Help us get more “friends”. Our goal is to increase exposure of NDC on FB so that more people find out about NDC. Money given to NDC goes so far and makes such a difference, and we think that if people only knew about it, they’d love to give. So, we want to get more friends on FB than the 145 we currently have. We’re at www.Facebook.com/NewDawnCommunities & www.NewDawnCommunities.org.
Computer-savvy volunteer to convert our database from Microsoft Access to Zoho: (One-time, approximately 5 to 40 hours): Currently our database (100 students, 75 graduates & 300 donors) is on Microsoft Access, on one computer in one location. We need someone to convert it to Zoho so that several different volunteer staff can use it over the internet. Volunteer doesn’t have to know Zoho but has to be tech-savvy enough to figure out how to do the conversion and set up Zoho for our needs.
Interviewer (One-time 3 week trip, plus preparation): This entails a 2 week trip to Kenya lead by Pastor Ron Sukut of Cornerstone Community Church, San Clemente. Volunteers photograph & interview all 30 incoming students and 30 graduating seniors, using a questionnaire we’ll provide. This is a very important job, because the information you get about the students helps current sponsors learn about their student, and helps us find new sponsors for students without sponsors. These annual trips are scheduled for the first two weeks in August each year. Team members must raise their own funds, typically about $4,000 depending on airfare. Several students can go.
One-time event planner (One-time, approximately 20-40 hours): Plan & put on one time fundraising events such as:
Cookies for Orphans – First, get volunteers to bake 300 cookies. Then, set up a table at a local grocery store, to offer a free cookie & brief flyer to each person entering the store. No hard sell, no pressure, just smile, hold out a cookie & flyer & ask “Free cookie?” The flyer is super-short and tells them what NDC is and that they can sponsor a student or donate as they leave the store.
Sponsor a Student game booth at a local event such as a street fair – Free beanbag toss or other game, awarding free candy to each player, and parents can look at a table showing orphan sponsorship information while their kids play the game.
Speaker: (One-time 2-5 hours-can do it multiple times if desired):
Set up appointments to speak at a local Rotary Club or other church or club meeting, then speak at the meeting, telling exciting things about New Dawn:Your money makes a big difference: 100 orphans are housed, fed, clothed & educated, for a monthly budget of only $5,400, which includes paying for 23 teachers & staff.
ALL your money goes to the poor: 100% of all donations go to help the poor in Kenya (because all our US expenses are paid by volunteers & churches, even postage & printing). Our US staff are all volunteers. Many are donors to NDC themselves. Our financial records are open to all.
You are making great things happen: In 2011, we graduated our 3rd graduating class. They took the KCSE (like the SAT) and our school average was 18th in the Nation out of thousands of schools.
Development Specialist aka Sponsor-Finder (One-time, about 10 hours, or more if desired): We have quite a few students who don’t have sponsors. This role is for a volunteer who is excited about how the orphans’ lives are changed and about how far the donor’s money goes in making a difference, and wants to tell people about how they can sponsor New Dawn students. The student simply goes to their pastor, coach or group leader and asks for the opportunity to speak to the group or to put a table out after church with profile cards about the students needing sponsors, then talk to anyone who is interested.
Regional Director of Development & National Director of Development (Ongoing, major time commitment): These are adult roles. They involve taking responsibility for a region and raising support for New Dawn. The National Director will do this and also supervise the Regional Directors.
Interested volunteers can contact me directly by email with questions or to apply.